I started getting into comics in my late high school days. It's true that years earlier I liked the Green Lantern and Alien Vs. Predator when i was still much too young to comprehend the cuss words I forced my poor grandmother to read me, and I also remember really liking another one about Bunny Ninjas in space? Can't remember the name of that one but it's burned in my memory simply because it was the first time i ever looked at and had to deal with an illustration of a cute little bunny who hanged herself. And my older brother's copy of Shredders, a black and white collection of shorts about skull faced skateboarders who did what? Shred. But I really only liked Green Lantern because he was green and my short attention span soon focused on the Intellivision for guidance, so all that early comic book magic was lost to the formless haze that seems to make up the next fifteen or so years of my life.
Things seem to clear up when I was about eighteen or nineteen. On a short trip home from my freshman year at college while arguing with a friend that Lord of the Rings had indeed succeeded in becoming our generation's Star Wars, I came across large trade editions of The Hard Goodbye and The Big Fat Kill. Yup. I hate to say it, but Sin City and Frank Miller were responsible for my decent back into the comic abyss. It really wasn't so much the classic noir style story telling or the machismo, but Miller's undeniably badass artwork. The negative space and sharp contrast, the ink splatter and curves of the dancing girls, the outline of Marv drawn by slashes of rain, every panel was dark and amazing and i couldn't wait to pick up the next book.
That was it. I became a proper comic nerd once again. I soon got my grubby little hands on a copy of Transmetropolitan, thus beginning my obsession with all things Warren Ellis: Fell, Desolation Jones, Jack Cross were my introduction to this hyper-productive brilliant British bastard, and though my collection has grown over the years, im still so far behind in the Ellis catalog, that I have just discovered the sweetness of his online comic Freakangels, let alone read his muscle throbbing Nordic hack and slash, Wolfskin, or checked out Global Frequency, or Doktor Who etc. One day... But I must say that it was those twisted tales of Spider Jerusalem and Derrick Robertson's depiction of his future distopia that really made me realize that comics could do things that movies or novels alone could simply not do. There was such a unique mix of color and poetry. Something about the pacing and and overlaying of ideas and images on top of each other, how time and location could be mixed and played with, how the placement of panels or having no panels at all creates different effects. And because TransMet is really Hunter S. Thompson reincarnate, it showed me that these beautifully goofy books could actually be more, they could be intelligent and thought provoking, they could actually say something of substance while simultaneously making me giddily pee my pants.
Now here me, my little Nerdlingers, for nothing could have prepared my soul for what came next. Once again back in hot as balls Sacramento, Jaz gave me the first trade of The Invisibles. The Invisibles changed my life. Written by Scottish anarchist Grant Morrison, we are introduced to Dane, your typical molotov-throwing, authority hating, super smart English rebel, who just wants to blow shit up. Enter the Archons from the Outter Church, ancient alien-gods from the Anti-verse of conformity, who, with the help of the world's elite, seek to usher in a new era of homogeneous sorrow and consume all traces of freedom and humanity. Now enter King Mob, Lord Fanny, Ragged Robin and Boy AKA The Invisibles, a small band of ass kicking psychic revolutionaries who recruit Dane and show him the world for what it really is. A long epic battle between our anti heroes and the ultimate forces of oppression ensues. Will The Archons be defeated before the new Rex Mundi signals the rule of the Outter Chruch? Is Dane the new Buddha? Will Dane and Boy have sex? When will Ragged Robin and King Mob stop having sex? Is it all really just a novel being written in the future by a time traveling witch? Or are we all just freaking out about our transition to a new higher being when 2012 comes along? This is what the Matrix was trying to be, but couldn't come close to. The series was heavily influenced by Morrisons self proclaimed "abduction" by extraterrestrials, who told him much of the story. (that is 100% true). It is quite possibly one of the coolest, smartest, sexiest and inspiring stories i have ever read and you must discover it also my dear reader. It's that important. It made the great Jake Hawkins begin to study meditation, the occult and the art of mental projection. It weaves history with philosophy and theology and ties a knot with time travel and tantric sex. It has some of the most original and progressive characters ever and most importantly it showed me that what Lord Fanny, the most fabulous transvestite bruja from Rio, said is oh so true: "baby, we can do anything we want..."
More to come soon...
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