Anarchy for the Masses: The Disinformation Guide to The Invisibles

The Invisibles #Guide

by Patrick Neighly, Kereth Cowe-Spigai

Grant Morrison's "The Invisibles" was the most ground-breaking and controversial comic book series of the last decade. A must-have for comics fans, this Guide features exhaustive, detailed analysis of the full six-year series as well as all-new, exclusive interviews with Morrison and many of the series' artists and editors.

Already featured in "Disinformation: The Interviews" and the accompanying TV series and DVD, Grant Morrison has been heavily promoted as a contemporary pop culture star, the first comics writer to be included as one of "Entertainment Weekly's" top 100 creative people in America. We will market the book aggressively to Morrison fan sites and comics, skate and punk zines.

Genres: Comics, Reference, Graphic Novels, Nonfiction, Graphic Novels Comics

288 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2002

Reviews

[Whitney Maas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best part of this Invisibles "interpretation" was the conversation with Grant Morrison at the conclusion of the book. I recommend it just for that segment.

[Brendan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-read, 01/2019: This still serves as a great guide to The Invisibles. Some of the issue-by-issue breakdown’s contents are not entirely on-topic, focusing more on comic creation issues, but the notes and explanations collected here are priceless.


i finally got around to reading this after i read the entire run of "the invisibles" twice. worthwhile for the interviews and some of the insight in the issue-by-issue guide to the storyline.

[Travis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty comprehensive commentary on Grant Morrison's defining work. If you've come out the other side of The Invisibles muttering "what the fuck was that about?" (and a lot of whiny one- and two-star reviews indicate this is not uncommon) this is your go-to.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite the Rosetta Stone I had hoped for, but some good anecdotal stories are told. While it isn't as necessary as, say, a companion guide while reading Ulysses, Anarchy for the Masses can increase one's enjoyment of Morrison's sometimes impenetrable epic The Invisibles.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The copy I found online didn't have the panels so I might've missed the whole thing. That being said there seemed to be too much side talk about the illustration/writing process for me

[Jason Berg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is only one of many possible interpretations of Grant Morrison's "The Invisibles," but even so, the comprehensive breakdown of each book, page by page, panel by panel, gives a lot of food for thought. However, the crowning jewel is the interview with Grant Morrison where he expounds upon the ideas that permeate the books, what he was trying to accomplish with "The Invisibles," as well as his interests in fringe topics. As suggestions by Patrick Neighly, I read "Anarchy for the Masses" after going through the entirety of "The Invisibles;" however, next time I give the series a read through, I'll probably read this alongside.

[Lloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite simply, if you're going to read "The Invisibles", this book is indispensible.

With a chapter for every issue of the series, explanations of panels, every reference you might miss out on reading the series alone, detailed biographies of the characters, and even suggestions for further reading, this book has opened my eyes to all sorts of things in "The Invisibles" that I would have never discovered without it.

If you're gonna read the series, read it one or two times without this book and then YOU MUST READ THIS ALONGSIDE IT!

[Ted Child · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Grant Morrison interview alone made this book worth while reading but it also has some honest critiques and helpful annotations. Reading this book confirmed for me that, although I have just finished reading The Invisibles, I don’t think I’ll ever really be finished with it and why would you want to be. Anarchy for the Masses doesn’t hesitate to point out The Invisibles many flaws but always with a enthusiast’s sympathetic eye, exactly what you want in a book like this

[Jessedubin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great for the (dis)info that's in the book, but occasionally what's missing is pretty glaring. The interviews spread through the book are great, but feel recycled and cut up somewhat arbitrarily into chapters. Some sections only contain a brief opinion by the authors, so I would love to see a revised edition that asks the creators new in-depth questions about the specific chapters.

[Terra Bosart · Rating 5 out of 5]

The disinfo guide to the Invisibles is excellent. It pointed out several references, and symbols I did not catch in reading the Invisibles before. The interviews with Grant Morrison were thought provoking and informative.

[Daniel Burton-Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

As comprehensive a guide as one could wish for to the myriad allusions in the best comic ever!

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Analysis and criticism of an incredibly complex comic book series. I loved the Invisibles, and this book showed me why.