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Underground > Comic Books >

Sebastian O?

17:10 / 13.04.04

DC has just solicited a collected Sebastian O tpb.
is it worth purchasing? i'm still trying to work on tracking down missing Doom Patrol issues.

Haus of Mystery

17:11 / 13.04.04

Yes. Of course. How could you fail to enjoy 'The two-fisted tales of Oscar Wilde'?

17:37 / 13.04.04

Please let this be a sign that the rest of Grant's Doom Patrol run will be collected into trades in the near future...

17:50 / 13.04.04

On re-reading a few weeks ago, I thought it was much better than I remembered. Still, it's not fantastic.

hypersimulation

18:36 / 13.04.04

I'm usually quick to mention that Sebastian O's original band of anarchic hellraisers were a group of five and not entirely disimilar to an Invisibles cell.

Haus of Mystery

19:05 / 13.04.04

Surely you're not suggesting that Grant... repeats himself!?

Ho ho.

22:23 / 13.04.04

I found it fun enough, and while i welcome it being available as a collection Seb O isn't that good. I re-read it recently and found The Face by Pete Milligan and Duncan Fregredo far better.

22:40 / 13.04.04

Sebastian O is one of the few Morrison works I didn't particularly enjoy. I'm not a fan of Victorian era stuff, so the world of the book had no pop for me, and the concepts weren't as strong as later Morrison stuff.

And aquaboy, I've got a bunch of Doom Patrol doubles, so pm me a list of the issues you're looking for, maybe I can help you out.

hypersimulation

14:15 / 14.04.04

Surely you're not suggesting that Grant... repeats himself!?

Repeats, absolutely, or you could consider it Invisibles Canon. That's a good selling point to convince somebody to buy it, right?

Haus of Mystery

15:09 / 14.04.04

Yes, but the Invisibles is mapped out entirely in Zoids.

19:56 / 14.04.04

and the funny thing is, celebrity/face/mask isn't kidding.

miss wonderstarr

19:44 / 16.04.04

This is colour Yeowell, isn't it. I think Yeowell's colour work is consistently inferior to his black and white. I can't think of a single exception.

23:45 / 18.04.04

It's so great that DC is collecting and reprinting some of this lesser none Morrison stuff.

07:51 / 19.04.04

I generally prefer Yeowell's non-colour work, but I thought New Adventures of Hitler looked pretty great coloured in those murky, psychadelic tones.

On the whole though, his black and white work is far crisper and more dynamic than his coloured work, yeah... and I don't know if I would say that New Adventures looked better than his black and white work, but it's the one time I remember reading colour Yeowell without wishing it was in black and white instead.

07:53 / 19.04.04

Also: I've never read Sebastian O, but have heard mixed things about it. Will probably pick it up anyway if I have some spare cash when it comes out.

miss wonderstarr

08:17 / 19.04.04

I don't think he coloured New Adventures of Hitler himself. It was b/w when it was released in The Cut (?) magazine edited by Hue and Cry, lol, and digitally coloured for re-release wherever it was...Crisis?

22:55 / 20.10.05

Stupid Question Go:
Sebastian 'Oh' or 'Zero', then?
If I knew what happened to my copy, I could look this up and see if there's actual in-text proof, but I don't. And nowhere online seems to specify.
I can't be the only person to wonder this, can I?

23:33 / 20.10.05

O, not 0.

O as in Oscar. And a nifty coded signifier for Oscar's Irishness, to boot. (Sebastian, of course, as in Oscar's pseudonym "Sebastian Melmoth.")

O by name, O by nature.

Funnily enough, O is a genuine, if uncommon, surname—I think it's Finnish, though I could be wrong—it's in the Guinness book of record under "shortest surname."

02:08 / 21.10.05

Thanks for that.
I was starting to feel like all those little old British ladies Nabokov's publisher was sure wouldn't want to order copies of 'Mnemosyne Speaks' because they couldn't pronounce it.
It seemed O was the best shot, for the Oscar Wilde/Melmoth Sebastian kick... and because I'm reading 'Pussy King of the Pirates' again, the O/Story of/Ostracism kick was fresh in my head. The 0 idea did, however, have a certain glimmer of possibility to it. Non-number masquerading as one, uncountable and distinguished, and utterly wrapped up in that fine coat of cyberyness that the comic wears so well.
I now want a Morrison comic about Count Ostracism. In the new Doom Patrol.

Now, a stranger question: Was it written near publication? It seems to have a somewhat earlier Morrisonian vibe - unless it was pubished pre-Vertigo and my memory's just bad - from when I recall first seeing it on the shelf. Some of the things have been touched on, such as the blithe dandyism-will-save-us-all meme - and it will - but also, simply the way characters move about and speak and relate. Reminds of his pre-States stuff.

02:08 / 21.10.05

Thanks for that.
I was starting to feel like all those little old British ladies Nabokov's publisher was sure wouldn't want to order copies of 'Mnemosyne Speaks' because they couldn't pronounce it.
It seemed O was the best shot, for the Oscar Wilde/Melmoth Sebastian kick... and because I'm reading 'Pussy King of the Pirates' again, the O/Story of/Ostracism kick was fresh in my head. The 0 idea did, however, have a certain glimmer of possibility to it. Non-number masquerading as one, uncountable and distinguished, and utterly wrapped up in that fine coat of cyberyness that the comic wears so well.
I now want a Morrison comic about Count Ostracism. In the new Doom Patrol.

Now, a stranger question: Was it written near publication? It seems to have a somewhat earlier Morrisonian vibe - unless it was pubished pre-Vertigo and my memory's just bad - from when I recall first seeing it on the shelf. Some of the things have been touched on, such as the blithe dandyism-will-save-us-all meme - and it will - but also, simply the way characters move about and speak and relate. Reminds of his pre-States stuff.

19:54 / 21.10.05

Wasn't it Vertigo's first official mini-series? Before THE INVISIBLES and Kill Your Boyfriend but after DOOM PATROL?

23:11 / 21.10.05

First in the sense of 'at the same time as' Death: The High Cost of Living and Enigma...

Oh and Doom patrol was still a going concern at this point, written by Rachael Pollack...

The Timaximus, The!

03:28 / 22.10.05

Now, a stranger question: Was it written near publication? It seems to have a somewhat earlier Morrisonian vibe - unless it was pubished pre-Vertigo and my memory's just bad - from when I recall first seeing it on the shelf. Some of the things have been touched on, such as the blithe dandyism-will-save-us-all meme - and it will - but also, simply the way characters move about and speak and relate. Reminds of his pre-States stuff.

Sebastian O, along with Enigma, was commissioned for a comics company somehow connected with Disney. It was mentioned before the fact in a news piece in an old Amazing Heroes (either the one with the GM interview, or the one with the Mignola issue, as I only have those two). I'll try to dig it out. I don't recall any dates, but I'm sure it must have spent some time in limbo before moving to Vertigo...