Sunday, April 23, 2017

"The Invisibles" is a 1500 page (59 issue) masterpiece of Occult Literature, written in comic book form."

Alan Moore and Grant Morrison Occult War for 25 Years | Break.com: "So here's where we get to the part that most articles on the Moore/Morrison feud have missed. I'm a comics reader but probably not expert enough to really detail the history or quality of work other than at the 'fan' level. But I am an expert on occultism. And I can say this: the war between Moore and Morrison isn't just a "writers' fight", it's a "wizards' feud." It is two very different views on magick using comics as a medium to fire salvos at each other....

Magically, the two believe in very different things. Neither of them are exactly orthodox, but Moore is a more traditionalist kind of wizard. He is an admirer of Aleister Crowley's "Thelemic" magick, and the philosophy in his Book of the Law. He appreciates the value of magick as a kind of art form, and in turn, considers art to be a kind of magick. Grant Morrison is from the school of "chaos magick", who practice magick that is less worried about rules and ritual and more about trying to get things done. Magick can be done from just about anything, as long as you have the right intention. Chaos magicians tend to like mixing up elements from a whole variety of different cultures and history, to reinvent it all to fit whatever they're in the mood for, and have no problem with doing magick for personal gain (or to change the world) rather than just for human transcendence. Moore's very loud statement of declaring himself a Magician in public may just have been a factor in motivating Morrison to go whole-hog with the 'occult comic book' thing, when he started on "The Invisibles" in 1994. "The Invisibles" is a 1500 page (59 issue) masterpiece of Occult Literature, written in comic book form. Its winding plotline tells a single long story (with various sub-plots) about a group of occult rebels using magick to try to liberate mankind, opposed by a cabal of black magicians in positions of power and authority trying to use sorcery to control and oppress humanity. It is, simply put, one of the greatest comic series of all time."


2 comments:

  1. Enjoy most of Moore's stuff, the converse is true with Morrison. Just a personal preference, no value judgement implied :) Want to give Morrison's Animal Man run a read whenever I manage to consume the ever-growing stack of four-color fun.

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    1. I've enjoyed works by both of them. Probably lean philosophically nearer to Morrison than Moore. Animal Man was pretty foundational for me back in the late 80s & 90s. It's an old trope now, but it was the first comic I'd ever read that made the 4th wall/metafiction a thing. I almost *dislike* "stories about stories" now, but back then, man it was something.

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