[4] Though unpublished, "Entropy Concerto" featured a second version of Stargrave, with a "Beatles '65 haircut and Swinging London vibe" which Morrison says "was much better, in that I can still read the stuff without cringing".
1, #17–19, 1995) as an alter-ego of King Mob, one of that title's main characters, who in literary terms is reported to have been based on Stargrave.
Much of the premise of The Invisibles involves the philosophy that language is a perfectly acceptable method of creation so the notion that Gideon Stargrave is a fictional character does not preclude him from being also a real person.
[7] Stargrave appeared in Vertigo's Winter's Edge #1 (January 1998) in "And We're All Policemen" with piercings and a shaven head like King Mob, but wearing the trademark purple coat of his first incarnation from "Entropy in the U.K.".
The Stargrave stories were completely off the wall... we were given the freedom to do anything we wanted and everyone had ambitions to raise comics up out of the gutter and into the realms of High Art.
In the end, though, the lack of discipline resulted in self-indulgent and impenetrable stories that made no attempt to communicate to the average reader.
[1]The style gave rise to comparisons with William S. Burroughs: the background [was] a thermodynamically unstable universe of engrams and entropy.
1 #17) included an explanation of the character by Morrison, which gave much more credit to Moorcock: I feel that I must explain a little about Gideon Stargrave.
But I don't think much of people who just pinch stuff.On March 14, 2003: I find a difference between an homage, an amplification and a straight lift.
Alan Moore, Bryan Talbot and others have done riffs on Cornelius which have added to the method – extended what can be done with the character and technique, if you like.
As far as I'm concerned my image of Grant Morrison is of someone wearing a mask, a flat hat and a striped jersey and carrying a bag marked SWAG.
He has grudgingly admitted doing an 'homage' but as I said, when you catch someone on the fire escape with your television in their arms and they say 'great TV man – you have wonderful taste' you still shout 'Stop Thief'.
[6]And in an interview two years later: Moorcock saw the 'Gideon Stargrave' arc in the first volume of Invisibles and hated it – as far as I'm aware, he assumed the whole series was a rip-off of his character and didn't bother reading any more.