Nearly-wordless and almost entirely heartbreaking. Imagine a world like that of Looney Tunes: adorable cartoon animals who spent their days in adorable cartoon violence. ‘The Coyote Gospel’ takes it a step further: imagine being one of those animals, forced by the cosmos to live a life of unending, Sisyphean slaughter, a world where there is nothing but (adorable cartoon) war, with no hint of resolution. 

The animals manage to send a representative, a coyote, out of their world into ‘ours’ with a desperate plea – for someone, somehow to bring them peace. The coyote faces the trials and persecutions of the world, including a human stalker convinced that this visitor is the devil incarnate. The coyote finally meets the ostensible ‘hero’ of the title and begging for his aid. The resolution is truly heartbreaking, as worlds collide with a whimper. 

It is a story within a story: a cartoon character meeting a pilgrimage to meet a comic book character. Like much of Morrison’s work, it is an examination of the form itself – a way of pulling the reader into the story by questioning the reality of storytelling itself. It is also a contrast between heroism, superheroism and the ordinary, as all three figures in the story weave in and out of one another’s lives.

First published as Animal Man Vol. 1, No. 5, DC Comics (Vertigo), December, 1988