20 cool psychedelic comics to read after seeing Thor: Ragnarok

Rogan Gosh (Cover image via Vertigo/DC Comics)

6. Rogan Gosh

Speaking of Brendan McCarthy, his art shows up again in Rogan Gosh, a British science fiction comic series that shares both issue space and creative DNA with some of Grant Morrison’s 1990s work.

First, we have to wade through some necessary backstory. Rogan Gosh was serialized in Revolver, a 1990 spinoff of 2000 AD. 2000 AD is a weekly comics anthology which has been around since 1977. Revolver lasted for seven regular issues and two specials before it was canceled due to poor sales. If you really get into the stories there, be sure to check out the conclusions of two of its stories in Crisis (another comics magazine). Vertigo later released Revolver as a collection.

With writer Peter Milligan, McCarthy here created Rogan Gosh, an Indian science fiction series. It draws heavily from postmodern and psychedelic conventions (as much as you can call them “conventions”, anyway). It’s also supposed to be partly autobiographical, though good luck teasing out the reality from the fiction.

Essentially, Rogan Gosh follows the titular character, a young man who is also the current incarnation of the blue-skinned “Karmanaut”. The Karmanaut is an Indian warrior who can cleanse people of their wrongdoings — that is, their accumulated bad karma.

Along the way, characters begin to exceed their edges and merge into one another. Also, time has little to no meaning for many of them. We see them travel through modern-day London, a highly futuristic India, and even the opium-addled dreaming mind of Rudyard Kipling. All of that, plus what many consider to be a pinnacle of McCarthy’s artwork, make for a beautiful and unsettling ride.