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Underground > Comic Books >

The Best of... Peter Milligan

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The Natural Way

16:15 / 13.04.06

Yeah, but don't you just hate that bit in the preface (?) to Gosh, where he explains how to read it?

16:17 / 13.04.06

Did Milligan write that Bad Company coda, A Good Planet? There was a short period of time where 2000AD was desperately trying to regain some of its status by bringing dead series back to life, and that was easily the most successful attempt.

Twig the Wonder Kid

21:20 / 13.04.06

A quick pipe up from a lurker, because all my faves have been mentioned apart from one - The Extremist, four issues of S&M superheroics with gorgeous Ted McKeever art.

I have to say though that Milligan's is definitely a DC writer rather than a Marvel writer, and his Vertigo stuff outshines his mainstream stuff by several magnitudes.

The real joy of Shade for me was the 'Changing'ness of it all, the fact that Shade could have a completely different personality from one issue to the next, but still remained tethered to coherency by his relationships with Kathy, Lenny and later George. And the way the art changed around him accordingly. I've never really seen that in any other comic since, and I miss it.

Fabourite Shade story, apart from the aforementioned Hotel Shade, Season in Hell and the post-Kathy Mark Buckingham period - The Road, where we meet Shade's dark half, Hades and we get a beautiful issue of McCarthyist tripiness.

21:41 / 13.04.06

Do you know, I haven't read much of Milligan's early to mid-ninties stuff in about one bazillion years. I think I'm going to have to go out and buy loads of it.

What's collected these days, oh lovers of Peter?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

22:22 / 13.04.06

Surely I'm not the only person who thinks Girl was a lot better than KYB? I know they're very different, but they start out very similar... and I think Girl worked much better overall. It also gave me the phrase "an enclosure of balls". Which was nice.

Essential Dazzler

22:43 / 13.04.06

Inspired by this thread I just read Girl, The Eaters and Rogan Gosh in one sitting, and I'll be damned if they don't make the finest TPB of alltime.

23:50 / 13.04.06

Agree with everyone here. Milligan is Tops!!! Shade, Enigma, etc etc...

Also, Milligans underlining theme of identity.

So running on from that, are we to agree that a constant current in Milligans writing is a loathing of the self?

Are there any happy endings in his comics?

02:52 / 14.04.06

'The Minx' and 'Enigma' both have happy endings, if you're in the right mood. Surely. All that hand-in-hand, down into the navel of God, love and togetherness stuff. Once more in, perhaps, but tinged with a surety and warm empathetic connection.

10:57 / 14.04.06

Um, I asked a question.

Help a Boboss out, fellow 'lithers!

11:48 / 14.04.06

Don't know, sorry.

Surely I'm not the only person who thinks Girl was a lot better than KYB?

Dude! Seconded! About a gazillion times over. KYB may be all pop! and shiny!, but Girl has texture and smells and stuff. In a totally good way. Plus, it has that Milligan voiceover all the way through, making the awful bits funny and the funny bits awful. My copy is a collected edition, as it happens, but it's in Spanish - I don't even have any Spanish and yet it's *still* funny and sad and good stuff and unmistakably Milliganesque. Go figure.

12:09 / 14.04.06

Actually, the best of Milligan, for me, really has to be Shade. There's nothing quite like a good monthly comic that's *always* good, every month and that manages to colour the way you remember whole years of your life. And the best of Shade - well, I think I've already raved somewhere how actually the Nasty Infections storyline and the Richard Case issues are a bit of an Indian summer and totally underrated etc, but I think the very, very best is issue 46. To be exact. I'm looking at it right now, and remember that Glyn Dillon's version of Shade - that's the rrrrreeeaallly super sexy one - was very popular with non-comic-reading friends at the time. And he still looks rather lovely. Seriously, if you're pushed for time or don't have much room on your shelf or whatever, the very best of Shade would be issue 41 and issue 46. Everyone should have these two comics.

Anyway, issue 46. Again the Milligan voiceover:

"Her tongue slips into his ear like music. He can hear distant pipes, the rhythm of oars on Aegean waters.... If only life could always be this simple, he thinks."

Fuh. King. Ace. And it's all like that. Two panels later, and Pandora's "a little love terrorist, blowing up the govenment departments of his heart." Milligan's best comics could all be audiobooks or something. They could be read out loud by Dylan Moran and then everybody would love them. In fact, Shade'd be much much much much better off in late-night, post-pub, read-by-Dylan-Moran-while-the-camera-pans-over-the-artwork Jackanory slots on Channel 4, rather than just getting repackaged in some ropey old trade paperbacks. 'Cos trade paperbacks are fucking rubbish, and Shade's much better than that.

miss wonderstarr

12:18 / 14.04.06

that manages to colour the way you remember whole years of your life.

That's exactly how I feel about Shade; and "colour" is exactly right too, considering the fashion-trippiness that blossomed through every issue. I think that period of my life would have been different without Shade in it.

The trade question was answered above: Skreemer, one book of Shade, Enigma and Bad Company seem to be collected. I might have to dig out and open my bagged comics some time soon, though I wouldn't want the reality to be less potent and precious than the memories.

miss wonderstarr

13:13 / 15.04.06

Re-reading "Enigma" this afternoon; has anyone (ever?) remarked on its similarities to Flex Mentallo?

Twig the Wonder Kid

13:41 / 15.04.06

Forget trades boboss, Milligan's best work comes from the day before comics were written six issues at a time. You need to look in the back issue bins. He's always well represented there. I'd recommend a copy of Face from the Vertigo bin for starters, as this contains pretty much all of Milligans themes in a single issue. Then pick a few issues of Shade at random.

The Enigma trade is out of print now, and the Shade trade is pretty pointless as the series didn't really get going until issue 33 (33-50 would make two great trades, ones people might actually buy). There have been trades of various Deadline and 2000AD stuff and bizarrely Bad Company, the first Milligan I read, has been the most consistently in print over the 20+ years since it was written. Also, the trades of the recent stuff, Human Target and X-Statix/X-Force, are easy to get, although it's not his best stuff.

Bedhead, I second your love of that Glyn Dillon issue. Also love the first issue of Egypt for the same reason (although the rest of the series dribbled off a bit).

miss wonderstarr

14:42 / 15.04.06

I remember now that I really wanted to be Envelope Girl at the time... but she's a horrible person. :self-doubt:

miss wonderstarr

15:57 / 15.04.06

Re-reading "Enigma" this afternoon; has anyone (ever?) remarked on its similarities to Flex Mentallo?

I'm happy you should say that, MW, though I sometimes wish you'd read or watch something in its entirety rather than give mini-updates about your progress through it.

But, yes, oddly unremarked: Flex and Enigma both seem to be about young, repressed, geeky men re-encountering the charismatic, glamorous male superhero of the comics they read (/wrote) during their lonely childhoods - meeting a same-sex fantasy ideal as an adult, and dealing with the repercussions.

At their heart, they seem to have the dilemma and dynamic about the male reader and the male superhero ideal: do you want to be him, or bed him? Do you want to become Flex, or fuck Flex? Are the two - narcissistic longing for the self you could become, and desire for another man - all that different? Does the innocent hero-worship you feel for a childhood hero shade into something uncomfortably homoerotic if you feel it for him when you're both grown men?

I'm sure you're going to link to an online essay about it; an essay you are clumsily paraphrasing even now!

O I would if I could, MW. I just don't know where it is.

I like the way you said "shade into", there. Quite clever because you, know, we were talking about ...The Changing Man and all that.

It was OK wasn't it

Anyway, as I said, I wasn't thinking so much about the men, at the time. I was thinking about Envelope Girl.

Sure you were.

Anyway did you read the "Letter of the Month" in issue #7? It's the sort of pretentious crap you would have come out with in 93!

How dare you.

Ha ha!

16:35 / 15.04.06

eh?

miss wonderstarr

16:41 / 15.04.06

Just talking to self. It seemed appropriate given the subject.

18:28 / 15.04.06

Figured. Got very confused for a moment there though....

18:38 / 15.04.06

Anyway did you read the "Letter of the Month" in issue #7?

I must have done at the time, but seeing as I'm going back to the folks' place next weekend, where the old Enigmas are lying round somewhere, I'll definitely try and look into it again.

Should somebody start a thread about early literary work, ie, letters that have been published in old comics/music mags etc? I'd do it myself, but very quickly afterwards, I'd have to commit on-line, as well as possibly actual, meatspace, suicide...

Meanwhile, fans of The Enigma, or anyone who just wants a copy, as everyone should (it should have been bigger than Watchmen, IMVHO, and it hasn't really dated - it still reads like a pretty much perfectly-executed piece of post-mod pop art, in a way that I'm not sure anything else produced in the Nineties, be it novel, TV show or film, ever quite managed) can get a signed-by-the-artist version direct from Duncan Fegredo via Amazon (do a search for The Enigma, and then scroll down a bit.) Duncan Fegredo, who is a gentleman and a scholar, will also toss in an original drawing as part of the package

01:15 / 16.04.06

I really do need to get mayself a copy of Enigma and buying directly from Fegredo has got to be a good thing... lets see if i actually get round to following therough on this good intention...

I believe you can also purchase original artwork from him too...

10:31 / 16.04.06

Anyway did you read the "Letter of the Month" in issue #7?

I copied it here for you guys, hope the photo (I don´t have a scanner yet) good enough to be read.

I believe you can also purchase original artwork from him too...

Yes, you can. He´s even got original ENIGMA for sale!
Duncan Fegredo´s homepage. Doesn´t seem to be working right now, but it´s got links to art for sale.

12:01 / 16.04.06

Oh, Mist.

Oooh. wow. I see there are *loads* of Enigma pages - and Seaguy pages as well - for sale on that Splash Page site. (And blimey, Enigma is actually selling for less than Seaguy, which seems odd somehow - life-shaking classic miniseries compared with quirky misfit miniseries that fewer people seem to truly truly love. But anyway.)

Does anyone ever buy these? Does anyone here own any original artwork, or even know anyone who does? Is there enough in this for a new thread? etc etc

12:57 / 16.04.06

Also, I have to say, boboss/anyone else - Shade back issues are easy to find and cheap as chips. Overall, the series is probably cheaper if bought that way than the same issues would be if collected into trade paperback. Er, at a guess. Also, yeah, the singles have delightful letters pages in the back.

(In fact, the complete Shade is all probably being shared online somewhere. I’m sure that ILC are always talking about downloading comics and sharing them and shady (ho ho) stuff like that. That’d maybe be *a* way of organising/shifting this thread into more of a ‘comic reading group’ discussion-type thread.)

I’d completely forgotten about Egypt, too. Wow, that was Milligan + Glyn Dillon, wasn’t it? Plus some other bloke, but yeah, GD did the first issue-and-a-half. Thanks, Twig. Everyone’s digging stuff out and re-reading it...

miss wonderstarr

14:40 / 16.04.06

Yes, someone out there should be blushing at that "Enigma" letter.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

19:09 / 16.04.06

Envelope Girl remains one of the most intriguing components for me, especially because Victoria Yes actually wakes up mid-way through the insanity and remembers who she is, even if only in a disjointed, folded-letter way, and her waking up from being a puppet makes it even more horrifying when Enigma's mother - when God opens her from the inside and UGH.

The original Pandora story in Shade is a particular highlight of the series, and it played quite well with ideas of feminism and the flexibility of gender (Pandora effectively uses the whore-with-a-heart-of-gold stereotype to subvert and refute the mythological "crimes" of womanhood and reveal their source)...my first issue of Shade was the first Vertigo issue and I don't think I'll ever quite get past the series being Lenny and Kathy reading the newspaper in the bathtub with cigarettes and a ghost emerging from the steamy waters to announce that, yes, Shade the Changing Man is scheduled to be reborn. That scene remains the moment that sticks out the most in my mind and I fell in love immediately with the Madness circle-spot special effects...

05:49 / 17.04.06

Your somewhat ambivalent approach to Envelope Girl now makes perfect sense, miss w - her 'lovely gumminess' is alluring, but ultimately very dangerous.

miss wonderstarr

09:13 / 17.04.06

my first issue of Shade was the first Vertigo issue and I don't think I'll ever quite get past the series being Lenny and Kathy reading the newspaper in the bathtub

That was one of the most memorable splash pages evah, I think. (I used that "joke" about splash pages, baths, twice in print in 1993.)

Envelope Girl is a great concept in many ways: even her name, Envelope Girl - Victoria Yes, seems to have greater resonance now for Hello/Heat culture, when girls like Victoria B will say yes to any opening of an envelope.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

17:35 / 17.04.06

Wonderstarr: That was one of the most memorable splash pages evah, I think. (I used that "joke" about splash pages, baths, twice in print in 1993.)

It's one of the perfect examples of why you can't really distinguish between the main character and the supporting cast in the series; Lenny and Kathy never strike me as supporting characters, they're always just as much the lead, particularly Kathy. Lenny's Story is another really good episode where the focus is shifted.

It was also the beginning chapter of The Garden of Pain, one of the more vicious storylines it showed quite well how much each change shuffled the status quo and really through the characters for a loop; the new Shade's relationship with the Lenny (friends? Not right now, Shade's a dick, but he admits that he and Lenny have chemistry), and how they relate to Kathy (and all shadowed by Kathy's ex, Roger the Ghost, which is an intriguing addition to the love triangle).

16:25 / 21.04.06

Browsing the box that holds all my Peter Milligan comics I found one of those free preview pamphlets/comics DC do (still?) for Enginehead and the JLA: Kid Amazo hardcover. The later was by Milligan and Rob Haynes. Waiting for the softcover I had completely forgotten about this project until today, and do not know if actually came out. Did anyone buy this at the time, or know what happened to it? Did it just... not sell?

Also, wanted to mention the Milligan/Fegredo Scarecrow one-shot which I have fond memories of and will be re-examining this evening.

16:38 / 21.04.06

Kid Amazo never came out, actually. I wasn't aware they went to the extent of pre-releasing pamphlets about it, but it never did. Around that time there was also a Bob Haney/Mike Allred Teen Titans special due, which suffered similar treatment.

Rumours still abound that Kid Amazo will ultimately be an arc in JLA: Classified, but so far as I know there's been no movement on that front.

17:39 / 21.04.06

You know the previews I mean, right? There was a Seven Soldiers one with sketches and a little essay. I'm sure Phil Jiminez's Otherworld comic got one too, though I'd imagine that was paired with something else like this one. Two pages of the comic on each page of the preview, with the cover there are about five interior pages (I don't have this to hand, unfortunately it's in storage).

I didn't read it earlier so my memory is a tad sketchy, but I'm sure Kid Amazo has a bust of Nietzsche in his dorm room.

17:48 / 21.04.06

Aye, sometimes stapled in the middle of yr book? There was a Hard Time one, iirc. Never saw the Amazo one, and kinda wish I had've, if only for miscellania purposes.

17:01 / 22.04.06

What are people feeling about the X-STATIX: DEADGIRL mini? I'm loving it, but feel like it lost its way a little in issue 3 and 4. Issue 1 and 2 had so many mad ideas, and sudden lust between Dead Girl and Dr. Strange, but 3 and 4 seem paced more like "typical" superhero fare. Although Ant Man is pretty great throughout.

I'm liking it, but it feels like it's slowed down a little in the middle. Hoping for a great send-off in the last issue, though.

yawn - thing's buddy

10:34 / 25.04.06

check the dedicated thread mate . . .

I'm lovin it by the way.

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