The blank badge and everything that surrounds it: an Invisibles reread

There's a clear colouring error on the last page of issue #2, when we first see the Invisibles-disguised-as-hunters: both Boy and Fanny are coloured to be as white as Robin and King Mob.

This isn't remotely true, though? Boy is clearly darker than Fanny (which has always been the case quite apart from her fondness for makeup) who is clearly darker than Robin - if there's a colouring error then it's on King Mob.

I'm genuinely not sure if you've spotted this, but the gent he tries to sell a Big Issue to in #2 is the only non-Invisible person he talks to all issue. For good or ill, he's not been abandoned.

(he = Dane there, sorry)

Yeah, I know the Invisibles are still keeping an eye on him, but they have let him live as a homeless person for months instead of taking him in because... he needs to suffer to understand their viewpoint, or something? And on top of that they dress up as the hunters and torment him, because he needs to see how the enemy is? Even though it's not the enemy but his supposed comrades? How does that make any sense?

This isn't remotely true, though? Boy is clearly darker than Fanny (which has always been the case quite apart from her fondness for makeup) who is clearly darker than Robin - if there's a colouring error then it's on King Mob.

Coloring error might be in the reprints? There isn't a huge degree of variance in the original issue but it's there.

I am looking, at the original issue.

Sorry, I misread that.

I’m not on board with the overly broad use of “gaslighting” given Dane could only recognize King Mob out of the group and doesn’t seem to, but it’s definitely a sort of indoctrination by force.

For good or ill, he's not been abandoned.

This makes it worse! Dane has absolutely no idea who these people are, and if he did pick up on their repeated presence it’d seem like surveillance, not well-keeping

Morpheus in The Matrix was a lot more soft-handed, lol

It becomes obvious fairly quickly in the third issue that they’re play-acting as the enemy in hunter garb, but it’s still them. Theatrical reproduction of the enemy’s terror, but Dane’s still looking like shit on the streets

A microcosm of the series at large, where even the players aren’t sure if their manipulation is for a greater purpose or if it’s cruelty for the sake of cruelty

As we progress, it’ll be interesting to see how I feel about different characters this go around. I was a lot more sympathetic to Sir Miles on my last reading!

almost hissed out loud there, mh. Sorry, i still need to do 4&5, later I promise!

Dumb question: is Boy trans? Had to wonder in that panel where King Mob challenges Dane about this being a "man's" job.

There are a lot of ethical questions later in the series re: time travel, manipulation, etc. and how much agency some of the characters have and whether they are just playing out preconceived roles (with Morrison as puppet-master). Go back to that tarot reading in the first issue, then make note of any time tarot symbolism pops up :)

xp I never read the character that way.

Dumb question: is Boy trans? Had to wonder in that panel where King Mob challenges Dane about this being a "man's" job.

Btw I’ve never seen it as anything besides the Invisibles seeing Dane as a tool that needs to be strengthened, for his own sake as well as theirs. Roger knows about his abilities in v2, he’s clearly extremely powerful but he’s young and he hasn’t gone through his time in the fire like the rest of them have. Even post-initiation he nearly loses it post-Orlando and after what happened with John-a-Dreams, you can see why they need him to be what he is. Throughout the series you see him being trained by different people - Boy, El Fayed, Tom - because they know what his role should be and are keen to get him there. Whether that’s ethical is really besides the point.

xp also this was 1994 - more than one trans character would be exceptional

(also let's be honest, while Fanny is a great character, she is partly there because Grant Morrison felt he had something interesting to say about transsexuality and Brujería - he'd need another hook for a second character)

gotcha. I can't remember much about where this goes for any of these characters except maybe Dane and a lot of explosions later

"There's a war on, boy. There's a war on and we want you, we want you as a new recruit" isn't the army, though - it's from the Village People's In The Navy.

This makes it worse! Dane has absolutely no idea who these people are, and if he did pick up on their repeated presence it’d seem like surveillance, not well-keeping

Oh yeah, no, I didn't mean it was easier for Dane - this is an initiation ritual, a stripping down. "The Boy's going to have to be put through the mill, poor bastard."

And yeah, breaking up the armour means that the person inside can get out, but also that you can get in if you want, to plant whatever you want - Jesus or scientology or the army. The flat statement that Tom's planted stuff in Dane for later is intentionally unsettling.

A theme in my rereading (the first since they came out) might be "this is well-described and has only got worse" - "it's worst being a little scared of him because he makes you feel tough when there's trouble. He makes you feel hate instead of uncertainty and fear" - that's not Boris, but it might be what comes after.

"There's a war on, boy. There's a war on and we want you, we want you as a new recruit" isn't the army, though - it's from the Village People's In The Navy.

xp Boris?

Oh no I wasn't arguing - just saying there's more than one military reference - I'd half-convinced myself that "we want you as a new recruit" was an actual recruiting slogan.

My wits are drifting a bit in the second comment - I mean that this desire for Daddy seems a larger part of the national psyche than it did. Like Trump in the states, you can imagine that if someone actually competent succeeded Boris, things could get a lot worse - not that they're good now.

"Did you ever hold the hand of the man who reads the news ever night on the telly?" is a great line that I missed.

No letter column this time, they needed the space to advertise Batman versus Predator II: Bloodmatch

Fuck it, have a bit of that: https://www.instagram.com/p/CFvCRw8HxYG/

amazingly that's Gulacy (who looks like he's phoning it in) and Terry Austin?!?!?

Why not Terry Austin? I remember him being heavily involved in the Bat-titles then; even got an autographed picture directly from him of the Azrael in the metal Bat-suit.

oh no, i don't mean because it's batman; i mean because it fucking sucks!

my first look was "looks like the inker fucked up gulacy's work there" but nope

lol well, there's only so much an inker can do

Gulacy's generally fine; those look horribly rushed

I'm not certain that a lack of time is really the problem with Lady Perineum

Issue 4 then!

This is largely a victory lap? It's lovely to see and to read, but it's about death and death here is just change, it's life that's the difficult bit. Jack's visit to Barbelith makes more (any) sense later.

It's still great to see Dane as happy as he is at the start of the issue, though.

The collection does better with the blue mold joke - there's a page turn between "I don't really feel out of it at all" and "machinery under the fucking street clang clang clang"

But what the collection doesn't have, is the Vertigo trading card stuck bound between the cover and the paper! This one is Charles Vess, for the Books of Magic: Death and Destiny and Titania and Oberon.

Following the success of THE SANDMAN trading card set, SkyBox International is releasing a new series of DC VERTIGO trading cards featuring the strange, surreal and startlingly subversive stories and characters from titles such as Hellblazer, Books of Magic, The Sandman and Swamp Thing.

This premium, oversized card set will feature 42 unforgettable DC VERTIGO covers with story synopses, as well as 47 original fully-painted character portraits by top artists such as Jon J Muth, Duncan Fegredo and Jill THompson.

Adding to the DC VERTIGO trading card set's desirability is a series of 6 randomly inserted bonus cards. These special, foil-enhanced cards feature fully-painted portraits of John Constantine, Tim Hunter, The Sandman, Shade the Changing Man, Swamp Thing, and The Golden Age of Sandman.

And finally, there will be a very limited Death™ SkyDisk™, fourth in a series of SkyDiscs. Death isn't usually a bonus, but this one is. So look Death in the face when she arrives in December of 1994...

Somehow I missed this gyac thread. I've never read it, but will need to look into it.

I’m so sorry, i will post my summary of 4&5, and then 6&7 on Tuesday and then back to normal next Sunday!

Would you be open to bribery to keep it to just 4&5 this week? Is there a specific target of (counts on fingers) end of February for this?

There is not, but what do other people think?

Week 2: Vol 1, issue 3, Down and Out in Heaven and Hell, Part 2; issue 4, Down And Out In Heaven And Hell Part 3; issue 5, Arcadia, pt 1: Bloody Poetry...contd

Again, I'm really sorry for the delay in posting this. Work has been hectic all week. I will post 6-7 Tuesday, unless people are happy to delay as per Andrew's request above?

https://i.imgur.com/s3RFlFy.jpg

Dane is too full of joy to hear what Tom's telling him. It's so lovely to see him full of life and energy, and you know that this has been done to free him, that he needs to be at full strength.

"I see my life as one shape. I can see its edges and boundaries. So small it seems." Another line that sticks with me.

Going to hidetext the next bit, as it slides a bit into personal territory and is also rambling and self-indulgent:
https://i.imgur.com/CuC2G1p.png
When I first read this, back in late 2007, I was at a very bad time in my life - depressed, unemployed, living at home, sleeping most of the day. I felt like a shell of a person and that I had forgotten how to feel much of anything. I started reading this some night when I was up at 4am, unable to sleep, and this frame took the breath out of me. First, that I had grown so used to how bad I felt that I had started thinking there was nothing else, and second, for the truth about Irish. I hated learning Irish in school, where the language is taught as a dead thing, all structures and declensions, where there is no music or life or a sense of connection. To learn another language, as Morrison returns to later again and again, is to learn new ways of thinking as much as communicating. Reading this, a Scottish man talking about Irish as I had never considered it, floored me, and the observation of emotion being something upon us rather than something we are hit me too. I remember crying reading this, for the simple truth of it, and...I think I've gone on enough!

"Our language hypnotizes us and keeps us in little labelled boxes" - a recurring idea in the series. Of course Dane takes in none of this, being more preoccupied with crisps. Tom's right about smoky bacon btw.

The frame where Dane's joyous face is in the foreground, lit by the burning car, with Tom in the back intoning unheard is really special. "No more guns and bombs and struggle" - makes me think of his earlier cell. Is Tom watching Dane and thinking of them?

"I don't really feel out of it" - cut to Dane google-eyed and rambling, always hilarious, especially with Tom's deadpan followup. Like I said, he's funny.

Dane falling, falling, falling through space to meet and touch Barbelith for the first time is one of the trippiest sequences. I'm never quite clear on where any of this takes place, but I'm not sure the physical location is that important anyway?

Anyway, we're back to physical London, and the abandoned classroom. There is something sinister about this, I think, especially when you consider the Outer Church's desire to capture and use delinquent teenagers.

Robin is here! Now, a question regarding her makeup: I thought early reading this that the makeup was metaphorical (??) but then later when she does her face to look like Quimper, Fanny comments on it. But why does nobody we see her interact with ever comment on it???

Fanny looks very pop art in the frame where she's introducing herself.

"It's a man's life in the Invisible army. Think you can hack it?" - yeah this is just a straight reference to the army ads, isn't it? I don't think anyone is being implied to be trans...

Orlando is one of the biggest freaks in this series and the frame where he's offering the children ice cream is too gruesome for me to look at for very long.

The PM is obvs not Blair as I had thought, the grisly cabinet ritual described is...well, let's not wander into libel here.

King Mob trying to convince Dane to come with them - "your old life as a slave", "this door only opens once" - is obvious inspiration for the blue pill/red pill scene of The Matrix. Dane takes a lot less time to be convinced, though.

I thought Tom's words as he disappears into the tunnel were lyrics, but apparently not.

The soldier is about to say that "it's always Orwell" before he sees the grenade with its pin pulled. Smile!

Splitting this into two parts, brb...

Week 2: Vol 1, issue 5, Arcadia, pt 1: Bloody Poetry...end

https://i.imgur.com/nIY8b30.jpg

King Mob is watching Indonesian puppetry, wayang. "There is no war, only the dalang." This sets the scene for a character who will be introduced in this arc.

We start with Shelley and Byron, riding horses in the sunset as Shelley's poems are torn away by the wind.

I....don't actually know enough about either Byron or Shelley to comment on this, but Byron's brutal realism is extremely funny to me. "My verse sells to half-witted women and 'Byronic' young bloods, yours sells not at all."

Shelley is right about their words outliving them through the ages, though. Wonder how he'd feel if he knew how often Ozymandias has been invoked against every horror, real and imagined, in the past decade? And The Masque of Anarchy of course has been used time and time again, most recently and memorably by Corbyn in 2017.

Wiki also tells me:

It was recited by students at the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 and by protesters in Tahrir Square during the Egyptian revolution of 2011.The phrase "like lions after slumber, in unvanquishable number" from the poem is used as a motto/slogan by the International Socialist Organization in their organ. The line "Ye are many-they are few" inspired the campaign slogan "We are many, they are few" used by protesters during the Poll tax riots of 1989–90 in the United Kingdom, and also inspired the title of the 2014 documentary film We Are Many, which focused on the global 15 February 2003 anti-war protests.

"Our words must draw the map of this new world, so that others may find their way there."

Back to modern Indonesia with King Mob, who's making a dedication to Ganesh. I'm so curious about King Mob's shortcuts!

Boy is training Dane to fight, and he's not enjoying it. Dane's tshirt is absolutely classic 90s!

Back in the past. Byron is bringing the HARSH REALITY of an asylum to crash into what he describes as Shelley's "airy ship of dreams". Of course later we'll meet yet another Invisible in an asylum in the past. Not sure anyone could have accused de Sade of being blind to reality.

Back in the present, Dane and Boy are talking music. He's trying to talk about gangsta rap but she prefers European techno. Dane says "I'm a fucking great dancer," which we later see is true (and how!).

Dane is still being homophobic about Fanny, sigh, but he grows up about this. 1994!

Boy being sanguine about the purpose of the Invisibles is a hint towards her motives and her difference from the other three. There's an allusion towards John-a-Dreams here too.

Ah, King Mob's shortcut is through the sun-bleached post-apocalyptic future, stupid of me to forget. So much horror only hinted at but as usual King Mob's being deadpan about it all. "I hear Berlin's nice now that they've rebuilt the wall."

The girl and the baby are, well I can't say anything here. Are they real?

Ah, this park scene is really horrible. I...don't like to look at it, sorry.

Invisibles dinner scene! Lol, I literally have read all this before and I only just got the humour of them choosing an Indonesian place when King Mob's just come from there. Also extremely here for King Mob just turning up for dinner in full nipple-ring crop top, belly-baring leather trousers glory. 1994!

I always find this great, ha:
https://i.imgur.com/OKFt5QZ.png

Back to the past with Byron and Shelley. I'm going to be honest, I have no idea what's going on here.

And now our Invisibles are in the past too, checking out the ever-fashionable guillotine! Til next time...

I loved that Tom bit in issue 3 about Irish Sadness as well.

just made it through the first 4, the whole journey with Old Tom had strong echoes of Jodorowsky's various vision quest comics like The Incal or Metabarons, although a bit less silly. Wondering if that will continue through the rest of the run or if we are now shifting gears with the introduction of The Invisibles proper. I'm finding the plot to be intriguing, but I'm more on the fence about the artwork, with the line work being a bit drab and ugly. The psychedelic flourishes are predictably my favorite parts.

The soldier is about to say that "it's always Orwell" before he sees the grenade with its pin pulled. Smile!

Hah, I think I'd assumed it's always a minute too late, but yours works great!

This is the first letter-column - the first entry is an anarchist being delighted about the idea of a comic book taking on Order, and quoting "an authoritarian by the name of Charles J Sperling" from the letter column of that - the second is from Charles J Sperling, who as far as I can tell just read everything and wrote letters in to them all. There's a plug from Morrison at the end of the column for a book 'inspired by the work of H.P. Lovecraft' which features Burroughs, Ballard, Morrison - and Alan Moore. Also, some of the copies of issue #1 that the writers are replying to are possibly sent out by the editorial team? There's one that starts "Dear Stuart and Julie,", and another that's just "Dear Mr. Moore,"!

Moodles, the artists change throughout the series, think Phil Jiminez and Jill Thompson come on soon & I much prefer their art.

#5 - Jill Thompson's on now! - I really like her art, one of the things is being able to go down to something cartoony without losing the essence - Dane at the end of page 17 for a start.

Dane's a joy to watch this episode as well - he's a newborn, sucking up all the knowledge he can from everywhere.

This issue had five different 'dehanced' covers, printed on what felt like brown paper, with different bits of the usual design missing and different slogans - I've got the "twentieth century" / "crash the bus" pictured above . This is kind of typical Morrison taking the piss out of the trading card mentality while also delivering something that might sell more issues. In fact, the sales fell off the fucking cliff - the market for superspies and mental magic in the present day outweighing that for the history of ideas.

On the inside cover, there's a "previously in Invisibles" bit which mentions Ragged Robin as "a witch whose abilities are fueled by disbelief" which... I don't think I knew until I read that just now? On the one hand it explains King Mob in #1 saying that her thinking the tarot is bullshit is why he asked her to read it, but on the other hand, she should know that?

Page 23 - I'm pretty sure that what we're supposed to take away from this is that the pope is Batman. Also the title page of this issue is a loose page!

Week 3: Vol 1, issue 6, Arcadia part II and issue 7, Arcadia part III

Sorry, sorry! Nobody actually said they minded me skipping a week so I guess it happened anyway. Issues 8-10 are this Sunday, and I should have posted these two Sunday just gone. One day I'll post without apologising for lateness (a quality I despise irl, ffs).

Anyway.

https://i.imgur.com/9b1E0xM.jpg
King Mob's comment about the past always kills me, especially when juxtaposed with Jack's shellshocked face. Also his comment about their contact's books - I have a bit to say on the one I did read later, but King Mob otm basically.

Anyway, our gang show up and scare the shit out of a local magician. We're back with Mary Shelley and the mysterious stranger is with us too. He offers Mary an apple, apple for the teacher, snake tempting Eve. Past is present and future.

I love Etienne. "Shit! Half the time I don't even know which side I started out on."

Jack is sick and King Mob gets distracted by a glimpsed cypherman in the eaves.

Ah back in 1995 London. Orlando's rampage is really grotesque and sadistic stuff.

Back in Les Innocents, our guys have realised they're in the shit too.

De Sade's first appearance, he's basically crude and unshockable, as you'd expect.

I have to admit the brief scenes with Mary Shelley and the mysterious stranger are my favourites in this issue though. The stranger says he's older than he looks, of course he's been in and out of this story and others so many times. He leaves Mary with a warning and without his name.

De Sade is horrified and curious and horrified by his own curiosity over the corpse with its entrails exposed. King Mob bursts in just in time and scatters the cyphermen with some style ("You heard me, Jiminy Cricket!") and then things go to shit rapidly as they realise Orlando's found them. KM, de Sade, and Boy end up at the setting for the Poussin painting, but Jack gets back and that's when it gets bad, very very fast.

https://i.imgur.com/iSo28uB.jpg
Ah fuck, this really is the 120 Days of Sodom one. I have to say, as someone who has read a lot of fucked up things in her life, that book absolutely horrified me like no other. You don't even get used to the horror or jaded by it, really, de Sade is very keen that you don't tune out so there's always a new atrocity to shock you. I remember reading this on the Tube and being really nervous the whole time in case someone read it over my shoulder - reader, I was 29. Anyway, KM in the previous issue is otm to say that people don't finish de Sade because you have to be really bloody-minded (or a sunk costs person) to persist with it. It does help, in some small way, if you're me and have read all sorts of filth/violence/etc...but not as much as you'd imagine?!

(I went and looked on my Goodreads and I had one status update which was "Shitting, so much shitting and blood.")

Orlando eats Jack's fingertip and Fanny comes to the rescue. You have to hand it to Fanny, she dresses stylishly but she fights to win and that's really what you need when you're up against the fucking fleshless.

Oh, we're back with Byron and Shelley. I have to admit lads, this part doesn't really do it for me this issue, so I'm going to move on.

I think.... that the various things depicted in 120 Days... might run into legal issues/with the censors, so I'm happy with the limited depictions they've kept it to here. Also lol at the Duke saying "I'll spend my fuck in due course." Has the Duke ever posted on ILTMI? But yeah, if you're going to draw sections of this book, you're best off focusing on the fiends' faces, as they do here.

King Mob saying that de Sade is just a dirty old fucker with no higher motivation is hilarious, especially as de Sade then confirms it. Also, KM's eyes cast up in resignation are hilariously drawn.

Robin is in Rennes-le-Chateau with the mystery traveller who's now the chessman, but she doesn't heed his warning.

Now, the judge intoning "guilty, all guilty" here is very interesting because it taps into an interesting argument that always goes on over such works, about whether one can read - or in De Sade's case, create them, without being implicated in deviance themselves. "You wanted it, what did you ever do to stop us?" says the fictional judge, delivering his verdict on you for reading this and you for writing it and the world continuing on. Or so I interpreted it.

Jack fucks up shooting Orlando, for which Fanny gets slashed across the chest.

Back in Rennes-le-Chateau, Robin is confronted by a bunch of cyphermen, who are gloating over the head of John the Baptist.

Story is picking up a bit of speed towards the end of this arc, think it really takes off once Jack goes it alone. I'll come back for 8,9 & 10 on Sunday (even if I'm still the only person reading).

I'm still into this!

I know we're not even done with "Arcadia" but I'm already kinda scratching my head about how this Sodom issue connects to the main arc, or why in general it is happening

1) I imagine they want to let you know what De Sade’s about, and KM/Boy/he need a way of passing time in the story
2) some of the themes of 120 Days are highly relevant to the wider text
3) maybe GM is like de Sade and a dirty fucker, lol

I mean, you could say the same (how does it connect / why is it happening) about Arcadia in general - taking a trip back in time / situating the current conflict in a historical war of ideas was important to Morrison but a big gamble (that he lost).

I think that’s debatable but I want to know more about why you think that.