The Filth
DC/Vertigo.
The
Filth (13-issue mini; w Grant Morrison; a Chris Weston & Gary Erskine).
[From DC Comics: Writer extraordinaire Grant Morrison (ANIMAL MAN,
THE INVISIBLES, New X-Men) returned to VERTIGO in 2002 with THE FILTH, a
13-issue tour de force of innovative comics narrative and eye-popping visual
accomplishment. Now, every imaginative page is being collected into one
320-page VERTIGO trade paperback featuring the astonishing, intricate artwork
of Chris Weston (THE INVISIBLES, Ministry of Space) and Gary Erskine (THE
AUTHORITY) and a new cover by progressive designer Carlos Segura. THE FILTH
tells the story of Greg Feely, a meek, lonely man caring for his sick cat,
Tony. But Greg Feely is really a parapersonality, created as a recuperative
vessel for Ned Slade, a top-level operative in The Hand — an extra-dimensional
clean-up squad charged with maintaining society’s even keel, the Status:
Q. Operating from their microscopic base in The Crack, The Hand’s divisions
clean up disruptive “anti-persons” that threaten social hygiene,
and Slade is needed back on the job to hunt down the most dangerous anti-person
yet: the rogue Hand agent Spartacus Hughes. Not even a person anymore, Hughes
has become a set of ideas jumping from carrier to carrier, spreading chaos
and destabilization. Slade oscillates between his “true” personality
and that of Feely as he hunts Hughes down and clears up the shattered, impossible
wreckage of reality that results — but in the end, which one is really
him? And why has The Hand been created? What does it have to do with a foul-mouthed,
communist assassin-chimp, bad-tempered nazi dolphins, a paralyzed comic-book
hero made flesh and the origins of intelligent life on earth? The answers
to all these questions and more can only be found here. Put more simply,
THE FILTH is a comic like no other — a savage satire of new millenium
sex, politics and identity and an operator’s manual for the zeitgeist
inside your bloodstream. Don’t get left behind! Innoculate yourself!
Order now!] Book of the Week 5/5/04