Comic review: Klaus #2- The Road to Freedom

Writer: Grant Morrison
Art: Dan Mora
Publisher: Boom! Studios
Released: 16th December 2015



‘So. We have a malcontent in our midst. Someone who refuses to play by the rules of civilisation.’


Evil hides beneath the veneer of collective goodness, taking from you, to give to him, as he deserves it more than you, we are more than you, and we have soldiers, swords/guns, and what are you going to do about it, little man?

It’s socialism. The theft of what you own, of what you have worked for, given to the spawn of the state, an ungrateful spoilt kid.

It’s evil here, real world evil in a beautifully drawn tale about Santa with muscles.

Happy Christmas to a world enthralled with unreality, dictators ain’t the problem mate, it’s collectivism, and you, the collectivised spoilt masses are at the centre of the matrix web of social control.

The world is a hall of smashed mirrors. Grant Morrison takes a shard, and shines it in your eyes. Understand the violent coercion of mirror shattering state apparatus. Here it is, for all to see. Can you see it?

Life should be a road not made. Create one, for yourself. The road well worn is a Disney movie, old, tired, regurgitated emptiness, the road is strewn with weeds, and it leads to nowhere.

Open up a new path to possibility where nostalgia withers, and everyday is a new day, with a new you, creation drunk, exploring your incandescent eternity of endless possibility and ever-expanding consciousness emancipation.

When Morrison gets it right he is an excellent road builder. In Klaus #2 he is building a very fine road indeed, and I'm more than happy to take a Yule time trip down his merry road to freedom.

Rating: 9/10

Klaus #2 is a lovely Christmas tale, it has jokes, but there’s depth here as well. This is more than the usual surface cleverness, nostalgia and social justice that you will find in an average Marvel comic book, or the new Disney Star Wars movie. 

There is real joy here, real creativity, and an acknowledgement that socialism boiled down is the state using collectivised guilt to justify the theft of resources from it’s tax netted population. 

Klaus is a book about individualism, and in this collectivised western world of shared weakness, shared inanity, and shared guilt, what better Christmas gift could any anarchist individualist ask for? 




A special Christmas message to everybody at Boom!Studios

Happy Christmas Boom!Studios. Happy Christmas Grant Morrison. Happy Christmas Dan Mora. Thanks for this fantastic comic book that is all about the Christmas spirit, not of collectivism, but of kind-hearted, individualistic volunteerism away from the violence and coercion that is old time monarchy/dictatorship and its modern day equivalent of neoliberal collectivised socialism. I'm loving the message here, and it's very much appreciated. Have a great Christmas, and I'll see you all in 2016.

50-Word (Comic) Review- Klaus #1: A Wonderful Fairytale Book about the Origins of Santa Claus

Writer: Grant Morrison
Art: Dan Mora
Publisher: Boom! Studios
Released: 4th November 2015



Soldiers revel in cruelty, granted by a tyrant, his castle towers over homes of the poor. Spoilt child destroys, wants more, a solitary trader, appalled at what he sees, escapes, then by night, alien elves conjure presents for children, a red cape, a sprinkle of snow. Santa is that you?


Rating: 8/10

Klaus #1 is a lovely surprise gift to the comic book world, and it’s just in time for Christmas 2015. The story is about the origin of Santa Claus, and there’s something very fairytale about it, mixed with the dirty realism that you will find in an old brother’s Grimm story. Issue #1 follows a buffed up (bearded) young man as he visits a town gone to wrack and ruin due to a scumbag leader, and all of the top down corruption that inevitably follows when those in charge are a right bunch of bankers. It might as well be about David Cameron, and the town might as well be London in 2015. The rot starts from the top, and when everybody is aware of the corruption of those in power, the reasoning goes, why not be just as corrupt as them, after all corruption equals success, right? The only difference between this book and the UK in 2015 is that at least the men in this book have jobs. They might all be down a dirty old mine, but at least they are working, and that’s a lot more than you can say about a lot of people in the UK right now. Anyway, back to this book. It’s a happy bundle of Christmas joy, get it, it’s good, there’s a nice feel about it, and you’ll like it, probably, I did.

Comic review: Grant Morrison’s 18 Days #2- The Art of War

Script: Grant Morrison, Gotham Chopra & Sharad Devarajan
Art: Jeevan J. Kang
Publisher: Graphic India
Released: 12th August 2015



Comic book reviewers shouldn’t really rave over this comic, and if they do so, you need to be very suspicious about their motivations (cough, re-tweets).

That doesn’t mean that it’s a bad comic though, because it isn’t. What it is, is a comic that is establishing what is to come next in the narrative. It’s a comic that is doing the boring work before the big battle kicks off. It’s a comic book about political intrigue, motivations, and the heroes of the upcoming war playing a strategic game of chess in order to set up their enemies for their inevitable defeat.

18 Days #2 features people putting down their arms and armour, and talking about tradition, honour, oaths and fate. The villains have lots of rule about who and when they will, or will not fight. They are all related, and have long histories and grievances against each other. The heroes are exploiting all of this, as they talk to the different people, playing them off against each other, and strategize for the upcoming battle.

The message of course is that success comes from effective strategising, from brains over brawn. The strongest, bravest, fastest, most powerful warrior doesn’t always win, the smartest warrior wins. War is manipulation, about playing sides off against each other.

A modern example of the art of war and deception would be how the US (and EU) is currently using ISIS to destroy Syria, whilst simultaneously using the terrorist group (largely funded through US allies in the Middle East) to justify a Police state back home. The strategy of the US using ISIS as a proxy army allows them to destabilise Syria and to blame it on somebody else. When the country is a complete mess they can then send in their own ground troops to finish them off, murder all of the leaders, install a puppet government, and steal the countries resources, just like they did in Libya.

That’s how you strategise in war. That’s how you use your enemy to defeat a greater enemy, just as the US used the Taliban in Afghanistan to bog down the Russians in an unwinnable war that helped to destabilise the entire Soviet Union. Sure, the Taliban led to Al Qaeda, 9/11, 7/7, Iraq, the NSA and all of the other ‘problems’ in the world right now, but the bottom line is that the strategy worked. The Soviet Union collapsed, and the western banks and corporations that control western governments now have the perfect, permanent enemy in Islamic terrorism. This manufactured, and controlled enemy can now be sent around the world to bomb and maim, thus justifying less freedom in the west, and more western corporate imperialism and hegemony abroad, whilst claiming it’s all about human rights, freedom and democracy. Yeah, the US might be invading your country, but they are only there to protect you from ISIS/Al Qaeda. It’s true, yet it’s a lie at the same time. That’s the art of war, and that’s how you get things done.

The mainstream corporate media sell war as good versus evil, as neo-liberal democracy versus anything that dares to challenge it. They do so because they need to justify the corporate/statist/fascist status quo, and to portray their side as the heroes, and the other side as the villains. Contemporary superheroes play the role of soldier heroes, fighting against democracy hating dictator villains, fighting for freedom, whilst supporting indentured servitude to the corporate state.

Grant Morrison’s 18 Days #2 is a bit more complex than an average neo-liberal comic book. That’s partly due to Morrison himself, but largely because the book comes from ancient Indian wisdom (the Mahabharata) and so it has a bit more substance than the ignorant idiocy that is fed to us today.

Get the book if you want to explore Indian mythology and culture, but get it if you want to expand your horizons, and understand the complexities behind the art of war.

War is not about dictators and the illusion of freedom that is western style neo-liberal democracy. It’s not what you read in contemporary comic books, see on your television sets, and read about in your corporate newspapers. War is more complicated than what you see on the surface, and that is what 18 Days #2 is exploring.

It’s a book about war strategy, about what to do before the battle, and how to manipulate and weaken the enemy before a shot is fired. It’s about preparing for victory through proactive intelligence, using the most powerful weapon that we, as human beings, possess, that being the power of the mind.

Brains over brawn baby, it wins every single time, and that’s why the US isn’t bombing ISIS into oblivion right now. They could, but what would that achieve? ISIS are there to get rid of President Assad first (he’s an evil dictator, didn’t you know?) and then, who knows how they could be used next? Iran, Russia, something back home if the people start to question government authority perhaps? So many options, but that’s the game of war. We need to understand how it is being played, not for us, but against us, as right now, those in control, the evil people that control the world, are dividing, conquering, and walking over every single last one of us.


Rating: 7/10 (To divide and conquer, it’s the art of war)

Secret Wars #4- What is a superhero?

Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artist: Esad Ribic
Publisher: Marvel (Disney)
Released: 1st July 2015



Go to a comic book shop, pick up a new superhero comic book, read it, and ask yourself the following question:

What is a contemporary mainstream comic book superhero?

Grant Morrison thinks that they are stand-ins for soldiers.

I agree.

They are soldiers, and what do soldiers do?

They follow orders.

Who TODAY is in charge, and who is giving the orders?

According to the mainstream media it’s the Clintons, Blairs, Obamas, Camerons and all of the other blue and red puppets.

Puppets?

Yes, puppets.

But if they are puppets, who is controlling their strings?

The neoliberal corporate/banking elites.

Who are they?

They are the people who run the privately owned banks and corporations that fund governments. They are the globalists, the western elites, the new world order.

Back to comics, back to superheroes.

A superhero is a soldier, soldiers take orders from political puppets, the new world order is a corporate entity, and mainstream comic books are a part of that corporate entity. Therefore, a superhero appearing in a mainstream comic book is a soldier working for the new world order.

Did that truth taste bad? I hope so, because truth is a bitter pill to swallow, and that is why people don’t like it, and get upset when you try to force it down their throats. I understand, but I want to talk about more than the art and panel designs in comic books. I want to talk about the world, and comic books are the platform that I use to do that.

So what does the new world order want?

They want one world government, and total control of the entire planet.

What is the role of a soldier/superhero in the new world order?

Their role is to eliminate all opposition to the new world order.

Therefore, all ‘villains’ in contemporary comic books have to represent a threat to the new world order.

The villain in Secret Wars #4 is Doctor Doom, a crazed dictator type.

It’s always a crazed dictator type, in comic books, and in the real world.

The crazed dictator will sit on a throne, scare people, act like a villain, and cause problems until he is finally defeated by the soldiers/superheroes.

In Secret Wars #4 that process is progressing towards its inevitable conclusion. Doom fights the soldiers, and he acts like a power-crazed delusional madman. He wins a battle, but in the long run he will lose the war.

That’s how contemporary corporate entity comic books work. A dictator threatens the status quo, soldiers/superheroes are sent in, cue battles and some character stuff, the dictator is defeated, and it’s back to the beginning again.

In comic books it’s The Joker, Doctor Doom, Magneto, The Red Skull and Lex Luthor.

In the real world it’s Hussein, Bin Laden, Gaddafi, Assad and Putin.

Comic books villains exist to serve the narrative, to sell comic books.

Real world villains exist to serve the narrative, to sell the new world order.

Secret Wars #4 is a comic book about superheroes/soldiers fighting against the latest dictator, the latest threat to the new world order.

It’s a comic book that people will read and enjoy. They will discuss the art, the characters, the fights and the plot. Deeper issues and socio-political assumptions that are made within the text will not be discussed.

I will be ignored, or criticised, more of the former, a little of the later, if I’m lucky. That’s okay. The new world order relies on the consent of the governed. If the people want it, then they’ll get it. That’s the world that we live in, that’s the world that we want, that’s the world that we deserve.


Rating: 7/10 (Starts better than it ends, and it’s all about the characters now)

Comic book review: Grant Morrison’s 18 Days- The Mahabharata In Comic Book Form

Writer: Grant Morrison
Art: Jeevan J. Kang
Publisher: Graphic India
Released: 30th June 2015



I often come across references to the ancient Indian poem ‘The Mahabharata’ in books and television shows that can be loosely categorised in the ‘ancient alien’ bracket, but I’ve never actually read the poem for myself.

All that I know is that it sounds extraordinary. It’s about superheroes, gods, monsters, demons, flying craft, devastating weapons and the past, present and future of humanity. In short, it’s perfect fodder for a comic book.

Grant Morrison has actually read the poem, and obviously agrees that it would make a fine comic book, because he’s done just that, and here it is.

In ‘Grant Morrison’s 18 Days’ I now have the perfect entry point into learning all about the Mahabharata. I feel terribly lazy that I hadn’t done it before, but this comic book is going to force some knowledge onto me, and I couldn’t be happier.

Morrison can get a bit abstract, a bit weird, a bit trippy, but not here. He’s keeping it simple, and making sure that the reader understands exactly what is going on, who is involved, and what the consequences are. The first part of the book explains the ages of the earth (we are in the last age now, which explains a lot), and sets the stage for the major battle that is about to take place. If light wins, the cycle repeats, darkness is banished and a new age of enlightenment begins. If dark wins, the cycle will cease to turn, and darkness will be here to stay.

The book then introduces the participants on each side, and Krishna, the living God, who is on the battlefield, but has taken a vow not to fight. I’d heard of Krishna, but I knew nothing about him at all. To see him in a comic book, looking like a superhero, really brings him to life, and I can’t wait to find out more about him and to expand my woeful knowledge base on all things related to the Hindu religion.

The vast majority of comic books are fluff, a waste of time, something to read, moan about, or enjoy, and forget. I’ve read a lot of comic books like that, and what have they given me? Something to do when I was bored, that’s about it really. These days I’m looking for something with a bit more substance, and that’s why you won’t see too many detailed reviews of the latest DC and Marvel teen girl books on my blog.

I’m an indie hunter now, still in love with comic books, but looking for books that say something, books that give me a little bit more than amusement or a way to waste my time.

Grant Morrison’s 18 Days #1 puts comic book life into an ancient Indian text, and introduces mythological (or are they historical?) characters that were the original superheroes. The art is big, bold, colourful and perfect for a superhero comic book, and fits very comfortably alongside other 'superhero' genre books that you will find in your comic book shops today.

For those looking for an accessible entry point into ancient Indian mythology/history, 18 Days is a must buy comic book. For everybody else, pick it up anyway, you won’t regret it.

When you purchase the book (It only costs $1) you’ll get a traditional powers and fights superhero comic book, but with an added element. That added element is fascinating insight into what an ancient Indian text has to say about the nature of humanity, where we came from, what we are doing, and where we are going. You won’t get that kind of information in your average comic book, so don’t miss out on this one.



Rating: 9/10 (The Mahabharata in accessible comic book form)



Check out the digital version of this comic book on You Tube:

Comic review: Nameless #1 (by Grant Morrison): Am I missing something here?

Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Chris Burnham
Publisher: Image comics
Released: 4th February 2015

The last Grant Morrison book that I purchased was his Multiversity #1 for DC comics, and after reading it, very slowly (three times over) I put it aside feeling utterly confused, not very impressed, and even less entertained.

I’m not sure if it’s something that happens when writers get a ‘name’ but I’m getting the strong sense that Grant Morrison is writing for himself these days, and that the reader can either try to keep up, or they can get lost.

Nameless #1 starts off with some family murdering nastiness. It then moves onto a treasure hunting chase sequence involving weird alien swamp creatures before disorientating the reader with references to 9/11, Egypt and Syria. It then does the dream sequence thing, and concludes with an end of the world, meteorite is going to hit the planet, can the team of specialists save us narrative. It’s like that silly old Armageddon movie with Bruce Willis, but on a weird drug trip.

There’s a lot of stuff happening to get your head around, but amidst the unnecessary swearing, the Indiana Jones treasure hunting, and the dizzying haphazard nature of it all, it just about makes sense, which already makes it a far better book than ‘The Multiversity #1.’

The art is great. Chris Burnham has his own unique style, he’s great at drawing grotesques and weirdness, so working with Morrison makes logical sense. Morrison writes weird, and Burnham draws it even weirder. It’s the perfect creative team, but is the actual story any good? Does it inspire, does it intrigue, does it incite, does it excite?

Err, not really. It’s kind of blah, unfortunately.

The book is an escaped budgerigar mad on freedom, repeatedly banging it’s head upon every closed window in the house when it needs to stop, focus, and fly out of the open window that is right in front of it.

And who is this ‘Nameless’ man that the book is focussing upon? Why should I care about him? He’s not exactly Clint Eastwood or Han Solo. He’s just a scruffy, mouthy, unremarkable looking dude in a vest. Perhaps if he was drawn (and written) as a more interesting character I would have cared, but all I get from him is arrogance and lots of swearing. Is he supposed to be somebody that I dislike? I don’t like reading about people who I dislike, but perhaps that’s just me, perhaps I’m the weird one here, who knows?

Other reviewers will undoubtedly call this book ‘trippy,’ and I would agree with them, because that’s exactly what it is. If you are into that kind of thing then light up, chill out and enjoy. My review is coming from the point of view of a straight-laced, tea and crumpets reality junkie, so the book isn’t really aimed at me. I don’t hate it, but it stirs no strong emotions, just slight annoyance at the needless complexity and mild irritation at the bloke in a vest protagonist. I might be missing something here, but I can’t get anything out of this one.

Rating: 5/10