Seaguy: Slaves of Mickey Eye #3

Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Cameron Stewart

I guess there are a couple of ways in which you can look at this comic. One way would be to view it as a surrealistic superhero story that just chugs along following usual superhero conventions, without having to adhere to common sense. Another would be as a metaphor for either the comic industry as a whole or DC comics in general, but to prove such a thing would require careful reading and parsing of these comics, and I don't really care to.

Seaguy is kind of fun, kinda stupid. I think that's about all there is to say about it. I like the art, too....

Seaguy Slaves of Mickey Eye #2

Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Cameron Stewart

Once again, things don't really make much sense on the surface, but there is a strong internal logic to this comic. Seaguy is rescued from the mental hospital, and set up with a secret identity - El Macho, the bull-dresser. It soon becomes clear though that Seaguy's friends aren't really his friends, and that the only person he should trust is the dead tuna that keeps appearing out of the corner of his eye. Like I said, all perfectly logical.

Stewart's art here makes even the weirdest scenes seem plausible, and the book mostly feels like Morrison just enjoying himself after spending way too much time on editorially-mandated commercial cross-overs.

Seaguy: Slaves of Mickey Eye #1

Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Cameron Stewart
It's nice to see Grant Morrison step away from high-profile mainstream comics, and return to a world where he can be as confusing and odd as he wants, without fear of large-scale fanboy alienation and venom.

Seaguy is a very strange comic. The first series was light-hearted fun that never really made a lot of sense, but was enjoyable as a surrealist romp. This sequel has a darker tone to it - Seaguy is depressed after the loss of Chubby da Choona, and is being manipulated and watched by Seadog, who is involved in some sort of Phase 2 that has to do with some kind of changes to New Venice.

I'm sure it will all make sense at some point. Actually, I don't really even care that much - it's a fun comic to read. What I like most about it is how it tells the story in a very conventional super-hero way, but without feeling the need to fit squarely within that genre. I wish Morrison would devote more time to this type of book.

Seaguy

Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Cameron Stewart

When this first came out, I thought it looked silly and didn't bother with it. When I saw it in a used book store at a low price, I thought, 'well, it's Grant Morrison. It will still be good.' And it is.

This book is a smorgasbord of surrealism designed to look somewhat like a standard hero's epic. Seaguy is trying to become a hero to impress a girl (who has a beard, by the way), and so he ends up trying to rescue a cute pile of goop that is the world's first engineered living foodstuff from a bunch of armed and aggressive cartoon character theme park employees. He is accompanied by a talking floating fish from New York that hates water. Along the way, we see smoking Easter island statues, and a chocolate Sargasso Sea. To my mind things don't get too weird until the moon is revealed to be an Egyptian tomb.

The art is by Cameron Stewart, and it's brilliant. I like how he is able to portray such bizarre and silly things in a manner that makes them seem ordinary and acceptable.