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Underground > Comic Books >

Douglas Rushkoff's TESTAMENT

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17:46 / 23.12.05

Basically, the comic deals with cool stuff I've been interested in for ten plus years: the point(s) where science, technology, psychology and magic intersect. On the one hand, it's very much another riff on Ecstasy Club and Invisibles material, but I found the biblical parallels very compelling and intriguing. I've been meaning to take a proper look at "the books" for ages (Bloom has a new book out called JESUS & YAWHEH that sounds v interesting), so TESTAMENT will have to serve instead of bible reading, which is OK by me, lazy procrastinating bugger that I am.

As far as the material being "dated" I dunno: it is still compelling to me. I've read lots about Shamanism, but still keep an eye out for good books on the subject, b/c there is always fresh POVs on well tread subjects to be had. For instance, I thought I'd read all I needed to with McKenna, only to discover Pinchbeck's BREAKING OPEN THE HEAD a year back: many of the same observations, but v different writer POV and voice.

Bottom line: old wine, new bottle, good read IMO. I'd hesitate to call it "relevant" b/c that always sounds like posturing to me, but it does have definite resonances with all kindsa conflicts & issues that face **us** today.

rabideyemovement

03:06 / 24.12.05

I don't know. RFID chips in US passports is being proposed in Congress now, and many public school students are already carrying them in their school badges. Sounds kind of relevant.
Also, I found this PBS series called The Persuaders about marketing psychology. Rushkoff gives some interview time. You can watch it online.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/

rabideyemovement

03:25 / 24.12.05

Okay. Just watched it all. Rushkoff is actually the narrator of the show.

05:53 / 24.12.05

Is that the doco that covers "coolhunting?"

I've read some of his books; COERCION, which is about sales tactics and marketing, is amazing.

16:14 / 24.12.05

There are two books that are transcript of Terrance McKenna, Ralph Abrams (chaos math) and Rupert Sheldrake chatting for two days about, well, everything (Trialogues). Took place at the Esalen Institute, IIRC. I'd love to see/read something similar with Rushkoff riffing with GM, Genesis and maybe Pinchbeck.

rabideyemovement

19:50 / 24.12.05

I don't remember any coolhunting, just mostly "code"... a product being "on-code" or "off-code", code I believe reffering to the cult or symbolic status of the product.

"Trialogues"-- is that what the Abrams, McKenna, Sheldrake books are called?

23:52 / 24.12.05

Right. I think I've seen a different PBS doco.

19:05 / 30.12.05

So, has anyone else read this?

I kind of liked it, sucker that I am for depictions of mythology that go beyond Zeus and Odin.

The artwork was strangely attriactive to me. It had a sort of Frank Quietly meets Glenn Fabry feel to it.

The stoyline had no major surprises but the dialogue sort of pulled some interest towards sympathetic characters. So far it's generating a bit more interest that DMZ at the moment.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

10:54 / 31.12.05

I quite enjoyed it. So far it's nothing new, though... and reminds me a little too much of the A Thief In The Night movies. I'll extend my test to issue two, but I'm still not sure I'll keep coming back every month.

So- a resounding "meh, it's better than I expected, but it remains to be seen whether it will get past 'average'".

12:21 / 31.12.05

It was all right. A cut above blah and a notch below interesting. It's not as bad as a lot of shit that Vertigo's been putting out for a while now but thats no reason to support it.

17:03 / 31.12.05

What's up with Moloch, Astarte & YHWH? Any speculations?

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

19:54 / 11.01.06

I...kind of liked it.

I read Ecstacy Club years ago and really liked it, and I still do when I re-read it. I recently read Nothing Sacred, Rushkoff's book about Judaism, and was blown away.

Testament though...

I will give it a couple of issues, but so far it felt like dialogue was lifted right out of Ecstacy Club a couple of times (paraphrase: "I can't beleive I got you, the kid I was tutoring, caught up in this craziness).

A lot of the symbolism felt shallow, like in Neon Genesis Evangelion, where by naming things after other things and including the occasional Bible quote the story got DEEPER!

The older gods acting all pissed that YHVH got all up in the sacrificial business makes sense. In Nothing Sacred Rushkoff talks abou Moloch being the dominant deity at the time, and how he was really the one who demanded child sacrifice. What it seems was left out of the comic is that they had been sacrificing children to gods for ages before Abraham had his trip on the mountain. Abe was perfectly happy to kill his kid because his God said so, hell, they had been doing it for years. Modenr Judaism and Christianity make it seem like everyone was shocked that Abe was going to kill his kid, but what would really have been shocking was that he didn't.

Anyway, before I keep rambling I will just say that I had high hopes for this series, but after the first issue I am a little worried.

22:48 / 19.01.06

Issue 2 is out.

Clunkier in some places, the Protests, the homeless Angel. It did move the plot along somewhat though the sence of "danger" seemed deminished to little more than a pain in the arm.

The "Old" testament storyline was nothing new.

Still enjoying the look of the book and the choosing of sides amongst the dieties still has me curious.

14:56 / 20.01.06

I didn't like it, because Rushkoff plainly can't write comics. Musty smell around the whole thing; really, desperately wanted to like it, too.

Not helped at all by standing next to about 6-7 really, really fine books this week.

03:30 / 21.01.06

Don't agree about Rushkoff "plainly" not being able to write comics. IMO, it's very solid stuff, with promise of a great payoff when the 1st arc concludes.

12:48 / 21.01.06

I don't know about this. I've got a lot of time for Rushkoff's non-fiction stuff: "Cyberia" and "Coercion" are great books.
However Testament, like a lot of his fiction work, just doesn't grab me. In my opinion Rushkoff's probably better at describing concepts and idea than writing plots or characters. Often with his non-fiction stuff I love the ideas behind it but the book itself just doesn't live up to its promise.
I'll probably give it till the end of the first arc, but if it's not picked up by then I'll be dropping it.

15:05 / 21.01.06

Again, I have a different reaction.

I find the whole social unrest angle to be captivating. It evokes a distinct sense of unease and disquiet in me: maybe that's what my daughter's college era life will be like 20 years from now.

And the scene where Jake goes to college to try and "save" Miriam grabbed me: I find their failed romance very affecting already. The same goes for Jake's father's moral conundrums: I "buy" his self-doubt. And while I do recall feeling that something subtle was missing from Ecstasy Club (been 10 yrs since I read it), I think TESTAMENT is telling a good yarn in an effective manner.

Regrettable Juvenilia

19:05 / 22.01.06

I haven't read an entire issue of this comic yet, but I have read Rushkoff's contribution to 'On The Ledge', the feature in other Vertigo comics, in which a different writer, artist or editor plugs a Vertigo title. I quote:

"Now don't get the wrong idea. The Bible has been framed as a sanctimonious tome just to keep you from reading it! It's the ultimate handbook for psychic revolt, with temple prostitutes, incantations, incest, interdimensional travel and even ritualized anal rape. Think you're an accomplished magician? Check out the source code on reality hacking, and see if you can handle it."

I think that, having read that, I'm within my rights to have an opinion on Testament, and on Douglas Rushkoff in general. It's a strong opinion, one that is perhaps best not stated here.

08:09 / 30.01.06

According to this, sales of Testament #1 were around 17,000 units, which isn't great.

However, I should think a lot of people like myself only buy comics in TPB form, so perhaps the series stands a chance...

10:45 / 30.01.06

According to this, sales of Testament #1 were around 17,000 units...

...which realistically means that sales for #2 should be 12,000 or less.

Note, too, that these are estimates of actual sales, as opposed to Diamond's figures, which reflect pre-orders only. I'd be interested in seeing those figures by way of comparison, to get some idea of how many of these puppies are still sitting on the shelf.

It's all about expctations: 17,000 sold of 20,000 shipped is a modest hit, but 17,000 sold of, say, 40,000 shipped is another story all together.

07:11 / 31.01.06

...which realistically means that sales for #2 should be 12,000 or less.

...agreed.

If anyone is interested Boing Boing has done an interview with Rushkoff about his series (~20MB). (I've not listened to it yet so have no idea if it's any good.)

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

13:54 / 03.02.06

Is it just my Jewish upbringing that chafes when he refers to The Torah as The Bible? I know he grew up Jewish, and that (from what I have heard at least) he isn't planning on bringing up the New Testament.

A minor annoyance, I know, but he didn't do that in his book Nothing Sacred, so I wonder if he fears some kind of anti-Jew backlash if in every interview he was all "Torah Torah Torah"

02:55 / 06.02.06

I'm with Duncan on this, unfortunately.

some good ideas and intentions [the On The Ledge bit is far more interesting than the comic itself], but badly layed out - at least in this issue. the present/future timeline surely WOULD be cool... if it didn't feel so anodyne.

rhythm was too off and Rushkoff seemed so worried with having the characters expose the concepts he didn't bother making them interesting people anyway. by the end of #1 I felt it would have been much richer if it had stuck to the ancient Abrahan narrative.

maybe Sharp needed more guidance regarding the idea/mood behind some scenes. it seemed they were not that much worried with what could be done with the visual narrative aspects.

not my intention to be so rude but this first issue was a HUGE letdown. it may seem better if you're more of a boingboing/Wired reader than an usual comic reader [this sounds awfully pedantic but I'm sincere].

Uatu.is.watching

20:11 / 07.02.06

FYI the "coolhunting" doc on PBS was "Merchants of Cool" viewable at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/view/

The Prince of All Lies

22:46 / 07.02.06

My problem with this series is that it tries to be relevant and cool (tm) in all the right ways, but Rushkoff clearly isn't able to do it. The "revolutionaries" are a bunch of cliches with zero characterization, i.e. "they are cool because they dress weird and do drugs". That worked for Morrison because he was able to give each of the characters a strong personality. Here, I'm left thinking they're all vanilla, no flavor whatsoever.
What the fuck was that "guy-in-the-alley-who-might-be-god-but-no-wait-it's a guy with insulated gloves"..way to destroy a metaphor, man..

And don't you get me started with the government's secret surveillance superweapon! Rebellious youths repent! Or we'll give you a mildly painful shock in your forearm!

Crappy storytelling, IMHO.

03:56 / 08.02.06

I'm a bit hohum about this book and sort of agree with the failure of the comic to communicate anything profound so far. I recently read Rushkoff's Club Zero-G from the library and if I had paid for it I would've been furious. Not sure if any faith or continued investment in this comic is a good idea judging him on the strength of two issues of this a graphic novel but I'll keep an idea on this thread to see if it ever improves.

12:14 / 16.02.06

Somebody I know gave me a loan of the first two issues of this and I have to say I'm not very impressed at all. Though I think grant may be right, in that this is one that'd possibly appeal to the younger market, I can't really find much of worth here.

Horrible expositionary dialogue. I mean horrible expositionary dialogue. Many old vertigo cliches in tone. The aforementioned stale parallels. The virtual-reality shagging with the "sexy" cyberpunk chickadee (when I say "sexy", I mean she flashes her crotch and wears towels two sizes to small, next to our hero's toga sized one). After I'd wanked my way through a Preacher or two at the tender age of fourteen, that kind of depiction got a bit old frankly (and Preacher was positively high-brow by comparison).

All in all, it reminds me a lot of why I stopped reading most Vertigo for quite a while. Can't see myself jumping to the local to pick up any more of this. Can't even see myself asking to borrow the rest.

Maybe offering as a burnt offering, perhaps.....

BlueThunderArmy

21:22 / 16.02.06

#3's out, any takers?

I'm inclined to agree that Rushkoff's ideas are much more interesting than his fiction centered on those ideas. Testament comes off as trying too hard to be relevant, and the characterization's so thin I forget all the supporting cast between issues. Too bad, as thematically I would expect this to be right up my alley.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

07:27 / 17.02.06

Say, kids, can you say "wasted opportunity"?

Idea-wise, this could have been really good. With, y'know, a better writer.

It's not actually bad, really... just not particularly good. I'll probably keep buying them until one month I forget, then decide I can't really be arsed catching up.

lonely as a cloud...

09:36 / 17.02.06

I totally agree, Stoatie. I find most of the dialogue horribly clunky, and while the story and ideas are kinda interesting, it certainly has the "trying too hard" feeling BlueThunderArmy mentioned.

But on the other hand, the art is quite nice, sorta like a cross between Frank Quitely and Carlos Ezquerra.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

12:48 / 25.02.06

Just read #3- I must admit, I'm starting to quite enjoy the story- however, I'm enjoying it in a kind of cheesy Left Behind meets Red Dawn sort of way, and I'm not sure if that's what Mr Rushkoff was going for. If they don't start blowing shit up and shouting "WOLVERINES!!!" soon I'll be sorely disappointed.

And the writing hasn't improved any.

17:42 / 26.02.06

I've read all three issues and while I share your disapointement, I don't think the book is THAT bad.
It's just that given the writer and the theme, I had higher expectations...
Besides, I kinda like the art, so I'll keep buying the thing for a few issues more, see how it goes...

01:56 / 27.04.06

Have read the first arc as I wanted to give this a chance. I intend on reading them again right through to form a more coherent view, but at this stage I can't help feeling i've just been presented with Judaeo-Christian propaganda, a 'media-virus' to use Rushkoff's terminology.

Seems to be a pretty strong theme of YHWH and his ethos is the only valid way, all those pagan gods are bad and evil. Yet in reality it is Judaeo-Christian metaphysics (more specifically their secularised version) which has led to the nihilistic hyperconsumerist 'panoption' society Rushkoff seems to be criticising with 'Testament' and the attempt to present them as some kind of antidote seems to me naive and absurd, not to mention making my Nietzschean sensibilities cringe.

Tempted to keep buying just to see what he does with Astarte though. Seeing as she is a 'pagan' deity who doesn't play a clear cut role and a character that may complicate the seeming black and white ethics being portrayed.

What do others see in terms of the worldview being put forward? Is Rushkoff just some kind of 'counter-culture' version of the current resurgence in hip Judaeo-Christianity for po-mo kids dissolusioned with their parents crass uncritical 60's style liberalism or is there something more complex being put forward?

17:18 / 09.01.07

"There are two books that are transcript of Terrance McKenna, Ralph Abrams (chaos math) and Rupert Sheldrake chatting for two days about, well, everything (Trialogues). Took place at the Esalen Institute, IIRC. I'd love to see/read something similar with Rushkoff riffing with GM, Genesis and maybe Pinchbeck. "

*cough*

Douglas Rushkoff and Daniel Pinchbeck dialogue

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

11:35 / 14.04.07

Hm, just on a drunken whim bought the first two trades cheap. I figure it might work better if I can get into the whole stories in big chunks, rather than stopping every twenty-odd pages and thinking "hmm, the writing's a bit poo". I'd really like it to work, but I'm not entirely sure that it will.

I'll get back to you when I've read them.

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