Weekly Reading: Glory stories (pre issue #1)

Judgment Day: Aftermath

Published by Awesome Entertainment in March 1998

The covers:

Title: A Trick of the Moonlight

(Glory is currently out of print. There are a number of ways to read it, which can be found on the How do I read Moore's Awesome works page.)

This issue, with the first appearance of Moore's revamped Glory, came out in 1998. The Glory #0 preview wouldn't come out for another year, until March 1999, long after Moore had left Awesome to go start his ABC line. Fortunately, we don't have to worry about that since we can just read it all together, but the idea that anyone back then would have the slightest clue about what Moore was doing is ludicrous.

This Glory story was drawn by Gil Kane in six pages. Kane does a wonderful job with the characters and settings (even if there are obvious lettering issues), as you can see here:

 

So Glory and her childhood friend Hermione Sweetlove are climbing the world tree to the lunar realm of Glory's aunt Selene. Selene was the goddess of the moon to the Greeks. Gloty wants to ask a favor from Selene.

Apparently the realms are located inside the tree and, at least in the lunar realms, you have to be careful because some of the paths lead to madness and lunacy. But you also must pass the guardian of the universe, a strange golden-haired woman. Glory says that in order to pass higher, you must first understand all of the material universe so that you can then understand more of the ethereal realms above. That answer was the right one and she passes on into the realm of moonlight and imagination.

Obviously Selene's speech balloons should have come first. She asks how Glory's mother is. Glory asks if Selene would do her the favor of  dreaming her a new life among the humans as a mortal. Only Selene can offer this gift as Selene's "gates of the unconscious" are the means by which dreams can take on physical form.

There's the recurring talk of Glory having done this as a child, which might have been Moore setting up the Young Glory hinted at in Youngblood, or the tales from the World Tree he suggested in the proposal.

I love this bit of wordplay from Moore:

Hermoine: "This is lunacy!"

Glory: "Of course it is! Why else ask the goddess of the lunar sphere?"

Selene agrees and Glory starts to disappear "as if you were just a character...in a dream!" She then appears as a waitress named Gloria Jones (this name won't stick). Phoebe is yelling at her to get her act together and take the order of a woman (who is not shown? who is Amelia Earhart? It's confusing?) and not space out.

And so we have the new life of Glory.

Glory #0 (Awesome)

Published by Awesome Entertainment in March 1999

The covers:

 

 

 

Title: Glory and the Gate of Tears

(Glory is currently out of print. There are a number of ways to read it, which can be found on the How do I read Moore's Awesome works page.)

After Awesome's financial crash in early 1998, it took Rob Liefeld about a year to get Awesome back to a place where he was ready to produce comics again. In May he would bring back Supreme: The Return. A little before that, he put out Glory #0 with the idea of bringing out the Glory series soon. It must be nice to feel that optimistic.

Glory #0 (the Awesome version) is a short eight-page story by Moore and illustrated by Brandon Peterson, who was to be the artist of the ongoing series. It also included some pages from Peterson's sketchbook. It's a nice little book, which only makes you want more Glory, which wouldn't ever be coming out from Awesome. Anyway, here it is:

Thirty-seven year old Gloria (no longer Jones) West is working at Phoebe's Diner and is amazed by all the mundane facets of mortality, such as physical pains from working and bad moods. She's also in awe of the ordinary faces (hey, there's Amelia Earhart!). This is kind of a beautiful way to launch this series, finding the glorious in the downtrodden. It's almost like Moore knew what he was doing.

Gloria has some problems though. She suffers from Schizophrenia and think she's making up Glory. Interesting. I wonder how that'll play out.

Glory is interrupted by her mother, Demeter, who pulls her into Demeter's realm. The way Moore and Brandon Peterson have the characters overlapping in the real world and the imaginary is truly beautiful. Demeter is worried about Glory in the physical world.

There's an interesting aside where we see a sphinx wander through asking riddles.

Then Glory tells some of her backstory, explaining how she went to the world when she was little, by her mother's side. And of how she fought in WWII as a champion. Then she solved mysteries with the Danger Damsels until the '60s, when she had colorful adventures. The '70s was the era of big issues: drugs, the environment and sexism. 

Demeter is upset that she must share both of her daughters with lower realms, as she shares Persephone with Hades. Why doesn't glory climb higher and experience intellect with Hermes or emotion with Aphrodite? But Glory won't be persuaded. So Demeter gives her Shape, a crystal entity that will aid Glory. 

Demeter takes her to her Gallery of Mortal Instants (hey, there's Brandon Peterson!) where she says goodbye. By focusing on the details of the painting of Gloria West, they become real and Glory has returned to being in Gloria West. 

Phoebe says that Gloria has to be more grounded, because there's a whole world of pain out there. There's also a sphinx taking a piss, but I'm not sure I understood that part.

Anyway, it's a wonderful little bit, setting up the ideas and characters that could carry the series. And Peterson is a marvelous artist, with ability to show great detail and a wide variety of characters that feel lived in and attractive without seeming obvious. 

This Glory could have been great. Instead, we'll get something not quite so great, but that'll wait until next week.

As always, please check out the Annotations Page for more details and references and be sure to let me know any that I missed.