I love it when I learn new stuff. It makes my brain happy - especially when I can make connections between stuff I knew and new stuff I now know.
I was thinking that this guy I work with looks a lot like a character in a Grant Morrison comic book. So, the other day, I busted out my stack of The Invisibles just to check. The Invisibles is one of the weirder books created. Which, since it was created by Morrison, makes a lot of sense.
Anyway, the character I was looking for was King Mob. He's the leader of the Invisibles and a bit of an anarchist. Actually, he's more that just a bit of an anarchist, but that sort of raises the question of how can one be the leader of a group and also an anarchist. Wouldn't being part of a group go against the whole anarchist grain? But I digress...
The guy I work with looks a bit like King Mob - without the edginess, multiple piercings, cool shades, allure, and - well - the smarts. But, other than that, he looks a bit like him.
Okay, he's got a shaved head and it's pretty much the same shape as King Mob's - whatever.
That's not the exciting learnin' part though.
The learnin' comes in when I tell you that King Mob's name is actually taken from an anarchist group from the 70s. King Mob, the group, was an offshoot of the Situationists and the Motherfuckers.
"They derived their name from Christopher Hibbert's 1958 book on the Gordon Riots of June 1780, in which rioters daubed the slogan His Majesty King Mob on the walls of Newgate prison, after gutting the building." - wikipedia
Anyway, that ties into The Invisibles anarchic fight against the fiendish "archons of the Outer Church, interdimensional alien gods who have already enslaved most of the human race without their knowledge."
Truly excellent stuff - but weird.
There's a bunch of blowing things up, time travel and crazy allusions. One story arc includes the Marquis de Sade. Imagine a fat de Sade transported to the London club scene and you'll sort of get how bizarre this comic is. A lot of it is - once you do some digging - based on chaos magic.
In one story arc, King Mob channels John Lennon to divine the future. When he comes out of his psychedelic trance, Ragged Robin asks why he didn't at least have Lennon write him some lyrics.
Anyway, I love following where the ball bounces. These crazy internet tubes are great for that kind of thing.
That's it. That's all I've got. Peace out.
17 comments:
Try "grenade."
Changed it while you where snarking...cheers.
You know what happened to Harry Lime don't you? Just don't invite me to Vienna.
meh.
I never read comics. Still, I agree the tubes rule. God, how dreadful would it be to live your whole life before the invention of the tubes.
Interesting connections. During the Gordon Riots several breweries were sacked. So much alchol was spilled that people were literally drinking it and drowning in it in the streets of London.
Anarchists by nature actually can be an organized group because there real goal is to break apart the struture of society to see what will grow in its place.
I love bald men...they are so sexy...I mean, take Howie Mandel for instance...he is so hot now that he's sporting the sqeaky and shiny. hehe
I read about "The Invisibles" just a week or two ago and thought it sounded like my kinda thing. Is it available in a complete volume, or available at all, for that matter?
Morrison worships a Roman snake god, from what I understand. Which isn't much. I'm writing a book about "Satanic panic", though, so I know a trifle more about chaos magic, paganism, gnosticism, etc., than your average boring Canadian housefrau.
P.S. I've added you to my blogroll, if that's OK with you.
Scott - I try to forget what life was like before the tubes. It's just too painful to remember...except Martha Quinn on MTV, that part was pretty good.
PNYC - Nothing helps a riot along like a good, stiff drink. Good point about anarchists breaking structure to see what grows back in it's place. Most of the time anarchists are just portrayed as out of control mobs.
Slade - I wonder if there's polish for bald domes. You know, for those special occasions when a guy wants to look his best.
SME - A Roman Snake god? That's pretty awesome. Nobody I hang out worships any snake gods.
I don't know much about chaos magic, but it sounds kind of interesting. I'm going to do a spot o' reading about it.
Oh, The Invisibles are collected in a couple of trade books. Barnes and Noble might have 'em, or Amazon. Don't blame me if they don't make any sense, because...well...they don't. There were some good artists working on it though and there are some interesting, quirky allusions.
Hey, I worship snake gods. I took you to that snake god worship ceremony in Chico! Nothing I do matters to you! Sometimes I think you don't even remember I exist, much less feast on the shadows of the souls of starving babies.
God.
Those were snakes?!? I always thought it was some sort of gay porn...
Okay, I'm feeling a lot more comfortable around you now. I won't flinch when you pat my butt during softball games anymore.
I could be wrong, but anarchists always seem extremely with-it, organized, and decisive. That's weird.
I'm totally impressed that someone would go to the trouble to learn there WAS a Roman snake god, much less go to the trouble to worship it. However - and I'm not kidding - this particular god was once accused of being a SOCK PUPPET.
Ya know what, I wasn't reading about The Invisibles the other day, it was The Watchmen. Doy. But The Invisibles does sound interesting and I'm glad to hear it's in print. Thanks.
Oh, no. The butt-patting was because I'm gay and I wanted to touch your butt. But the Chico thing was a snake-god ceremony.
SME, Watchmen is excellent, and well worth the $15 or however much it's going for these days.
Whatever happened to Archie and Jughead? And Turok? Turok was my favorite.
Oh man...I always hated Archie and Jughead. Sort of how I never liked the Josie and the Pussycats cartoons.
Yeah, I outgrew them when I was 10. Josie and the Pussycats sucked! Now you've got their horrendous theme song running through my head...thanks a LOT!;)
I wasn't a big fan of the superheroes, but I did like Turok and Classic's Illustrated.
At 13, I switched to Mad magazine. Z now has a subscription and L and I still LOVE it!
Mad magazine was awesome. I loved it. My parents - on the other hand - weren't so much the fans.
I figure anything that gets kids to read and gets people to laugh is a pretty good thing.
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