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.

Music album review: Futurama by Manic Street Preachers- Hooky world-view reassessment

Released: July 2014

Amazon page (to purchase album):
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00JK4K07A?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

Youtube video of ‘The Next Jet to Leave Moscow’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU_kKnmKsuU



I’ve listened to this album so many times now that it’s starting to get a bit old to me, so it’s probably a good time to knock out a review and detail the best tunes, the most interesting lyrics, and the overall themes, and lasting impressions made by the album.

My own association with the Manics goes back to their prime years in the 1990’s when they were producing fiercely intellectual polemics against everything and everybody. This culminated in their nihilistic, screaming into the abyss nightmare/masterpiece ‘The Holy Bible.’

In 1994 Richly Edwards, their intellectual, philosophical, moral, political, lyrical leader disappeared, and everything changed.

The lads

From that point on it has been a slow slide into compromise and middle class/suburban sadness and nostalgia for the remaining Manics. ‘Everything Must Go’ gave them their big success, but to me it was a deeply depressing album, a resignation from the extremism, an acknowledgement that they could never go that far again. From there it has been hit and miss, a carefully crafted career rather than a suicide mission.

The band used up some remaining Richey Edwards lyrics in the Holy Bible retread album (and correctly titled) ‘Journal For Plague Lovers,’ which briefly brought me back to them, but since then I have paid less and less attention to the Manics.

Futurama shouldn’t have interested me at all, but the excellent reviews caught my eye, so I took a chance, and purchased the album, not expecting much, but hoping for the best. I’ve spent a couple of weeks with the album now, listening to it a lot more than I thought that I would, and I’m ready to share a few thoughts about it.

First off, the tunes are excellent. They are exploding with creativity, vibrancy and (most importantly) sing-along hooks. This album feels like it took some time to produce, and it really does have some memorably hooky moments that will stay in your head all day long. There’s probably too many of those moments to mention here, they really are that frequent, but one of my favourites was the self-lacerating chorus (Yes, I realise how appropriate that phrase is in the context of a Manics review) ‘The next Jet to Moscow,’ with lyricist Nick Wire mocking his own socialist failings, compromises, contradictions and hypocrisies.

That theme of recognising that your life long held political ideology has been tested and shown to be false is a central theme of the album as a whole.

This is the Manics album where Nicky Wire admits that all of that Marxist stuff of his youth was total and utter bullshit. It’s taken him some time to get there, but the old left wing feminist liberal drip is finally waking up to the reality of the collectivised new world order supporting liberalism that has defined his socio-political life, and the lyrical themes of his band.

Nicky Wire (left, obviously) has a few things to think about.

Futurama, at least to this reviewer, is the album where Nick Wire admits that he was wrong, and that he needs to batten down the hatches, read, read, read and reassess his worldview. Because of this it’s the next Manics album that’ll probably be worth listening to, at least from a lyrical viewpoint. This album unfortunately still has a lot of that champagne socialist whining quality that comes across like a rich man complaining about digging his own luxurious pit of self indulgent ennui, in the safe suburbs, and surrounded by high tech security systems (to keep out the bothersome proletariat) obviously.

So yes, its still full of Nicky Wire complaining (as he does on every other Manics album post Richey) about feeling isolated and depressed behind his wall of luxury, but with that hint of change, that hint about further study and world view reassesement ringing throughout the lyrical themes, I can put up with it this time, and it leaves me looking forward to the next album, something that I haven’t done in a long, long time now.

Get 'Futurology' for the fresh sounding tunes, and a promise of a world-view reassessment by ‘Jaded old Commie’ Nicky Wire. The Manics sound rested up and full of vigour in this one. It’s jacked to the gills with catchy, sing-along hooks, it has variety and creativity in the individual songs, and you’re guaranteed to get at least a month’s worth of listening pleasure out of it.

Nicky Wire is still moaning about being a rich socialist, but this is a very good collection of songs. If you’ve ever taken an interest in the Manics then you’ll get a lot out of this one, and just like me you’ll find yourselves humming the songs in your head all day long.

Rating: 9/10