From: [b--b--k] at [mack.rt66.com] (Bob Kelly) Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.alternative Subject: The Invisibles Semi Exposed #2 Date: 10 Jul 1995 22:46:52 -0600 Subject: The Invisibles Semi-Exposed #2 The Invisibles Semi-Exposed The Meanderings and Thoughts of Grant Morrison's The Invisibles Published by DC/Vertigo Issue #2, Down and Out in Heaven and Hell "They're using our televisions! They're using our satellites! They're using the muzak in bars and shopping centers! When was the last time you had a thought that wasn't put there by them?" -------------- OK, Cool Beans News #1 Grant Morrison himself is participating in the Semi-Exposed annotations, which is sort of a blessing and a curse due to the nifty knowledge we will gleen and the fact that we will realize when we're looking too hard into some things. Sort of fun, that. OK, Cool Beans News #2 The Grant Morrison Voodoo Love Fetish contest is up and running-- I've expanded the first contest prizes to be Doom Patrol issues #19 through 22 -- Crawling through the Wreckage (from?). Last day is monday, July 17th! So, check it out!! http://www.rt66.com/bobek/gmvlf The Mr. Nobody Quote Server is NOT vapor ware... it's just very, very VERY complicated to tdo what I want to do with it. It will be worth the wait. -------------- Lots of this Episode of Invisibles Semi-Exposed is brought to you by Paul O'Brien <[p--b] at [festival.ed.ac.uk]>. Unless it is marked by BK, you can presume it is from him. Now, maybe it's that this story is set in England, and maybe I was a lazy obstinate asshole in school when growing up, but I *really* want to blame my lack of Shakespearean Knowledge on the American public school systems... Page 1. This is presumably supposed to be Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park, London. It's a place which is supposed to embody the right to free speech, in that anybody at all can come along, stand up and say anything they like without fear of prosecution or libel action. Obviously this was a lot more significant in the days when failure to agree with the present government carried the death penalty. I should imagine the choice of location is deliberate, though - another token concession by the powers that be. BK: ELF generators have been a staple of good conspiracy theories for a long time. I was happy that Grant included them here. I am also expecting this guy to show up again in a later issue. Page 2. Probably a statement of the obvious, but the title is a reference to George Orwell's 1933 book "Down And Out In Paris And London." BK: Not to me. 1984 and Animal Farm are the only one's I could find in my library when I was a kid. Then again, I found Oscar Wilde and William Burroughs. Page 3 BK: Boy. I really like her character the most in this series, I believe. Page 4 BK:The spiked hair girl. I thought she was just a throw away character, but she shows up again in issue #11. As someone else pointed out, it looks like she's plugging Dane for info. Page 5, panel 1. Ah, Tom O'Bedlam. My copy of the complete OED defines a Tom O'Bedlam as a madman discharged from Bedlam and licensed to beg on the streets. Cynics would say that this is more or less the government's current policy on dealing with the mentally ill. BK: The American Heritage College dictionary doesn't even identify Tom O Bedlam. Page 5, panel 2. Tom spends a great deal of this story quoting lines from Act 3 Scene 4 of The Tragedy of King Lear. All the lines he quotes are more or less complete gibberish spoken by Edgar, who is IMPERSONATING a Tom O'Bedlam at the time. Presumably that's the point. Line numbers vary from edition to edition, so I won't give them (it's a very short scene anyway), but I'll identify the quotations that I've noticed. "Tom's a-cold... star-blasting and taking" is one. Page 5, panel 3. "Take heed... proud array" is another Lear quotation. Page 5, panel 4. "Who gives anything... fire and flame" is another. BTW, Grant isn't quoting these lines in the order in which they appear in the scene. BK: Is Tom picking his nose? Page 5, panel 5. "This is... the harelip" is another quotation. Page 6 BK: So why women's clothes? Page 8, panel 5. BK: "Counting raindrops for the boss." Probably one of my favorite Grant lines since Mr. Nobody. "Swithin... foal" is another. Page 9, panel 2. "The Prince of Darkness... Mahu" is another. Incidentally, it doesn't even seem to be a true statement. My dictionaries reveal that "Modo" and "Mahu" were indeed names for demons, but suggest that they were high-ranking officers in the Army of Hell rather than actual names for Satan. "Modo" was responsible for the 7 Deadly Sins, as near as I can make out. "Mahu" is thought to be a corruption of "Mahound", and ultimately a reference to Mohammed. No references to either name is listed for after 1603, and both are (not surprisingly) labeled obscure. BK: So obscure that American Dictionaries don't list them either. I'm beginning to like Malcolm X's attitude towards dictionaries. Page 9, panel 5. "Through the sharp... warm thee." Another quotation. Page 10, panel 1. "Pillicock sat..." is, again, Lear. A pillicock, incidentally, is an obsolete word for a penis. The word survives in modern English as "pillock." Page 11, panel 3 Little Winstons... shades of the JFK sphinx from P. Milligan's Shade. Page 12, Panel 3 BK: Ahhhh, Lord Fanny. Soon the one liners will come. I have to say this, Grant portrays transvestites/transsexuals pretty accurately from my experience: some of them have been the kindest people in my life. Sister Mary Vicious Bitch and Sister X have been two of my idols ever since they rescued me from downtown LA. Page 12, panel 1. The Big Issue is a newspaper-cum-magazine which is sold on the streets of London and other major British cities by homeless people (or people recently homeless). It's very well-meaning but utterly awful. My attitude to it can best be summed up by Chris Morris's line, "I don't mind buying the Big Issue. It's just having to read it that I object to." BK: Ah yes, we have those here. I like it when they report "Homeless Man Returns 1 million of Stolen Money." Page 16, panel 5. A crucifix with a television strapped to it. Interesting. Just off the top of my head, the incorporation of technology into existing religions recurs more explicitly in the voodoo story. There may well be other examples. This could be the first appearance of a motif. BK: Actually, the TV as sacrificed god has been used many times in artwork and such. Note the bicycle tire and headlight... very profound :) Page 17, panel 3 BK Luan-Dun. Anyone got a reference? Page 18 A button is lost? Barbelith? The ET-looking dudes? An operating table? Page 19, panel 3 Dane's third eye you think? Page 20, panel 3 BK: The Alphans are here!!! panel 4. I can't find any reference to "Urizen" or the quotation. The closest I can find is "urisen", a word with many variant spellings, but that's an obsolete ecclesiastical word meaning a prayer, so I doubt that can be it. BK: Urizen is a greek/roman water god, like Poseidon, I believe. Page 21, panel 1. Canary Wharf is a horrible building in the London Docklands, usually thought of in Britain as a symbol of what went wrong with Thatcherism. Millions of pounds were poured into redeveloping the Docklands, with Canary Wharf as its centrepiece. It was completed just in time for the property crash, lost a fortune, and remained empty for quite a while. It's now in use as a set of offices, as far as I remember, but the connotations remain. I've never heard of the Southern Dragon Line. Presumably it's a ley-line. panel 2 BK: "Some magic is strong than mine. It's old and sick, but strong still." Interesting statement, that. I think Grant will investigate in later plots. Page 22, panel 2 BK: "Last night I heard the Dog Star Bark..." Is this a fairy tale or nursery rhyme? panel 6. "Child Roland... British man" is a quotation from Lear once again. It's Tom's last line in this issue, and Edgar's last line in the scene. Page 24 BK: Lord Fanny, ahem, has red hair and isn't very tall without his heels. --- Well? Talk already! :) -- -Bob Kelly- < ThisIsTheMonaLisaSigVirus--CopyMeIntoYour.sigFileAndSmileEnigmatically > < RETROFLASHBACK-SIG: Time flies like an Arrow, Fruit flies like a banana > -- -Bob Kelly- < ThisIsTheMonaLisaSigVirus--CopyMeIntoYour.sigFileAndSmileEnigmatically > < RETROFLASHBACK-SIG: Time flies like an Arrow, Fruit flies like a banana >