Single Issues I Love | ANIMAL MAN #5 | 'The Coyote Gospel'
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 มี.ค. 2019
- I take a close look at Grant Morrison's Animal Man #5 in this first episode of a our new video series. 'The Coyote Gospel' is one of my favourite single issues of all time and in this video I try to get to why. There's a tiny bit of context, a summary and close reading of most pages, with a look at some recurrent themes and questions raised by Grant Morrison, Chas Truog and Doug Hazlewood in this instant classic. Conatins spoiliers for a thirty-year ol comics!
#animalman #comics #grantmorrison #collection #top10 - บันเทิง
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My favorite thing about Grant Morrison's comics is how he combines two or more vastly different ideas to make a great story, like mixing the Christ myth with Looney Tunes-style cartoon violence here. Or featuring Dream of the Endless during a Starro invasion in his JLA run. It can be overwhelming when he packs too many ideas into a single story, but this is one example of how it works beautifully.
Speaking of, I highly recommend reading his book 'Supergods'!
Thanks for the recommendation! I’ve read Morrison where I thought it was too much,, not because of ‘quantity’ or ‘density’ but because he forgets to give me interesting characters. But when he gets that right, like I think he does in Animal Man, he’s pretty incomparable for why he achieves.
I can't believe other people have read MIND MGMT! What a brilliant book!
Thanks! And you may enjoy this video of mine then! th-cam.com/video/OxyV8RtDnJw/w-d-xo.html
Cheers!
This was great! Thank you!
So wonderful to hear you enjoyed it; thank YOU! 😁
I recently started reading animal man. I really like your the analysis. Never really thought about it in the strife aspect of it.
Also I found it hilariously sad when buddy says he can't understand.
Gautham Selvamohan Thanks! And yes, ‘hilariously sad’ is apt for a comic that is so much about the intersection of tragedy and comedy, isn’t it?
This was a great video. So well put together. Would love to see more. Great work sir.
Thanks, so glad you liked it. I wondered if it was too much but I also ended up missing some points I wanted to make! 😋
@@ftloc not to much at all. I could have seen more. Lol
Brett Jensen Haha! I'll keep that in mind! 😀
Can't remember any other series which has so many mind-melting moments like Animal Man does. For a relatively young author, it was astounding on how he had the entire series plotted out and stories were peppered with foreshadowing. This probably is my favourite Morrison story and woohoo Nearness of You is next!
It’s probably my favourite Morrison series, although I’ve also enjoyed shorter works of his. And the mindmelting bits of this run aren’t just ‘whoa cool’ type of story but raise interesting questions about art, storytelling and why we read. Perfect balance, in my opinion!
Great start to the single issue series. Having the panels on screen whilst you narrate the scene is very beneficial. The longer format will enable a deeper look and analysis of these seminal issues and I'm sure many subscribers will refer back to them. There is no point trying to present the ideas and explain the craft of writers like Morrison quickly. Best of luck with the series.
Thanks so much for the feedback, and such encouraging feedback at that! I will keep tweaking this to make sure people aren't falling asleep, perhaps, but I do like the space to take some time and get into details, at least for this one series, so I'm so glad to hear you think I'm on the right track. Thanks again!
Great analysis and a great issue
Thank you, I'm so thrilled you liked it. I'd like to do more of these deep dives, but I want to get better at them so that they are not boring or repetitive, so any and all feedback is very welcome!
Have you seen the other videos in this series, the ones on Astro City #1/2 and Uncle Scrooge #15? They're all part of this playlist: th-cam.com/play/PLf2B7UoR9NKUGIbShHylu4sDbqrvPnh3j.html
Cheers!
A classic issue to be sure. Great analysis
Thanks so much, happy to know you liked it!
I love your channel and videos, this is great work!
Thanks so much; what a lovely thing to hear first thing in the morning! 😁
My favourite animal man story, great review!
Thanks you - glad you enjoyed it!
Great choice for the first one. Animal Man is one of my favorite runs in comic history, specially because of this meta philosofical questions raised by Morrison. This issue is amazing and fit on the concept of the series, but my favorites are probably the 3 last ones of the run.
Don't Know if you watched, but Wisecrack have an Amazing video about Morrison and his big complex style and ideas. Highly recommend.
Absolutely! This run made me think that Alan Moore wasn’t a fluke - mainstream superhero comics could be literary and postmodern and all that while also being fun. What I also admired is that the last three issues didn’t come out of nowhere - it had been set up and alluded to from the start, as #5 displays! 😀
@@ftloc Yeah! That masterful way of setting it all up is what makes Moore, Morrison and Gaiman stand out of the mainstream and elevate the midium. But what all of them have in common is the content, the heavy, philosofical, strange and grandiose sense that comics can be something greater that any other midium.
Even though I read and love indie and strange comics, I think that what DC/VERTIGO did is still my favorite kind of comics, accesible, profound and fun. In the case of Animal Man, fun in its concept, but really sad and painfull in its reflections.
The one thing all the creators you named have in common is that they didn’t write their series as if it was an endless continuation or another instalment in a never ending story. They created beginning middle and ends, and gave consequence and gravitas to their ‘silly’ concepts. I do think there were some great Vertigo titles, but I also find indies satisfying due to their (when they have it) complete-story approach, which makes things matter in a way that most Big Two comics, in spite of the talent they have, do not.
I bet every cartoon characters do see the real world as hell
Absolutely!
So true
I'm reading The Invisibles right now and when Grant Morrison is at his best he can really pack a dense, elegant, layered issue. Royal Monsters (#11) was one of the first issues that really deviated from the main storyline - focusing on one of the normal men serving a demonic creature. A single issue that really stuck with me.
I've been very curious about The Invisibles for several years now, but have never gotten to it particularly due to the lack of easily available editions - even the paperbacks are quite expensive here, and I know I would never read that mammoth one-volume wristbreaker! I wasn't a fan of the Filth or even Multiversity (outside of Pax) but really like Doom Patrol, and We3 and All Star Superman are among my favourite comics, so I am always interested in seeing which side a new Morrison read falls on!
Finally ordered the 2022 Omnibus for Animal Man
Ah, you didn't go for the two deluxes then?
@@ftloc No, why did.. deluxe had anything special to offer, the Omnibus happens to be the 2022 latest edition
Yeah, fair enough. I am not a big fan of very fat books and omnibuses so a bit of oversizing and a hardcover with good binding is enough of an upgrade! Naturally, the Absolutes tend to mess up that thought process, haha!
Your content is superb. Loving the analysis. I am planning to create an analysis video of Animal Man 5 also. Hope to have it complete soon.
Why thank you, that's so kind of you! Good luck with your video and drop me a link here when you're done with it! 😁
@@ftloc thank you. Will do. I'm watching your videos. Excellent work. I'm inspired.
I haven't re-read that issue since it came out 30 yars ago, but I remember it well. I remember being completely stunned by Morrison's multi-layered parable, in a style that was not yet well known back then to the north american readers. It could almost have been written by Alan Moore on a good day. I really loved the whole Morrison run on the title but this was my favorite issue as well, even if, with every issue, the series got even better and expanded the limits of storytelling of the american comic book form. The series also had beautiful covers by Brian Bolland who was rapidly making his name as one of the best cover artists of all time. The only thing I didn't like about the series was Chas Truog art. Grant Morrison's strong stories kept the series on my pull list because I hated Truog art. As soon as Morrison left the series after issue # 26, I dropped the title (wasn't a fan of his successor Peter Milligan either). I must not have been alone in not liking Truog's at because I think this was the longuest run he ever did on a comic book series (he lasted another 6 issues after Morrison left). I don't remember seeing his name turn out much on a regular basis. The only other regular series I remember him from was from Marvel's Epic line 5 yars before, a series called (wait for it) COYOTE! In any case, this video gave me the urge to go read the whole Grant Morrison all over again
To me Truog’s art is rather generic and anonymous, in a very dated style. Weirdly, that worked for me in this series, where the narrative constantly seemed to be pushing against convention and cliche in superhero stories, so the ‘tension’ between mindblowing writing and standard-template art gave another dimension to the ‘meta’ ride. This issue does remind me of Alan Moore as well, especially something like Supreme.
And that’s hilarious about Truog’s Coyote! 😀
I've never read a Grant Morrison comic that I've liked or rated and I've tried the first two TPBs of The Invisibles, All Star Superman, his 2 part Hellblazer story, some Doom Patrol and now Animal Man 5. Unfortunately I've still not read a Grant Morrison comic I've liked or rated. He does absolutely nothing for me.
Do keep the single issue videos coming though. I really like them.
I have to say I've surprised a number of my friends by not being as enamored with Mr Morrison as them. Many of his works leave me a bit cold. But I have enjoyed Doom Patrol, All Star Superman, Animal Man and specially We3, which, as violent as it was, I thought was a concentrated little jolt of action and empathy.
Ideas are only as good as their final execution of course, so in that he is susceptible to the same things as others - the confidence/hubris, editorial, collaborative and other factors that serve as relays between concept and final story. This issue I thought was one of those times where everything worked, where the cartoon/dimension/violence/entertainment/ communication concepts all actually came together to make something affecting and intelligent, all within a couple of dozen pages. You mentioned you were reading Moore's Swamp thing elsewhere, so yes, it doesn't quite compare to the 'Pogo' story there, for example (but what does?) but it's of that ilk, and something I admire for not just being that ambitious but also pulling off.
I'm glad you're liking these videos though, they're still not as good as I would like them to be which is why I've taken a break from them, but getting some positive feedback and thinking there are people out there wanting to watch them does help encourage me to keep trying with the format! Cheers, as always!
One of the things that frustrates me when it comes to GM is the fact that I have quite a few friends whose opinions on comics I value and they all rate GM's work highly so I must be missing something. I do think that some comics can be an acquired taste and one needs to have some sort of breakthrough moment for things to fall into place. For example, I didn't 'click' with Peter Bagge's Hate when a friend pushed issue 1 under my nose. It was only a few months later when I was in a comic shop in London and I wanted something to read so decided to buy Hate 5 and give it another go. I absolutely loved it so where on earth was I when I read issue 1? I can't be accused of not trying when it comes to GM's work, believe me I have. But with a huge reading pile already...
Oh absolutely. There's so much we'll never get to read, how many times must we keep giving things we don't enjoy a shot just to match someone else's opinions? No argument here.
I do think it's true about breakthrough moments but it's also about certain works for me. There are many Morrison books where I've been told I just don't 'get it', not because I'm stupid (at least, that wasn't said to my face) but because I don;t know all the lore that he is referencing and all the threads he is drawing together. Which may be true, but I have a particular view of stories that if they MUST have deep, prior knowledge of other works to enjoy them even a little bit, I just have difficulty accepting them as truly masterful stories.
Well a good friend of mine called Nick (who has switched me on to loads of great stuff over the years) recommended me Animal Man 7 after I bitched to him about issue 5. I read issue 7 at work this morning and... I really enjoyed it. It was very funny and the Watchmen leg pull (page 1) really cracked me up. Nick then recommended me Animal Man 23 and 24 which I read at lunchtime and REALLY enjoyed! I lost count of the number of times it made me laugh out loud but the idea of reversing DCs Crisis On Infinite Earths was excellent. I also liked the pisstake of Kid Miracleman in the character of Overman, GM nailed the dialogue. The "meta" narrative was very well done too and seemingly came some years before Alan Moore did something similar in Promethea. What I don't care for so much with Animal Man is the art. The Bolland covers are so great one can't help but be disappointed with the interiors. Anyway, Nick also recommended me issue 19 so I'll dig that out at work tomorrow although I may have to read the whole series now. He also recommended Seaguy which I'll try to check out as well. Looks like I've had my GM breakthrough!