This is my second attempt, as my first post was deleted and I cannot find the archived version of what I wrote.
Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles is a semi-autobiographical masterwork about conspiracy, magick, UFOs, and more. I think Grant’s work on this subject should be revisited at this time, especially as more and more interesting events pop up in the news. This comic allowed me to see the idea of UFOs from a different perspective, and kicked off a period of personal investigation for me. Grant’s writing convinced me to take certain fringe issues a bit more seriously. The woo factor is real.
Grant wrote The Invisibles as a way to try to understand and integrate an experience they had in Kathmandu. Grant claims that they were abducted by aliens, but that the reality of those “aliens” is a lot more complex than it appears prima facie.
The links between Morrison’s work and the work of Valleé and Hynek. Within the Invisibles, The Invisible College is both an alternative name for the titular group, and for a physical location outside of normal space-time. Further, Grant presents an alien intelligence conforming to a trickster archetype, constantly moving humanity towards a hazy end.
Grants work in The Invisibles could be described as psychedelic punk. Morrison clearly loves both of those eras of popular culture. Grant’s work recalls writers of the psychedelic era of mysticism and magick, such as Terence McKenna, Timothy Leery, and Robert Anton Wilson. Grant also embraces the thinking of older mystics and philosophers with an interest in the paranormal, such as Carl Jung, Mircea Eliade, Emmanuel Swedenborg, Aleister Crowley, and others.
It’s got everything: Dulce base, FEMA camps, the ritual sacrifice of Princess Diana, Lovecraftian horrors. With its emphasis on conspiracies and pop culture, it is a total product of the ‘90s. I believe it is every hit as important as programs like The X-Files and Twin Peaks, maybe even more so.
The Invisibles served as the inspiration for The Matrix, but has more depth and subtlety. I don’t think the Wachowskis fully understood what they were drawing from. It’s a great movie, but Grant is able to go into much greater and more intellectual depth.
Without giving too much away, Grant’s characters all interact with the phenomena in different ways. What appears as a UFO and grey aliens to one character might appear to another as a Buddha or an Aztec god. For Grant, these experiences are screen memories which are contextualized by the lived and cultural experience of the observer.
Grant’s work recalls a Crowley quote I will paraphrase: experiment, keep a journal, but never assume what occurred to you during a mystic experience occurred in objective reality. The Owls Are Not What They Seem.
At its core, The Invisibles is a neo-gnostic masterpiece, a spiritual successor to PKD’s VALIS. It’s a spy thriller, a horror novel, a treatise on magick, and so much more.
For anyone who is not already a fan, DM me for a link so I don’t have to rewrite this post again. For newcomers, please understand that the first few issues are a bit difficult to get into. You’re not supposed to “like” characters like Jack and King Mob. You’re supposed to questions the “heroes” as much as the “villains”.
I’d love to have a discussion in the comments!
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