Invisibles 1,21
From Barbelith
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Credits
Grant Morrison (Writer) Paul Johnson (Artist) Daniel Vozzo (Colors) Ellie deVille (Letterer) Julie Rottenberg (Asst. Editor) Stuart Moore (Editor)
The Invisibles created by Grant Morrison
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Summary
Dane (Jack Frost) has returned to Liverpool and keeps having flashbacks to his experiences with Tom O'Bedlam. In his flashbacks he experiences Barbelith and visits the Invisible College. He goes to visit his friend Billy, only to discover that he has sold me out to the enemy. As he runs, he bumps into his old teacher. Dane then visits his mother and tries to explain to her what has happened to him - but she doesn't understand. Some of the enemy break in and threaten him, but he disables them through use of a magic word - as one of them attempts to rise, Boy leaps in and knocks him down. She reveals that Dane's school teacher is actually Mr Six, one of the most powerful Invisibles on the planet. Boy asks him to come with her to save King Mob and Fanny...
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Characters
Jack Frost Mr Six Tom O'Bedlam Boy
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Analysis
Barbelith
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Annotations
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PAGE 4-5
These pages revisit Invisibles 1,4 [CG]
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PAGE 5
Panel 4 The red globe is addressing Dane, calling him Lost One. But ...the Lost Ones are the enemies (???) [PV] Well, Dane does say that no one knows what he is, and he does save Sir Miles in Invisibles 1,24, so maybe... [L]
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PAGE 6
Panel 3 Root Doctaz is Jim Crow's band [PV]
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PAGE 8
Panel 4 This is the Invisible College from Invisibles 2,6 [BSI]
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PAGE 11
Panel 3 Oasis poster on the wall [PV]
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PAGE 12-13
The phrase "Try to remember" pops up frequently during appearances of the Barbelith sphere, apparently manifest as a satellite on the far side of the moon. Compare this to the following quotes from Philip K. Dick's Radio Free Albemuth pages 160-161: "You have remembered. You know. There is now no forgetting.... the disclosure to the ancient initiate. I had undergone the Orphic ceremonies... to emerge suddenly into the chamber of light... [to be reminded] of my own nature and my past: trip across space from Albemuth, the far star, migration to this world.... The enemy had soon followed and the garden we built had been polluted and made toxic with his presence.... We became half blind; we forgot until reminded. Reminded by the rotating voice in the nearby sky, placed there long ago in case a calamity occurred.... [and if the satellite was found, it would be] old and pitted. It had been there thousands of years.... without memory we had fallen victim to our adversary.." Try to remember, indeed! [JH]
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PAGE 13
Panel 4 "Doctor Who" is an English sci-fi TV serial [PV]
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PAGE 20
Panel 2 Is this a real logo for a show? King Mob used a found Sigil in the Absolute Vertigo story [BSI] "Top of the Pops" is a long running chart rundown show, it's been going since the 60s and is famous for having bands come on and mime to their hits (if anyone's seen Nirvana 'Live! Tonight! Sold Out!' their weird version of 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' is taken from TOTP) The logo is broadly consistent with what I can remember of the time, seeing as the events in the comics were by that time about a year and a half before the issue date. It's not an exact copy, probably for copyright reasons [L] Panel 3 There's a Marylin Monroe poster on the wall [PV]
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PAGE 22
Panel 3 The name "Mr. 6" may be a reference to the Marquis de Sade. In a letter written by Sade to his wife in 1783, while a prisoner at Vincennes, he continually refers to himself in the third person as "Mr. 6," that is, the occupant of Cell #6 of the prison [RR] Panel 4 The policeman has some kind of metal thing in is head. What could it be? [PV] In Stephen King's "The Tommyknockers," the hero is able to resist the aliens for so long because of the metal plate he had in his head after a skiing accident. Perhaps this policeman had been to Argentina like the guard King Mob shot (Invisibles 1,1 and Invisibles 1,12).
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PAGE 23
Barbelith, as a satellite on the dark side of the moon, seems very similar to VALIS from Philip K. Dick's novels, at least to me [BSI] In The Secret Gospel of John, "Barbelo" is the first thought of the Unknowable All. The name sounds awfully similar to Barbelith, and I thought it an interesting coincidence that the satellite which is talking to humanity in its thoughts has a name similar to the first thought. Barbelo comes into existence when the logos sees its reflection in the stream of light surrounding it, hence she is called "the image of the spirit." I believe someone says elsewhere in the Annotations that the red dot (Barbelith's symbol) is the image of the perfect soul. Maybe I'm reaching here, but I want to point out the similarity between "the image of the spirit(logos)" and "the image of the perfect soul." [TL] Panel 5 "As above, so below.": Barbelith's transmission echoes Elfayed quote in Invisibles 1,17, page 9, panel 4 [JB]
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