Zenith - a few questions (with spoilers)

[Dark Jimbo]

Funnily enough I recently read the first three Invisibles TPBs for the first time and reviewed them on the most rrecent page of the '...what are you reading?' thread. It is a bit pretentious, innit?

[JayzusB.Christ]

I was followed out the door by wannabe-Neo plank in a full length leather jacket, who started asking me questions along the lines of "Is there a reason you're reading that?"
And yes, he had the plain white badge on his jacket.

Embarrassed for both of us I simply smirked and got the hell out of there.
Wasn't your flat-mate by any chance Jayzus????

Haha!  I doubt it; it doesn't quite fit his description.  That said, it kind of fits the description of pretty much everyone else that goes into any comic shop in Dublin...

[Link Prime]

That said, it kind of fits the description of pretty much everyone else that goes into any comic shop in Dublin...

A few less pony-tails these days!

[TordelBack]

A few less pony-tails these days!

Recession's good for something.

[JayzusB.Christ]

A few less pony-tails these days!

Recession's good for something.

I like to think of my 'do as a samurai topknot.

[Link Prime]

A few less pony-tails these days!

Recession's good for something.

I like to think of my 'do as a samurai topknot.

Well you're alright Jayzus.

[JayzusB.Christ]

On the other hand I have exactly two hairs on my chest.  I have the chestal equivalent of Homer Simpson's head.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Veering back to the topic - did anybody else cop that Eddie McPhail was gay?  Grant Morrison confirms it in Supergods.  If so, how did you realise that?  I certainly didn't.  I've heard it said that he was camp but even while rereading it as an adult it never occurred to me. 

Would that have made him the first gay character in 2000ad?  Though there was some actor guy in Strontium Dog:  Rage whose homosexuality was at least heavily alluded to.

[Greg M.]

It was always pretty implicit - Phaedra calls him an 'old Scotch fairy' in Phase II, to which Eddie only gets offended by her use of 'Scotch' instead of 'Scottish'. Similarly, Zenith makes a few comments to him that indicate Eddie's sexuality is no secret. Eddie himself confirms it in zzzzenith.com when he claims he's "just about turned straight with boredom" waiting for Zenith to show up. I love Eddie - he gets almost all the best lines in the series.

[JayzusB.Christ]

It was always pretty implicit - Phaedra calls him an 'old Scotch fairy' in Phase II, to which Eddie only gets offended by her use of 'Scotch' instead of 'Scottish'. Similarly, Zenith makes a few comments to him that indicate Eddie's sexuality is no secret. Eddie himself confirms it in zzzzenith.com when he claims he's "just about turned straight with boredom" waiting for Zenith to show up. I love Eddie - he gets almost all the best lines in the series.

Me too; he's a legend.  'Away and make friends with the toaster or something.'

I thought the 'turned straight' thing was some Scottish expression I wasn't familiar with; I didn't know he actually meant 'turned hetero'. 

[Greg M.]

I thought the 'turned straight' thing was some Scottish expression I wasn't familiar with; I didn't know he actually meant 'turned hetero'.

It's certainly possible - I'm an Aberdonian, and hence not so familiar with all the Glasgow patter used by Central Belters like MacPhail and Morrison - but I certainly read it as the above.

[AlexF]

I definitely got the vibe that MacPhail was gay - although I recall having a basic assumption that unless explicitly told otherwise, any and all characters written by Morrison, Smith and Milligan (aka 2000 AD's second wave) were gay. Where I got this assumption from I've no idea; probably a combination of young me being a)prone to stereotyping what it meant to be gay and b) desperately wanting 2000 AD to be hip enough to have gay characters in without having to make it a big deal. (Which I actually think they have a pretty decent track record of)

I don't know if it's come up on another thread, but does anyone read comics analysis site Sequart? Colin Smith is currently trashing his way through Mark Millar's 2000AD output, making the point that the poor man tries so hard to be anti-homophobic that he comes across as a raging homophobe.

Another contributor Tim Callahan ran a pretty exhausting but fascinating series on Zenith (and other early Morrison) a few years back. I believe it's since been published as a book, although I've never seen a copy.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Colin Smith is currently trashing his way through Mark Millar's 2000AD output, making the point that the poor man tries so hard to be anti-homophobic that he comes across as a raging homophobe.

The only instance I can think of is Big Dave, and you'd want to be pretty thick not to see that the writers were knocking homophobes rather than gays.  There was Ducky the camp insect in Robohunter too I suppose, but all pretty harmless as far as I could see. 

[AlexF]

Yeah, I think Smith sometimes wades so deep into his analysis that he forgets to take a step back and remember the context of who is/was actually reading 2000AD and how they respond to the strips within. Millar may be hamfisted in much of his scrpting, especially when it comes to his attempts at satire, but I can't believe many readers came away from his Robohunter or Big Dave thinking 'yes, aren't gay stereotypes hilarious'; mostly they;'d have been thinking, 'gosh, this isn't at all funny, but it's clearly trying to be funny'. (To be fair, about 30% of Big Dave is actually funny, a lot of it down to Parkhouse.)

[JayzusB.Christ]

(To be fair, about 30% of Big Dave is actually funny, a lot of it down to Parkhouse.)

I thought a lot of it was funny, and it got a few of my Viz-reading friends into 2000ad at the time.  It was breath-takingly tasteless and even disturbing in places, but I genuinely found it funny.  It helped to have mates who'd look at it with me and share the laughs, of course.