The Invisibles: Morrison's best work! (imho)

[carabas]

My favourites used to be vols. 1 & 2. It's 2 & 3 now.

Parts of vol. 1 are really a chore to get through. And the terrible, terrible Jim Aparo art isn't helping. Meanwhile, the much more cerebral vol. 3, as well as Philip Bond's art style have really grown on me.

[theloupgaroukid]

. And the terrible, terrible Jim Aparo art isn't helping...

I really want to live in the parallel universe where Jim Aparo illustrated issues of the Invisibles (inked by Bill Sinkiewicz naturally) :P

Some of the art of Vol. 1 does suffer in comparison to the stellar work of Phil Jimenez and Chris Weston and Phillip Bond that follows but, like the art choices of Final Crisis or Seven Soldiers, I just look at it as a way of expressing the different permutations of the story.

[carabas]

I really want to live in the parallel universe where Jim Aparo illustrated issues of the Invisibles (inked by Bill Sinkiewicz naturally).

My memory's playing tricks on me again.
It was the horrible inks from Dick Giordano over Steve Yeowell's pencil meant.

[Aaron King]

I really want to live in the parallel universe where Jim Aparo illustrated issues of the Invisibles (inked by Bill Sinkiewicz naturally)

You guys are getting it mixed up. It was a Mason Lang series, plotted by Bob Haney, scripted by Morrison, that Aparo and Sienkiewicz worked on.

(A joke, of course, that hinges on Mason Lang being the Bruce Wayne of the Invisibles universe.)

[Ziza9]

Felt a strong need to chime in this forum with a thread about the Invisibles. Time-travel, magic, decapitated head of John the Baptist, references to illuminati and new world order -plus a bad ass transgender shaman superhero? There really couldn't be a better story in my humble opinion. Grant Morrison has done so many comics, it's easy to overlook this one, but it's still my favorite series by far.

Any other big Invisibles fans out there?

It's a great work for sure. But, personally, I think the Filth is his best work.

[carabas]

It's a great work for sure. But, personally, I think the Filth is his best work.

Any particular reason why?

[Pixie_Solanas]

I love the Filth, too. But I can't say it's better than the Invisibles.

[dancj]

I really want to live in the parallel universe where Jim Aparo illustrated issues of the Invisibles (inked by Bill Sinkiewicz naturally) :P

Some of the art of Vol. 1 does suffer in comparison to the stellar work of Phil Jimenez and Chris Weston and Phillip Bond that follows but, like the art choices of Final Crisis or Seven Soldiers, I just look at it as a way of expressing the different permutations of the story.

I found Phil Jemenez to be a step down in quality. Vol 1 has great art from the likes of Steve Yeowell and Steve Parkhouse. On the negative side it also has some terrible Jill Thompson art.

[chrisgiff]

BTW, didn't Morrisson seriously believe that there was going to be a real-life magical singularity in the year 2012 at the time that he was writing the series in the mid-90's? Hahaha, I bet he feels real foolish now. That or he was just kayfabe-ing the fans (like in WWE wrestling)...

I'm hoping the magick singularity happens at Morrisoncon in September.


Absolutely love this series.

[chrisgiff]

I found Phil Jemenez to be a step down in quality. Vol 1 has great art from the likes of Steve Yeowell and Steve Parkhouse. On the negative side it also has some terrible Jill Thompson art.

Ever read this? If not, its a great companion piece and only $5 on Kindle right now...

Anyway, this book says the exact opposite of what you said. Basically, it argues that the series really starts to realize itself once Jimenez takes over. Not that I disagree with you, just thought I would point it out. I love all the artists on this book! I don't think any other comic in history has come close to the amount of differing fan-opinions this series has...

[theloupgaroukid]

I found Phil Jemenez to be a step down in quality. Vol 1 has great art from the likes of Steve Yeowell and Steve Parkhouse. On the negative side it also has some terrible Jill Thompson art.

Hmmm, I think we'll just have to agree to be polar opposites and leave it at that (I didn't like the Yeowell art but enjoyed Jill Thompson's).

Jimenez isn't a step down in anything but the scheduling of the book and Morrison's late scripts (busy living the story instead of writing it!) lead to the art being rushed in places.

[JayPhonomancer]

I've always said The Invisibles completely blew me away the first time I read it and having re-read it only a couple of months ago I think it still stands up brilliantly. Some of it may seem dated now with the pop-culture references but as someone said earlier it's the sheer ambition and scope of it that impresses and enthrals.

I thought Vols. 1 and 2 are magnificent, and I loved all the artists. Vol. 3 is more cerebral and reflective for the most part but I did feel that the showdown in the second-last episode felt a bit rushed - I dont know if thats because of the rotating artists or not. The final issue was a bit of a headfuck too but the cumulative effect of the whole series is amazing.

I love that it was a long-running series that allowed Morrison to just expound on events happening around him or events in the news and to muse on everything from the French revolution to the death of Princess Diana and from voodoo to Area 51.

I think maybe nowadays people are more aware of Morrisons style and have some idea of what to expect but at the time I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I thought it was just some sort of Vertigo version of a superhero book! Soon afterwards I found the Barbelith website with all the annotations and theoretical discussion and I was well and truly down the rabbit hole then :)

[carabas]

I thought Vols. 1 and 2 are magnificent, and I loved all the artists. Vol. 3 is more cerebral and reflective for the most part but I did feel that the showdown in the second-last episode felt a bit rushed - I dont know if thats because of the rotating artists or not. The final issue was a bit of a headfuck too but the cumulative effect of the whole series is amazing.

It was. The artist jam experiment was a nice idea that was really horribly implemented.

To the point that some of the most important pages in the entire work were completely indecypherable and were redrawn by Cameron Stewart in the trades.

[dancj]

Ever read this? If not, its a great companion piece and only $5 on Kindle right now...

Anyway, this book says the exact opposite of what you said. Basically, it argues that the series really starts to realize itself once Jimenez takes over. Not that I disagree with you, just thought I would point it out. I love all the artists on this book! I don't think any other comic in history has come close to the amount of differing fan-opinions this series has...

I'm a bit averse to the idea of having to read one book to understand another. If that's necessary then the original book isn't doing its job properly.

And I wasn't talking about the story dropping in quality. Just the art. "quality" probably isn't the right word. Phil Jimenez has never bend a bad artist. Just one whose style doesn't interest me.

[theloupgaroukid]

I'm a bit averse to the idea of having to read one book to understand another. If that's necessary then the original book isn't doing its job properly.

Agreed. The book (I bought a physical copy after I finished a complete re-read of the Invisibles a year or so ago) doesn't do anything more than make explicit what is on the page or use sources to explain the real-world context of what is on the page (like the fact that the 'John Lennon visitation' is something that "really" happened to Grant Morrison long before he wrote the scene in the book). The real draw of the book for me wide-ranging, extra-length interview with Morrison himself that closes out the book.