Hello and welcome back to MGA Study Hall, where all things Morning Glories are analyzed, dissected and poured over with the hope that we can figure out just what is going on!
Today’s issue is issue #42, which is easily my favorite issue of the series in quite some time.
Join me as I discuss the issue, its story and the possible hidden secrets that we may or may not be picking up on. I should note: this column contains massive spoilers for the issue. Enormous. Colossal, even. The issue is out today, so make sure to read it first before you read our thoughts. It helps to give the issue a few read throughs before coming to us, but consider this your warning about impending spoilers.
As always, our very lovely/supremely awesome column header was designed by the graphic designer for the actual book, Tim Daniel! For more of Tim’s work, please visit his site Hidden Robot and be sure to check out Tim’s books “Curse” and “Skinned“!
One more thing before we begin, as I’d like to continue to throw out this short plug:
For more details, click the image above. As for myself, I’ve got theorizing to do. Let’s kick it off.
Dreamwalking
If you pull out your back issues as you read, you may find that the opening of this issue has some slight similarities to the opening of issue #10: both feature Jade wandering through the school empty at light, only for it to be illuminated with glowing morning glory flowers as “THE HOUR OF OUR RELEASE DRAWS NEAR” is plastered against the walls. We even get to see Megan again, and what we can assume is Megan as a child, as she gives Jade a cryptic warning that we can (again) assume is about Casey, which we’ll talk about more soon.
One change to the dream, though, is the appearance of Dagney, of which there is a good deal we can say. Dagney and Jade have interacted in the past, though not quite personally (see: Issue #3), so that Dagney appears as this dreams’ most cryptic member is interesting — particularly because she claims to have sent Jade a message, which is either real (since we know dreams can be used to directly communicate) or a manifestation of Jade’s own (which is possible, because why not).
More to the point, Dagney refers to needing to kill a child. Perhaps it is her child, which would imply someone in the book is hers, but more importantly she references the trope of the parents killing their children, which not only works thematically for the book but also ties to a few perhaps pertinent myths which the book is certainly abundant with.
For example, there is Theogeny, the Greek myth of the birth of the gods and the role of Cronos. In the most famous iteration of this story, Cronos is the primary god, who eats all of his own children based on a prophecy that one of them will destroy him. This role is inevitably inhabited by that of Zeus, most famous of the Greek gods, who casts his father down and takes up his mantle as rule of the cosmos. We can see a certain particularly pertinent tie to our series here with the idea of parental figures ostensibly acting against their children based on prophecy only to have the children rise up and take their place. So in this particular instance, Dagney would be Cronos if Cronos was unable to eat his children — and we saw what Zeus inevitably did to Cronos. On an even bigger scale, though, Cronos could be assigned to any of the parental figures — Daramount, Hodge, Abraham, etc.
Continued below(Though, perhaps also of note, Theogeny is primarily a creation mythology in which several of the gods are given birth to, which also ties into the idea of the school having “created (their) own gods.”)
The other particularly resonant option when looking at where this trope came from is Enûma Eliš, a Babylonian creation myth and the role of Apsu. This story tells the creation of the world in a similar way to the Greek story, where the two most primeval gods Apsu and Tiamat create other gods to take over various functions within her body. Apsu finds that he is not a fan of the other gods and plots to destroy them, which Tiamat stops from occuring. A rival god eventually kills Apsu and gives birth to Marduk, who destroys Tiamat’s body/god set-up, giving birth to the pantheon and leading to a war between Tiamat and Marduk. Marduk eventually defeats Tiamat and creates humankind to serve the gods. The comparisons to the Academy is pretty potent with this one: we can relate these to the rival factions of the schools and the idea of creating our own gods again, but more specifically, Apsu and Tiamat are both water gods, and we saw an ancient Sumerian temple dedicated to the water god Enki (#22) who is — have you guessed it yet? — the same as Apsu via a different translation.
And if we take this story as some kind of influence on “Morning Glories,” perhaps even prophecy, then it’s easy to sort of dwell on this and assign roles from that story to ours. Go on. Take a few minutes.
All this wonderful mythology goodness that you probably wouldn’t have even really bothered thinking about without this column aside, what I’d like to more specifically point out is that Jade is not only dreaming, but that she’s actually out in the school as she does so. This changes the nature of the dream; in the past we’ve been inside Jade’s head for the full strange duration of a dream (#10), and we’ve seen others have dreaming abilities as well (Hunter, the AV Club). Here Jade says she’s dreaming and we acknowledge it as truth, and yet she interacts with someone who is not dreaming as she’s kidnapped by The Real Jun.
So once again we have to question the nature of these dreams. Last time they were fairly prophetic as Jade saw both her distant and immediate future, but this one is more of a warning. Given Megan’s role in it and given that we know both a) powerful students can project imagery to others and b) students can share dreams, it is perhaps possible that Jade is interacting once again with Megan, whom she made a connection with earlier in the series (#3). But is Jade actually talking to Megan, or Dagney? Is this something The Real Jun has done to her to call her to him, explaining why she has gotten out of bed (which is new)? Or is it something else?
What Dagney is doing in the library, though, that I’ll leave up to your interpretation. I’m not sure if I’m digging too deep to try and find meaning for that myself. We’ve seen some very specific things happening in the library (the first instance of Study Hall where this column got its name, Hunter meeting the AV Club), none of which are associated with Dagney, so I’m a bit at a loss. However, if I had to guess, my best guess would be that it could be related somewhat to how Hunter wound up in a library in his sprawling dream sequence when he was searching for answers (#28), and that it could simply be related to the seeking and gaining of knowledge.
Once More, With Feeling
Just as the opening may have felt familiar, this sequence with Casey should as well as it’s meant to mirror a specific moment of issue #3: Casey confronts Hodge in the exact same posture and stance as she confronts Daramount back then. The conversations are obviously quite different; in the initial sequences Casey has no legs to stand on and is pretty green around the ears when it comes to the overall machinations of the Academy. That, and she simply perceives Daramount as a basic antagonist and not someone with whom she shares a strange connection with. Hodge, on the other hand, she has tussled with extensively and somewhat knows her foe in this regard — both as her current antagonist and somewhat as a frenemy. The Hodge/Casey relationship is tumultuous at best, but it does say something about Casey that she goes to Daramount’s sister for answers this time.
Continued belowThat’s not the only sequence that should feel familiar, though. When Casey leaves Daramount back in issue #3 she bumps into Ike in the hall, as she does here. Ike was just as sassy then as he is here, though at that point in the story Ike had a lot more fighting spirit; he hadn’t been ostracized from the group and Casey hadn’t physically pummeled him yet, and he encouraged her to take action. Here he encourages her to get action more than anything else while feigning a fair deal of disinterest, as we know he has feelings for Jade deep down somewhere in that weird heart of his.
And, last but not least and we’ll certainly talk about this whole scene more in general later, but it’s worth noting that the end scene of Casey getting ready to announce her candidacy for student body president also mirrors the final scene from issue #3, in which it appears that Casey might be compliant with the school’s insanity to keep up appearances — something that, for all intents and purposes, is echoed here rather adamantly.
One mantra that gets repeated a lot in this book is “this has all happened before, and this will all happen again.” It would appear that we’re seeing some recurrences sooner rather than later, although all with a bit of a mirrored bent against them: Casey confronting the faculty with some knowledge as to the school’s habits; Casey confronting her ex-friend knowing that last time she did this he betrayed her; Casey confronting her former public school nemesis now revealed to be a secret agent of the Academy. We’ve seen this before when Casey was armed with nothing, but now she has a very specific weapon in her arsenal — and in a learning environment, knowledge is the best weapon you can have.
Though, you know, you might just want to re-read issue #3 at this point.
I Wish I Was Special
Picking up where the last issue left off, we now see the continuation of the scene in which Guillaume and The Real Jun debate as to whether or not they can kill Jade in an attempt to bring back The Real Hisao. As we debated last time, The Real Jun has some sort of knowledge of the Ceremony and thinks that it can be utilized in this instance to bring back his brother; Guillaume, of course, tries to assert reason — and The Real Jun drops a little bomb on us by presenting Jade’s file, which includes some sort of reasoning as to why of course they should kill her.
This is interesting to us for two reasons. For one, if you did like I told you and went back to look at issue #3, you’ll notice that when Dagney and Nurse Nine were discussing Jade, they gave us a bit of pertinent information: she’s not special (Nine specifically refers to her as a “worthless birthday girl”). Whatever it is that they bring these kids to the school to find, Jade doesn’t have it in her. Yet, the second interesting aspect is that the book would seem to inherently conflict with this definition of Jade not being special. Jade dreams of the future and was experimented on in the past (#10) and at some point in the future takes charge of the school; not only that but at the end of #34 Jade apparently showed some form of necromancy, so she can clearly harness some kind of power. Jade is not not special — but there’s something off about her.
So what could that be? What makes her “right” for sacrifice? We have to take The Real Jun as an amoral pragmatist, someone who wants to do what he perceives as the right thing even though at the same time it involves doing something that is — morally and ethically — the wrong thing. For him it’s about a specific end goal, and to achieve that it means he ostensibly did his research to remove the least noteworthy player from the game. The question isn’t “what is his problem”, but rather “why is that Jade?” Did her actions at the end of #34 in some way destroy her abilities? Or, is it perhaps possible that Jade’s powers are hidden from others for some reason? Jade is the one that seems most detached from everyone else in the group regardless; is it possible that her detachment — which we perceive as stereotypical emo/goth girl behavior — somehow unsyncs her from the reality that the other students inhabit? She’s there, but she’s not all there, if you get what I mean.
Continued belowOr does her file give a clue of what is to happen to her in the future? It’s possible, after all; time seems almost immaterial here, lacking any kind of standard definition. Future Jade has interacted with the past both physically and mentally, and perhaps one of the instances of her doing so has left a trace that could be followed — in which case Megan’s warning would perhaps be about her and not Casey (though I doubt it — but my job is to ask questions, not give answers!).
I don’t know. But there’s something about Jade, for sure.
Simon and Son
This issue gives us one page of Oliver and Ian Simon in some weird, dusty back room. Oliver is showing some cowardice and Ian is continuing to be the little prick that he showed us he is, all so that he can find some kind of strange device that he claims will be part of his science project, ostensibly for the upcoming science fair. Given that when we last saw Ian he was standing at the Cylinder and planning to abuse its power, I can only imagine what his presentation at the science fair will be.
But what is that device? Why is it noteworthy? Why is it a bit of a bomb drop? Because, like so many things in this issue, we’ve seen it before: this device first appeared back in issue #1, and has remained mysterious ever since. Looking somewhat like a scantron machine (the device used to calculate scores off of standardized tests), the device is inherently linked to the Cylinder, as that is where it was housed when we originally saw it. In fact, dear old Brendan pulled something off the table by the machine that gave him pause, something unsettling about Vanessa that lead to David sneaking up behind him and killing him.
So we don’t know what the device does, but we know that it has specific importance in the story based on its previously known associates. What’s interesting here is that the device appears to have been removed from the Cylinder; if it was set-up as part of the Cylinder’s operations, why was it removed? We don’t see it in issue #6 or the climactic sequence of #28/opening of #29, though it is in the room in issue #5 when Casey and Zoe confront the Cylinder and the floor opens up to some kind of firey pit. My only potential guess is that it was partially removed in part by Ian and the Truants; the Truants found a way to manipulate time during the “PE” arc, and it somehow involved the Cylinder rotating (as revealed by the end of the arc when Casey’s interaction with the active Cylinder to reset time). It’s very plausible that Ian knows exactly what he’s doing in this scenario, and it’s his fault the device isn’t with the Cylinder in the first place.
As for what the not-scantron does in this scenario, I can’t particularly tell you. I once guessed that the Headmaster is a robot/machine, so maybe it’s the Headmaster? I don’t know. This scene, though, for what its worth, is pretty much emblematic of what I like about this issue: short sequences acquainting you with what everyone in this wide cast is up to. When the book follows a wide cast over a sprawling narrative is when it’s at its best, in my opinion.
We’ll Never Be Royal (Monsters)
Do you folks like Grant Morrison? I sure hope you do, because if you’ve not already read “The Invisibles” you’ve got to head out to your nearby store and buy some new comics.
Akiko is seen here reading ‘Royal Monsters’, the 11th issue of the first volume (contained, for the record, in the second overall trade of the series if you want to go get it) to the blinded Fortunato. It’s a touching little segment, re-iterating Akiko’s tragic state of affairs as a somewhat ghost/guardian angel to Fortunato, whose own situation is fairly tragic as well, and it shows that Ian’s actions did not go unnoticed. It’s interesting to see that in addition to Fortunato, Akiko sees herself as Ian’s guardian too, or perhaps his moral compass, and that without him she feels partially responsible for him going off the rails — all of which is just rather sad, in my opinion.
Continued belowHowever, what we need to do is talk about the issue of “the Invisibles” brought up here. I’m going to do my best to summarize the issue, though I really do have to note that it’s probably best if you just go and read the series yourself. I love the book, but there’s no way I’ll capture all the nuances that make this one-shot so wonderful to the overall narrative. Not only that, but this is not the first nor the last time “The Invisibles” will probably be brought up (it’s referenced by Hunter in issue #1, and both Nick and Joe have stated its influence on the series), so reading that would probably help you understand why I spend so much time annotating any comic, let alone this one.
Essentially, it goes down like this:
There are two factions in eternal war: those that are members of the Invisible College and those that are acolytes of the Archons of the Outer Church, an interdimensional conquering alien race. Our reality as we know it exists between the reality of the Invisible College and that of the Outer Church; the aliens control us and use us as a fuel source, and the Invisibles are trying to free us. (Ever see the Matrix? Yeah, Morrison was pissed too.) #11, entitled ‘Royal Monsters’, focuses on Jeremy Sutton, a servant under the orders of Sir Miles Delacourt, one of the leaders of the Outer Church who has summoned a creature known as the Moonchild into our reality. To placate the Moonchild, they feed it the bodies of homeless people and vagrants pulled off the street (essentially a twisted form of cleansing the lower class). As it inevitably turns out — and this is a big spoiler — Jeremy Sutton was a secret agent of the Invisibles infiltrating Delacourt’s home, and is outed for his role after trying to free the captive food source when he finds out that Miles has his daughter Kate as a potential meal for the Moonchild. That turns out to be a ruse in order to get Jeremy to tip his hand, however, thus inevitably resulting in Jeremy being fed to the Moonchild. And what Akiko refers to in this issue — that Jeremy thinks that the Moonchild likes him — is the recurring mantra of the issue.
What’s so sinister about the issue, and why it’s better if you’ve read it, is that Miles basically puts Sutton into this trap just because. Sutton isn’t a particularly noteworthy agent of the Invisibles, nor does he have any information that Miles wants. Miles just wants to fuck with Sutton, and he does in spectacular fashion. There’s no real point to prove, just a fatal punchline. But… hey, wasn’t there a mention of a trap in this issue of “Morning Glories” earlier? We’ll come back to that.
“The Invisibles” has always been important to the series, but this issue’s inclusion specifically seems to be something we (I) am supposed to dive into ad nauseum. After all, if I can take something as disparate as Greek and Babylonian mythology and link it to the book, then surely this is a no-brainer. The Moonchild, a creature summoned from the alternate Outer Church dimension who will one day rule our world, seems somewhat analogous to David in terms of “weird entities we don’t quite understand yet”. We could perhaps compare Sutton to Zoe, a secret agent of Abraham’s whom Daramount tried to manipulate using her relationship with David (#5, #7). It could also be a bit more broad than that, though, and the Sutton analogue could refer to someone we’re not familiar with yet — someone who has not yet tipped their hand. I mean, the idea of battling ideological factions in strange, amorphous definitions of reality fits well into our book as well, let alone the idea of embedded agents and inevitable betrayal.
And while I have one more theory I’ll pull out at the end of the column, I would generally assume that a big part of the inclusion of this as Akiko’s favorite really means it’s Nick’s favorite, though. It is a very good issue.
Akiko also makes mention of an issue about a guard that King Mob (the lead character, both based on and influencing writer Grant Morrison) kills, which is conveniently the next issue, #12, ‘Best Man Fall.’ I am not sure if we need to delve into this issue as deeply as #11, but it stands worth noting that the issue is perhaps the most obviously influential on “Morning Glories” based on its non-linear structure bouncing around the guard’s life leading up to his death; this kind of loose storytelling is clearly something that Nick has played with, in terms of narrative structure.
Continued belowSo, if you’ve never read “The Invisibles”, it’s probably time to, yes? Also, listen to Lorde.
Apples are Back in Season
This is a bit of a stray thought admittedly, but one of the earliest motifs of the series was the presence of apples. I’ve theorized about their importance in the past, the way that we associate them with learning and health and the way that apples are traditionally given to teachers as a return gift for the gift of knowledge, but they’d been missing from “Morning Glories” for some time.
Now the apples are back, and stand out to me more than the heartwarming letter from Vanessa’s mother to her. We see Vanessa approach a tree and pluck an apple from it, which sends my theorizing mind wild.
I mean, not to go off the rails, but lets consider the following three things:
- Apples are traditionally associated with Casey, and now are with Vanessa. This is a big issue for Casey that heavily references issue #3 of the series, which ended with Casey dropping off an apple on a teacher’s desk; where was Casey’s lucky apple this time, and why are we now associating apples with Vanessa?
- There’s that really, really famous story in the bible in which a woman plucks an apple from a tree and dooms us all. It’s a bit of a patronizing story, but could that have some sort of relevance given the biblical overtones of the series?
- The last time we saw Vanessa, we learned about shrines and saw an important scene in Vanessa’s life where she went back in time and met her former lover Brendan underneath — you guessed it — an apple tree (#32). The same apple tree? Perhaps; based on visual references from that issue it’s not that implausible to assume, I’d say.
I know, I know. I overthink things. But everything matters.
To me, anyway.
Sister Sister
In issue #35, Daramount brutalized Fortunato in order to send a message to the student body; it was a move that I referenced by paraphrasing Elton John – “the bitch is back.” Now we see that this worked, as Daramount struts through the halls of the Academy with all the confidence of the queen bee (I referenced Lorde earlier, and I’d imagine Daramount is a fan of the chorus to “Royals”). Students don’t even want to make eye contact with her anymore. It’s almost heartbreaking; you were beginning to think that Daramount really cared about the students after the “PE” arc, hugging the students as they returned, and now all she wants is their fear.
Of course, her sister Lara isn’t really taking much of her shit, and who can blame her? Lara has just as many (if not more) plates spinning of her own accord, and the two sisters seem very much in opposition about things. I’ve no real reason to believe that Lara is on the side of the students, though the concern she expresses for Fortunato and Jade both are quite curious. I would imagine that they’re more self-serving than anything, though, because as Lara notes she has had to clean up two messes made by Daramount in the past (#12, #20).
As the dialogue seems to lean towards, it appears that Hodge knows what is coming — or, that something is coming. Daramount knows what is happening around the school currently (for the most part; the Jade bit seems to be news), but Hodge is familiar with how it ends — and given that whatever we are seeing happens on some kind of cycle (“this has all happened before, this will all happen again”) it seems that Hodge is perhaps cognizant of what this is all about. I don’t get the feeling that Daramount is aware of what the point of all this is (she’s certainly subservient to her fathers wishes and she’s definitely all-in in terms of the nasty things she is willing to do for the school, or push others to do), but this might explain a bit more about why Hodge is doing what she is doing — or at least attempting to, in terms of her manipulating Casey as she has been.
Also of note: Fortunato is named as one of the students who was to be “spared.” That’s a very interesting word choice on Lara’s behalf. Again, I have no reason to believe she’s on the side of the students, and when she says things like “spared” — implying that some of them will not be spared some kind of punisher or death — it sort of emphasizes that point.
Casey for Student Council President
Before this book even began, several teasers were run showcasing the main cast. Casey’s read “Most Likely to Save the World.” With her impassioned speech to the student body at the end of the issue, I almost believe in her.
What’s interesting to me is that it’s becoming increasingly clear how much the student body is aware of in terms of why they’re at the school and what is happening to them. When we saw the Glories arrive back in issue #1, for the most part we were under the assumption that they were just getting ready to attend a prestigious private school; at least half of them had no idea what was in store for them when they arrived at the campus (and the other half were secret agents, secret sons and secret brothers). There’s always been this veil that hides what lies beneath the surface at the school, but more and more we’re seeing that veil torn away and the students brought into the know – and if they didn’t know what was going on before, they certainly figured stuff out once the school newspaper started circulating.
Was it the events of Woodrun? We saw several students upset by the time displacement, perhaps in a Stockholme Syndrome fashion. Or was this knowledge and compassion always there, like something we refused to acknowledge? Isabel (whose last name we learn is Traveiso, which is Spanish for “mischievous or naughty”, thus making everything she says incredibly suspect) flat out says that “Many of us, including myself—we were brought here against our will. Taken from our friends and our families.” The students know that the school is bad news, and while we’re following a few of them as they plan various insurrections, what are the other students doing in the meantime? Living in placid captivity? Not necessarily. After all, Isabel figured out a way to work the system.
So what Casey suggests during the confrontation is perhaps questionable. Is Isabel always Student Council President because she runs unopposed, or is Isabel always Student Council President because the student body is “in on it” with her? Casey wants to destroy the school and send all the kids home, but the school has shown us dead parents hanging in a dungeon before (#1, though whether that was a ruse or not is up to you, based on Irina’s interactions with the same scenario in #21); do these kids even have homes to go back to? Casey claims to be the great liberator of our time… but what if she just makes things worse?
Hey, what did Megan tell Jade at the beginning of the issue?
Don’t Play With Me, ‘Cause You’re Playing With Fire
So much of this issue has felt like an echo of the first arc. It’s obviously on purpose; there are direct allusions to earlier issues all over the issue, particularly #3. But one thing that caught my attention immediately was when Casey threatened to “torch this whole God-forsaken place.”
It’s not the first time that we’ve seen Casey associated with fire, nor is it the first time she’s threatened to burn the school to the ground (#5, “Let’s see how much leverage you still have when I burn this goddamn place to the ground.”) Not only that, but we see in the future that the school has been destroyed, and it looks like it was in fact burned to the ground (#27), which implies that she does get her wish at some point.
The fire aspect is interesting when you think about it, particularly because this book has more references to water. There’s the temple of Enki (#22) and there’s the detention issue where the school attempts to drown the students (#2), whereas when the Truants had detention it was fire that ended when Irina saved her group by getting the sprinklers to go off (#21). But we began the issue with a warning from Megan that (assumedly) Casey’s actions would result in destruction; with water motifs surrounding the school, let alone Casey (she grows up to marry and have a child with Tom Reed), is she perhaps the fire?
Continued belowOk, one last parallel and then I’m out for this month.
One Last Parallel
If you take issue #3 and place it side by side with this one, you’ll notice that there’s a huge similarity in the ending: the intercuts of various actions with Casey getting ready. In issue #3, it’s Megan rescuing Jade and Jade being re-taken for Nurse Nine; here, it’s Isabel talking about why she’s so excited to be Student Council President again as she relates to everyone currently attending the Academy. And while this issue’s sequence is shorter, it’s still worth noting the way the issues echo other.
Because, dear friends, issue #3 was the issue that introduced to the phrase “the hour of our release draws near” to us. Present at the beginning as writing on the wall before later appearing in Casey’s notebook (which we learn she knows from a book that her future self told her about in issue #27), it’s certainly foreboding. The phrase appears at the beginning of this issue, which itself mirrors sequences from issue #10, but that our first modern introduction to the words was Megan — and that it is Megan who asserts a more direct warning while encompassed by this message seems particularly important, especially when this issue, with all of it’s allusions to issue #3, does not end with the phrase.
To me, this is fairly significant. For one, I’d imagine that we can assert that by Casey saying she’s running for student council president here, she’s alluding to what she believes will be the hour of their release — literally, when she torches the school to the ground and lets all of the students free. But that message seems to imply some kind of hope, and not something bad; “release” is ostensibly a good thing, and yet Casey running for president here is not, according to Megan. And given that we know that the only reason Casey is even really doing this is from frequent pushes from Hodge, it certainly makes Hodge’s commentary earlier to her sister a bit more suspect.
Like I said, I think Hodge knows where this is all heading. I think everything Hodge is doing is very much on purpose, something that she finds herself nudging Casey towards so she can reach some kind of endgame, whether or not that is the same endgame as what the Headmaster and the school are after of their own accord. But if that results in disaster — whether that is everyone dying, the school burning down, neither or both — then what is it all for?
Hey, what did Megan tell Jade at the beginning of the issue?
Oh right. She said that “they” are setting a trap.
So maybe it’s time to re-open the discussion about the inclusion of ‘Royal Monsters’.
As I’ve mentioned before, the Morning Glories Wikipedia is now live, featuring copious notes and annotations. While I’ve not written anything particular for it, I’ve contributed a few inklings here and there, and some notes are sourced for this very column in a cleaner database friendly fashion — so I guess think of it like this column, but with less “me” and more straight-up presentation of materials. Should be good for every time we get a name and are wondering if it has been mentioned before. (I particularly like this entry, myself.)
In further things you should be following, the Morning Glory Academy Study Hall podcast is live and updated with tons of episodes for you to listen to, including commentary for the fourth arc ‘Truants.’ You can find them streaming here on Multiversity Comics (see below for links) or on Podomatic and on iTunes. For those unaware of its purpose, this is a podcast that I do with Nick Spencer and Joe Eisma in which we discuss each individual issue at length, offering up commentary tracks to go alongside your reads. It’s pretty much the best.
And, oh, I suppose while linking to rival website isn’t good for Multiversity business, I will note that all-around good guy Kiel Phegley does a column called Morning Glory Days about “Morning Glories” where he interviews Nick that is a pretty interesting read for fans of the series. I won’t actively say you should visit other websites besides Multiversity, but I do like Kiel. It’s worth a read.
Continued belowIf you’d like to contact myself directly with thoughts or comments, shoot me an e-mail at the very specific mgastudyhall@multiversitycomics.com. I have a real e-mail that you can find at the bottom as well, should you prefer that.
I’ll see you in the backmatter!!
Previous Issues: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19,#20, #21, #22, #23, #24, #25, #26, #27, #28, #29, #30, #31, #32, #33, #34, #35, #36, #37, #38, #39, #40, #41
Previous audio podcasts: second arc interviews, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, second arc wrap-up, NSRFQR, third arc interviews, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, third arc wrap-up, all of the fourth arc, Live at NYCC 2014
