![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alibi_shopIn this series of posts—to be written whenever I get around to them—I'll be rereading and talking about a 1994-2000 comic series written by Grant Morrison that's about (among other things) anarchist secret agents, demons, magic, mind control, time travel, psychedelia, conspiracy theories, aristocrats, teenagers, drag, and the end of the universe.
I felt like picking this one up now for a few reasons. First, it was part of the British Invasion in US fantasy comics that kicked off with Alan Moore's work on the last comic I obsessively reread, Swamp Thing. It's different from that series in all kinds of ways, most obviously that it was the work of a single writer over a shorter time and wasn't part of a shared superhero universe—but they both had (sometimes) very high ambitions in terms of themes and form, and they both went through a ton of changes in art and writing and what they were about in general. Second, I was a huge fan at the time but it's probably been ten years since I reread any of it, and I think some things might come across pretty differently to me now. Third, you could say there are some apocalyptic currents in the air right now—in both bad and good ways—and this is at least partly a piece of apocalyptic fiction, with some unusual angles on that theme.
Instead of diving right in, I'm going to start out with some shorter takes on earlier things that I think are related. Before that, here are some disclaimers.
I'm not incredibly knowledgeable about Grant Morrison's career. They're awfully prolific, and a lot of it has been in superhero stuff that I can sometimes get into but often find impenetrable because of the huge amount of past continuity; they're also just a lot more into superheroes than I am (maybe even more than I was as a kid, because I think even at the height of my Marvel and DC appreciation I would've been suspicious of the kind of evangelical fervor they put into nonfiction manifestos like Supergods). Basically, besides The Invisibles, I've read all of their Doom Patrol, a fair amount of Animal Man, All-Star Superman, shorter things like St. Swithin's Day and Sebastian O and We3, The Filth, Flex Mentallo, however much of Seven Soldiers I got through before giving up, and the big artsy Batman book of course. I liked most of those things a lot and intensely disliked a few, but I've generally been less interested in what I've heard about their more recent stuff and I don't know if that's more because of me or them. I do find some of their preoccupations a little annoying, and I'll probably mention a few but I'll try not to dwell on that.
Now, it can be hard to talk about Morrison, especially their bigger and more unusual projects, without talking about 1. their rather grandiose statements of intent, and 2. Alan Moore. I know Morrison HATES to be lumped together with Moore, but frankly there just aren't that many extremely verbally clever and formally experimental British comics writers who have an encyclopedic knowledge of multiple genres and who like to call themselves literally magicians. I'm not too interested in the long history of negative things they've said about each other, or the defensive remarks about who is more of a real magician; if you are, you could spend a solid week reading this very thorough blog series on the subject, which also has some interesting background stuff about the British Invasion (this by Julian Darius is also a good read, though also very long). The main things I take away from it are 1. there are some obvious influences in terms of specific works, which I'll touch on a little, and 2. Grant Morrison says a lot of different things at different times so it's hard to get a handle on what they think other people are about, or even what they think they themselves are about. So, some of that stuff may come up, but I'll try not to lose track of what's actually in the comic I'm reading... and when it comes to their ideas about magic, I'm speaking as a pretty uninformed layperson.
Anyway, just so as not to approach the end of the millennium too quickly, I'll start out by visiting a version of the 1980s that US readers may not find familiar...
Next: dark gods and anarchists get stuck being the backup band for Zenith
I felt like picking this one up now for a few reasons. First, it was part of the British Invasion in US fantasy comics that kicked off with Alan Moore's work on the last comic I obsessively reread, Swamp Thing. It's different from that series in all kinds of ways, most obviously that it was the work of a single writer over a shorter time and wasn't part of a shared superhero universe—but they both had (sometimes) very high ambitions in terms of themes and form, and they both went through a ton of changes in art and writing and what they were about in general. Second, I was a huge fan at the time but it's probably been ten years since I reread any of it, and I think some things might come across pretty differently to me now. Third, you could say there are some apocalyptic currents in the air right now—in both bad and good ways—and this is at least partly a piece of apocalyptic fiction, with some unusual angles on that theme.
Instead of diving right in, I'm going to start out with some shorter takes on earlier things that I think are related. Before that, here are some disclaimers.
I'm not incredibly knowledgeable about Grant Morrison's career. They're awfully prolific, and a lot of it has been in superhero stuff that I can sometimes get into but often find impenetrable because of the huge amount of past continuity; they're also just a lot more into superheroes than I am (maybe even more than I was as a kid, because I think even at the height of my Marvel and DC appreciation I would've been suspicious of the kind of evangelical fervor they put into nonfiction manifestos like Supergods). Basically, besides The Invisibles, I've read all of their Doom Patrol, a fair amount of Animal Man, All-Star Superman, shorter things like St. Swithin's Day and Sebastian O and We3, The Filth, Flex Mentallo, however much of Seven Soldiers I got through before giving up, and the big artsy Batman book of course. I liked most of those things a lot and intensely disliked a few, but I've generally been less interested in what I've heard about their more recent stuff and I don't know if that's more because of me or them. I do find some of their preoccupations a little annoying, and I'll probably mention a few but I'll try not to dwell on that.
Now, it can be hard to talk about Morrison, especially their bigger and more unusual projects, without talking about 1. their rather grandiose statements of intent, and 2. Alan Moore. I know Morrison HATES to be lumped together with Moore, but frankly there just aren't that many extremely verbally clever and formally experimental British comics writers who have an encyclopedic knowledge of multiple genres and who like to call themselves literally magicians. I'm not too interested in the long history of negative things they've said about each other, or the defensive remarks about who is more of a real magician; if you are, you could spend a solid week reading this very thorough blog series on the subject, which also has some interesting background stuff about the British Invasion (this by Julian Darius is also a good read, though also very long). The main things I take away from it are 1. there are some obvious influences in terms of specific works, which I'll touch on a little, and 2. Grant Morrison says a lot of different things at different times so it's hard to get a handle on what they think other people are about, or even what they think they themselves are about. So, some of that stuff may come up, but I'll try not to lose track of what's actually in the comic I'm reading... and when it comes to their ideas about magic, I'm speaking as a pretty uninformed layperson.
Anyway, just so as not to approach the end of the millennium too quickly, I'll start out by visiting a version of the 1980s that US readers may not find familiar...
Next: dark gods and anarchists get stuck being the backup band for Zenith
