Are you invisible?

Another day in bed feeling rubbish today. Still at least I still have plenty of reading to amuse myself. I'm about halfway through volume 2 of the Invisibles. It occurred to me that I don't think I've ever read the whole thing in one go before. When I originally read it I just read each issue on a monthly basis as it was published. It's quite a revelation to get th ewhole story in one go. I'd imagine it must be similar to when people originally read Bleak House and other Dickens works as penny dreadfuls. Not that I'm comparing it's writer Grant Morrison to Dickens just that it's interesting viewing a large work of fiction which was originally serialised as a complete work.

I do think Morrison is a fantastic author though. Certainly in the higher echelons of comics authors. He's from Glasgow and still apparently lives there despite the bulk ofhis work being for US comic imprints. The earliest stuff I remember reading while being concious of who wrote it was the strip Zenith he did for 2000AD. I remember it being very unlike any other strips I read at the time. It was basically a superhero strip but with a very cynical young British hero. Also, instead of the traditional super baddies he was pitted against Lovecraft-esque multi-dimensional demons. At his best (and Invisibles would fall into that category) Morrison is very original but clearly draws influence from a wide range of people including, but not linited to, Jack Kirby, H.P. Lovecraft, William Burroughs, Carlos Castaneda, Alesteir Crowley and Philip K Dick. He's quite an interesting character when you read his background too, not least for his claims to being a practicing chaos magician since 1979. I'm not sure if I believe any of that side of it admittedly but if you're interested you can read some of his views and suggestions on magic here.

Suffice to say if you like comics and off the wall story telling and haven't read any of his work the Invisibles is about as complete a demonstration of his views and ideas as you will get.