Whats everyone reading?

[Mabs]

" When you were a kid, did you masturbate over big breasts?"

"When you were a kid, did your body use haemoglobin to transport oxygen to its tissues where it was used to burn nutrients in order to provide energy?"

And other incisive questions.

[Dark Jimbo]

Just finishing the third TPB (of 7) of Grant Morrison's Invisibles. The only Morrison stuff I've read previously was the excellent We3 and some piss-poor Dredds, so I was curious as to which end of the spectrum this would fall. The answer is somewhere in the middle. It's alright - certainly very competent - but he's no Alan Moore, is he?

Book 1 - The story takes a long time to get going. Initially Dane, a young reader-identification figure, is gradually introduced into a world of magic and the occult and, er, stuff, and by and large this works very well. I'm a sucker for this kind of narrative tool, and I love London-centric ficton too so this pushed all the right buttons, even though the art left me totally cold (Steve Yeowell, the only artist of Tharg's stable I've never warmed to, and here he's not helped by some primitive mid-90s colouring.) After this mentoring phase he meets the Invisibles gang proper, a terrorist(?) cell who fight some ongoing war for mankind's psychic freedom (or something). And this is where the problems really begin.

At this point you would also expect to really start finding out who/what the Invisibles are and more about this secret war, but things remain increasingly vague. Dane point-blank asks these questions and is basically told 'I don't know.' Who is the enemy? 'We don't know.' Who are the good guys? 'We don't know.' Five issues in and it's still impossible to get invested in the narrative as there's nobody to root for (or against). Their first mission is to time-travel to 18th-century Paris for equally vague reasons (to bring the Marquis de Sade to the present, basically, but it's never explained why). Halfway through the mission goes badly wrong and the team are split up across various metaphysical locations, such as de Sade's fictional Shilling Castle. It seems as though things are going to get really interesting here, but no. 'How do we get out?' asks one character. 'Dunno. Just wait, I suppose,' shrugs our dynamic leader King Mob. It's very hard to care about such passive path-of-least-resistance heroes. And they literally just sit about for two issues, watching the events of 120 days of Sodom play out, presumably for no other reason than for Grant to show off how well-read he is. And lest that be thought an unfair judgement, the same three-issue arc is constantly interupted by the poets Byron and Shelley titting about on a Grand Tour waffling about the importance of poetry. This arc goes absolutely nowhere and seemingly has no relevance or purpose other than for Grant to show off how well read he is. And there's a half-hearted sub-plot about the head of John the Baptist that promises to be interesting but Morrison seems to immediately get bored of.

Oh, and whether deliberate or not I don't know, but the main anarchist (King Mob) is drawn to look like Grant Morrison - which is all a bit toe-curling, really, making the whole thing seem a bit like the wish fulfilment of an 'angry young man' comic writer. I'm inclined to believe this was no coincedence, as one of King Mob's later aliases is 'the famous counter-culture writer Kirk Morrison.' Cringe.

[Dark Jimbo]

Book 1 turned into a far longer review than I intended, so thought I'd split it up a bit.

Book 2 - In fairness things do pick up a bit from there. The narrative becomes more action-oriented for a while and we finally get a sense of who the antagonists are, which helps no end. There are a few self-contained issues that are the most interesting things so far (because they aren't about the Invisibles, basically). There's a voodoo Chris Weston story which is great, and an issue that explores the life of one of the henchmen killed in an early issue. It's emotive stuff with great Steve Parkhouse art as we find out the hopes and dreams of a life snuffed out prematurely - the trouble is, what's the point? It comes ages and ages after the soldier actually died and is never picked up on again; the henchman doesn't come back as a tormented zombie or anything, so while very clever and well-written the story ultimately feels a bit redundant, as though Morrison's trying to fill an issue-quota. Then comes a three-issue 'origin' story for one of the Invisibles, Lord Fanny, a brazilian transvestite shaman, and fair play - this is really good. It helps no end to know a bit more about our heroes and it's simply an entertaining, well-constructed little story. Great art, too.

Book 3 - The wheels start to come off again. Our protagonists continue to be utterly useles for the most part, drifting aimlessly about in hopes of accidentally completing a mission. Finding out more about our antagonists has become a bit of a double-edged sword - the trouble is they're drawn in fairly broad strokes. Not 'Pat Mills'-type broad, but pretty close. They're exactly as you might expect them to be given that the 'goodies' are anarchist freedom fighters with piercings, tattoos and fluid sexuality - upper-class old Etonian types waffling about 'keeping people in their place' and the like. These guys are also just a bit too aware that they are the bad guys - Sir Miles skirts constantly on the edge of twirling his moustache and saying 'Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!' Some higher-power Lovecraftian elements start to be introduced and there are some battles and things on the spirit planes; but unfortunately some rather tired Jason King and Sweeny(!) parodies are also introduced, not as background cameos or a two-page joke but full-fledged main characters. It's all a bit rambling and bizarre and I'm wondering whether to bother sticking with it.

Either way, I probably won't be rushing out to read another Grant Morrison comic again.

[Skullmo]

''an issue that explores the life of one of the henchmen killed in an early issue. It's emotive stuff with great Steve Parkhouse art as we find out the hopes and dreams of a life snuffed out prematurely - the trouble is, what's the point? It comes ages and ages after the soldier actually died and is never picked up on again; the henchman doesn't come back as a tormented zombie or anything, so while very clever and well-written the story ultimately feels a bit redundant, as though Morrison's trying to fill an issue-quota. ''

Yeah, what is the point of having interesting and well written stories! More zombies!!

Have a read of this: http://amalgamatedwittering.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/issue-twelve-best-man-fall.html

[Dark Jimbo]

''an issue that explores the life of one of the henchmen killed in an early issue. It's emotive stuff with great Steve Parkhouse art as we find out the hopes and dreams of a life snuffed out prematurely - the trouble is, what's the point? It comes ages and ages after the soldier actually died and is never picked up on again; the henchman doesn't come back as a tormented zombie or anything, so while very clever and well-written the story ultimately feels a bit redundant, as though Morrison's trying to fill an issue-quota. ''

Yeah, what is the point of having interesting and well written stories! More zombies!!

Have a read of this: http://amalgamatedwittering.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/issue-twelve-best-man-fall.html

We'll see later that this moment is intersecting with others, that the Hand of Glory is once more at play.

Aha -! See, that had been part of my bugbear wth that issue - great as it was in its own right I couldn't see what it had to do with the main narrative. That was what I meant by the (fairly rubbish) zombie example I plucked out of the air - just for it to feel like it had a point. But it sounds as though maybe it does become more relevant later on, so fair enough.*


*Although why on earth does that issue occur so long after issue with the actual shooting...?

[Dandontdare]

I've borrowed several Invisibles volumes from the library over the years. Now reading them in odd order may have something to do with it, but I found them pretty unengaging - lots of weird shit but little narrative development. He covered this kind of material far better in his Doom Patrol run

[radiator]

Is jump ship now, Jimbo. For me The Invisibles peaked with the third book  (which is where it feels the most '2000ad') and there's a (editorially-mandated) tonal shift in book four onwards which I didn't care for.

As for Morrison's other work I would highly recommend his New X Men run. A bit of baffling continuity aside (hey, this is an X Men comic!) it's Morrison reigned in - still lots of great ideas, but they don't overwhelm the story. Lots of Frank Quitely art too (and some horrendously rushed looking fill in art unfortunately).

[Professor Bear]

He covered this kind of material far better in his Doom Patrol run

He covered it better - and more economically - in his Zoids run.  Big alien minds play games with little humans type thing, though to be fair that was kind of a recurring thread in a lot of UK Marvel comics - even Transformers.

[Davek]

Just finished reading Deadbeats - good Cthulu story; you can tell it is written by Lovecraft/Cthulu aficionados!  I would actually like to read the story in prose; like the idea of music being used to summon evil Gods! 

As much as I like Culbard's art I do feel that sometimes his style is not particularly suited to some of the stories he has created art for (I felt the same about Deadwardians); maybe not gritty enough IMO.  A small gripe on my part though - if you like Lovecraft/Cthulu then give this a whirl.

[Mabs]

The House on the Borderland by Richard Corben & Simon Revelstroke. I managed to win a copy on eBay for £3.77. Mike Mignola cites this as his favourite Corben work, and Alan Moore has high praise for the original novel on which it is based on, in his excellent foreword. So very much looking forward to seeing how the reading goes.

I also have a lot of books on loan from the library to get through (you can see them all in the Libraries thread).

[Greg M.]

The House on the Borderland

The original novel is one of the finest works of weird literature ever - pure, distilled Hodgson. 'The Night Land', his epic, sprawling treatment of similar themes, is even better, though nothing like as concise or accessible.

[Mabs]

The House on the Borderland

The original novel is one of the finest works of weird literature ever - pure, distilled Hodgson. 'The Night Land', his epic, sprawling treatment of similar themes, is even better, though nothing like as concise or accessible.

I tried looking for a copy of the original novel in my library, but couldn't locate one. It seems to be out of print or hard to find. 

That said, I'll still keep looking. Hodgson's life was a tragic and fascinating one, it's a shame he never got the same recognition as his contemporaries.

[Dragonfly]

As far as I am concerned The House On The Borderland is the greatest example of weird literature bar none and I have been enthralled by it since I first read it back in the early eighties. The comic adaption is okay but doesn't reach the heights of the original novel and because of that I would suggest you read the novel first.

[Dragonfly]

The House on the Borderland

The original novel is one of the finest works of weird literature ever - pure, distilled Hodgson. 'The Night Land', his epic, sprawling treatment of similar themes, is even better, though nothing like as concise or accessible.

I tried looking for a copy of the original novel in my library, but couldn't locate one. It seems to be out of print or hard to find. 

That said, I'll still keep looking. Hodgson's life was a tragic and fascinating one, it's a shame he never got the same recognition as his contemporaries.

The book is readily available on Amazon, where there are many different versions to choose from, there are used ones for as little as 86p (plus p&p!!). I have two different copies of this myself I love it so much!

[Mabs]

The House on the Borderland

The original novel is one of the finest works of weird literature ever - pure, distilled Hodgson. 'The Night Land', his epic, sprawling treatment of similar themes, is even better, though nothing like as concise or accessible.

I tried looking for a copy of the original novel in my library, but couldn't locate one. It seems to be out of print or hard to find. 

That said, I'll still keep looking. Hodgson's life was a tragic and fascinating one, it's a shame he never got the same recognition as his contemporaries.

The book is readily available on Amazon, where there are many different versions to choose from, there are used ones for as little as 86p (plus p&p!!). I have two different copies of this myself I love it so much!

Really? I will definitely add it to my next shopping list. Thanks mate!