Gideon Stargrave

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Gideon Stargrave as featured on the cover of The Invisibles volume 1, #17

Gideon Stargrave is a comic book character created by Grant Morrison in 1978 for the anthology title Near Myths.

[edit] History

Stargrave is based partly upon J. G. Ballard's The Day of Forever as well as Morrison himself.

The character appeared in issues 2-5 of Near Myths in stories written and also drawn by Morrison. before that title was cancelled. He made a brief appearance in Food For Thought ( a British benefit comic to aid Ethiopian famine relief ) in 1985.

The character next made an appearance in Morrison's The Invisibles as an alter-ego of King Mob, one of that title's main characters.

In this incarnation Stargrave is used by King Mob to confuse his enemies during interrogation. Gideon is a '70s spy modelled after James Bond and Jason King who spends every scene he appears in seducing his partner, and is supposedly the main character of King Mob's works as an author. In this sequence we see not only the actual Stargrave story but King Mob's probably real world identity Gideon Starorzewski, who produces his work under the pen name Kirk Morrison. Tying the real creator in with his various fictional creations and linking the various creations together too.

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 imply that he is not also a real person.

[edit] Controversy

Although Michael Moorcock has encouraged other authors to use Jerry Cornelius, in a way that borders on open source, he has posted a number of scathing comments about a couple of authors who, he believes, have directly lifted the character [1]. David Gemmell is one author, but he reserves most of his scorn for Morrison:

On June 12th 2003:

"Grant Morrison pinched chunks of Jerry Cornelius whole. Apparently he admits that he does this from others. So that's why I say he's a thief. I don't mind my stuff being taken up and run with, as it were, as Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman, who say that's what they do. But I don't think much of people who just pinch stuff."

On March 14th 2003:

"I find a difference between an homage, an amplification and a straight lift. Lifting is usually done by artists in comics. 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. Morrison doesn't have the talent to do that, though he's probably seen the others doing it and thinks that he's doing the same thing. In my view he isn't. I wasn't ready to sue Morrison but I was extremely pissed off with DC for running it. Only after his most blatant rips had appeared did someone at DC read the originals and realise to what degree he had stolen the material"

However, in a 1988 interview Morrison said the principal inspiration wasn't Jerry Cornelius but J. G. Ballard's The Day of Forever. [2]