Sebastian O

Sebastian O is a comic book series written by Grant Morrison, drawn by Steve Yeowell and published by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics in 1993.

Publication history

Sebastian O was originally commissioned by editor Art Young for Disney's proposed Touchmark imprint, along with Peter Milligan and Duncan Fegredo's Enigma and J.M. DeMatteis & Paul Johnson's Mercy. After Disney cancelled the proposed line, Young took the project with him to DC Comics, where Karen Berger's Vertigo imprint was readying for launch.^[1]

Steve Yeowell took inspiration from Victorian artist and dandy Aubrey Beardsley's work when completing the art for the series.

Synopsis

An early example of what became known as steampunk, Sebastian O tells the story of a young flamboyant assassin in an alternate history, technologically advanced Victorian era London and his attempts to track down whoever condemned him to prison for his moral crimes and transgressive literature.

Trained as an assassin, the world-traveling Sebastian belongs to the Club de Paradis Artificiel, which included the lesbian George, the pederast Abbe, and Sebastian's current nemesis, Lord Theo Lavender. While certainly morally unsound (he shoots a police officer in cold blood and has his butler feed it to cats) Sebastian is nonetheless a sympathetic character as he tracks down the whereabouts of Lavender, who betrayed him and had Sebastian locked up in Bedlam for offending Victorian morals.

Collected editions

The series has been collected into a trade paperback:

• Sebastian O (with Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell, Vertigo, 3 issue mini-series, 1993, tpb, 2004, 80 pages, Titan, ISBN 1-84023-996-4, Vertigo, ISBN 1-4012-0337-X)^[2]

See also

• List of steampunk works

Notes

References

External links

• Review of the trade at Comics Bulletin