#271 The Wicked and The Unexpected

Whilst I am always delighted to be presented with a simple, classic page layout and a nice page of neatly ordered panels and gutters. I am never happier than when looking at a comic that plays with the space of the page in order to better tells its stories. I love trying to work out how the panels, their contents and the space around it all have been structured and manipulated in order to better convey their message.

So Issue 23 of The Wicked and the Divine was always going to be up my street. In this issue of the comic Gillen, McKelvie, Wilson and Cowles mix things up by taking their gods/celebrities and featuring them in an issue of Pantheon Monthly. Illustrated in part by Kevin Wada, the issue is full of lush full page fashion shots, fake adverts for luxury brands and interviews/profiles of key members of the Pantheon. The stories and interviews are penned by journalists from newspapers and magazines, writers such as Leigh Alexander, Dorian Lynskey, Mary HK Choi and Ezekiel Kweku.

I found the process by which they created these interviews fascinating, Kieron Gillen role-played as the his characters and was interviewed by the journalist for each piece who then wrote up the interviews as they would normally. Kevin Wada was responsible for the pictures illustrating each article, while the series’ main artist and colourist, Jamie McKelvie and Matt Wilson created the adverts that punctuated the interviews. Gillen acts as the magazine’s editor, and his opening letter is a fascinating example of the form, perfectly mimicking the style of a magazine editorial whilst also setting the scene for the issue’s narrative aims.

Visually the style is high-end, much more like the luxurious magazines that cost close to £10 and come out quarterly then a monthly glossy. The style is too careful, the pages too well presented. I would 100% buy this magazine on a half day’s holiday, buy myself a coffee and sit outside a cafe feeling delighted with the world and my treat to myself. And that is part of the genius of this issue, Gillen, McKelvie et al are blurring the lines between fact and fiction, comics and magazines, the Pantheon as celebrities and their less groomed reality. The cover of the issue sits within the broader continuity of the series, they haven’t broken with their distinct sequence for this, but once you open the cover you are immediately aware that this is something outwith the series’ usual chronology.

Question – But Hattie, you’re talking about a magazine. Is it really a comic?

Answer – Yes.

Glad we’ve got that out of the way.

In a series that is, in part,about the way in which we create celebrity and the effect that that has on the individuals on both sides of the celebrity/fan relationship, it is fascinating to see the creators of this series take the time to show the reader how the press works within this world. Since Laura became a god, our experience of the Pantheon and its fandom is relatively one-sided, we are experiencing this story from the point of view of the gods themselves. Early in the series we had the perspective of the press in the form of Cassandra, and then she too joined the Pantheon. So whilst we don’t get a view of the fans as such in these articles, we are afforded a sight of how these celebrities are being curated in the press and presented to their fans, and that is fascinating.

Take for example the issue’s first interview, one between The Morrigan and Leigh Alexander. Wada illustrates first of all with a full page picture of The Morrigan in the process of getting ready. Disembodied hands lean in from out of shot, one applying lipstick with a confident nonchalance and the other curling her hair. The use of a lip brush to apply the lipstick in the image pushes the reader to question the creation of the image, is the brush applying lipstick or painting the lips themselves. The images’ artifice is reinforced and so the reader is pushed to consider questions about what is real in the world of the Pantheon and indeed within this comic. By glimpsing The Morrigan in the process of being made up we are reminded of the elements of performance that go into being a member of the Pantheon. the reader is pushed the question who these people really are. Reality and artifice are called into question and the reader is reminded that this is an interview with a fictional character as well as a break with the expected form of the comic.

The choices made about The Morrigan’s clothes in this image are also of note. She is wearing a dress covered in images of stained glass windows (arguably comics themselves) that have been deconstructed and pasted together out of order. In this comic Gillen and McKelvie are ripping up the rule book as to what constitutes a comic, and so too does this dress take an established art form and deconstruct it. And yet The Morrigan is still bound or restricted by the dress, it forces her to sit upright in an not altogether comfortable position and she holds herself awkwardly, this pushes me to wonder about the way in which the expectations of the comic form have controlled the work of these creators and how they seek to break free of them.

The adverts and interviews work together to give the reader an insight into a different version of The Pantheon. We see their groomed and seemingly perfect external side, rather than the squabbling teenagers and twenty-somethings that are scrambling their way through a series of awful situations. We are pushed to contrast the difference between their seemingly perfect exteriors and how they are perceived by their fans and detractors, compared to the versions of them that we have read every month for the past 2.5 years. Wada’s lush and beautiful images only serve to further this idea, significantly different in style from the series’ usual images, the difference between the normal narrative and this version of the characters is visually reinforced throughout.

The Wicked and The Divine isn’t a perfect series, I don’t really think any comic can be, but its creators are constantly seeking to push at the boundaries of what a comic might be and can do. They seek to explore the unexpected not only in their content and story but also in their use of the form and that is particularly refreshing. In a world where mainstrean comics seem to struggle to innovate, and often harbour outdated and offensive views, the commitment made by these creators ( mpublished by one of the larger comics publishers) to innovate formally and represent the diverse world in which we live is sadly unexpected but always welcome.