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Grant Morrison Loves The Illuminatus! Trilogy Comic Book Adaptation

The official Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea's The Illuminatus! Trilogy comic book adaptation reaches Volume 3, and Grant Morrison loves it

They're justified, and they're ancient, and they like to roam the land. Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea's The Illuminatus! Trilogy is one of the best things in the world, but it also tends to make some people a little mad.  Adapting it into other media has become a full-time job for some, and came to define Ken Campbell by the end, but the official comic book adaptations by Bobby Campbell and Todd Purse seem to be rocking along. And the crowdfunder for Tales of Illuminatus! seems to actually be working. To the extent that it's time for their third volume… kicking off on the 23rd of April, but you can get in early here. Also, you can even get free web versions of issues 1 and issues 2, if you are that way inclined, although the Kickstarters are so cheap, it may be easier just to get the paid versions. And they have nice quotes from what they have done so far…

• "I loved Tales of Illuminatus!" – Grant Morrison
• "This is the yarn that presaged everything we are experiencing today, lovingly translated to a medium through which it can inoculate anyone from the mind virus of certainty. Reality is up for grabs, and you, too, can join the grand conspiracy." – Douglas Rushkoff
• "Tales of Illuminatus keeps the lasagna flying and playfully rap-tap-taps on your head like the medium has a message for you. If you love your RAW you will love your Bobby Campbell." – R.U. Sirius

For those wary of crowdfunding, you can also check the crowdfunders for volume one and volume two, both of which were fulfilled without any donors complaining. I know, I know, it's a rare thing. And if you missed out, I understand that when they launch volume three, there will be options for the first two volumes as well, or you can just go to Bobby Campbell's website. One way or another, everyone should experience The Illuminatus Trilogy, whether in book, audio drama, stage play, or comic form. Honestly, I am media-neutral in this regard. And then we can have a conversation about it all. Incredibly influential, not just amongst conspiracy theories of the Illuminati, but also a ground zero for the likes of Alan Moore, Umberto Eco, Dave Sim, Ken Campbell, Karl Koch, Chris Carter,  John Carpenter, Neil Gaiman, George Carlin, Sylvester McCoy, Douglas Adams, Damon Lindelof, JJ Abrams, Madonna, Philip K Dick, Grant Morrison and The KLF. And some of them are still alive and haven't even been cancelled yet.

First published in 1975, The Illuminatus! Trilogy blends genres including science fiction, conspiracy thriller, satire, psychedelic adventure, and philosophical rant. The narrative is deliberately chaotic, non-linear, and playful, with frequent shifts in perspective, time, and reality. It follows a sprawling investigation into the Illuminati, a secret society, or many societies, or a hoax, supposedly manipulating world events for centuries. If you have heard of the Illuminati in this context, this is where that began, but the original is so much stranger and more fun than the actual conspiracies it would inspire. And yes, that includes the Marvel Comics version.

The story begins with the bombing of a left-wing magazine office in New York, and the disappearance of a journalist, with an investigation led by detective Saul Goodman (yes, that's where Better Call Saul comes from), Barney Muldoon, and, later, the Discordian anarchist Hagbard Celine,  captain of the golden submarine Leif Ericson. I know, it took a left turn right there, but soon those turns escape just limited spatial or political descriptions as "left". The plot weaves in the JFK assassination, Watergate and the 1960s counterculture, as well as ancient conspiracies dating back to Atlantis, the Bavarian Illuminati, alien influences, mind-control experiments, sex magic, and battles between competing secret societies. and yes,  the Discordian religion as a counterforce to the Illuminati's obsession with order. Wonder why the Discord discussion app is called that? Now you know. Like H.P. Lovecraft, King Henry VIII and Spike Milligan,  The Illuminatus! Trilogy is embedded in modern culture in ways you never realise until you look into it.

You get unreliable narrators, characters who may or may not be dead, immortals, time-travellers, and a constant questioning of what is "real." It also mashes together, and often mocks, dozens of real and invented conspiracies, including those of Freemasons, the Mafia, CIA, and far more obscure ones you'd only usually find in The Fortean Times, a magazine that also loves these books as well. It is a reportage of real, fake, and fictional conspiracies, criticising them at every turn, but also celebrating the human minds that came up with some of them. Some writers will talk about how fiction changes reality, how what we perceive is by consensus and that consensus can change. That may go back to George Berkeley's "to be is to be perceived", but for many folk, The Illuminati Trilogy made that a lot more fun, had more sex in it and better jokes. What you might expect from a couple of writers who handled the crank letters sent into Playboy Magazine in the seventies and thought, "there's a book in this." Because it also warns that conspiracies can be as much a trap for the mind as what they… illuminate.

Tales From The Illuminatus! #3 launches on Kickstarter on the 23rd of April, and there is a newsletter in that link as well. Also, the prices on these Kickstarters are massively low for what you get, including shipping, and Mark Millar could take some lessons from that as well…

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