Art by Steve Yeowell

Abbé is one of the supporting characters in Grant Morrison’s “Sebastian O” mini series which is set in an alternate steapunk-ish England. The character is introduced mid way through issue #2. Text states he had been defrocked and convicted on a number of charges, including pederasty, brought against him during the trial that followed the Club de Paradis Artificiel raid. Abbé earned an early parole by becoming a model prisoner and leading hardened convicts to Christ’s teaching through his daily sermons.

After his release, Abbé retired to his home in the country where he tends his creation, the Mechanical Garden, comprised entirely of elaborate mechanical flowers and trees. Abbé dresses in an embellished toga, and gestures a bit theatrically. The painting above his fireplace is of Saint Sebastian’s torso pierced with arrows. Of course, he also “cares for” a number of underprivileged and pre-pubescent boys on his grand estate.

While on the run, Sebastian O turns to Abbé for information about Lord Lavender’s plans and how it relates to the Club de Paradis Artificiel. The club’s purpose was to create an artificial environment of “cosmetics, luxuries, apollonian artworks.” Abbé replies that Lavender has taken the club’s creed to its extreme. What he doesn’t tell Sebastian is his role in this
business. Lavender had threatened both Abbé and George Harkness into helping him. Abbé’s expertise in creating the Mechanical Garden was crucial to Lavender’s attempts to utilize magic lantern technology for his self-serving purposes.

Their meeting is cut short when the remaining two Roaring Boys dispatched by Lavender to capture O arrive at Abbé’s estate. Off panel, one of the villains cuts out Abbé’s gums and as he lies dying in his world of artifice he asks O to hear his confession. O politely declines, and Abbé utters the words “magic lantern” as a final clue to Lavender’s schemes.

Morrison’s “Abbé” may be a reference to late 19th century artist and writer Aubrey Beardsley, whose initials are A B (pronounced like Abbé in French). Or the reference may be to the hero alternately named Abbé Aubrey, Chevalier Tannhäuser to Abbé Fanfreluche in Beardsley’s unfinished erotic book also alternately titled “Venus and Tannhäuser” and “Under the Hill.”

Abbé’s appears first on issue #1′s cover and is confirmed gay in the second issue.

Read the related bios for Sebastian O and George Harkness.

© and ® Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell. Used without permission.

Art by Steve Yeowell

Set in a steampunk version of Britain where modern day technology exists in Victorian times, Morrison’s Sebastian O is an analog or inspiration of real world Oscar Wilde. Like Wilde, Sebastian has been imprisoned for his debauched morality resulting from a raid on Club de Paradis Artificiel. A judge deemed O immoral based on a small book of poems and essays he’d written based on the theme of Uranian love (see below note). While others had been arrested during the raid, only O and a young man named Arnold Truro were sent to prison. O was put into solitary confinement from which he escapes by resorting to a gruesome means.

Lord Lavender, whose first name is Theo, was involved in the scandal following the club raid. He emerged from the scandal with his reputation intact. In fact, he rose to a place of power as Queen Victoria’s chief scientific advisor while he threatened others or had them maimed or murdered. Upon learning of O’s escape, Lavender and his nephew Piers plot his capture.

Meanwhile, as befits a self-styled dandy, Sebastian has returned home to clean up. A small contingent of police push their way into O’s home determined to apprehend the man. The house as designed by architect Lord Carhaix has hidden rooms and other devices that engage the police until O is dressed and ready to confront the police. After shooting the sergeant, O escapes into the sewer system. Lord Lavender decides to use extreme measures and sends a young servant boy to enlist the services of the ruthless Roaring Boys to capture O.

O dispatches the first of the three Roaring Boys with a bullet in the head while travelling through the sewers. As expected by Lord Lavender, O makes his way to the estate of Abbé , another Club regular, who became a model prisoner, offering the Lord’s guidance to other prisoners. Abbé offers O hospitality and champagne, but O wants to know how Lavender was able to buy Abbé’s silence during the Club scandal affair. Before O can learn anything from Abbé, the two remaining Roaring Boys burst into the mansion intent on capturing the dandy. O survives the encounter with cunning and luck while Abbé is not so fortunate. He barely is able to utter the words “magic lantern” as a clue to Lavender’s plans when O realizes the police have spotted him from one of their flying gun ships.

On the run, O has the good luck to run into George and Phoebe on an impromptu hunt. George is a woman who dresses in Victorian male drag, and Phoebe wears a grand hoop skirt. In George’s study, O recounts the story of the club raid, his suspicion the charges were trumped up by Lavender for unknown reasons, and of Arnold Truro’s fate in prison. George shares that she and Abbé were blackmailed into silence and cooperation with Lavender. George reveals his plan involved the use of magic lantern technology (virtual reality), but for what purposes she does not know.

Still on the hunt for O, a half dozen police arrive at George’s estate. The two women hand in hand greet the officers. In a small gambit, George admits to knowing who Sebastian is, but cautions the officers about entering with the confession the she and Phoebe “suffer” from tribadism (see below note), and it cannot be guaranteed the “disease” will not be carried back to their wives and loved ones.

The penultimate scene finds O jumping onto the roof of a train car as the train enters a tunnel. Sebastian enters Lavender’s private compartment while the interior lights are momentarily out, and deftly dispatches nephew Piers with a quick slash to the throat. Sebastian informs Lavender he wants a full pardon. Pushing a few buttons on his Victorian-era computer, Theo states the pardon is granted. In that statement, however, a greater truth is revealed: Queen Victoria has been dead some months and it is he that rules England through the use of computer generated imagery of the deceased monarch. A fight ensues when Lavender thrusts a blade tipped cane at O. The altercation continues on to the train car roof. The matter of Lavender’s treachery is settled when Sebastian fires a bullet into the man, loosening his grip, and sending him to his death on the pavement far below.

Sebastian eludes the bumbling police a final time, and upon returning home, is confronted with the last of the Roaring Boys. Thankfully, O dispatches this last threat in very little time before settling back into the debauched routines of his old life.

Additional notes – “Urning” is a term coined in the 19th century by Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, considered to be the first modern theorist of homosexuality. “Tribadism” is a precursor to the word lesbianism. Tribad corresponds to lesbian.

Read the related bios for George Harkness and Abbe.

© and ® Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell. Used without permission.