Reprinted by author's permission.
Date: Wed, 17 May 2000 21:56:45 +0100
To: jcraft@mail.utexas.edu
From: Ian Newman <ian@exceptional.freeserve.co.uk>
Subject: Flex Mentallo annotations. Issue 2. 13.2
As regards your confusion to panel 5 on page 13 of issue 2 of "Flex Mentallo"
I own the original artwork for this page so I know it quite well. Whether or not I'm right or not, I'll leave to you to decide.
This appears to me to be Flex's point of view, looking at. It's a lock on one of the toilet cubicles (his mind is locked?). The blonde haired boy points to this door although what he is actually seeing is not revealed to us until the next page. "The sky's full of them." Page 13, panel 5 is the "real world" obscuring our view of the fantastical.
Incidentally, there are underground public toilets like the one here, dotted around the city centre of Glasgow, Morrison and Quitely's base. The entrance looks quite like the one on the corner of St Vincents St and Buchanan St, which is the only one which is still open, I think, and is famous for its "cottagers" or homosexual activity, although I could be wrong.
I believe this may be the "real" setting here as it seems to add to the autobiographical nature of the work. The question is, how much of this is Morrison's output and how much is Quitely's? Does it really matter.
Further evidence is seen on Issue 4 on page 20 panels 5 and 6. The graffiti on the phone box is "Celtic", a Glasgow football team and the setting of panel 6 with the overhead bridge is definitely Charring Cross at the bottom of Sauchiehall St. The street which Wally Sage walks down on page 22 looks like Woodlands Rd, very near Charring Cross though I've never seen The Fact there and there is no 99p shop on that street.
There is however a bronze statue to "Lobey Dosser" a Scottish newspaper comic strip character. How many cities can boast the like? Makes me proud to live here.
Thanks for your time,
Ian.