Invisibles 2,8

Grant Morrison (Writer)
Phil Jiminez (Pencils)
John Stokes (Inks)
Daniel Vozzo (Colors)
Heroic Age (Separations)
Todd Klein (Letters)
Shelly Roeburg (Editor)

The Invisibles created by Grant Morrison

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Summary

Lady Edith Manning is meeting a man called Papa Skat in a club in 1924. She wants to get the Hand of Glory from him. When they leave the club she pulls a gun on him. 'Meanwhile' in 1997, Ragged Robin begins to draw Quimper patterns on her face. King Mob talks to Edith as she is in 1997 - he tells her he is going back in time to find out how The Hand of Glory works. When they come to show it to Takashi they find that Boy has stolen it and has disappeared. King Mob has already gone into a trance, propelling himself back through time. Back in 1924, Papa Skat has got the gun from Lady Manning. The shadow of a scorpion rises up behind her and King Mob appears to save her.

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Characters

Papa Skat
Lady Edith Manning
Ragged Robin
King Mob
Mason Lang
Boy
Lord Fanny
Jack Frost
Takashi
Tom O'Bedlam

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Analysis

Dogon, The
Time & Time Travel

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Annotations

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PAGE 1

Panel 1 This panel's design of Skat's face dissolving into a nightclub scene is
reminiscent of jazz album covers of this period [RD]

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PAGE 3

Panel 2 Singer Josephine Baker was notorious for her lesbian affairs [JB]
Panels 3-4 See the essay on the Dogon. Also see the note for Invisibles 1,18,
page 19 re: P.K. Dick's use of the Dogon in his book "VALIS." [JB]

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PAGE 5

Important to note that a) this is in flashback and b) the use of quotes implies that,
to Robin, it's as if someone else is speaking her and KM's lines. Spooky... [RD]

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PAGE 7

Panel 2 "That was a bit weird... in bed last night..." I take it that KM and RR
are employing the Tantric methods Mr. Reddy talks about, perhaps unconsciously. Later,
King Mob does "alter the topography of time and space itself" in a way. High sex magick
at work? [AP]
Panel 8 The Tower card's meaning is that of destruction of what has been established.
The picture shows God's lightning (according to some the Flaming Sword of the Qabala),
knocking the 'crown' of achievments from the established tower, while two figures of
heirarchy, male and female are blasted out. On one hand, the Tower is an excellent symbol
of the Invisibles, since its basically what they do. On the other hand, it could mean that
the cell is going to fall apart soon. The tensions and betrayals within the cell would
support this. [R]

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PAGE 9

Panel 1 Notice the photo of Josephine Baker, in back, second from left [JB]

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PAGE 11

Last panel That burning thing is apparently a funeral barge of some kind [RD]

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PAGE 13

I am not familiar with the tantra that Mr. Reddy and Edith are performing, but I surmise
that it includes having sex with a menstruating woman and then both of them imbibing the
fluids [R]

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PAGE 15-16

We get to see the pun in Mr. Skat's name: he does his mojo through scatting, the
glossolalial gibberish popular in black music of that time. You can see Cab Calloway scat
a little in the Minnie the Moocher number in the "Blues Brothers" movie [RD]
More recently scat was revived by Scatman John, with his singles "Mr. Scatman", and
"Scatman's World." [JBU]

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PAGE 17

Panel 4 Note the stressing of the word "accident". It's been suggested that Takashi
and those around him may be (supernaturally) accident-prone, considering this dialogue and
Robin's accident later on page 20, panel 3 [RD]

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PAGE 19

Panel 1 The woman in the portrait is Florence Farr, a famous theatre actress in
England who joined the Golden Dawn [R]

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PAGE 21

Panels 3-4 Fanny is having a flash of intuition on the state of affairs as reflected
in the card. It is also synchronous that another meaning of the card is that a 'flash' of
genius, like a flash of lightning, can destroy years of established rational structure [R?]
Panel 4 Does the guy on the left of the card look like Dane? [RD]

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