{"id":32642,"date":"2025-04-19T08:00:35","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T08:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=32642"},"modified":"2025-04-16T17:15:38","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T17:15:38","slug":"mercy-shake-the-world-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/04\/19\/mercy-shake-the-world-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercy: Shake the World"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy J.M. Dematteis<\/strong> & Paul Johnson<\/strong> (Dover Comics & Graphic Novels)
\nISBN: 978-0-486-79905-6 (TPB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

Originally conceived as one of a tranche of titles developed by editor Art Young for the Disney Company\u2019s ambitious but ultimately stillborn Touchmark adult comics imprint (the others being Sebastian O<\/strong>, Enigma<\/strong> and Shadows Fall<\/strong>) in the early 1990s, Mercy<\/strong> was first released as a 64-page one-shot comic book in the initial wave of DC\u2019s Vertigo line in 1993. Thematically at odds with the dark, uncompromising and nihilistic fare of titles such as Swamp Thing<\/strong>, Hellblazer<\/strong>, Doom Patrol<\/strong> and even the groundbreaking but bleakly lyrical Sandman<\/strong>, the astounding near-life experiences of Joshua Rose<\/em> came and went relatively unremarked then, but at last got a fair chance to shine in this resurrected softcover collection packed with fascinating extras and bonus material.<\/p>\n

Finally finding a more receptive audience for its still-fresh, immensely innovative spiritual odyssey, the uplifting tale is preceded by an absorbing reunion in print of the creators as transcribed in \u2018About Mercy: Shake the World – a conversation between writer J.M. Dematteis and artist Paul Johnson\u2019<\/em>, prior to the phantasmagorical revelation road unfolding through a cascade of stunning painted visuals that begin in a coldly antiseptic hospital room…<\/p>\n

Middle-aged and long-bled of all inner joy, Joshua Rose<\/em> was almost glad when the stroke put him into a coma.<\/p>\n

Jaded, world-weary and bitterly disappointed to his core, Joshua has no illusions about life\u2019s wonders or humanity\u2019s merits. He lies inert in his exorbitantly expensive private clinical cell, impaled on and afflicted by dozens of tubes, needles and machines. Seemingly dead to the world, he is in fact acutely aware of not just his own physical surroundings, but also every inconceivable nook and cranny of universal time and space.<\/p>\n

Spurning his wife and his world, Rose\u2019s morose and twisted psyche roams Infinity, despising everything he sees in it, especially the miraculous mute woman glowing blue, and constantly flashing across his consciousness, dragging him to uncountable encounters with people in all their pathetic, pitiful privation, sordid weakness, tawdry injustice and innate inescapable misery. He derisively calls her \u201cMercy\u201d but as she silently lures him ever onwards to scenes of family discord in London, an agonising personal trial in a primeval South American rainforest and a death-haunted, woe-infested apartment in Brooklyn, Joshua passively observes her tireless confrontations with monsters and worse and, somewhere deep inside, begins at last to change…<\/p>\n

Crafted in true collaborative fashion by Dematteis and Johnson, the deeply evocative and astonishingly expressionistic voyage of discovery is deconstructed in a number of extra features beginning with intriguing \u2018Excerpts from the Outline\u2019<\/em> exploring the writer\u2019s initial plot concepts before being expanded with forensic intensity through illustrator Johnson\u2019s beguiling monochrome \u2018Page Layouts\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Then, augmented by page after page of lavish and lovely full colour \u2018Production Art\u2019<\/em>, character sketches and design roughs, accompanied by the artist\u2019s thoughts on his process in \u2018About the Art\u2019<\/em>, the entire delicious and eccentric delight is finally summed up in original editor Art Young\u2019s laudatory \u2018Afterword\u2019<\/em>, putting to bed one of the most intoxicating and passionate paeans to humble humanity ever crafted in comics form.<\/p>\n

Mercy<\/strong> was different then and it\u2019s still different now: an ideal confection for contemplative comics connoisseurs who remain forever bright at heart…
\n\u00a9 2015 dover publications, inc. Introduction \u00a9 2015 J.M. Dematteis & Paul Johnson. Art & text \u00a9 2015 J.M. Dematteis & Paul Johnson. Afterword \u00a9 2015 Art Young. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By J.M. Dematteis & Paul Johnson (Dover Comics & Graphic Novels) ISBN: 978-0-486-79905-6 (TPB\/Digital edition) Originally conceived as one of a tranche of titles developed by editor Art Young for the Disney Company\u2019s ambitious but ultimately stillborn Touchmark adult comics imprint (the others being Sebastian O, Enigma and Shadows Fall) in the early 1990s, Mercy … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Mercy: Shake the World”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[102,66,216,105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-horror-stories","category-lifestyle","category-mature-reading"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-8uu","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32642"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32646,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32642\/revisions\/32646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}