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Unearthed "Arcana"

 
  

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trouble at bill
16:52 / 24.08.07
Um, do forgive if this seems an idiotic post, I'm very confused. I was about to start a thread in the Comics forum about The Marvel Tarot, but am suspecting that this may be a thread on a similar or related phenomenon. I'm really not sure, though. Is it? I'm not even totally sure what this Arcana of which you speak is, though I think Professor Wikipedia may have just enlightened me. Does anyone want to discuss The Marvel Tarot anyway, here or elsewhere? I know shit-all about comics really and I'm no Tarot expert so I could use some input. Preferably imput telling me something slightly more esoteric than that I have just wasted £2.75...
 
 
electric monk
16:59 / 24.08.07
Start a thread for it in the Comics forum, if you please. You can always page the Temple regulars for input, or ask Temple-y questions in the Stupid Questions thread.
 
 
trouble at bill
15:53 / 04.09.07
Well that's what I had been about to do but a. didn't this thread get moved from there to here and b. isn't this thread in some way connected to matters of Marvel & Tarot?
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
16:11 / 04.09.07
Well, I think the problem - if problem is the word we are looking for - was that Mario was looking at it _purely_ from the point of view of the majickal symbology of the comic, rather than anything about the comic-as-comic - the plot, the art, the narrative, like that - so it was thought appropriate to put it in Temple, where people with majickal knowledge, like myself, would be more likely to encounter and talk about it. Ultimately, I think the problem is that nnobody gives a rubbery ballbag about Arcana - Mario seemed to be the only person who was reading it, much less wanting to list all the majickal symbolism within it.

So, Marvel Tarot.

Hmmm...

Looking at the lesson of this thread, it might be best to put it in Comics, and explain what each tarot card means, before relating that to its treatment in "The Marvel Tarot". I'm not sure how many people are reading it, though... whereas if it was about using the Marvel characters in majickal workings using the Tarot (Marvel or otherwise), it would fit better here, I suppose - like the difference between discussing the art and concept of the Vertigo Tarot1, and discussing using the Vertigo Tarot for majick.


1. Which I own, by the way - and I use it for majick while wearing a pair of Spider Jerusalem glasses I got on eBay, and an ankh, like Death, which I _also_ got on eBay.
 
 
Imaginary Mongoose Solutions
18:30 / 04.09.07
The Marvel Tarot book is a tie-in to a limited series called Mystic Arcana. All written by the same guy who has a background in Tarot and who is trying to work all of Marvel Magic into a coherent system.

Me, I feel that, magic-aside, the thread belongs in the Comics while it seems that many of the Comics folks wanted it here.

I'm beginning to feel sorry for this poor orphan thread... maybe thinking of inviting it home and feeding it some noodles or something.
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
18:49 / 04.09.07
Okay, since there's been so little movement in the thread while it's been over here, and since people have suggested it, I'm going to put in a request and see what the other mods reckon.
 
 
Jamie
20:26 / 04.09.07
This series is getting absolutely abysmal support from local shoppes. They stocked the Handbook (which I bought) and the Marvel Tarot (which I would not buy in comics form), but I didn't even know the one-shots existed until I went to Toronto and saw two of the issues there.

Personally, I may pick this up in trade format if and when it's released, but I wouldn't bet on it. I don't think the world of Marvel magic is being well-served by it.
 
 
Mario
11:28 / 05.09.07
Jeez... is this thing still around?

I'm still reading the mini, although the symbolism level has dropped like a rock. Did enjoy the Marvel Tarot's rewrite of some of Marvel's magical universe, tho.
 
 
trouble at bill
16:43 / 07.09.07
Well now that's precisely the sort of thing I'd want to know more about which - me knowing sweet FA about the Marvel universe - would prolly not be very obvious from a reading just of The Marvel Tarot.

I suppose what I am really after in my questions are what the thing adds (if anything) either to the Marvelverse or the Tarot. I am generally curious about what comics and magic can achieve (in any sense of that word you like) specifically when they intermesh with one another, how (if at all) is this particular example of the overlapping of the two subcultures going to change either magic or comics, why a 'comic' about Tarot was chosen as a tool for so doing rather than anything else? And I use inverted commas because - and excuse me if I am showing my ignorance of comics here - this piece of work does not seem to me very 'traditionally' comic-like, which leads me to be generally curious about it's form (possibly more so than its content).

I'm also curious about why The Marvel Tarot appears to depict a well-known Barbeloid on its cover, but that's probably just me.
 
 
Mario
19:53 / 07.09.07
Well, the big revelations in Marvel Tarot seem to be the origin of the Vishanti (tying two of them to the Elder Gods, and possibly tying the third to the Lovecraft mythos) and at least an attempt to codify who the Sorcerors Supreme have been.

As to why Tarot imagery was used? Probably because the writer is a Tarot deck designer.
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
20:25 / 07.09.07
And I use inverted commas because - and excuse me if I am showing my ignorance of comics here - this piece of work does not seem to me very 'traditionally' comic-like, which leads me to be generally curious about it's form (possibly more so than its content).

I theeenk that it's a bit like... umm... thingy? The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe? It's a series of images attached to a kind of explanation, yes? So, it's a supplementary product to comic books, in the format of a comic book?

Oh, and who's the Barbeloid?
 
 
Mark Parsons
00:16 / 08.09.07
I read the last two issues wheile slightly tired, so some of the symbolism and meta-plot stuff escaped me, but I really enjoyed Jeff Parker's story (he's a real rising star) as well as Roy Thomas' Black Knight tale in the prior issue. The McNee arc seems v cool, but it feels a little compacted. I wish it had a few more paged to breathe each issue.

It's a pity Marvel did not model this more closely on ANNIHILATION, with minis leading to a prologue special, then a full seven issue main event story that ties it all together. But maybe if Arcana suceeds, that will indeed happen.
 
 
trouble at bill
17:48 / 05.10.07
It's a series of images attached to a kind of explanation, yes? So, it's a supplementary product to comic books, in the format of a comic book?

Uh, we may be at odds in our definitions of 'comic book' here but what I'd been attempting to get at is that its collage-plus-chunks-of-text format seems significantly different from the series-of-panels-plus-speech-bubbles format which I am more used to (if you'll excuse what may well be clumsy terminology on my part). Aesthetically it seems to be different in kind to anything else I've read under the 'comic book' or 'graphic novel' heading, and it's surely possible that this gives it at least some of its, er, clout, for want of a better word.
 
  

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