Alan Moore and artists, Miracleman, Book Two: The Red King Syndrome1983-86 (collected 2014) / Ecomics / 224 pages / UK
****
The postmodern reimagining that started it all, this second chapter in the increasingly dark Übermensch saga continues to blend gritty and sometimes shocking realism with high-octane escapism like a proto-Watchmen, but it's mainly interesting to see The Original Writer pushing things to see how much he can get away with. Rather a lot, it turns out, especially after it moved to an independent American publisher.
1987 / Ebook / 234 pages / UK
***
While it's not actually a sequel to Hawksmoor, it's a similar pan-century investigation into the life, death and legacy of another enigmatic artist – here the tragic poet and literary prankster who arguably overreacted to his lack of instant acclaim by killing himself at 17... or did he? I'm not literary enough to find the mystery as compelling as its cast of over-educated eccentrics, who each have the most insufferable quirks.
Viz, Viz Comic: The Big Hard Number Two – A Compilation of Issues 13 to 181989 / Ecomics / 128 pages / UK
***
This is proper Viz now, but I still wasn't feeling it. Some of the pisstake features and letters are funny, but those same couple of jokes start to grate after a while. There was a point early on when a triple whammy of scatalogical, silly and downright weird strips made me lose it, but other times I felt I'd be more entertained by an actual kid's comic.
Robert Anton Wilson, Quantum Psychology: How Brain Software Programs You & Your World
1990 / Ebook / 208 pages / USA***
More learned behaviour 'is' challenged as RAW tells us to stop being so assertive all the time. A less compelling follow-up to Prometheus Rising that goes over some of the same points, this was the one that broke my brain, when unwise bedtime reading led to a restless night trapped in an endless labyrinth of Robert Anton Wilson books. Or maybe I just had a fever or something, let's not go making assumptions.
2005 / Ebook / 400 pages / UK
****
Picking up where Join Me left off, Danny's next monetisable stupid boy project is more calculated, cynical and self-absorbed than the kindness cult, but it gets funnier as it goes along and he gets ever deeper into completely unnecessary trouble. There's a smidgen of self-help in this comedy memoir, and I suppose I might have benefited if I'd read it at the time and took its gist to heart. Nah.
