The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 369: Time Twisters #21, April 1989

Before saying a thing or two about the two short Morrison stories in this issue, it's worth noting that some of the rest of the stories are not only really pretty fun, but also feature some great writers and artists. The first story, "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World!" offers some early-ish Alan Davis art, and there's a little epilogue to Halo Jones from Moore and Gibson at the very end of the issue that teases the idea of a fourth volume (we're still waiting, guys!).

Morrison's contributions to this issue are fairly standard "Future-Shocks"/"Time-Twisters" fodder, one taking on a case of mistaken alien identity that is actually a Public Service Announcement warning of trips to Planet Earth, and the other a cautionary tale that features Barry Kitson on art. They're pretty standard, notable only for the fact that they're early Morrison tales. As with the short piece in the 2000 A.D. comic from a couple of days ago, we can see Morrison meddling with the themes and tropes that have really come to define his oeuvre, but they're not stories that are quite pushing the boundaries in the same ways that something like Animal Man and Doom Patrol did. I suppose we have to consider whether or not it's even possible to push boundaries that way in such a small space. It probably is, but I've yet to find a comics short story that does so.

Which is one reason why I keep reading. Onward!

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 367: 2000 AD Presents #13, April 1987

It's appropriate for this issue to show up at the beginning of my second year. Back at the beginning of the project, when I thought there was going to be some kind of order to my read through, I did a couple of weeks of 2000 A.D. With this issue, I finally get to finish a couple of the stories I started a year ago. Sort of. This is the last issue of this series before being once more taken over by a different (sort of) company. The last time this happened, the content of each issue changed substantially. Will I ever find out what happens to Harry 20? Probably not, though this issue's story was a shocking one. Will space-Fascist Dan Dare "liberate" more oppressed peoples? Probably. Will Strontium Dog...be a grim outer space Batman some more? All signs point to yes.

The Grant Morrison story in this issue is called "Return to Sender," and it sees a very, very early Morrison attempt at metafiction, though only for the sake of a shaggy dog sort of joke. It's also very, very highly influenced by The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, with English coincidentally setting off an interstellar war, and a space empire being wiped out on account of their tiny, tiny size. But, honestly, I'd have been surprised to find out that Morrison was not familiar with Hitchhiker's. It's a seminal work of science fiction, and was quite popular at the time that Morrison was developing his talents as a writer. Rather than direct copy, perhaps we can consider the story an adaptation of science fiction tropes introduced by Adams' series.

Much the same way we can see The Matrix in light of Morrison's The Invisibles.

I think this is the earliest of the Morrison short stories I'm reading, so it's interesting to see that both this story and yesterday's story are very explicitly metafictional. I had a professor during my Master's degree who told me he thought that some really great writers took one topic and then spent their lives coming at it from as many different vantage points as possible. The interaction of fiction with reality, the ways that texts seem to ape self-awareness and talk to us - these are Morrison's topics.

More tomorrow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 91: Miracleman #7, August 2014

Read today. Will fill in post tomorrow. Exam in the morning, so no time today.

(And now the proper post:)

It's a strange world that Miracleman inhabits. Less for us than for him, though. I think this issue is dealing rather fantastically with the realization that MM is having that every battle he remembers, every other supervillain, every relationship, was completely false. While such a realization would in and of itself be shattering, couple it with the idea that the only other superhuman that he's sure exists is his psychotic ex-sidekick. What does one do upon realizing that one is only one of two members of a species. There's a bit of reference there to the Superman/Supergirl question, one that becomes increasingly moot as more and more Kryptonians appear to have survived that planet's destruction. And then in Supreme, Moore elevates Ethan Crane, makes sure that his origins are firmly grounded in humanity, but then supplies him with other superhumans with whom to collaborate/commiserate. Miracleman, by contrast, is left alone. Where that will lead him is a mystery so far, though we see him with a look of rage on his face more and more with each passing issue. Those of us who are familiar with the trajectory of the series have some idea where things head, but to see how that trajectory unfolds is the real treat of this reprint series.

More on Miracleman as I can afford the subsequent issues. If Marvel knew one thing in reprinting this series, it's that they could pretty much charge whatever they wanted and crazy people like me would buy it. Though I'm feeling much less crazy these days....

See you tomorrow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 88: Miracleman #6, July 2014

A short one today (I seem to type that a lot and it never end up being true). I'm kind of tired of writing right now so rather than a long diatribe about how this comic is speaking to Supreme, can we just take a short moment to consider Alan Moore's words? The first page of this issue is a monologue by Evelyn Cream, whose story I'm still super-intrigued by. There is such personality in these words. Not words enhanced by personalized caption boxes (though the blue of these boxes calls to mind the fact that Cream's words issue from between sapphire teeth), but simply words explaining to us an interiority of a character who is, ostensibly, a hitman, a murderer, but who is also a protagonist in this story. I like Evelyn Cream, even if I don't like what he does. To be able to do that with words is magic.

(Bit of a conundrum now, as I do not own Miracleman #7. I'll either go out and get it for tomorrow's comic, or go back to the storage collection and we'll continue the Miracleman/Supreme comparison at a later date. See you tomorrow.)

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 87: Miracleman #5, July 2014

Back to Miracleman, and more and more now the links between it and Supreme are blatant. Though I kind of wonder if that's a retroactive blatancy. I don't think (I don't know for sure) that the original Eclipse reprints included old Marvelman strips, but the juxtaposition of them in the Marvel reprints makes for an interesting contrast to the old-style stories that are inserted into each issue of Supreme. After the revelation of Miracleman's origin, reading the reprinted Marvelman stories at the back of each issue is like having a glimpse into the history that Mike Moran is currently discovering to be false. In Supreme, the flashbacks are filling in a truth, in that they are filling in "new" Supreme's back story, in Miracleman, the flashbacks are revealing a lie. There's an interesting moment in this particular issue in which we get a story of Young Miracleman entitled "1957." YM flies to Pluto to get some jewels to impress a young lady, but the jewels melt upon YM's return to Earth. Here's the thing, though: this adventure is a fashioned memory. Neither of the surviving members of the Miracleman Family feature in it, so it's strange to have a flashback to a manufactured memory of a character who is, ostensibly, dead. I wonder whether or not this is foreshadowing something to do with Young Miracleman.

Miracleman's associate, Evelyn Cream, is a neat addition to the story. Originally hired to assassinate Mike Moran, Cream instead allies himself with Miracleman, which I did not see coming. I'm interested in Cream's back story, though I've no idea if one will ever be fleshed out for him. How did he get sapphire teeth? And what's it like to eat with a mouthful of jewelery?

I've not much else to say about this issue. It's interesting to see Gargunza as a villain in both "reality" and the reprinted adventures, though something tells me he's going to be much creepier and disturbing in Moore's revision of him. Back tomorrow with another installment of "The Red King Syndrome." See you then.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 81: Miracleman #3, November 1985

Yep, that says number 3, just like yesterday. I missed the fourth issue of the reprint series, but fortunately I have an old, torn-cover copy of number three from the Eclipse run that contains the same stories that were in the fourth Marvel issue.

The end of the "A Dream of Flying" storyline, exciting, though not unexpected, revelations about Miracleman, Young Miracleman, and Kid Miracleman's origins and identities. I'm quite excited to see how this plays out with the title character. In true Moore fashion, things that have happened earlier in the story were actually clues as to the true nature of the Miracleman family, like the way in which Young Miracleman dies, or that Kid Miracleman is still a 13-year old. Similar things happen in Supreme, so again I'm having a hard time not seeing the one as response to the other. Is Supreme what happens to superhero comics after a deconstructive moment in the medium? It seems to me that it's an ironically-reconstructionist superhero we get. I think that that's a pretty good way of calling it a myth.

So. Book 1 fnished. I'm going to have a look at the Supreme run and see if I can break it up into four discrete components, the way Miracleman is. See you tomorrow with Supreme #41!

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 80: Miracleman #3, April 2014

It becomes more and more apparent (see what I did there ;P) to me that Alan Moore's run on Supreme is speaking directly back to this series. There are beautiful passages in Miracleman that try to imagine what it must feel like to be, basically, a god, but the undercurrent of menace at the foundation is chilling rather than celebratory. Supreme deploys much of the same kind of language and concern with one's history, but from that celebratory place. Where Mike Moran's investigation of his past and his powers seems to lead to a darkness, Ethan Crane's leads to a brightness. It may be that after I've finished off Moore's Miracleman, I'll have to re-read Supreme. And then maybe a book....

(Okay, article. Let's be realistic.)

I think, having said that, that I'm going to stick with blogging Miracleman, mainly because it's such an important piece of superhero literature, but I'm going to break up the various books. It's just too dark and intense to read on a daily basis, I think. Maybe it's just me, but I find myself particularly susceptible to being influenced by the tone of the things I read or watch or hear or play. I'll have to break the dismal Miracleman up with something lighter, happier.

Oh. Maybe I will read Miracleman and Supreme in conjunction for a little while. That might be really, really interesting.

Okay, last bit of book 1, "A Dream of Flying" tomorrow, and then on Sunday perhaps we'll dive headlong into Moore's Supreme. See you tomorrow.