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Underground > Comic Books >

Promethea #29

17:05 / 25.02.04

Is this out? I was wondering cause it was due out in Feb. and we're on the last week. Who's been to the comic shop?

17:32 / 25.02.04

I heard March 9th... I'm wating patiently as well

17:58 / 25.02.04

Not exactly patient but... I'll manage.

17:29 / 26.02.04

I think the cover to this has a Warhol-esque Painted Doll image on it. (trying to remember from old Previews)

23:10 / 27.02.04

Here you go.

14:04 / 10.03.04

So apparently this is out today! Yayy!

20:38 / 10.03.04

End of the world indeed . . .
. . . a romantic one at that.

The Mayor of New York rocks... I wish there where more mayors like that

Jack B. Quick's got some scary science.

The Painted Doll(s) . . . a bit predictable early on but he redeems himself in the eh . . . end.

21:06 / 10.03.04

I was a bit disappointed.

I know how everything's bleeding back and forth from reality to the immateria, but damn.
And Promethea taking the pose/poise of Whistler's Mother.
And the house where we live... isn't THAT like QQ's rooms inside of other rooms? I BELIEVE IN THE BIOTA.
What's next? Uvula Cascade is the true Whore of Babalon. The Painted Dolls' group exposition seemed more important than anything else going on in the issue. Like they were an analogy for the populace...

Anybody else get this issue?

01:21 / 11.03.04

Yeah, I got this today too and thought it was really good. It felt like this story arc was taking forever to get going, and fnally something happened. So is next issue going to be the last issue?

15:45 / 11.03.04

I liked how the painted doll was playe dout, even though his choices where not quite as "novel" as one would think.... but in his own words... what could I do?"
There was a nice resonance in his becoming "self aware" amidst the awakening of the whole universe the same thing happened to Dennis Drucker with wondering if he's a comic-book character or not.

The cult of the doll was also suitably ironic, this issue was really about him.

could someone go into more detail about "Whistler's Mother?"

I could sympathise with Agent Ball's trauma after endng up on the roof; she would probably have handled it better if she was into psychedelics.

So I keep seeing the painted doll as the archtypical FOOL who seems to have already made his way through most of the major arcana over the course of the issue. Could that last page be him entering into the (greater) Universe?

17:05 / 11.03.04

Lovely art.

Dialogue was fucking terrible this issue. I don't know what happened, but somewhere Moore started thinking he could diffuse lazy bits of cliche by adding "Um", "Anyway", or "Incidentally" before and after them.

17:36 / 11.03.04

Although this issue had a lot of cool stuff, I did feel (and I see I'm not the only one) that this issue was somewhat lacking. I felt this a little last issue, too, when they introduced the whole "I'm the mad genius behind the Painted Dolls!" thing.

I agree that Moore's dialogue seemed off this issue. The pacing was a bit wonky, too... but hey, even Alan Moore can have some off-moments. After all, he did write Wild C.A.T.S and do a Voodoo limited series that were supposed to be just mediocre, and then there was the Extreme Universe's Crisis, JUDGMENT DAY.

Or maybe some of it's explained by Moore's slow build up to the End. But that wouldn't really explain the mediocre dialogue that riddles some of this issue.

Moore channels the Joker even more than ever here with the "girls and baseball" comment -- shades of the Killing Joke fused together with Moore's current magickal awareness (all the Painted Doll/fool analogies, the Doll trying to break out of his programming and find his creator, examine the nature of reality).

17:42 / 11.03.04

It was kinda cool that the hysterical masses wanted the Painted Doll to put them out of their misery and spare them a horrible death at the end of the world - they wanted to die in style!

This also seemed to just re-iterate a lot of the ideas Moore's been saying for the past 2 or 3 issues (every character saying they feel like they've always known this was how it would end, and that it's not an end but a beginning, etc. etc.). It's starting to risk sounding a bit trite. Also the repeated points about the nature of reality - we've heard these before in previous issues. Not that they're not cool ideas, it just seems kind of redundant.

21:58 / 11.03.04

I have to agree with Mr. Tricks, this was the Painted Doll's issue. I loved everything involving him (and the mayor) but all the stuff at Sophie's house left me cold. Probably because Promethea got about two words in between everyone elses mindless chatter.

I am starting to feel like this is going to end badly/disappointing... the government, America's Best, the Painted Doll all gunning for Promethea... and her just sitting there. I hope she doesn't get offed before the end of the world (and so averting the end of the world.) But maybe this was Moore's intention to make us feel like all the opposesing forces really do stand a (slim) chance at stopping Promethea.

23:01 / 11.03.04

I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVED JAck B. Quick's

Doomsday device, When it goes criical he'll pull the red lever and throw the wholething in reverse.

**blank Faces (even from TOM STRONG)**

01:21 / 12.03.04

I really loved the opening scene with the Doll(s). It was great for those few pages until you got to everyone else engaging in intense meoldrama. I'm surprised going back to look at it to see that it's only 3-4 pages long.

Layouts were a little more confusing this issue (even for this series) - the checkerboard pattern threw me off a few times on my first read-through.

Here's hoping the redundancy calms down by next issue. Aren't they going to issue #32 w/ this?

03:06 / 12.03.04

Yes, they are... the big 32!

The Natural Way

12:52 / 12.03.04

Impulsive: you only need to read around a bit to assuage those fears. Moore's spoken many, many times about the pleasure of getting to end a fictional universe and Promethea as a vehicle for doing it. It'll all be fine. And, anyway, OF COURSE Moore's gonna take the book to the moment of revelation - tha's what it's all about. That's what he's all about these days.

I miss "small" Moore, sometimes. Where did all the Halo go?

The Natural Way

12:46 / 13.03.04

Not Spal, then Who?

The Doll's dialogue was stilted because his intelligence is based on a simple binary iteration.

What can Jack the magician do in all this? Is Moore going to suggest that his new career is redundant, before he's released so much as an issue of Atziluth? (Probably not, no.)

And I liked Promethea's silence on the matter. She knows that anything said doesn't matter now.

Whistler's Mother reference is good, as was the Ibsen feel I got from this episode. And the bravery in talking about the silly dreams everyone has. We write them off as psychic re-shuffling and fuzz. Maybe that place is much more important than we know. After all, it always feels important during the brief moments we are there.

The dispossesed ex-Mayor, Sonny of Man, is the many-headed beast the whore rides. Cute.

Moore's W.I.L.D Cats is a fine example of late-nineties super-heroics. His Voodoo series is really not that dissimilar to Promethea, where Santeria replaces Kabbalah. His Judgement Day series, well, it proves at least that he's not as prejudiced against the conventions of dark-age / Image art as many, and is a fun example of pastiche and meta-commentary.

And would Agent Ball's contact with Ultimate Reality (tm) really have been easier if she'd done a few trips?

I hope America's Best get dealt with rather painfully, especially the science-brat.

The Log-Out button is a wonderful thing sweetie.

12:59 / 13.03.04

Impulsive: you only need to read around a bit to assuage those fears. Moore's spoken many, many times about the pleasure of getting to end a fictional universe and Promethea as a vehicle for doing it. It'll all be fine. And, anyway, OF COURSE Moore's gonna take the book to the moment of revelation - tha's what it's all about. That's what he's all about these days.

Oh I already know, I just can't shake the feeling... I guess it's cause I'm programed by all the false DC and Marvel "end of the universe" events. I know this one is real but in the back of my mind I still think the science heros or govenment agents will win. I guess I'm going to enjoy this ending all the more for it.

And as for the Voodoo mini. That sounds kinda cool. I'm not expecting it to be brilliant but... does anyone want to give me (or let me borrow) the issues? I'll mail them back, honest!

18:13 / 15.03.04

That last "Spaliance" post was Gambit. I'm Spaliance. Barbelith travelled up the Harlequinade's arsehole a while back and now there's all manner of confusion. Needless to say, my "real face" resembles an n-dimension squid.

Haus of Mystery

18:50 / 15.03.04

All your fiction-suits could do with a bloody thorough dry-clean I say. Here endeth the rot...