There's a great line from Captain Carrot in Morrison's Multiversity, that comics are just windows into other universes.

"Grant Morrison simply likes Kamandi." Really, who doesn't? Kirby was practicing his own style of magic in that series more so than any other.

Flex Mentallo is my favorite comic, partially because I appreciate the intent of it's creation as much as the comic itself. It also is infinitely re-readable and near perfect in craft.

“The idea of a chair” reminds me of Alan Moore’s Promethea

3:57 that's not an "orgy of sex and violence", there's no violence (at least until Faculty X arrives), and it's not criticism, it's an acknowledgement of the inherent erotic (often homoerotic) component of superheroes, and Morrison actually embraces it rather than criticizing it. "FREDRIC WERTHAM WAS FUCKING RIGHT" and so on.

HERO OF THE BEACH

Not to mention, Wally kind of looks like Grant Morrison.. but with hair.

8:42 "Logically speaking, you can't prove a negative". Why does that sound like an amazing trial one grandmaster magician could put a hero or villian under? AS in "You must prove a negative" Like those classic "You must pass my test to move foward into the chamber"

10:23 I'm worried I might have gotten into Morrison's stash, based on how much this discussion of metaphysical chairs resonated with me.

I wonder how your reaction to Transmetropolitan will play out...might need to get 3 tons of Popcorn 🍿 for it!!!

I never read any Flex Mentallo. But this was a wonderfully done video. From explanation to editing, very well done! Have you ever read DC's The Weird? I think you would have fun with it

@StrangeBrainParts

5 жыл бұрын

Oh, I will have to take a look at that miniseries. It's been a long time since I read it. I barely remember it!

@luthermanning6945

5 жыл бұрын

Its only four issues but really gets at so many of being alive and human. Plus its Bernie Wrightson.

@AxeMan808

4 жыл бұрын

@@StrangeBrainParts If we're doing "should/coulds", John Byrne's B&W O.M.A.C. 4 issue mini.

@eddiejoewalt7746

Жыл бұрын

@@StrangeBrainParts in other words WHATEVER YOU SAID ON VIDEO SHOULD BE TAKING WITH A PINCH OF SALT AND STUFFS YOU SAID ARE YOU BIASED BECAUSE YOU LOVE GRANT MORRISON ANYWAY!

14:01 if you combine the left and right, the word is Shaman "those guys always dealt with the fantastical imaginary things"

Ive been waiting forever for a mindful look at the series that didn't make itself about the litigious history of the book vs the Atlas estate.

@StrangeBrainParts

5 жыл бұрын

The lawsuit is trivial to the discussion. Although, it did add an allure to the series for a while since it wasn't easy to obtain. However, that's no longer the case.

I thought it was a nifty bit of meta-fiction...but i may need to go back and let some of these deeper points sink in. An excellent presentation!

I got the Flex Mentallo hardcover collection a few years ago: I can't wait to read it again.

10:14 - 10:41 I love that idea of "Higher dimensions that have to be expressed under specific circumsntances through specific mediums to understand it" as it could be a clever way of saying how some stories work in some mediums but not all mediums. OR that they could work but it requires a lot of work to do so. 10:42 - 11:42 Also thanks to explain the "Quantum Superposition" and the "Shcrodinger's Cat Paradox" ALTHOUGH one has to admit the irony of how we interpret and analyze this Flex Mentallo comic but by all accounts it could be just like what Grant Morrison said about his Doom Patrol Run: "It is what it is"

Flex would make an awesome animated series... I'd watch the blap out of that

I would love to see you tackle The Bounce by Joe Casey. It’s extremely esoteric and hard to follow but I think there is a lot there to unpack and explore. The artwork is also gorgeous.

@ianr.navahuber2195

4 жыл бұрын

what's that comic about?

I would have to say that this analysis is your finest work. Truly excellent. Even your explaination of Superposition was clear and concise. Hard to do because it is not easy to conceptualize. Kudos to you. That being said, would it be possible for you to do an an analysis Alan Moores run on on Supreme? It was also a criticism of the direction comics took in the '90s as well as a deconstruction of Superman.

@StrangeBrainParts

5 жыл бұрын

Yes! I have recently re-read that Supreme series and have been mulling it over.

@leavonfletcher4197

5 жыл бұрын

@@StrangeBrainParts Fantastic! I will be looking forward to it.

guess i'll have to sub. i can't escape to any other Earth.

Hell yeah! Been waiting for this!

I'm going to go back and read this series again

Been wondering what Flex was about. Sounds interesting!

Great video. Introduced me to new ideas and ways comics are wrote. Gained a sub!

I thought this was about doom patrol or something... Glad I was wrong (even tho I love the show and Flex with his silly "mistakes")

Fine analysis. Despite DC's best efforts, the Multiverse Lives - and Prevails! (Marvel's having a field day with it.) In the end, Morrison offers Socrates' familiar trope (via Plato) of an ideal plane from which artists + engineers &c transcribe emanations or transmissions of instructive + codifying (+ entertaining) narratives. A variation on the popular "New Age" power of manifestation via creative visualization. Such is the mechanism behind all human conception, from mythology to (heh) PostModernism, now ceding, I would contend, to a metaModernism exemplified by much of Morrison's multidimensional (heh) oeuvre. Thanks for the helpful contextualizing, SBP.

I’m hoping Flex shows up in Doom Patrol

@jacob_ian_decoursey_the_author

5 жыл бұрын

YES! Make him noble and good among the more morally ambiguous characters.

I noticed that in the crossword mentioned at 13:53, SHAZAM does work, if you are willing to rotate N by 90 degrees. Is SHAZAM a Quasi-anagram of SHAMAN?

@AxeMan808

4 жыл бұрын

As an avid follower of Letter-Man, I have always assumed such to be the case. Also in Flex, the line about "the word that turns me from boy to superhero..."

@Dr_Salt

2 жыл бұрын

Shaman= shazam+superman

"Both had a transformative experience with an alien prescence" Huh, what?

one of my favorite books, even though I have no idea whats going on in it.

good video. men-TA-llo. the middle syllable is emphasized.

love your videos!

@StrangeBrainParts

5 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

I loved that Doom Patrol series managed to adapt him

I always liked the idea of comics being just fun ideas over a deep analysis of humanity.

Been watching your videos lately, time to start picking up some trades. Also, how to you compare Morrison's FM to that of the one presented on the Doom Patrol series on MAX?

I am a Wally, and I say It's pronounced Ment-tal-O

14:38. I Eat Cannibals...

You know, I’ve always avoided flex mentallo because of how obscure it seems to me, even being a big frank quitely fan but thanks to your analysis I’m going to buy it simply because im older and need a more cerebral story to keep my attention

Praise the algorithm

Darn it, I've been saying, "Men-TAL-lo"!

@StrangeBrainParts

5 жыл бұрын

I say Mentallo like one would say the word, "mentalism." That just seems correct to me. I don't know if it is or not. :)

@fad23

5 жыл бұрын

I definitely always have said Men Tallow.

@llengsuch3426

5 жыл бұрын

In Glasgow, where Morrison and Quitely are from, it would be pronounced Men - fuckin - tallo!

14:38...Total Coelo I eat cannibals...

12:20 did you say "High procedual" or "Hyper Sigil" trilogy?

"Zack Snyder stole as much as he could from it" Hey, calm down SBP! I come here to relax and enjoy your stories.

@Intheknow12

Жыл бұрын

Calm down for what? SBP only stated a well founded criticism of Snyder’s BvS.

basically it's about a dude learning to be a kid again, but a mature kid who's creative and silly yet knows the wrongs of the world and ways to try and make it right? das kool, might read it.

While I adore Flex Mentallo the character, I didn't get much of a kick out of this miniseries because it felt too focused on the meta. It tries to tie that into a characters emotions with Wally, but I didn't get enough of him to really care. (See Adaptation for a better execution of this) It felt so much like a story about stories that I had no reason to give a shit. And it wasn't fun enough with its concepts to make up for that. (the Rick & Morty episode Full Meta JackRick is similarly focused on meta over strong emotional connections with characters, but that has so many fun, interesting ideas packed into just 20-22 minutes that I still had a blast with it)

Curses! I've been pronouncing it "MenTALlo". Now he joins the Sub-MARINE=er in the Legion of Misnamed Heroes. Seriously, do you think he was partly inspired by ME's Strong Man?

10:05

Is Mentallo pronounced Men-ta-low or Men-tal-low?

Also, Fredrick Wertham was never right!

Who’s here from doom Patrol?

@Frozenqueen12

5 жыл бұрын

Dan Yxng I came here from watching doom patrol

Also: trying to arrange Flex and Wally's stories in a linear narrative is a big failure on your part.

DRK was put on film. Well, digital animation: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman:_The_Dark_Knight_Returns_(film) PS: UC BvS is really good. A master I would say but it´s not DKR.

The contradiction of a man who longs for simpler times simultaneously being influenced by chaos magic, when considered as a character in a comic book, might work in another writer's hands, however when it's being done by the characters own real world counter part it's empty. Do you know the story in FF 175. To defeat Galactus the Impossible Man offers his world as a substitute for Counter Earth. BUT the natives of that world have "evolved" into a collective mind and Galactus dies from a meal of "hot air". That's my experience reading Morrison.

It seems to me that Grant Morrison blames the world for steering away from the idealised and Logos-driven heroes he knew as a lad - - not realising though, that he holds the power within himself to bring it back around. Rather than doing so however, he chose to grow into a kind of occultist, drug-taking madman who "communes" with "entities" during his sex/drug-based trips. It's a very strange M.O. that's all too common these days: "The world is lacking in soft-heartedness and decency, so I'll remedy that by going as dark as I possibly can myself."