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1 December 2003
[comics] Totally Grant Morrison — another long interview with GM … ‘Most people are secretly fond of the idea of comics, given half a chance. They just need an excuse to admit it. As for mainstream attention, Kristan and I went to the League premiere in Leicester Square and couldn’t help but notice that every page three boy band big brother celebrity in London was suddenly proclaiming a lifelong, undying love of comics …. Strangely enough, they couldn’t actually remember anything other than the Beano and Spider-Man when faced with questions. Progress?’
28 November 2003
[comics] ‘Hello, I’m Grant Morrison and I write the X-Men.’ [link]
13 October 2003
[comics] Brian Bolland cover for the latest Animal Man Reprint Graphic Novel … [via plasticbag.org]  ‘I’ve seen more death and pain than you could ever dream of. Fifty thousand years of it. Dying on sharpened stakes, on torture racks and fires. Cut to bits by English bullets and American bullets and Nazi bullets. Life goes on! “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” It’ll only happen when people stop being afraid. Your family’s gone. You can’t help them by dying inside. Life needs you to go on fighting and not sit back while they build more bombs and bulldoze more trees. Either you’re on the side of Life or you’re on the side of Death. Which is it going to be?’
7 October 2003
[comics] Grant Morrison’s Favourite Superheroes [published in The Face | via Barbelith] 1. The Flash
2. Superman
3. Paradax (Strange Days)
4. Diabolik
5. New Gods (by Jack Kirby)
6. Flex Mentallo, Man of Muscle Mystery
7. Emma Frost, The White Queen (X-Men)
8. Cyclops (X-Men)
9. Billy the Cat (and Katie) (DC Thompson)
10. Marvelman (by Alan Moore)
26 September 2003
[comics] The End Of An X-Era — Yet another link to a Grant Morrison interview — on the conclusion of the New X-Men, Sex and DC Comics … New Projects: ‘I have three new ‘creator’ projects already underway and due for release early 2004 – ‘creator’ meaning that the artist and writer own the damn thing and it’s a totally new story, not some old superhero reheat of what your dad was reading while the thought of you boiled in his testes – “Vimanarama!” with Philip Bond. “We3” with Frank Quitely and “Seaguy” with Cameron Stewart will all be out next year. These books all written and I’m already prepping loads more new stuff for next year. I’m deep into a massive DC universe project (something completely new, and not the defunct ‘hypercrisis’ notion) which involves at least seven new series so far. I’ve written 28 plots in a week of activity and it’s been the biggest damburst of creativity I’ve ever known.’ [Preview: New X-Men #147 | via Barbelith]
15 September 2003
[comics] Magneto was Right T-Shirts — as modeled by the late Quentin Quire … [via Barbelith]
12 August 2003
[comics] Inside Morrison’s Head — another interview with Grant Morrison concentrating on his new work from D.C. … ‘ I’m definitely much more interested in what’s happening on the fringe where comics cross over with general pop culture and I find myself resonating strongly with the super sci-fi, hyper-realist and fantastic elements which teenagers are absorbing again via comics and via artifacts which owe very little to the weird reiterations of the superhero books. My problem with manga is the slow, ponderous and decompressed nature of so many of the books, so I’m hoping We3 will do something about fixing that – part of what we’re attempting to create is a Western-manga fusion cuisine, which combines inspirational elements from eastern and western tastes in visual storytelling and uses them to make something new.’
7 August 2003
[comics] Catching Up With Professor M: Talking With Grant Morrison — another interview with GM … [via Barbelith] ‘I think today’s comic books are perfect reflections of their times: conservative, unambitious and self-congratulatory. A howling lack of imagination or direction runs through the mainstream, but that’s about to change. It’s easy to sense the upcoming wave. Reading most comics today is like wearing dad’s slippers and smoking his pipe – it’s an illicit thrill to be sure but not much of one…’
30 July 2003
[comics] Grant Morrison at San Deigo Gossip from Rich Johson … ‘…the rumour, mentioned by a slew of people, over the shouting match that went down at San Diego Comic Con between Joe Quesada and Grant Morrison. Or rather from Joe to Grant, one phrase “You owe me!” being the most repeated on the convention floor the day after. Quesada had found out about the DC exclusive deal and he took it out on Grant with expletives that were definitely MAX labelled.
Reports indicate that Grant kind of shut down and went into a mini-coma, but did give out one response “Fuck You, Fuck your company, and Fuck your boss who’s the biggest arsehole I’ve ever met.”‘
24 July 2003
[comics] SDCC’S Grant Morrison Panel — fuller report from GM’s panel at the San Diego Comicon … ‘[Morrison] went on to talk about how he’s not entirely thrilled with realistic comics. Realistic characters, yes, but once you put superheroes in the real world; they seem more than a bit silly. Morrison said that you couldn’t drag the gods to Earth and keep them as gods. “Realistically, the Flash would be able to take care of every super-villain everywhere over his lunch break, but how much fun is that?”‘
21 July 2003
[comics] Grant Morrison at the San Diego Comic-Con: - Grant Morrison Exclusive To DC … ‘DC Comics has just announced that Grant Morrison has just signed a two-year exclusive contract with them. There is no news on how this affects his existing Marvel work. The superstar writer is supposed to be working on a Vertigo project with Frank Quitely which will be announced officially in Chicago. He’s also working on a DC Universe book…’
- Comments at Morrison’s Panel from Comic Book Resources: ‘The conversation inevitably shifted to “New X-Men,” which Morrison will be leaving as of #154 and will be destroying the Marvel Universe in issue #150 and #151! He also says that his final issue can be seen as the end of the X-Men if one so wishes.’
- Comments on Barbelith about GM’s Plans: ‘Marvel’s going quite rapidly to shit, innit?’
28 May 2003
[gm] Grant Morrison wonders if Justin Timberlake is a Mutant: ‘Definitely a pure mutation – and he’s trying to push his powers in a more evil direction. I think they inject all of those Disney kids, like Britney, with something when they’re young. One minute, they’re singing about mice, and the next, they’re riding motorcycles and fisting each other.’
24 May 2003
[comics] Yet Another Grant Morrison Interview — I’m wondering… If the DC Universe did become self-aware would Paul Levitz have it Pulped? … ‘…now that we have the idea in our heads that “intelligence” appears when systems become increasingly complex, we can approach my notion of “living comics.” Think of a STORY. My contention is that a story can be made sufficiently complex that it achieves some measure of self-awareness – in fact I believe this is what’s happening when authors talk about characters “taking control” or when they say “the story just took a turn I wasn’t planning…”. When I was doing The Invisibles, I was definitely aware of the book as a living entity which was interacting with me in many of the ways a human being might but at the time I was thinking of this “aliveness” as a kind of mystical quality not as an emergent property that could reproduced without recourse to the spirit world. I’d like to see if I can deliberately “wake up” a story and let it make its own decisions.’
2 April 2003
[comics] Grant Morrison: Ten Cats Mad — Jeremy Dennis on Grant Morrison at the ICA. ‘…let’s talk cats! Paul loves cats, Grant loves cats. Grant loves cats so much that he has four in house and six buried in the back garden. “Are you a dog person?” asks Paul. Grant stares at his shiny boots and looks slightly guilty. “I really like dogs,” he says, “But I like cats more. And dogs need so much looking after, so much attention. I think I’d just get really frustrated with a dog.” The guy three rows behind me who came in to listen to Grant talk about acid trips and alien abductions nearly explodes with frustration.’ [via kookymojo | Related: Jeremy Dennis’ Website]
[comics] A Self-Aware DC Universe — Rich Johnson update on Alan Moore and Grant Morrison. ‘…Morrison talked about the basics of life. How it arises from complex systems. And how so comics continuity has become so complex as to support sentience. Expressed his intent to create a comic so complex that it becomes a living self-aware being, as well as bringing that same aspect to the DC Universe, wanting to make the DC Universe realise that it’s alive. He didn’t appear to be joking.’
26 March 2003
[comics] Sex in New X-Men #118 — X-Fans get worked up over subliminal SEX in an issue of the New X-Men … ‘When the issue in question was released several months ago, it went by almost unnoticed, but there is a subliminal message inside. Sure, some readers noticed the word SEX being hidden in the background art here or there, but only after an article in Wizard the general audience took a closer look and in fact the secret message has been discovered 17 times — so far.’ [thanks John]
25 March 2003
[comics] Zenith Phase 3 Scorecard — amusing list of all the characters in Morrison and Yeowell’s corruption and destuction of a vast array of old British comic heroes … General Jumbo: ‘…this is General Jumbo. While we don’t see him properly until part 5 “Letter from the Underworld”, he is in this prologue – we see him dead, face down in the sea with his trousers round his ankles. Quite what Grant felt he did to deserve so ignominious a death I don’t know.’ [via Venusberg]
19 March 2003
[war] Douglas Rushkoff has been talking to Grant Morrison about the war in Iraq … ‘[Morrison] says he’s decided not to think about the war and all this mess, at all. He’s calling it “what the adults do,” and making a strong case for the idea that “we told them this would happen,” and “they never listen to us, anyway.”‘
10 March 2003
[comics] “A Healing Innoculation of Grime” — Newsarama interviews Grant Morrison about the final issues of The Filth … ‘The real weird thing about this series is the amount of people who think they don’t get it when they clearly do. What’s that all about? I must admit it’s quite baffling to me – I’ve read reviews saying things like ‘Yes, it’s Art but why should we care?’ and ‘why should I care about an old guy and his cat?’ …and my only answer is ‘why should you care about a fictional character who dresses up like a bat or a man who grows to giant size and abuses his wife?’ Why should anyone care about any story and yet people clearly do, because fiction helps to illuminate life. Personally, I believe that if you can feel sympathy for a ridiculous superhero and not for an ordinary, lonely man tending a sick animal then there’s something desperately wrong with your emotions and your priorities.’ [Related: Crack!Comicks | via Barbelith]
28 February 2003
[comics] Vertigo X Interview with Grant Morrison [ Part 1 | Part 2] … On Reality TV in Scotland: ‘We have McBachelor, where a kilted throwback from the Isle of Eigg wrestles goats to the turf and slaughters kestrels with his fists in an attempt to impress single career women from the mainland.’ [via Barbelith]
20 February 2003
[comics] Grant Morrison at the ICA on 28th March:
30 January 2003
[comics] Interview with Grant Morrison by Rich Johnson. GM on the WACKYJAC photos: ‘…think of it as a kind of Victoria’s Secret that should have been KEPT and perhaps the images won’t hurt so badly. Now if I hadn’t been flaccid, it would have been illegal, so be glad I spared humanity.’ [via Barbelith]
29 January 2003
[comics] When Grant Morrison had hair… (click image to enlarge) …  ‘It was great […] I got to do the Flash. The real Flash, not this abomination that’s running around today. One of the most exciting moments of my entire life, believe it or not, was writing the sequence where Barry Allen presses his ring and the costume leaps out. When I wrote that I was sitting there all charged up with adrenalin. I suppose that just shows how sheltered a life I’ve led.’
26 January 2003
[comics] New X-Men #136 — a great thread on Grant Morrison‘s latest issue of X-Men over at the comics forum on Barbelith … ‘There were worrying things about Xorn even in his stand-alone issue, and I remember this being discussed – “If I could save every life, I would” – but you can’t. And how do you deal with that realisation – how do you handle death? Morrison did actually say in an interview early on that NXM would be about death, and he wasn’t kidding. Xorn’s already got so depressed he nearly destroyed the world once – what if the senselessness of it all pushes him that close as well?’
4 December 2002
[comics] Interview with an Umpire — a massive interview with Grant Morrison on Barbelith … ‘I was aware that I was holding a continuum, that’s when I started to develop ideas of comics as magic, comics as sigils, because I got to page 22 then I turned back to page 8; I thought, “I’m in this story which I don’t understand, I’ve read this bit, I can go back to the point where the characters don’t know what’s about to happen to them and I can experience it out of sequence” and I saw that this comic was this entire little universe/ continuum in it’s own right and also the wider implications; that the DC Universe and the Marvel Universe were also continuums in their own way created by people when I was a kid or before I was born. Maintained by people, who like these Demonic Corporations, maintained and kept these characters which were sustained by people who would come in and look after them; people who would come in and look after Scott Summers – it was that notion of the universe in your hands and the possibilities in that.’
19 November 2002
[comics] Searching For The Invisible Man — Ninth Art discuss Grant Morrison … [via ¡Journalista!]
‘WHEELER: I think the difference between someone like Morrison and Moore is that at 7:30 on a Friday night, Moore is probably out covering himself with goose fat and chanting to the moon, whereas Morrison is probably watching Top Of The Pops.
JOHNSTON: I actually think Moore is more likely to be down the pub.
WHEELER: Possibly. But communing. He’s communing with his Gods, and Grant Morrison’s communing with his. And I suspect that among Grant Morrison’s gods are S Club 7.’
30 October 2002
[comics] A useful directory of the Comics Forum on Barbelith. ‘They can’t kill Beak, he’s a Van Sciver creation, which surely bears as much weight as a Kirby creation!’ — Ethan Van Sciver.
7 October 2002
[comics] Meditations in Red [Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5] — Grant Morrison does Shang-Chi – Master of Kung Fu! [via The Barbelith Underground] 
26 September 2002
[comics] Probably the best individual comic panel ever? (St. Swithin’s Day by Grant Morrison and Paul Grist, click picture to enlarge) …  ‘I can only dance to one song – “There She Goes” – and only in the bathroom. I don’t even need a record player. Sometimes I can just shut my eyes and HEAR it. Guitars like church bells. And then the drums start. And the singing comes in and I want to cry. And I’m going to die. I’m going to die tommorrow. I’m going to die and I don’t care. I’M GOING TO DIE! You know what they say – You’re only young once. And that was it.’
24 September 2002
[comics] Grant Morrison updates his website. From Come Ride My Column: ‘How would you feel if a seemingly unlikely sex kitten like Brian Michael Bendis, say, or Alan Moore actually turned out out to be an utterly convincing and feminine seductress, able to “pass” as a refined and sophisticated lady? Let’s face it, careers could be hurt but this could be a very interesting and genuinely upsetting experiment. So I say once more. Let’s see some A-list comics pros got up as tarts! Fellow professionals, make your sexiest shots public – nothing seedy mind. Strictly glamour, lads, no hardcore.’
31 August 2002
[comics] The Kill Your Boyfriend Random Quote Generator … ‘You know, I didn’t think I’d ever fall in love with anyone. Thank God our relationship’s never going to have to stand the test of time.’ [via planetbond]
6 August 2002
[comics] Punching Holes Through Time — absolutely fab Sequential Tart interview with Grant Morrison. It’s so good, I can’t decide on a quote so you’re getting three … At an important time in my life, between the ages of 12 and 19, I was practically autistic at home. I had a lot of fun at a boys school during the day but evenings were grim beyond Morrissey’s most rueful yodellings, spent huddled in our flat above the Finefare, drawing my own homemade comic books and writing fantasy novels with cock in hand (see Flex Mentallo #3 ).
I just re-read a bunch of Doom Patrols and they were fucking brilliant. I’m a little ashamed that I would never dare end the X-Men on a full-page cliffhanger featuring a floating pyramid and a Satanic Noel Coward lookalike with a periscope in his head shouting the words “REVERTH MY BUTTOCKTH SERGEANT MAJOR!”
[Crisis on Infinite Earths] made for a great maxi-series and possibly the best, most apocalyptic superhero crossover ever. Ten billion characters screaming as entire universes caught fire. George Perez was the John Martyn of comics and there was a sense of genuine threat and armageddon. It seemed like the most important event of all time (unless you’d been there for the death of Jean Grey, which fucked with me more, sleek and romantic and 21 by this time. I wept silent tears as Scott and Jean held hands and ran out to face certain death on the moon. Lying on a park bench beside Hyde Park in the sun at 8 a.m., I penned a tear-stained paean to mutantism. Me in Chelsea boots, drainpipe trousers, fluffy moptop, with The Winds of Chaos, my first novel in a folder in my attache case. “Dear Chris, I cried for Jean Grey …”
16 July 2002
[comics] Dr. Strange — interview with Grant Morrison. Morrison on The Filth: ‘Yeah, well, The Invisibles was filled with sexy, beautiful people, and The Filth is filled with ugly, hopeless people who can’t get sex and all the sex is bad sex. The fashions are ugly, and everything is wrong, but there is a kind of real heart to it, which The Invisibles doesn’t have. The Invisibles is more like Vogue, and I just wanted The Filth filled with flapping comb-overs and hopelessly degraded paunches. I think it’s funny, because it is basically about super spies–but the super spies are garbage men. Everything about it is kind of taking the worst aspects of existence and kind of turning it into super-computer-generated DVD glamour.’ [via Neilalien]
28 June 2002
[comics] Perfect Victim — Preview of Filth #2 … ‘This is a joke. This is a fucking joke. When do I wake up and smear my padded cell with my own feces?’ [via plasticbag.org]
18 June 2002
[comics] Challenging comics writer Grant Morrison true to form in ‘The Filth’ — brief backgrounder on Morrison and The Filth. ‘…he says, at heart, he is not some wildly perverse writer who happened to fall into the comics field. Despite what you read from him, he says he cannot be identified through his writing. “I’m really a man who likes to be alone and quiet,” he says.’
12 June 2002
[comics] Grant Morrison.com updates — New Column, new Digital Ink… Scripts for the aborted Invisibles TV Series … Episode 1: Malcolm’s in the Invisibles classroom, combing his hair in front of a mirror. With only a few little changes, he’s turned his 70s teacher look into Jason King. Shirt open, he picks up a groovy 70s jacket. Checks out the window where a beautiful blonde in a sports car waves up to him. The full Invisibles team is assembled here but they’re little more than vague presences in the scene. Ragged Robin is laying out tarot cards. Tarot trump 20 – the Aeon, which represents the Crowned and Conquering Child of the coming Aeon of Aquarius/Horus. Malcolm slings his jacket on.
MALCOLM : The ball’s in your court now, young man.
KING MOB : These things happen.
He picks up his gun.
KING MOB : When I was a kid, I always wanted to grow up and find myself living in a 60s spy series.
Pause. He smiles a dangerous smile.
KING MOB : Funny how things work out, isn’t it ?
Close shot of magazine slamming into the handle of King Mob’s automatic.
Tarot card close up as it snaps down on the table – Trump 16 – The Tower.
7 June 2002
[comics] Grant Morrison’s Filthy Mind [ Part 1] [ Part 2] [ Part 3] … A Newsarama Interview. ‘The Filth is ostensibly very different from something like The Invisibles – there’s no drugs, magic, pop culture references or tantric sex in this book, at least not so you would know. The Filth is immense, however, and builds to some rather disturbing conclusions about who we are and what we’re for. In some key ways, fans will recognize this book as something of a photo-negative of The Invisibles. The Filth is determinedly uncool, unfashionable and anti-stylish as a reaction to a lot of the more superficial glamour aspects of The Invisibles. The Filth is all ugly people and broken things, but shot in the most incredible colors and light.’
6 June 2002
[comics] Crack!Comicks — a new site from Grant Morrison … About The Filth: ‘It’s bigger, wilder, uglier and more heart-rending than the best summer blockbuster movie and if, like me, you love the awful smells of failure, shame, male pattern baldness and seedy compromise, then you’re sure to revel in the squirming twists and turns of this exotic international spy-fi thriller, where games of identity, madness and planetary hygiene combine with perverted sex, kitchen sink realism and ultra-technology to blind the mind’s eye and infect the soul forever. Sights to scupper the sanity! Philosophies to burst the frontal lobes! People with combovers having sex!’ [Related: Filth Trailer from DC]
2 June 2002
[comics] Preview of Grant Morrrison and Chris Weston’s “The Filth” — Looks Good … ‘”She-Male Nurse”. Best for Wank, Eh? Best of Both Worlds, Some Men Say.’ [via I Love Everything]
25 February 2002
[comics] Professor X And Marvel Boy — gossip about Grant Morrison ghost writing Authority #28 for Mark Millar … ‘recently things have not gone too well for the “we’re not a couple” couple. They haven’t spoken for almost a year now and there seems to be a rift based around Grant Morrison ghost writing the original script for Authority #28 as a favour when Mark Millar was being treated for suspected cancer early last summer. ‘ [via Neilalien]
17 January 2002
[comics] Vertigo PR on Morrison’s ‘The Filth’ … ‘[The Filth is a] twisted super-thriller in which Morrison takes the reader on a psychedelic roller coaster ride through a maelstrom of extra-dimensional espionage, disease pathology, sex and violence, prosthetically-equipped dolphins, indolent nano-technology, co-opted reality and the notion of identity itself. Loaded with febrile imagery and Byzantine plot twists, The Filth is a mind-wrenching journey where nothing is exactly what it seems.’ [via Newsarama]
10 January 2002
[comics] Marvel’s ‘Nuff Said … and the script for Grant Morrison’s New X-Men #121. ‘Frame 4. Jean has been swept into the ultimate original memory – Xavier’s DNA recall. Surprised, she’s diving down towards us through a 3-D explosion of swimming seed as it heads for destiny. The sperm in foreground have intricate delicate glass heads filled with coils of information. Jean looks like she’s diving with some exotic species of incredible luminous deep-sea jellyfish.’
8 January 2002
[comics] Q & A with Grant Morrison from the Spinner Rack … ‘Q: What would you like to see happen in comics in the next 12 months? A: I’d like to see Alan Moore get his kit off for the front cover of the ‘Ain Soph’ issue of Promethea. Him and J.H. Williams could symbolise the journey of consciousness into the realm of naked apprehension and do a knowing homage to John and Yoko’s Two Virgins album cover at the same time. It would look really good. And who here hasn’t lain awake wondering what the award-winning creator of Watchmen’s tadger looks like?’
24 December 2001
[quote] “What’ll it be next? Choice extracts from the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations? Trotting out the Nietzsche and the Shelley to dignify some old costumed claptrap? Probably. Sometimes you wonder, in an interconnected universe, who’s dreaming who?” — Grant Morrison (1989)
18 December 2001
[comics] The Canny ‘X’ Men ‘”Was he not an alcoholic?” Morrison interjects. “I always thought he was called Iron Man because he had an iron liver. But that’s what I’m doing with the X Men. Taking them back to the basics. For example, Cyclops, Wolverine, you can tell what these people are just by their names.” Millar agrees. “That’s all I’ve tried to do is make things what they were. I’ve tried to strip them back…” “Naked X-Men!” says Morrison. “Eww. Would Cyclops’ eye beam out of anywhere else?” ponders Millar. “His arse? Arseclops?”‘ [via I Love Everything]
16 December 2001
[comics] Grant Morrison talks about his plans for the New X-Men in 2002 … Morrison on issue #121 : ‘As you probably know, this sees Jean and Emma venture together into the brain of Cassandra Nova… where Charles Xavier’s consciousness is imprisoned in a symbolic landscape. Frank’s work is breathtaking… some sequences are like watching animation unfold on the page. Frank has an early-Disney-gone-bad element to his style which I love and this issue was written to really highlight that. Every page is a masterpiece of design and drawing. PLUS: Emma’s naked in this ish! AND Jean Grey is covered in sperm. And before the inevitable outcry, I hasten to add that Jean’s immersion in semen is entirely tasteful and essential to the storyline…’ [via Barbelith]
30 October 2001
[comics] Scot plans to make Batman hang up cape — brief interview with Grant Morrison and Mark Millar from the Sunday Times … In the wake of September 11, violent superhumans are not enough anymore. We should be putting the current international developments in context rather than just having wrestling matches between colourful characters. I’ve already started writing X-Men as a pacifist comic. They don’t believe in violence. They want to change the world in other ways. I don’t think there will be as much fisticuffs anymore. I always thought that was rubbish anyway. I’m more into the philosophical basis of comics, the ideas they explore.’ [ Related: Newsarama on the Article, via Barbelith Underground]
16 September 2001
[comment] Fall of Empire: Bombs and Magic … Grant Morrison on 9-11. ‘Their destruction in this week’s monstrous assault on thousands of unsuspecting people, signals an end to America’s illusions about itself, its purpose and its boundaries. The isolationist image of a proud cowboy nation using super technology to defend us all against Cold War evil empire nuclear missile attacks is shattering along all its fault lines. Superman has just been exposed to Kryptonite. The American Century is very clearly over now as the shift in global power moves away from hi-fi monolithic, ‘individualistic’ structures towards lo-fi, viral cell culture models.’
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