Best of the Bins

The X-Files
Written by Stefan Petrucha & John Rozum
Illustrated by Charles Adlard, Gordon Purcell, Jill Thompson & Alex Saviuk
(Topps Comics)

While I was a big fan and supporter of the X-Files television show, the comic book series never grabbed my attention until much later. I felt that anything the creative team on the comic book could do was something that could be easily replicated on the show, and more than likely done better than it could in comic form. And anything that wasn't directly approved by Carter just wasn't canon to me.

But eventually I cracked and picked up an issue that piqued my interest. The story was called 'Remote Control' and was about Remote Viewers and somebody's plan to kill a group of them who worked together on a project once. The three parter, wonderfully illustrated by Charles Adlard, showed me that the comic book was a surprisingly well done adaptation of the show. It remained true to the spirit of The X-Files and had found it's own voice and way of presenting stories.

From there I continued to pick up issues, particularly the first year of the series written by Stefan Petrucha. An X-Files nut himself, Petrucha brought his vast knowledge of the paranormal and Forteana to the series and crafted a complex and intricate 12 issue run that, at least in the beginning, didn't appear to have anything to do with each other. Much like the television show, some things didn't come together until you had almost all of the puzzle pieces to look at.

Petrucha and Rozum did a great job of juggling their stories within the regular X-Files continuity, often telling stories dealing with things that the television series would eventually tackle on it's own. At it's best, The X-Files comic series was great, virtually carrying the rest of the Topps Comics line on it's coat-tails and producing stories like the first, and only, X-Files graphic novel, 'Afterflight'. At it's worst, the series still managed to evoke a certain curiosity in the subject matter being dealt with, even though the story itself failed to entertain as it maybe should have.

In hindsight, The X-Files is a worthy counterpart to the television series which often looked down at it's four-colour counterpart, and a pretty decent read to boot. Issues should still be available, and robably at an affordable price with interest in The X-Files at something of a low.

mike