Kid Eternity

Kid Eternity (1991) #1-3

by Grant Morrison, Duncan Fegredo (Illustrator)

Comics visionary Grant Morrison reimagines the unique character of Kid Eternity, a young man who died before his true time and returns to Earth as a ghostly spirit, along with his guardian Mister Keeper.In this 144-page trade paperback, illustrated by Duncan Fegredo, KID ETERNITY follows the terrifying night of aspiring stand-up comedian Jerry Sullivan as he joins Kid Eternity on a quest to free his Keeper from Hell.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Horror, Comic Book, Fiction, Superheroes

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Grant Morrison has been working with DC Comics for twenty five years, after beginning their American comics career with acclaimed runs on ANIMAL MAN and DOOM PATROL. Since then they have written such best-selling series as JLA, BATMAN and New X-Men, as well as such creator-owned works as THE INVISIBLES, SEAGUY, THE FILTH, WE3 and JOE THE BARBARIAN. In addition to expanding the DC Universe through titles ranging from the Eisner Award-winning SEVEN SOLDIERS and ALL-STAR SUPERMAN to the reality-shattering epic of FINAL CRISIS, they have also reinvented the worlds of the Dark Knight Detective in BATMAN AND ROBIN and BATMAN, INCORPORATED and the Man of Steel in The New 52 ACTION COMICS.

In their secret identity, Morrison is a "counterculture" spokesperson, a musician, an award-winning playwright and a chaos magician. They are also the author of the New York Times bestseller Supergods, a groundbreaking psycho-historic mapping of the superhero as a cultural organism. They divide their time between their homes in Los Angeles and Scotland.

Reviews

[Ill D · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s a lot of good here. And there’s a lot of the minding as well. I’ll try to break down this curiously overlooked ‘91 gem from everyone’s favorite comic luminary, Grant Morrison. Zeigeist-setting sage or bombastic buffoon (both definitions are equally applicable for this critic) Kid eternity is absolutely something every self-described comic book aficionado should experience.

What initially feels akin to an old art school project that has been reexamined under more mature eyes finds itself bound with another degree of externally found work. In this case, the largely forgotten not-so-classic titular Kid has been exhumed from the dusty cobwebs of yesteryear’s comic collection. Yet not content with a mere re-varnishing job, the admixture here is truly fresh, creative and mind-bendingly creative throughout.

Sparing not a single scintilla of of the third eye’s intrinsic force, pure imagination becomes only filtered by the turn of the page. Strongly tethered by tastefully applied references from literature, mythology and poetry, recollections from Dante to Charon to Whitman find themselves expertly employed as they effectively manifested in page after page of this maddeningly morphean landscape.

The very same nightmare world that bequeathed us the contemporaneous Hellraiser comic series is truly reflected here with a larger degree of cohesiveness yet hardly approaching a degree of significantly transparent narrative. With that as it is, its precisely this alternating current between merely wading and truly trudging through this astral muck that make this journey across ~150 pages all the more worth it.

[Rizzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book will NOT be for everyone. It's borderline incoherent. The story is told out of order. The art is ambiguous and challenging. The concepts presented are difficult to grasp. No one would ever blame you for dropping this out of frustration, especially during the first 20 pages or so. But godDAMN I love this book. It's one of my favorite Morrison works without question. The ambition is incredible, and if you put the effort into putting the pieces together, I think it's a really rewarding. But it will take multiple reads, so if that's not something you're interested in, you might want to skip this one. Then again, the art alone is worth the price of admission.

[Ignacio · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reformulación del personaje de la edad de oro a través de un batiburrillo de ideas sacadas sobre todo de Clive Barker con gotas de Michael Moorcock, que convierten a Kid Eternity en una criatura al servicio de los señores del caos. Aunque esto tarda en saberse. Antes Morrison te confunde un buen rato con una historia contada sin demasiado orden ni concierto cuyas mejores páginas llegan cuando se visita el infierno. Fegredo está todavía un poco verde en todo lo que se refiere a narrativa y, aunque llama mucho la atención con sus ilustraciones, le cuesta aportar claridad cuando el guión más lo necesita.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not one of Morrison's strongest headtrips, but I still loved being slowly immersed into the world he built around the character of Kid Eternity. I'd never heard of Kid Eternity before, and having read this without doing any research about the character, I had no trouble keeping up with the spiraling, insane hellscape Morrison constructs here.

I think what I most appreciated about this book is that it's a somewhat-rare instance of Morrison truly earning the chaos he puts forth. This is a book that harnesses the flashes that come in the last moments of life, spitting out seemingly disconnected, random scenes that gradually gel to form a character's memories and, eventually, a complete story. It's genuinely satisfying to start figuring out the narrative as you move forward, and realize that Morrison isn't just wasting your time with weirdo Lynchian freakouts. All of this stuff matters this time.

Additionally, once the story starts to enter the realms of Hell and the dead, it has an equally earned weirdness and art style that compliment its tale of people existing somewhere between life and death, sanity and insanity. Fegredo's harsh, horrifying art style goes a long way to enhance this experience, leaving you feeling just as disoriented and overwhelmed as the main character. This is an important distinction within Morrison's work: sometimes his characters fully understand everything that's going on, leaving the reader feeling like a confused idiot for not also "getting it." But this time, we're along for the ride, and the fact that Hell is an indescribable nightmare is, obviously, fitting.

The only real negative about this book are its instances of exposition. It's strange to read such a trippy, abstract, nontraditional narrative, the story to revealing itself to you in fragments, and then suddenly stop dead to have a character explain in detail who he is and what he's doing. It happens on two occasions in the book, one of them being basically a character explaining the ending to you. I didn't love having my hand held for the final ten steps of a thousand mile journey, but I guess Morrison and/or Vertigo felt the need to guide us over the finish line. Oh well.

In any case, this is a great example of Morrison's style, and ever-so-slightly more accessible than his usual fare. It's also short and to the point, leaving no time for meandering detours or wasted scenes. I recommend it!

[Jesse A · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't care for the art at all The story was typical GM weirdness. Not super enjoyable.

[Valéria. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, takže postupne. Prvý book bol totálny chaos, netušila som poriadne čo sa deje a kam to celé bude smerovať. Druhý začal všetko pekne vysvetlovať, a tretí bol ku koncu totálny mess, ktorý mal miestami strašné diery. Napriek tomu sa to naozaj dobre čítalo, ale! Obrovským plusom je tam fakt skvelá kresba, ktorá výborne dotvára atmosféru a z niektorých stránok mi naozaj bolo až nepríjemne. Nie je to Grantovo number one, ale zas úplný odpad to tiež nie je. Verím, že na re-read sa mi to bude páčiť dokonca viac a možno pochopím aj veci, ktoré mi teraz unikli. 3.5/5

[Jake Nap · Rating 4 out of 5]

Turn. Turn. Turn.

Kid Eternity is one of the more abstract Morrison works I’ve read, but it was also his tightest abstract works. Unlike something like Nameless, the hard to follow nature of the story culminates really really well in the end allowing for a satisfying pay off.

The writing had a very stream of consciousness aura to it at some parts with Morrison using Hell’s Lords of Chaos to speak about life and it’s meaning. It was very Grant Morrison and I very much enjoyed it. Morrison starts the book by telling a few seemingly disconnected stories all at once. It was jarring and a little hard to follow, but being familiar with his work I knew I had to push through to get a grasp on the story he was trying to tell. As I said before, this disconnectedness does eventually pay off in the end in a satisfying way. All of what I expected to be loose ends tied together very cleanly.

This was a very high concept Morrison title and there could be no artist that could’ve matched this like Duncan Fegredo. His work in this book was astounding. I’ve never seen him to this painted Dave McKean/Bill Sienkiewicz style before, but he pulls it off very well. His layouts were easy to follow despite the more abstract art style and he conveyed the story clearly in my opinion. Also, props to both Morrison and Fegredo for doing one of the coolest and most engaging renditions of Hell I’ve ever seen.

Overall a solid solid Morrison story. Definitely in the lower good upper middle section of his bibliography, but a good pick for Morrison fans to read once you’ve read all his classics.

8/10

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of Morrison's earlier works, and it's entirely terrific. The story is beautifully told, with repetitive tropes crazily cross-cutting. The darkening of Kid Eternity is interesting, and though I could see how some folks might have hated it, Morrison created a very viable modern character. And finally there's the artwork by Duncan Fegredo, a Bill Sienkiewicz-ripoff. It's entirely beautiful (and stops short of the muddiness that sometimes hurt Sienkiewicz's art). It's also very appropriate for the story and helps to improve it.

Yes, this book is a tough read, and may even require a reread, but it's nonetheless spectacular.

[Uva Costriuba · Rating 2 out of 5]

que inferno de livro. a arte é interessante... cores, traços e composição bem interessantes. mas tudo é difícil de ler. imagino que o objetivo era se aproximar da elektra do sienkiewicz ou mesmo do sandman do mckean, mas não chegou lá. essa personagem reciclada "kid eternidade" perde pro constantine e me incomoda. experiência esquisita e truncada, leitura difícil.

[Maxi Parada · Rating 5 out of 5]

El gion como no puede ser de otra manera, FENOMENAL. pero el dibujo de Fregredo me dejo mas que impresionado. sin bien puede haber una cierta similitud con el dibujo de Dave McKean en arkham asylum, me parece algo completamente distinto y diferenciado entre estos dos dibujantes. cada viñeta se presta para analizarla por varios minutos y ni que hablar de cada pagina. un comic ideal para la reelectura ( como todo lo de morrison ) y mas que recomendado si te gusta el autor.

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kid Eternity as written by Grant Morrison is a darker version of the series (as is to be expected from the maestro himself) It's the usual Grant Morrison weirdness and high concept on steroids. In places it's really mind-blowing, in others quite boggling. In those latter places Duncan Fegredo's artwork saves the day. Still, it's a worthwhile read. The non-linear narrative notwithstanding.

[Nate]

An early Morrison book, and it’s decent. As with most pre-Vertigo Vertigo comics (this was published in 1991, later incorporated into the imprint), he resurrects an obscure character and gives them a modern spin. This is a rather dark book for Morrison. Then again, the character he resurrects is a kid who dies too early and is granted the ability to summon dead people by the Lord of Chaos. The beginning is confusing, but the plot gets rolling soon enough. Pretentious narration inevitably dates the book. On the flip side, Duncan Feguro’s art is awfully pretty. He has a Bill Sienkiewicz/Dave McKean style, capturing well the disturbing supernatural tone of the story. Kid Eternity is certainly minor Morrison, but I’d say it’s worth checking out for a peek at his darker side, a la Arkham Asylum. And I must reiterate how beautiful the book looks.

[Drew Canole · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fegredo channeling Bill Sienkiewicz. Grant Morrison being pointless.

I would have liked to have been given a story I could care about if only so I could spend some more time with the beautiful artwork.

[Nicholas Flores · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this story but it was hard to get into...

You have to push thru the first cantos where the storylines disjointed and start putting the pieces together in the second.

The art is amazing and it's beautiful.

It's a quick read and a slight brain burner.

[Jared Conti · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit hard to follow, but what of Morrison's isn't? Nice art, and a great steal for $3 at MishMash in Bellefonte. Signed by the author as well? Good deal.

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

A mess.

[RubiGiráldez RubiGiráldez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Con ya unos años de serialización Vertiguera, no puedo no ver este Kid Eternity como un ejercicio similar al que realizó Neil Gaiman con Sandman. Aunque es cierto que Grant Morrison trabaja a un nivel más meta, buscando cualquier pliegue de reverso tenebroso a la hora revisionar al personaje original que da a pie a la miniserie. Uno de la era pre-DC, colindante a Shazam (originalmente conocido como Capitán Marvel) pero en una premisa más ñoña de niño que muere de forma injusta y un personaje rubinesco del mismo Cielo busca resarcir devolviéndole a la Tierra con diversos poderes.

Morrison parte aquí primeramente de imaginar a Kid Eternity atrapado en el "Más Allá" tres décadas. Y a posteriori de enfrentar a este más mayorcete "Kid" a las siniestras verdades de su génesis sobrenatural. Todo ello entrecruzando varias historias a mayores de otros personajes envueltos en este evento donde las fuerzas del "Infierno" se están colando en el plano terrenal.

En esencia, Kid Eternity es una Nueva (Nueva) Divina Comedia para el 9ª arte donde Duncan Fegredo se zambulle en la tenebrista locura gráfica colindante al Dave McKean con quien Morrison ya había hecho surgir el contundente Arkham Asylum. Ya sea en la Tierra o en los escenarios dantescos de retorcidas almas condenadas e impensables entidades o personajes que solo pueden existir en esos reinos reservados a los mortales solo tras haber espirado su último aliento, cada página de Kid Eternity resulta un absorbente vórtice a este sobrecogedor viaje a los mayores abismos. Para lo cual, existe la presencia del desdichado comediante con el que empezamos la historia. Alguien que solo puede recurrir al gran tabú de la muerte para intentar arrancar un atisbo de sonrisa o carcajada del silente publico. Un accidente automovilístico y manifestaciones pesadillescas asesinas no solo le hacen enfrentarse de verdad a la magnitud de sus macabras mofas. Del mismo "Más Allá" emerge un chico de blanco espectral que le exige acompañarle en la búsqueda de un ser con el que poder continuar la labor sobrenatural que Kid ha dejado pospuesta debido a su encierro en lo que se puede definir como el Infierno.

Por supuesto, en gran parte, la narrativa de Morrison busca ser puramente caótica. Aunque al término de la lectura y seguramente en relecturas posteriores todas las partes se descubrirán con mayor lógica retorcida (al final, son 3 entregas y no más de 20 o 30). Y es que, en varios momentos de Kid Eternity, el autor parece conectar más de lo esperado con el tuétano del corpus DCita. Estando lo más evidente en esa implicación de los Señores del Orden y el Caos aunque no haya aparecido el Dr. Fate u otros representantes más conocidos de estas manifestaciones del mayor conflicto de la existencia .

Kid Eternity no es una lectura de pura evasión. Es lo más cercano que tendríamos si Clive Barker guionizase para DC. También para muchos, su propuesta de dilemas morales y conceptuales entrelazadas a perturbadoras realidades de condenación eterna, será descartada en una mayor ambición del medio. Yo creo que sí que es una de esas grandes joyas de extensión corta del revolucionario sello Vértigo aún a redescubrir.

[HowardtheDuck95 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is probably the most nihilistic work of Grant Morrison’s I have read. And I have read a lot of his works. The book is confusing at first, but as it goes on, things click more and more into place until…it all just works. This book is hard to straight up recommend, and I’d approach his other works first, but I found it quite interesting and worth my time.

This book is very 90s, for a few reasons. First it’s point of view character is Definitely Not Jerry Seinfeld. The second is that it’s ideas of deconstruction of the title character’s golden age roots is firmly planted in that era’s notions of grim and gritty realities when you strip them back. To say more would be to ruin the book. I almost wonder how Grant would feel about it if asked now, considering they’ve largely moved away from such a tone.

The coolest notions of this book are the way they construct the ideas of heaven, hell, angels, demons, in a framework that de-emphasizes the Abrahamic religious notions of the concepts and instead puts them in an Order vs Chaos framework. God is not anthropomorphized, nor is the Devil. It takes the DC universe idea of the Lords of Order and Chaos and squarely plants them in this… cosmic machine as it puts it.

The art is stupendous. What Duncan Fegredo does here is disturbing and gorgeous. It’s Sienkiewicz meets Hieronymus Bosch. I was more familiar with his later more traditional style, so this came as a pleasant shock to me. Feels like some of the stuff Liam Sharp is working with in digital painting these days.

[Julián "Mystletain" Rodríguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kid Eternity no es una lectura para todo el mundo. Como sucede con muchos comics de Morrison vas a estar leyendo un buen rato sin entender nada de lo que pasa, y esto se acentúa por el espectacular dibujo de Fegredo, que resulta confuso en el mejor de los sentidos. Cuando estás a mitad de lectura te empiezas a sentir como un explorador en medio de la jungla, abriendose paso a través de la vegetación con cada vez mas soltura hasta que por fin lo entiendes todo (o casi, porque sigue siendo un comic de le autore Escocés y no te vas a llevar nunca el 100% de la obra entendida) y ya puedes acabar la historia con una sonrisa de satisfacción.
Pero lo mas satisfactorio probablemente sea el volver a empezarlo entendiendo esa cacofonia de sucesos, personajes, colores y formas que te resultaron tan hostiles en el primer acercamiento.
Todo lo anterior se consigue gracias a la sinergia entre los autores, ya que Fegredo plasma de manera única las ideas de Grant con ese dibujo subrealista y unas composiciones de página muy locas que te dejan con la mandíbula en el suelo.
Si llegas a encontrarte con este comic dale una oportunidad. Podría no gustarte nada pero hasta en ese caso se te va a quedar rondando por la memoria

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was okay to me, but like a lot of Morrison's early Vertigo work, it's just a little too weird. The painted art was confusing at times, but this book reminded me of an issue of Marvel's original Hellraiser series.

The basic premise is pretty cool, but Morrison uses a lot of stream-of-consciousness writing and that loses me after a while. As some reviewers have said, Morrison's writing is a "head trip."

Kid Eternity has the power to call up historical and mythological characters in order to aid him, which when you think about it is an awesome power. But he's more of a hipster than a superhero. He escapes from Hell and a stand up comedian ends up caught in the chase when Hell pursues him. As I said earlier, this reads like Hellraiser with a bit of Hellblazer thrown in, but the whole isn't necessarily greater than the sum of its parts.

Overall if you like your comics weird (such as Morrison's run on Doom Patrol) you'll probably enjoy this. If you prefer your books more straight forward and less existential, you might what to skip it.

[Matt Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grant Morrison is a writer notorious for opaque storytelling. From one perspective, Fegredo’s beautiful, messy, and dark art (and compact, overlapping panel layout) would make a perfect match. Unfortunately, impenetrable art and abstract storytelling mix like oil and water for me. There are wonderful ideas here, but I really had to look for them (tldr: I don’t want to work this hard and end up deciphering maybe half the book).

Fegredo’s art and Morisson’s writing did actual combine to make one of my favorite depictions of hell. It’s challenging and creative. I especially appreciated the imagery of hell as a living thing, an unholy fusion of living material. The ideas were great too (eg: “Hell changes constantly but there are certain consistent landmarks which always stay the same in relation to one another. They’ve been reinforced by expectation until they’ve become permanent”).

[Hibiscus e Livros · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gente... que montanha russa!

Certamente recomendo ler as primeiras 50 páginas e depois (dar um tempo talvez) ler de novo desde o início e aí sim terminar a leitura. Porque o começo é realmente muito frenético e um pouco confuso, mas ler de novo já sabendo algumas coisas pode ajudar a melhorar a experiência com o restante da leitura.

Demorei mais do que achava que iria lendo essa HQ, mas sinceramente foi incrível... tudo se encaixando no final! Aaaah sem palavras ♥️

E aquela cena com letras da música “Deadman’s Curve”?! Coloquei a música pra ler esse trecho ouvindo ela e foi uma das melhores experiências de leituras que já tive em muito tempo!

Simplesmente leia, é maravilhoso.

[Joaquin Ruiz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Morrison siempre es una experiencia. Kid Eternity no es la excepción. La narrativa es lisergica y alucinógena, lo que ayuda a lo que quiere contar la trama. Para poner un paralelo me parece mucho mas solida que Arkham asylum.
El trabajo de DuncaFregado que a través de su arte y el diseño de los paneles nos arrastra a los confines del infierno y de algun modo logra yuxtaponer tiempos distitnos de la historia para gerarar la sensación de monada, de eternidad...me parece francamente impecable.
A nivel personal, no me convencio tanto pero porque siento que hace falta algun narcótico o un estado emocional adecuado para poder adentrarse en la locura de la historia.

[Vinoth Madivanan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a weird weird read. The weirdness just starts right away and by the time you hit page 40 or so, you will feel like its spiraling out of control. Then, as the story progresses, I realized the structure and once you get the hand of the timeline, its appears to be a fun read after all, still very very weird trip like experience but I liked it.

The art is super detailed and gorgeous. Reminds me of Dave McKean's work, but this one is definitely weirder, in a good good way. It's not for everyone, the story is super chaotic and a little hard to follow until you grasp the structure entirely. Worth a try.

[dr_set · Rating 2 out of 5]

The art of this work is amazing but, unfortunately, I didn't like the story at all.

The whole premise is confusing and it lacks substance. Some comedian guy is part of a grand design by the rulers of a strange version of hell to evolve man kind using the "forces of chaos" and escape the prison of reality created by the "forces of order" that want to maintain the statu quo​.

To achieve their goals, they manipulate and entity called "Kid Eternity" to go with the comedian in a "Divine comedy" like trip to hell to rescue another entity ...

The references to Chaos Magick and some forms of Gnosticism are quite explicit.

I love Grant's work, but this didn't hit the mark for me.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Come tutte le robe di Morrison, leggi le prime 20 pagine e non si capisce niente, i disegni di Fegredo sono imbarazzanti da quanto belli ma sicuramente non aiutano a fare ordine in questa storia.

Anche una volta inquadrata e finita, resta una storia fuori dalle righe dove fantascienza ed esoterismo si intrecciano, religione e spiritismo vanno a braccetto in tinte oscure a tratti horror.

Disegni fuori scala, ma non adatti a raccontare una storia metafisica e religiosa rendendola più confusionaria ......l'ho già detto disegni stupendi?
Narrazione alla Morrison, ma stavolta non mi ha catturato, forse semplicemente non il mio genere.

[Hex75 · Rating 4 out of 5]

ho aspettato anni per leggerlo (avevo comprato il primo episodio in edicola a metà anni '90, ma poi la casa editrice era fallita...), ma l'attesa è stata ricompensata da un'opera unico. un parto del morrison più lsergico e estratto accompagnato da un duncan fegredo in stato di grazia. certo, a volte si rischia di perdere il filo di una storia completamente fuori dagli schemi e forse proprio per questo chi non è abituato ad un certo tipo di fumetto rischia di stancarsi: ma chi sa di quali vette sia capace grant morrison non può lasciarsi scappare una simile opera.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Lords of Order and Chaos using humans (both living and dead) as pawns in their game to evolve the human race.

Retcons to make a cute kids story the features a leering pedophile instead. Kid Eternity is not a bit of a punk aesthetic instead. It's got the great glorious 80s painted art, with bit of dada influence.

A cheap version of Dante's Inferno via comicbook ephemera. This is pure 80s Vertigo, that now looks a bit ridiculous but felt so intimate with Swamp Thing, John Constantine, Dream, etc.. This is Gullivers Travels meets Clive Barker's Cenobites.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I usually hate Grant Morrison. This is easily the first of his works that I liked. Didn't love it but I liked it. The story mixed with his signature writing style worked well combined with a trippy and colorful art style. It definitely requires you to slow down and pay very close attention to everything happening. It's a story that delves into the concept of heaven and hell and so on.
I would have definitely skipped over it if it wasn't for someone handing me a physical copy and insisting that I read it.

[Clint · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fegredo’s fully painted art is wild and phantasmagorically beautiful, epitomizing the sort of late 80s/early 90s style that’s now shorthand for Vertigo’s early output. Morrison’s ambitious metaphysical plotting is abstract and told in a non-linear way that can be incomprehensible in the moment, but a few exposition dumps are spaced throughout that cleared up what’s happening enough to render the whole thing enjoyable by the end for me.

I don’t know if anything truly profound gets said, but it’s surely ambitious and imaginative and pretty if nothing else!