Wow… it ends even worse than I could have possibly imagined. I like how in Morrison’s reality, a gang of roaming thugs (who bring a vicious dog with them to attack kids) are scared off by a woman in a crappy old car. I guess he needed that one to work for the ending to…

So, it’s been a little unclear—until now—how the present action unfolds in Joe the Barbarian. Since the kid is having a fit, it really shouldn’t matter if Morrison doesn’t make a big deal out of it. But he finally does—the comic, running eight issues and costing about twenty bucks—takes place over about… eight minutes. Apparently,…

You know, Morrison spends a lot of time this issue suggesting Joe’s journey through his house is some great metaphor for his life. This issue he attacks his newfound friends, dismissing them as kids from his school. He also runs into an analogue of his mother. Except his mother’s not home during his diabetic hallucination,…

As far as I remember, the most emotionally honest Morrison has ever gotten was in We3 when he viscously killed his adorable and likable animal protagonists…. Well, he achieves some more emotional honesty as he needlessly, viscously kills another innocent animal. It’s cheap and it might hurt Disney wanting to turn Joe the Barbarian into…

It’s a little perplexing how much I enjoy the artwork while still don’t enjoy the overall reading experience of Joe the Barbarian. Morrison apparently really wants a Harry Potter-like franchise with his name on it—this issue adds the romantic interest in Joe’s fantasy world, who may be identical to the girl who’s nice to him…

So is the kid supposed to be a diabetic? Is that why he keeps talking about needing a soda? I can’t remember if Morrison even established that condition in the first issue. He might may and I missed it because I was too busy paying attention to the rest of the cast. That cast who,…

So Grant Morrison doesn’t have an editor and Vertigo will publish anything he gives them. Good to know. This issue of Joe the Barbarian is both better and worse than the previous one. Ryan Murphy’s artwork is definitely better, if only because he’s got all these fantastic elements to illustrate. Joe—the protagonist—is hanging out with…

So why am I reading this comic? Morrison apparently forgets just having his name on a cover doesn’t make a book necessarily special or interesting; Joe the Barbarian is, after one issue, a perfect example of this situation. It’s about a kid—probably in the UK—whose dad died in a war (he was a soldier), whose…