ESSENTIAL // 1.09.03

THE MYSTERY PLAY
by Josh Buchin

THE MYSTERY PLAY
Grant Morrison/Jon J. Muth
DC/Vertigo
$9.95/96 pages
ISBN 1563891891
STAR01111

Here's the thing about Grant Morrison and Jon J. Muth's excellent THE MYSTERY PLAY: It's a small, quiet story about… well, yeah, that's the thing. I'm not exactly sure what it's about. I mean what it's REALLY about. The book is layered with such obscure, 'deep' symbolism (some obvious, some not), that it's almost impossible to cut through all the fat, get right to the meat, and explain what the book is REALLY about.

On the surface of the book, this is the story of a strange detective that's
interested in the metaphysical and the occult, who comes to a small town to investigate the murder of God-or at least, the death of an actor who plays God in a town play. That's what is on the surface. But whatever you do, don't ask me what the book's really about because while I consider myself an intelligent person, I have absolutely no idea. I've looked at the clues, examined the symbols but I still can't make perfect sense of it. But in the case of THE MYSTERY PLAY, that's half the fun.

Things don't always make sense in Morrison's work, and THE MYSTERY PLAY is no exception. Unlike many of his other comics, however, (e.g. INVISIBLES, THE FILTH), THE MYSTERY PLAY is not exceptionally bizarre. There aren't a great number of "mad," outrageous ideas tossed into the book that are inserted only to confuse and entertain. This book is not weird-for-the-sake-of-being-weird.

The setting is not fantastical or some form of hyper-reality. Muth's watercolor painted pages, with their bleak familiarity, firmly ground this story in our world; specifically, in a quiet English town, a place where everyone knows everyone else and where the local newspaper probably reports on who was caught drunk with their pants down at the annual fair. There are no colorful terrorists or haunting aliens or telepathic dolphins or para-personalities losing their characteristics through a psychedelic, shimmering stream of liquid that trickles out of their nose. This is a world you could easily step into by going out your front door.

Morrison loads up THE MYSTERY PLAY town with the type of people you probably see daily at your grocery store or bookstore. But yet, the story is still odd, not in a typical Morrison kind of way, but the story is nevertheless riddled with creepy moments and symbols, buried messages that leave one confused. In a good way though. It's fun to be stumped by a story, to be truly lost, adrift in a sea of clues and broken puzzle pieces that you need to put back together on your own. Morrison assumes that the reader of this book will be up on Christian mythology, be smart enough and entertained enough to want to figure out what the story is really about.

The story starts off with a scene from a play-a Medieval mystery play- where God is struggling with E-vil. We're introduced to a few of the important characters, like the obnoxious Mayor, an ambitious reporter for Townley Guardian (the local paper) named Annie Woolf, and of course, 'God' and 'Lucifer'. The play is interrupted when God is found dead, blood oozing from a wound in his back. In the next scene, a detective from Manchester named Frank Carpenter comes to town and begins investigating the murder, interrogating suspects who would want the actor playing God dead and who would want God dead.

Maybe I'm just reading too much into it. Maybe there's nothing else there beyond that story, no deeper, hidden meaning locked away, waiting for me to find it. Which would mean I've wasted a whole lot of hours pouring over this book, trying to find answers that may not even exist. But I suppose that's not the case. It's far more likely that people could write whole volumes of books analyzing this story (It wouldn't be the first such book examining Morrison's work. There already is an annotated guide to THE INVISIBLES).

Morrison's writing is crisp and sparse in THE MYSTERY PLAY and with the exception of the whole murky ending and a few vague moments, the story is, on its surface, relatively easy to follow. Dialogue is kept to a minimum. There's almost no typical Morrison banter about weird theories of the world. Words are sparse; thoughts conveyed by the art and tone are not.

I remember flipping through the book right after I bought it and asking my buddy, who was with me, what he thought of it. He said that he thought the art was a little too "arty". That describes Muth's art well, which is realistic in a simplified, dark kind of way. Everything is cloaked in shadows; walls are plastered with gray clouds; eyes are tar-black pits; what should be bright, vibrant reds or blues seem watered down with obsidian black. It's moody, eerie, desolate-everything that art for a story like this should be.

Often times, painted artwork is confusing, abstract and hard to follow. But that's not the case with Muth's art. His lines are clearly defined and his panels are easy to follow.

THE MYSTERY PLAY is an intentionally confusing book that doesn't spell things out for the reader. What's worse-or best-is that the story ends leaving more questions in your mind than answers. The questions remain there for you to answer, or, if you're like me, to not answer and just leave you very confused, wondering why you can't figure out what the book is REALLY about.

And then you have to go, and read it again, and find something you missed before. Art sometimes entertains, and other times challenges. Either road is perfectly acceptable, and THE MYSTERY PLAY travels its road very, very well.

THE MYSTERY PLAY is available from your local retailer with STAR code STAR01111. If your retailer won't use this handy dandy code to order you this fine fine book, we strongly suggest you find a better retailer who will.