Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Milwaukie, OR : Dark Horse Books, 2016.
Description
Media theorist and documentarian Douglas Rushkoff weaves a mind-bending tale of iconography and mysticism against the backdrop of a battle-torn Europe. In a story spanning generations, and featuring some of the most notable and notorious idealists of the 20th century, legendary occultist Aleister Crowley develops a powerful and dangerous new weapon to defend the world against Adolf Hitler's own war machine spawning an unconventional new form of warfare that is fought not with steel, but with symbols and ideas. Unfortunately, these intangible arsenals are much more insidious and perhaps much more dangerous than their creators could have ever conceived.
User reviews
LibraryThing member paradoxosalpha
Aleister & Adolph is Douglas Rushkoff's comic-book version of the "Magical Battle of Britain," told from the perspective of a young American propaganda agent, and nested within a 1990s frame story that connects the occult phenomena of the story with twenty-first century current events. The starkly
A foreword by Grant Morrison heaps praise on the book, and while I found Rushkoff's writing refreshingly free of clinkers, Morrison's claim of "impeccable historical research" is maybe a bit over the top. On the count of positive history, though, it's certainly a lot better than Alan Moore's From Hell--or Symonds' Medusa's Head, for that matter. Selections from the artist's sketches appended to the book include some text by Oeming that made me glad he hadn't been the writer, e.g., "I'm still not sure if Crowley was truly evil or just a performance artist..." as if that exhausted the possibilities.
On the whole, this graphic novel is a stylish little taste of occult history, with some genuinely chilling storytelling.
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black-and-white art by Michael Avon Oeming is a little cartoonish, but never silly, and is quite effective for some necessarily impressionistic passages of the plot. The story is a fast read, and a good one. With only 77 pages to the body of the book, it can easily be digested in two sittings. Despite Hitler's presence in the title, there is no personal focus on him comparable to the one on Crowley.A foreword by Grant Morrison heaps praise on the book, and while I found Rushkoff's writing refreshingly free of clinkers, Morrison's claim of "impeccable historical research" is maybe a bit over the top. On the count of positive history, though, it's certainly a lot better than Alan Moore's From Hell--or Symonds' Medusa's Head, for that matter. Selections from the artist's sketches appended to the book include some text by Oeming that made me glad he hadn't been the writer, e.g., "I'm still not sure if Crowley was truly evil or just a performance artist..." as if that exhausted the possibilities.
On the whole, this graphic novel is a stylish little taste of occult history, with some genuinely chilling storytelling.
Show Less
LibraryThing member SwitchKnitter
This was really cool. The interpretation of the historical facts and the framing story were fascinating, and the art was astonishing. I got the library to buy this, but now I want my own copy.
Language
Original publication date
2016-11-02
ISBN
9781506701042