Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth
Grant Morrison & Dave McKean
DC Comics

Holy crap, Batman, this is one of the most disturbing stories I've ever held in my hands (BTW, I had a complete tangent on 'the most disturbing stories I've ever held in my hands' right about here, but I've dropped it into another post for tomorrow. This one was getting weird). I'm in awe.

Doc Arkham has one hell of a crazy (or is she?) mother, and then has to endure the horrific murder of his family (his little girl, oh, god, his little girl) and despite this, he takes it into his head to run an institution for the mentally disturbed -- and, as it transpires, the mentally disturbing -- and to treat the very man who murdered his family.

Or does he?

If the story is horrible, then Dave McKean's artwork is horrifying. Cut-up style, graphics sit with bits of lace and cloth, and colour, colour is everywhere. But colour is sordid, bilious, subdued in mostly black, red, blue, sombre white. Images are fractured, half-glimpsed, and the more frightening for that.

I've had this on my list of 'current reading' for quite some time, & that's because on vanilla_extreme's advice I bought the 15th anniversary edition. This includes the original script by Morrison.

Various threads of symbolism used by Morrison include the works of Lewis Carroll, the Christian Mystery Plays, the psychology of Carl Jung and the works of Joseph Campbell.
-- wikipedia.org

Symbolism I'd half-felt but didn't understand became bloated. Symbolism I'd never noticed at all rose up and filled the pages. Symbolism like the whisperings of a mad person. It's like being trapped in Arkham & one of the inmates -- the craziest one -- has taken to whispering in your ear.

"See that moon?" he says. "That moon, that is the symbol of Diana. See that dog? See? See the dog?"

Frankly, I find it hard to read more than a little at a time. I mentioned I'm in awe, right? Between them Morrison & McKean have lifted the lid on the average normal psyche & tapped something powerful, vulnerable and primitive underneath.

Seriously, I don't think you should read this comic.