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1. THE MOON AND SERPENT BUMPER BOOK OF MAGIC by Alan Moore and Steve Moore with Steve Parkhouse, Rick Veitch, Kevin O'Neill, Ben Wickey, and John Coulthart (published by Top Shelf):
A few months ago, my wife and daughter and I wandered into a
comic book store called Metro Entertainment just off State Street in Santa
Barbara where I happened to stumble across a copy of Alan Moore and Mitch Jenkins'
UNEARTHING, a book I had never seen before. UNEARTHING is a poetic, unorthodox
exploration of the life and work of Alan Moore’s late friend and colleague, Steve
Moore (author of the Gothic fantasy novel SOMNIUM and co-author of THE MOON AND
SERPENT BUMPER BOOK OF MAGIC). After completing UNEARTHING in one sitting, I
flashed back to the time I attended a lecture by Dr. Stephan A. Hoeller, the
Gnostic Bishop of Los Angeles, at Manly P. Hall’s Philosophical Research Society in L.A. While discussing his lifetime of experience with ceremonial
magic, Hoeller said (and I’m paraphrasing), “The original purpose of poetry was
to guide the listeners—or the readers—into a new state of mind, to transport
them into strange geographies, whole different places and worlds.” He then
sighed and added sadly, with that distinctive Hungarian accent of his, “But
poets don’t seem to want to do that anymore.”
I feel like UNEARTHING accomplishes precisely that. It’s a mind-altering
mélange of metaphysical biography, psycho-geography, and oneiric journalism.
I’m glad I came across it when I did, as it serves as the perfect prelude to
THE MOON AND SERPENT BUMPER BOOK OF MAGIC... or perhaps, conversely, THE MOON
AND SERPENT BUMPER BOOK OF MAGIC serves as the perfect prelude to UNEARTHING.
Indeed, one might view UNEARTHING as a postgraduate follow-up to the
utilitarian practices detailed in the pages of THE BUMPER BOOK, the thesis of
which is stated in Alan Moore’s introduction entitled “Adventures in Thinking”:
“Might it be useful, without contravening any laws of commonsense or physics,
to suggest that the domains of mind and matter are both real, but in completely
different ways? Isn’t it possible that all the extraordinary claims made on
behalf of magic are entirely credible providing that one understands the magic
to be taking place nowhere save in the mind?”
Alongside beguiling prose pieces delineating the various uses and misuses of magic (imagine if you will a bizarro mirror-world version of Strunk & White teaming up to write MAGICK IN THEORY & PRACTICE instead of ELEMENTS OF STYLE), Moore & Moore use the comic strip medium to illustrate the origin and evolution of various and sundry magical methodologies to illuminating effect.
In a recent interview with PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, Alan Moore stated his central reasons for creating THE BUMPER BOOK: “[W]e wanted to present what we hope are lucid, coherent and joined-up ideas on how and why the concept of magic originated and developed over the millennia, a theoretical basis for how it might conceivably work along with suggestions as to how it might practically be employed—and, perhaps most radically, a social reason for magic’s existence as a means of transforming and improving both our individual worlds, and the greater human world of which we are components. And we wanted to deliver this in a way that reflected the colorful, psychedelic, profound and sometimes very funny nature of the magical experience itself. That, we felt, would be the biggest and most useful rabbit to pull out of the near-infinite top hat that we believe magic to be.”
If you read all 300-plus pages of THE BUMPER BOOK, followed by UNEARTHING, there’s a good chance your creativity and imagination will be inspired to explore paths that are both unexpected and pleasantly strange.
In the pages of this searing graphic biography of German writer and painter Unica Zurn (first published in France in 2019, but not released in English until this year), Celine Wagner manages to approximate in visual space the gradual dissolution of an intense, creative imagination under the twin impacts of schizophrenia and clinical depression. Wagner’s narrative gracefully transitions from brief moments of serenity to fiery bursts of mental turmoil, her artwork capturing both the unique atmosphere of 1950s Paris as well as the hellish depths of a young artist’s troubled psyche. This graphic novel will be of great interest even to those readers not familiar with Zurn’s unforgettable surrealist imagery.
3. ANIMAL POUND by Tom King and Peter Gross (published by BOOM! Studios):
A postmodern reinterpretation of George Orwell’s ANIMAL FARM, Tom King and Peter Gross’ ANIMAL POUND might very well be the most prescient and emotionally accurate summation of the Trump Era so far created. There are far more disturbing and devilish truths embedded in this five-issue series than a thousand ATLANTIC or NEW YORKER political analyses combined.
4. FAT COP by Johnny Ryan (published by Fantagraphics):
Johnny Ryan’s FAT COP is a farrago of mad ideas. I’ve seen some critics suggest that this book is populated by little more than one-dimensional stereotypes, but we must be prepared to face facts: If you’re attempting to read a book called FAT COP through the lens of quotidian reality, then there was probably something seriously off about your critical faculties long before the fateful moment you chose to pick up this oversized comic book, suggesting that, alas, your sanity is well beyond salvation. For the rest of us, FAT COP might as well be a journalistic documentary about the current state of American psychopathy. Toxic masculinity, mansplaining, police brutality, and bottom-of-the-barrel alpha-male stupidity has never been portrayed in a more darkly humorous manner than in this Homeric odyssey through the trashcan depths of the American id. In fact, despite its gross excesses, you might find yourself concluding that FAT COP is an intensely moral book. Others will shake away that lunatic notion and just settle down to switch off their faculties and enjoy the show. Still, it seems to me that hidden between these bloody set pieces awash in cartoon violence lies a message worthy of Jack T. Chick himself: Remember, kids, no matter how much of a Fat Cop you think you are, there’s always someone Fatter and Coppier than you! After all, it’s a Fat-Cop-Eat-Fat-Cop world out there, folks, and we don’t want you to forget it! Now go and sin no more, my children! Amen.
5. UFO MUSHROOM INVASION by Shirakawa Marina (published by Living The Line):
Shirakawa Marina’s UFO MUSHROOM INVASION was initially published in Japan over four decades ago, but this is the first Marina graphic novel translated into English, so it deserves an esteemed place on this list. It’s somewhat difficult to describe the peculiar mood of Marina’s work. Imagine Harry Stephen Keller cranking out UFO-centric, horror-tinged science fiction graphic novels in 1970s-era Japan, and you might be able to wrap your head around the bizarre psyche of Shirakawa Marina. Inspired by George Adamski, Kenneth Arnold, and other 1950s UFOlogists, UFO MUSHROOM INVASION begins as an almost documentary-style narrative about the origins of the modern era of flying saucers, then segues into the main storyline involving a boy named Aoki who witnesses a UFO crashing into the side of a remote mountain, the details of which resemble the fabled 1947 “Roswell crash” in the desert sands of New Mexico (which is intriguing, as the particulars of the Roswell crash were not widely discussed until the 1980 publication of Charles Berlitz and William Moore’s book, THE ROSWELL INCIDENT).
The fascinating anti-government paranoia woven into Marina’s storyline creates an undercurrent of mounting tension that gradually morphs into extreme body horror in the form of an all-out zombie invasion combining elements of William Hope Hodgson’s 1907 short story “The Voice in the Night,” H.P. Lovecraft’s 1927 story “The Colour Out of Space,” Clark Ashton Smith’s 1932 story “The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis,” Edward L. Cahn’s 1959 film INVISIBLE INVADERS, Ishiro Honda’s 1963 film MATANGO, and George Romero’s 1968 film NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. In UFO MUSHROOM INVASION, science fiction, horror, and UFOlogical factoids combine to create an eccentric and disturbing narrative that culminates in the deceptively simple image of a child rocking back and forth on a swing—a quiet image that succeeds in being gruesome and lyrical at the same time.
6. TIME²: HALLOWED GROUNDº (included in TIME² OMNIBUS) by Howard Chaykin (published by Image):
At the height of the 1980s, Howard Chaykin was best known for having created a dystopian series called AMERICAN FLAGG! that was critically acclaimed for its innovative graphic design and intelligent, satirical writing. Among Chaykin’s most commercially successful projects in that decade was his radical reinterpretation of the 1930s pulp hero, The Shadow. In 1986, THE SHADOW: BLOOD & JUDGEMENT hit the newsstands right alongside such revolutionary comics as Frank Miller’s THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS and Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ WATCHMEN, forming a triumvirate of transgressive, revisionist superhero dramas released by DC Comics within only a few months of each other. Though I admired both AMERICAN FLAGG! and THE SHADOW, the Chaykin books that fascinated me most when I was a teenager were TIME²: THE EPIPHANY (1986) and TIME²: THE SATISFACTION OF BLACK MARIAH (1987), both of which depicted a visually stunning futuristic society that was part METROPOLIS-era Fritz Lang, part BLADE-RUNNER-era Ridley Scott, and part 1940s film noir set to a jazzy, bebop score (filtered, perhaps, through the fractured mind of John Zorn). The weird plot, filled with robots, zombies, and psychosexual police cars, seemed to combine the science fictional philosophy of Philip K. Dick with the seedy noir underworld of Jim Thompson, two wildly different novelists who exerted a great deal of influence over me at that time.
In the fall of 2017, I finally had the opportunity to meet Chaykin at the Long Beach Comic-Con. I went out of my way to bring both TIME² graphic novels for him to sign. When Chaykin saw what I held in my hand, he seemed a little surprised. “These have always been my favorites,” he said, gently taking them away so he could autograph the covers, then added a sardonic comment about the books having sunk without a trace when they first appeared. This comment startled me a bit, as I had always viewed these graphic novels as foundational texts of the 1980s indie comic book scene (at least in my own personal pantheon). Chaykin went on to tell me he was hard at work on a third TIME² graphic novel that would appear in an omnibus alongside remastered versions of the first two volumes. I couldn’t have been more pleased to hear this.
The completed omnibus at last materialized in February of 2024. I don’t think a casual reader, unaware of this background information, would ever guess that there had been a thirty-seven year gap between the second and third volumes. The artwork in Volume Three, TIME²: HALLOWED GROUNDº, flows seamlessly from the previous installment, which debuted in September of 1987. HALLOWED GROUNDº elaborates on the cutting-edge themes of the 1980s graphic novels, offering a satirical, futuristic “fantasia” about gentrification run amok in the form of a Machiavellian drama that revolves around a violent, populist uprising against the plans of Yeshua Morgenthaler, Master Builder, to “eliminate the pestilence that is Time²” by redeveloping the landscape into a soulless social engineering scheme christened “the TimeSpan Crossway,” its purpose to connect the “Main Stem” of Time² to the rarefied, upper-class heights of the OverCity. One could view this entire plot as a meta-commentary regarding the gentrification of the comic book medium itself—indeed, why stop there? One could see HALLOWED GROUNDº as a meta-commentary on the corporate colonization of every field of artistic endeavor struggling to exist today.
Upon rereading the TIME² graphic novels a few days ago, it occurred to me that if Francis Ford Coppola had truly wanted to bring an indelible vision of the future to cinema in the form of a science fiction “fable,” perhaps he should have set aside his plans for MEGALOPOLIS and adapted TIME² to the screen instead.
7. DWELLINGS: ALL HALLOWS' EVE SPECIAL by Jay Stephens (published by Oni Press):
On the surface, Jay Stephens’ DWELLINGS looks like a 1950s-era issue of John Stanley’s LITTLE LULU or Sheldon Mayer’s SUGAR AND SPIKE. After reading only a few panels, however, one quickly realizes that it’s a demented supernatural soap opera set in an idyllic-appearing town (known as Elwich) that’s filled with mysterious mutilations, bloody vampire slayings, relentless serial killings, satanic couplings, and demonic hijinks galore. In a 2023 COMICS JOURNAL interview, horror master Stephen R. Bissette called DWELLINGS “perhaps the best current horror comic I’m reading,” and I’m inclined to agree with his assessment.
Even if you visit Elwich just to take in the picturesque scenery, you’re sure to stay when you get to know its inhabitants. After all, the “disgusting, dirty, demon trash” that populate this modest little village are far more colorful than they at first appear. And if you hear any information regarding the whereabouts of a dangerous miscreant named Chet Seabury, be sure to contact the Elwich Police Department at 666-555-6166.
8. GODZILLA'S MONSTERPIECE THEATRE by Tom Scioli (published by IDW):
GODZILLA’S MONSTERPIECE THEATRE is built on a completely loony concept that ends up succeeding due to the utter sincerity of its creator, writer/artist Tom Scioli. At the peak of the Roaring Twenties, Godzilla emerges from the Atlantic Ocean and proceeds to wipe out West Egg, Long Island, destroying the palatial estate of Jay Gatsby, the titular character of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic 1925 novel, THE GREAT GATSBY. Gatsby, driven by vengeance, exploits his ill-gotten wealth to assemble a paramilitary team called the G-Force for the express purpose of bringing down Japan’s most iconic kaiju. To this end, Gatsby recruits such celebrated heroes as a septuagenarian Sherlock Holmes, a mysterious chrononaut known only as the Time Machinist (the main character of H.G. Wells’ THE TIME MACHINE), and a cyborg version of Jules Verne to help him put an end to the destructive reign of the King of Monsters. Despite this absurd premise, Scioli’s narrative evolves into a clever meditation on the increasingly ephemeral borderlines that have separated genuine “literature” from “genre fiction” for far too long.
9. HOUSES OF THE UNHOLY by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips (published by Image):
Now that religious-fueled, nineteenth-century-style paranoia has become the norm of the mainstream Republican Party, how does one explore the intricacies of modern conspiracy theories without appearing to advocate such problematic world views? The answer appears to be to embrace the sheer subjectivity of paranoia itself. Back in 2012, in the opening chapter of my first nonfiction book, CRYPTOSCATOLGY: CONSPIRACY THEORY AS ART FORM, I warned, “Though some of these [conspiracy theories] may be illusory today, our collective obsession with them might evoke them into being tomorrow.” This is essentially the concept that fuels James Tynion and Martin Simmonds’ THE DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH (the first issue of which was published in the fall of 2020) as well as Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ latest graphic novel, HOUSES OF THE UNHOLY, which was released this past summer. In an age when QAnon-obsessed members of Congress like Marjorie Taylor Green and Lauren Boebert hold sway over the Republican Party, doing everything they can to resurrect the repressive, puritanical atmosphere of the Satanic Panic, it’s only natural for writers and artists to turn their gaze backwards several decades and remind their audiences of the life-destroying horrors that emerged from the evangelical madness so endemic to the ultra-conservative Ronald Reagan/Margaret Thatcher era of the 1980s.
The protagonist of HOUSES OF THE UNHOLY is Natalie Burns, a woman who specializes in rescuing people from religious cults. She has pursued this avocation out of a feeling of extreme guilt. When she was a child, she found herself swept up in a McMartin-Preschool-style Satanic Panic scenario that spiraled out of control. Having grown up in an evangelical household, she spread false stories about satanic sexual abuse because she believed this would please the adults around her, a fateful decision that resulted in the suicide of a falsely accused camp counselor. Decades later, Natalie is approached by an FBI agent to help him investigate a series of what appears to be satanic ritual murders that resemble the details of the dark fantasies she and her friends dreamed up when they were naïve kids. Natalie soon discovers that the illusory conspiracy theories of her past are now being evoked into being in the present.
Brubaker and Phillips have created a neo-noir thriller that explores some very uncomfortable truths about our modern political milieu in which fantastic obsessions seem to trump objective reality over and over again.
10. BENEATH THE TREES WHERE NOBODY SEES by Patrick Horvath (published by IDW):
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Back in 2005, I came up with the bent notion of writing a story that combined my love of Kenneth Grahame’s THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS with the Italian giallo slasher movies of the 1960s and ‘70s (e.g., Mario Bava’s BLOOD AND BLACK LACE, Dario Argento’s DEEP RED, etc.). Alas, this was one idea I never got around to executing. Writer/illustrator Patrick Horvath has now beaten me to the punch with his new six-issue series, BENEATH THE TREES WHERE NOBODY SEES. This is a compulsive read that explores the collective Jungian shadow of small-town life, as if David Lynch’s Lumberton, North Carolina in BLUE VELVET were populated by cute, furry storybook animals. If one were to reduce this concept down to an elevator pitch, “THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS meets DEXTER” would be more or less accurate.
Along with ANIMAL POUND and DWELLINGS, this is another comic book series that presents the dark underbelly of human behavior lurking beneath the veneer of innocent looking, child-like images. These similarities could be nothing more than simple coincidences, of course, but I suspect the pattern reveals something illuminating about the peculiar zeitgeist of our times. In 2024, could there be any significance at all to these disparate writers and artists electing to explore worlds of physical violence and psychological manipulation that disguise themselves behind false fronts of unassailable innocence? Is there any prominent political movement in America today that presents itself as 100% godly and virtuous while also engaging in unhinged violence? I might have to think about that for a second or two….
