(16th century portrait of John Dee, artist unknown, borrowed from Wiki)

Dee is an intriguing man, highly educated and skilled in maths and astronomy but also working in alchemy and, in later years, using a scryer to try and call forth angels to learn secret knowledge (he filled huge amounts of meticulous notes on the supposed communications). He’s somewhere between the early days of modern science and older ways of looking at the world (it’s well worth reading a biography on Dee, by the way), a historical figure I’d imagine would have much resonance with our Great Bearded Comics Wizard of Albion. Given Albarn’s success with the Monkey opera I’d think this has a better chance of getting staged than the seemingly endlessly troubled Spider-Man musical Bono is involved in. (via Gigwise)

(musical murder as MacHeath sings in the first part of LOEG: Century by those well known purveyors of shilling shockers and penny dreadfuls, Messrs Moore and O’Neill, published Knockabout/Top Shelf)