ESSENTIAL // 1.30.03

INVISIBLES VOL. 1: SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION
by Rachel Swift

THE INVISIBLES VOL. 1: SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION
Grant Morrison, Steve Yeowell and Jill Thompson
DC/Vertigo
222 pages/US $19.95
ISBN: 1563892677
STAR09142

If I had read THE INVISIBLES while I was still in High School, I would have dropped out and moved to India.

Fortunately (or unfortunately), I picked up INVISBLES at the jaded old age of nineteen, when I was too settled (or not reckless enough) to take off in search of enlightenment.

The act of publishing a creative work is essentially an act of communication, but it is not necessarily subversive. This is something that has always bothered me about literature. Often, the writer's role is restricted to sealing his handiwork into a metaphorical bottle and tossing it out to the public. If someone picks it up, uncorks it and catches on to what the writer is trying to say, so much the better, but the emphasis is on the interaction between the reader and the text, or on the text's relationship to an existing body of literature. Scholars don't seem to like thinking of a work of art as a means for the author to affect and interact with the world around him.

Ever read Jonathan Edward's SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD? How about Frederick Engels' Communist Manifesto? These texts achieve an effect that is very different from the conventional literary standard: they are designed to influence the reader to influence the world around him. Edwards and Engels use art to actively create and support dialogue and progress in the real word. Similarly, INVISIBLES seeks to actively influence and interact with its readers. Now, that's subversive.

The monthly comic medium is well-suited to this style of creation. When the author is working just a few issues ahead of where the readers are in the text, the work is takes on a vital, interactive quality. The creator is much closer to his audience, and reader response and interest can begin to influence the work itself. The letters page used to be a forum for the author and the readers to discuss and deconstruct ideas brought up in the work, and subsequently became a forum where the creator and his readers can interact. For example, in issue 15 of THE INVISIBLES VOL. 1, Morrison embarks on a project with his readers when he asks them to join him in casting a sigil (that's bona-fide magic, for the uninitiated) on an appointed date to help increase sales. This monthly comic was a journey the creator and the reader took together. The stories collected in SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION are the result of this synergy.

This is not to say that THE INVISIBLES doesn't simply work as a story, ruminations on the nature of serialized art aside. Morrison's writing is clear, powerful, and full of energy. The dialogue flows smoothly as he moves easily in and out of different characters' local dialects. Steve Yeowell and Jill Thompson rise to the challenge of representing some pretty abstract and esoteric stuff in relatable and evocative terms.

I suppose I need to say something about the subject matter, but that is going to be difficult. What can I say about a comic that combines Gnosticism, Shamanist magic, Voodoo, LSD and the esoteric martial arts with fetish gear, romantic poets, big guns, Area 51 and the The Prisoner? Morrison describes THE INVISIBLES as "a comic about everything: action, philosophy, paranoia, sex, magic, biography, travel, drugs, religion, UFOs." In the first issue he promises that INVISIBLES will eventually "reveal who runs the world, why our lives are the way they are and exactly what happens to us when we die."

Woah.

SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION begins with the recruitment of Dane McGowan (aka Jack Frost) into the loosely organized group of anarchist freedom fighters known as the Invisibles. It consists of two stories, "Down and Out in Heaven and Hell" and "Arcadia." "Down and Out…" is the story of Jack's initiation and early training on the streets of London. "Arcadia" chronicles the adventures of Byron and Shelley, who were (of course) Invisibles; a mission to recover the lost head of John the Baptist; and the relocation of the Marquis de Sade from revolutionary France to modern-day San Francisco. Although the stories combine extremely disparate elements, the flow of the narrative is fluid and elegant. Morrison reiterates important themes again and again in slightly different forms, rigorously exploring their boundaries and applications. The story is suffused with the same overflow of ideas and creative energy that characterize Neil Gaiman's Sandman.

Our heroes are: King Mob, a gun-toting Morrison look-alike with more metal in his face than Wolverine; Ragged Robin, a sexy red-haired psychic from the future; Boy, who is actually a girl, and is also an American ex-police officer and an expert in close combat; Lord Fanny, a Brazilian Shaman transvestite; Jack Frost, an anarchist teenage thug and possibly also an enlightened sage (King Mob says, "I suppose if the Buddha grew up poor in Liverpool and swore a lot, he might be a bit like Jack"); and Jack's teacher Tom O'Bedlam, a homeless wino who is also "the most powerful magician of his species." The villains range from the Manichean Archon of this Age to the decadent British upper class.

Except that nothing is as it seems. I won't go into specifics so as not to spoil the fun for new readers, but by the end of the series Morrison has systematically smashed every assumption upon which the initial stories are built.

THE INVISIBLES is about breaking down barriers on all levels. Throwing a Molotov cocktail at the school library. Connecting sexual depravity and spiritual divinity. Rejecting every belief system, including rebellion. Most importantly, Morrison is breaking down barriers between fiction and reality.

THE INVISIBLES is not a passive read. It is an invitation to join the revolution.

INVISIBLES VOLUME 1: SAY YOU WANT A REVOUTION is available from your local retailer with STAR code STAR09142 or the ISBN number1563892677. 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.