Morning Glories Vol 1 &2
Image Comics
Joe Eisma( Artist) Nick Spencer (Author).
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| If you don'y have a school uniform fetish before you read this you will afterwards. |
The story is purposely both intriguing and mysterious (like Lost), the characters are all absolutely gorgeous (like Lost); the whole thing is beautifully presented (like Lost). And just (like Lost) if I don’t get some straight answers soon I am GOING TO FUCKING SCREAM. In fact it’s so like Lost , that if I were a cynical man ( and I am), I would suggest that Morning Glories almost reads like a pilot for the next hit show coming this fall on Showtime or AMC.
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| Right in the gentlemans teabags. |
The central conceit is a simple one: pupils attend a mysterious boarding school. Happily for us, the story completely avoids giving us the sorts of "golly gosh lets go and have a feast with Hagrid" scenarios that occasionally made the early Harry Potter books unbearable, and goes straight for those old family favourites: insane sexual tension, Machiavellian intrigue and ultra-violence. No real explanations are given for anything, and you are bombarded with unanswered question after unanswered question: what the hell is this school for? Are the pupils and staff prisoners? Didn’t she die in the last issue? Are the staff experimenting on pupils? What’s going on in the cavern under the school? Why is this classroom starting to fill up with water? IT’S INSANE. And it’s brilliantly done. The artwork is absolutely top notch. It has an ethereal almost dream like quality to it, which adds a great deal to the stories “what is real and what isn’t?” vibe. Joe Eisma is destined for great things in the future.
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| "She makes me feel kinda funny. Like when we used to climb the ropes in gym class" |
Writer Nick Spencer could well claim to be the hardest working man in show business (now that James Brown has snuffed it) working on not only his creator owned properties, but also for Marvel and DC. I can’t help but feel that he might be spreading himself a trifle thin in much the same way Kevin Smith did while he was working on Spiderman/ Black Cat.
The bad news for addicts like me is that the erratic nature of the publishing schedule, plus the labyrinthine nature of the various story arcs suggest that getting through Morning Glories is going to be a very drawn out process indeed. God damn it. I can’t wait for the TV show.
