Comic review: Negative Space #2- Misery Loves Companies

Art: Owen Gieni
Script: Ryan K Lindsay
Publisher: Dark Horse
Released: 23rd September 2015



‘Misery mourns to be devoured.’ (Manic Street Preachers- Removeables)

I have been thinking about that line, analysing it, deciphering it, and trying to extract every last ounce of meaning from it. I’m still not 100% happy with my conclusions, but as far as I can understand it, what it’s trying to say is that unhappiness feeds on itself, leading to more unhappiness, the cycle continuing forever, more misery, more unhappiness, feeding forever, never satisfied, always unhappy, but demanding more unhappiness.

‘Negative Space #2’ takes this idea of unhappiness as energy, and speculates that as well as it feeding upon itself, perhaps there is some other entity that benefits from it as well? I’ve read about the concept before, the idea that there is a race of extra-dimensional beings that feed on human suffering. They are usually referred to as Archons, or Reptilians, and are often described as working within the bloodlines of the ruling elites of our planet. David Icke talks about it all of the time, so if you are reading this review and are not already aware of the idea, get one of his books, you won’t regret it.

Anyway, the idea of an alien race feeding on human misery is given a slightly new and different take in ‘Negative Space.’ There are no reptilians here, no mention of bloodlines, and no mention of government agencies or any of the real world slave masters of planet Earth. As far as I can tell, the blame is being put onto a private corporation in this book, a corporation that works with the aliens, harvesting the food for them by promoting misery all over the world.

I don’t really have too many problems with corporations. It’s governments that control the world, not corporations. Corporations are powerful, but they don’t have a monopoly on the use of violence. They can’t put you in jail for failing to pay them. They can’t start wars. They can’t even force you to buy their products. Government however, can pretty much do whatever they like. They can extort you, rob you, torture you, kill you and kidnap your kids, then say that it’s legal and that there’s nothing that anybody can do about it.

I didn’t see any mention of government in ‘Negative Space #2’ and I don’t know if that’s a deliberate omission, or just something that the writer didn’t think about. The blame for misery appeared to be completely heaped upon a corporation, and I find that a bit strange. Sure corporations have power, but real power is always within the centralised control system, and that system at the moment is government, not corporations. Corporations do indeed try to pay off politicians and I do understand the revolving door between the two, but government has the gun, and guns have a way of getting things done.

Perhaps the omission will be addressed later? I hope so, because Negative Space is a very interesting book. There is a daft sense of humour to it all as well, making it a very enjoyable, occasionally silly, read.

There are quite a few interesting characters in the book as well. The main villain is ridiculously over the top, (‘I can only beat on a hipster for so long before I need breakfast nutrition.’) and issue #2 introduces a daftly entertaining alien character that is on the side of the heroes.

My favourite character however is the main protagonist, an overweight, unattractive, unhappy, middle-aged bloke. That one character alone is enough to get my interest in a comic book. If I have to read another supposedly ‘rebellious’ book starring a punk haired young girl then I’m going to start losing my mind, so it’s nice to see some real ‘diversity’ in comic books for a change.

I have to mention the art as well. It has a unique atmosphere to it, a dark, almost abstract quality, like it’s touching on reality, but is not quite there yet. It’s unique, and for an equally as unique book, it’s a perfect fit.

Issue #2 of Negative Space adds a heavy dose of dark humour to the pathos of issue #1 and that combination of misery and comedy produces an excellent black comedy with depth and emotional resonance. I need more government in my misery, but apart from that noticeable omission, this is an excellent book that stands out from the crowd and is well worth you investing both your time and money on.


Rating: 8/10 (Not as doom laden as you might think, there is a lot of enjoyable silliness in this one)

Lyrics:

Conscience binds you in chains

Trail by stone hammer and nails

No-one made the holes but me

Misery mourns to be devoured

Killed God blood soiled unclean again

Killed God blood soiled skin dead again

Again everywhere again

All removables, all transitory

All removables, passing always

All removables, all transitory

All removables, passing always

Never grown preserved gently

A bronze moth dies easily

Unknown to others weak to me

Broken hands never ending

Aimless rut of my own perception

Numbly waiting for voices to tell me

For voices to tell me

All removables, all transitory

All removables, passing always

All removables, all transitory

All removables, passing always

All removables, all transitory

All removables, passing always

Review: Robert E. Howard’s Savage Sword #10 (Featuring ‘Demon In a Silvered Glass’)- Drugs Come Out of Boredom Babe

Main story: Demon in A Silvered Glass, by Doug Moench & art by John Bolton. 

Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

Released: April 1st 2015

Note- The images in this review are of the 1981 black and white version of the story. The 2015 version in Savage Sword #10 has been beautifully coloured by Jim Campbell, so to enjoy the coloured version please buy the book.

Savage Sword #10 was a reminder of quite a few things, of feelings, of moments in my life. It triggered a recollection of boredom, and of what can (or will, to be more precise) happen to you when you let the hooks of inertia dig deep within your psyche. Boredom will kill you, it will leave you open to the Reptilian part of your nature, that old demon that lurks, waiting for an opening, before pouncing at your moment of weakness, taking you over, killing your body and rotting your soul.

The book also reminded me of being a kid. Of being a young boy in love with comic books where brave heroes battled against evil sorcerers and their seductive, yet equally as dangerous daughters. It reminded me of that boyish suspicion of all things ‘girl’ related, that there is something alluring there, but be careful son, that beauty has a heck of a bite on it as well.

The story I’m talking about in Savage Word #10 is the old one, the story about a bored King and what happens to him when he gives into adult boredom, and the boyish fear of all things girlie is ignored. It’s the longest story in Savage Sword #10, and by far the best. The title of the story is ‘Demon In A Silvered Glass,’ written by Doug Moench, and with art by John Bolton. The story was first released in 1981, and it really stands out because you don’t get anything like this anymore. It’s too good, too clever, too intelligent, too insightful about the nature of power, boredom and human nature. It’s brilliant, and you don’t get that many brilliant comic books in 2015.

I hadn’t read the story as a kid. How I missed it I do not know, but I did, so reading it here for the first time is pure pleasure, a mix of nostalgia not only because the story (and art) is in a different league to anything available today, but also because it brings me back to my boyhood of reading cool American comic books with manly heroes who you could really look up to as being the personification of the man you want to grow up and become when the lazy days of boyhood fights and tree-house adventures sadly comes to an end.

Like I previously mentioned, the story is about a bored King. He gives in to the animal side of his nature, and becomes something akin to the neo-liberal democratically selected leaders that we have in the morally bankrupt west today. The spiritual, moral side of his nature, the very thing that makes him a man slowly ebbs away as he lives a life of authoritarian pleasure. He reverts to the Reptilian side of his nature, and by doing so he leaves not only himself open, but his entire Kingdom open for take-over as well.

This is a book that could have been written by David Icke himself. What this is about is the leaders of humanity being taken over by Reptilian outsiders who have hacked into the DNA of our species, implanting their evil into our brains in order to corrupt the species and eventually take it over and use it for their own ends.

The only difference between this book and our real world is that in this book the Reptilian outsiders are eventually defeated and the spiritual, eternal soul of man wins over the grounded, animal part of our nature. In our world the Reptilian elements have yet to be defeated. They haven’t yet won, but they are largely in charge of the world and are currently running it for their own benefit through the use of their Reptilian (influenced at least) front-men in the political sphere. Look at the world, look at what is happening, look at who is running it, and then ask yourself this question:

Is the world being run for the benefit of the human race, or is it being run for the benefit of something else?

I know how it looks to me. It looks like a world being controlled by the kind of woman/man who has given in to boredom, the kind of human who has completely given in to the animal side of their nature who want to kill, to destroy, to rape and pillage and indulge their baser instincts. If there is a God, he is not in charge of this planet. What is in charge is an animal/reptilian man who sits on a throne of boredom and decadence. He looks at the world and hating humanity, bored with it all, wants to set it all on fire, and warm his toes as he watches it all burn.

‘Demon In A Silvered Glass’ then is not just a silly boyish nostalgia tale from the early 1980’s bought back to life for a new generation of comic book readers. It’s much more than that. To me it is a warning of what happens when you give in to boredom and see yourself as nothing more than just another beast in the field. But more than that it’s a warning about what happens when you allow that kind of mindset to be the dominant mindset of the leaders you allow to control your world. That is the mindset of the neo-liberal consensus leaders who are controlling our lives today. We stupidly vote for them every four years or so and expect ‘change,’ then when we get none we are confused and angry. That is stupid, really stupid. We get what we deserve. We vote for the reptilian, the animal, so that is what we get.

This 1980’s comic book gets to the heart of the matter. It is telling us not just what is wrong with society, but what is wrong with each and every one of us. We are potentially independent, powerful and self-governing human beings, but we have become inert, lazy, and are ruled by the worse of us because we have allowed ourselves to be ruled.

We would rather be bored, owned animals than the strong, powerful, self-determined heroes that we should be. The comic book heroes that we read as children had important moral, ethical, societal and spiritual messages to impart to our young minds. These lessons have gone unheeded, and what we have today on this enslaved, chaotic, archon infested planet is just the natural result of what happens when a lazy species allows itself to be enslaved.  This is what is always going to happen to a bored, decadent, indifferent, lazy, selfish, animalistic race of beings who refuse to learn and insist on repeating every single mistake of the past.

When a King gets bored and lazy his Kingdom decays, the people revolt, outsiders capitalise on the disorder, and eventually it collapses. So what happens when an entire species is suffering from the same disorder? I ask that question because that is what is happening to the human race right now.

We are bored, lazy and ruled by those with a Reptilian mind-set. Collapse is inevitable. It’s not if, it’s when. That is the warning that is contained within this comic book. Whether or not we act on this warning and start doing something to stop the decline, well as always, that’s up to us. We have been too decadent, too indolent, and too indifferent for too long. The Reptiles are in charge now, we let them get in charge, and the only question left is whether or not we are too far-gone to do anything about it.



Overall Rating: 8/10 (Best of the rest was ‘The Sea Dog’s Tale’ by Ron Marz. A very good parable about evil, false religion and mind-control)

Demon In a Silvered Glass: 10/10 (Perfect)


Note about the heading, 'Drugs Come Out of Boredom Babe'
The quote comes from a Manic Street Preachers Song called 'Another Invented Disease.' Click link to have a listen: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PK133q19lg