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Underground > Comic Books >

invisibles questions in house of commons?

the rake at the gates

19:51 / 05.01.02

i heard something ages ago about questions being raised in the house of comons due to the invisibles, does anyone know anything about this?

A

02:01 / 06.01.02

I could be wrong, but I think you may be getting the Invisibles confused with Grant's "St. Swithin's Day" comic, which apparently did cause questions to be raised in parliament. I don't know much else, unfortunately.

St. Swithin's Day tells the tale of a depressed young man planning to assassinate Margaret Thatcher, so it's easy to see why the politicians may have been a bit upset about it.

The Knowledge +1

12:16 / 06.01.02

Now if only that fiction had become a reality...

Oh wait a second...

the rake at the gates

09:39 / 09.01.02

yeah now that i think about it your right, i wonder how they found out about it?

A

09:39 / 09.01.02

Wouldn't it have been great if they "asked questions" about that "we'll be up to our knees in blood and spunk" bit in the Invisibles?

09:39 / 09.01.02

I seem to recall that just before issue 1 of Vol 1 arrived, Nostalgia & Comics (as it was then known) in Sheffield had a note on their ‘coming this week’ list that it was ‘the comic they tried to ban!’. And I think it shipped a week or two late, as well… I always kind of assumed it might be somehow related to the car-stealing tips contained in that issue, but maybe it even led to Qs in the HoC ?

Dunno. Just a thought.

DBC

10:02 / 09.01.02

Of course it could have been questions regarding IFSL (Formerly known as British Invisibles).
http://www.bi.org.uk/

quote:IFSL works for the removal of barriers to trade in the global market for financial services. Through its Liberalisation Of Trade In Services (LOTIS) Committee and its wider trade policy work, IFSL is engaged in major initiatives to help ease regulatory and other constraints, providing the link between the technical expertise of the private sector and the UK government political negotiators. IFSL played an important role in the negotiations which led up to the 1997 Agreement on Financial Services under the auspices of the World Trade Organisation. IFSL also works with governments and other organisations bilaterally on barriers in individual countries.

16:55 / 05.01.04

The Grant Morrison website's biography section seems to indicate that both ST.SWITHIN'S DAY and THE INVISIBLES caused questions to be raised in the House of Commons, but gives no further details.

"Often courting controversy, many titles have made headlines; ST.SWITHIN'S DAY - a story about a young man from the North attempting to assassinate Margaret Thatcher - had questions raised in the House of Commons, as did THE INVISIBLES, Morrison's highly-influential six-year long series about a group of occult terrorists (which went on to partly inspire the film THE MATRIX)."

Makes me very intruiged!

g23

17:39 / 05.01.04

(SPOILER for St. Swithin's Day).

he did not try to assasinate her! unless he believed he could shoot people with his finger.

(in my top five of GM stories BTW.)

17:45 / 05.01.04

I've tried a few searches in Hansard but haven't found any reference...

I do recall Teddy Taylor MP getting into a right old state about St. Swithin's Day in a Sun newspaper article circa 1990.

18:04 / 05.01.04

Here's the Sun article:

THE SUN 19/03/90

‘DEATH TO MAGGIE’ BOOK SPARKS TORY UPROAR

by Ian Brandes

A comic book about a crazed teenager who tries to assassinate Margaret Thatcher was branded as ‘despicable’ last night. Tory MPs urged shops to boycott the £1.50 shocker by cult writer Grant Morrison.

The book, called St. Swithin’s Day, tells of a 19-year-old drop-out who stalks the premier with a gun he finds. The youth is killed by secret service bodyguards as he confronts Mrs. Thatcher – but says with his dying breath: “It was worth it just to see her scared.”

Tory backbencher Teddy Taylor said: “I am astonished and appalled. This is in the worst possible taste – utterly despicable.” He said the publishers must have forgotten that Mrs. Thatcher narrowly escaped a real assassination attempt in the IRA’s Brighton bombing.

But Leicester-based Trident Comics still plans to publish the book later this month.

PSYCHO

Spokesman Nigel Mackay said: “We are expecting very big sales. It’s a very valid social comment in view of Mrs. Thatcher’s unpopularity at the moment.”

Morrison – who wrote a Batman spoof portraying the Caped Crusader as a psycho – said: “I do not think anyone needs to shoot Mrs. Thatcher.

“She is on her way out of government because of the Poll Tax.”

Ria, this refers to the same misconception that there was an assassination attempt but also states that the Boy was himself killed!

22:38 / 06.01.04

[silly] I found his death scene very moving! [/silly]

23:52 / 06.01.04

I thought the ending of ST SWITHIN'S DAY, like much of the narrative, was deliberately ambiguous; the Boy has conversations with people who aren't there, and fantasizes constantly--it's hard to say at any given moment what's "really happening."

Did the Boy ever really have a gun? If he did, did he ever really intend to use it? Who knows, Ria--given his grip on reality, maybe he did, at that moment, think his finger was lethal.

As to the ending, saying the Boy is killed is one possible reading, and fairly persuasive: one minute he's wrestling with the bodyguards, the next he's sitting on a train, blissful in the sunshine--it's as persuasive a vision of Heaven as any. Makes sense to me.

21:03 / 08.01.04

Interesting, Jack. I'd never thought of it like that.