Comic Book Cats, number 114: Madame Xanadu #16, penciled by Amy Reeder, inked by Richard Friend, written by Matt Wagner, lettered by Jared K. Fletcher and colored by Guy Major, published by Vertigo / DC Comics in December 2009.
In the opening chapter of “Broken House of Cards” 1950s housewife Betty Reynolds comes to realize that she is a victim of demonic possession. She visits immortal mystic Madame Xanadu for help. In this darkly humorous two page sequence, an initially skeptical Xanadu is convinced of the veracity of Betty’s claims and agrees to help her. It’s definitely an interesting and visual way of utilizing Xanadu’s cats to advance the story.
Amy Reeder’s work on the Madame Xanadu series was astonishing. The stories were set in a variety of historical eras, requiring her to do a great deal of research in order to depict each period setting as accurately as possible. Reeder definitely succeeded, and her detailed, beautiful penciling was one of the major reasons why the series was so great.
Of course, the amazing Matt Wagner wrote some incredible scripts for Reeder to illustrate. I recently mentioned that whenever I pick up a trade paperback written by Wagner, I inevitably end up not being able to put it down until I’ve finished it. That was definitely the case with the Madame Xanadu collected editions.
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