With text and image sampled extensively for 2016's Spurious Purple, "tale from wellerverse" 'Ultimate Legend' was first published as little press pamphlet in March 1997 by Bob Cobbing's New River Project and reprinted by him in May to meet demand for Mike Weller's small press comics in the 90's. But as further numbered issues of Space Opera were printed, sales and interest from comics readers gradually dropped off. As fiction incrementally became metafiction in later Space Opera stories, Mike Weller the comics artist was represented as fictional by equally fictional writer-in-residence character MJ.
MJ: written as vain upstart, snobbish, right-wing suburban confidence-man with sociopathic tendencies experiencing delusions of omnipresence bordering on the psychotic. Weller's contemporary novelist alterity abhors comics and any pretention cheap cartoon picture books could ever be graphic literature or poetry.
Self-published by Visual Associations, eleven more tales were continued by Weller as a "comic book series". Finishing in the last month of the 20th century, one dozen completed partworks were produced as limited edition paperback book September 2000.
A completed artist's book designated to Mike Weller—Mike Weller's Space Opera was published using little press internet promotion pioneered by Bill Griffith's listings (up until July 2016 Lollipop was maintained by Peter Manson). Supposedly the fourth part of writer MJ's "Doomed Boy" tetralogy (misspelled "tetraology" continually by a Mike Weller alterity). In Space Opera, MJ's graphic novelist character Nick Muir creates deadbeat failure Mick/Mike Weller as cartoon subcharacter—ultimate opposite of MJ. Mick Weller, a fourth alterity, a no-confidence man paranoid conspiracy theorist as ridiculous as character MJ and his make-believe literary grandeur.
Nick Muir is created by Weller as graphic novelist cipher—a composite caricature of success the form gained in popular culture beginning late 20c.
And the colour of the card Mike Weller chooses to cover his perfect bound "space opera". Glorious purple—pre-spurious hue.
note: a shorter version of this post is testing @HomeBaked's digital blog http://www.homebakedbooks.uk/myspace-opera
