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Underground > Comic Books >

Why the sudden wealth in Invisible questions?

15:59 / 26.11.02

I've noticed a trend in the last couple of weeks... there are a lot of Invisible threads. And I know that shouldn't be a surprise considering the nature of this board, but... Invisible related queries had practically died down (since 2000) to maybe an Invisible thread every few months, if that. Now all of a sudden it's Tarquin this and Beryl that and what's a fiction suit and the outer church and Sir Miles....

So I was curious about this... Is it just that new readers have picked up the Invisibles and are eager to discuss it? Or are new ideas and lose ends tugging on old fans? Is it the releasee of the 3rd vol. in trade form? Any theories?

Murray Hamhandler

16:10 / 26.11.02

It's the re-release of V.3 that does it for me. I haven't really participated in any of the ongoing threads, but they are re-sparking my interest in the series. Flipping through the new TPB gets the old rusty gears a-churning again.

16:16 / 26.11.02

Ditto. Sypha Nadon's Sir Miles insight made Vol. 3 so much more enjoyable than it was (His part in it used to drive me insane with cluelessness and confusion). Love it.

17:39 / 26.11.02

It finished up two years ago, but I'm finally beginning to "get" it. I mean, I was pleasantly warm and glowy after the series finished up, it had changed me blah blah, but only over the past year have I felt like the sigil has implanted. "I feel like a Hindu sex god" &c.

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18:08 / 26.11.02

For me it's more a sense of that I missed the boat the first time around, so to speak, and there are various elements of the series that interest me and I wonder what other people think of these elements.

Myself, I only discovered The Invisibles in January of 2002, close to a year ago (I had heard about it through accusations it ripped off the Matrix). I didn't have the luxury of reading an issue per month and gradually easing into it, I jumped in full-tilt. Some of the stuff I got at first, like all the Lovecraft/Burroughs stuff, cuz I was familiar with those authors. Then I started to get involved in the occult and chaos magic and stuff, which the comic turned me on to. Now I'm trying to figure out all the 5D/fiction suit stuff. But I think I have a good grasp of the book now, despite my chaotic introduction to it (the order I read the trades in? Apocalipstick, Entropy in the UK, Bloody Hell in America, Kissing Mr. Quimper, Say You want a Revolution, Counting Down to None, and the final 12 issues, which I got in June, though now I have the trade. Needless to say this caused much confusion).

Today I started re-reading the series and it makes more sense now, this time I'm reading them for the first time in proper order, which is odd for me. "Arcadia" makes a lot more sense now: in fact the outline for the direction that the series will eventually head seems to be contained in that story arc (the first time I read it I was lost, except for the De sade bits).

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18:12 / 26.11.02

I do have a question with the re-drawn pages in the new "Invisible Kingdom" though. What's up with the panel of Earth with all the yellow lines shooting out of it? What does that represent? I'm not quite sure what the orange sphere at the bottom panel is either (I know the magic mirror stuff is the floating 5D entities).

I liked the new artwork though I thought Wood did a better job of drawing the bugs collecting the apples (I thought his bugs were cuter for some reason, don't ask why). But Wood probably had the worse Sir Miles drawing ever (the first time I read the issue I didn't even know it was Miles until I re-read it). But Volume 3 makes a lot more sense to me now.

19:18 / 26.11.02

>>>What's up with the panel of Earth with all the yellow lines shooting out of it? What does that represent?<<<

That was something that didn't print quite as well as I'd hoped it would. We're pulling out, like a big crane shot, from Jack and Satan and all the other "time-worms" - up into the sky, so we can see the curvature of the Earth, and then out into space, further and further away from the planet. I took a satellite photo of the Earth and a starfield, then did a radial blur in Photoshop to have the stars stretch out to give the impression of moving away from the Earth at tremendous speed (think of the hyperspace effect in Star Wars). Unfortunately it printed at a much lower quality than on my original page. Too bad.

The final panel on that page is based on a thumbnail sketch faxed to me by Grant - we're now in 5-D space, *outside* of the universe as we know it, which is contained in that red, whorling sphere, attended by the silver glowing blobbies.

>>>(I thought his bugs were cuter for some reason, don't ask why).<<<

Wasn't really going for "cute" - the script called for them to be "monstrous Chris Weston bug-things" - but I will cop to not drawing them as well as I could have...

19:38 / 26.11.02

Out of curiosity Cameron, how long did it take you to do the rejigged pages and how did you get involved in The Invisibles to begin with?

20:56 / 26.11.02

I did the new pages in only three days - due to some communication breakdowns I was contacted about the job only a week before the deadline, and then I asked Grant to provide me with thumbnail drawings of the third page so that it didn't get botched a second time. It took him a couple of days to reply, and by the time he sent through the fax it was now only three days before deadline. I had to lay out, pencil and ink the whole thing - and keep in mind this isn't a simple script at all (on a private Yahoo group for other comics professionals I asked everyone how they'd tackle it, and not a one had any clue how to do it). I also coloured and separated the final panel of the third page, with the magic mirror blobs, *AND* during all this I was also finishing off pencilling and inking an issue of Catwoman that was also due.

I didn't sleep for 72 hours, which is why some of that third page looks a bit shaky.

I got involved with the Invisibles back in 1999 when I showed Grant some of my work - including some Invisibles pinups I'd done for my own amusement - and he recommended me to his/our editor at the time. I was asked to do test pages as an inker for both Philip Bond and Sean Philips, but unfortunately that didn't work out and so I didn't get to contribute anything until those couple of lame pages in issue 3:2.

It was fun for me to get to revisit the series after all this time. I only wish I'd gotten to draw King Mob...

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02:37 / 27.11.02

Oh no, I thought the bugs themselves looked fine in general, I just preferred Wood's panel of them picking the apples (though he missed stuff like the grass coming from the stones it seems). Anyway thanks for clearing that up for me.

05:54 / 27.11.02

CameronStewart- I only wish I'd gotten to draw King Mob...

Got any King Mob pics in that wonderful sketch book of yours?

yawn - thing's buddy

10:18 / 27.11.02

cam I thought your new pages were very clear and legible.

And i loved the colouring too!

here, have an apple!

19:07 / 28.11.02

"Asking about the sudden increase in questions about the Invisibes?"

Some of us poor slobs came late to the party. I got turned on to The Invisibles early in '01 and started snagging the tradeback editions. It was pure joy when I FINALLY saw Vol. 3 on the shelf at the ol' comic shop. There are probably a lot of us in the same boat. The last pieces of the puzzle are here. Now comes the great fun of putting them together about a million different ways!

Not to mention I can now go back and read every thread I used to dodge when I saw the friendly Barbelith "SPOILER!" warning. So if a bunch of old Invisibles threads start showing up at the top of the list, you can blame the guy who showed up late and is still scratching his head a bit.