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Underground > Comic Books >

Grant Morrison interview at Comicon Pulse.

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17:08 / 05.12.03

Qalyn, I wasn't singling you out as being angry - but if you go over to the other messageboards out there and read some of the responses, there are those who take this shit WAY too seriously. I read one from a guy who said he's never going to read a Grant Morrison comic again.

I mean, fucking hell, lighten up.

17:22 / 05.12.03

Oh, yeah, totally. I keep trying to establish a presence on other comics boards (for my own exploitive reasons) and concluding that comics "fans" are all horrible dorks who deserve to be ignored to death. I understand that, for professional reasons, you can't be seen to agree with me on that. But, in Matthew's words of yor, "Oranges are better than apples. End of discussion."

I do sometimes wonder if, because I don't find ballsy PR scams, etc, particularly entertaining, I will be relegated in 2012 to some dreary gland-collective in the bowels of the biota, secreting digestive enzymes or something. Could you check with Grant for me, Cam? Tell him it's not a big deal, I'm just curious.

nedsladeantiperson

17:27 / 05.12.03

Who the Hell cares anyway? Just enjoty the damn stories.

19:35 / 05.12.03

You guys think the Moore-related fallout is funny, Green Lantern fans are flipping their biscuits over Grant's revealing that he prefers Kyle to "creepy old guy" Hal. "Anyone who admires Oliver Queen, Hal Jordan, the GLC or the GLC mythos should make it a point never to buy another comic that Grant Morrison writes!", etc. Much amusing geekery in the threads below...

Gotta love that Grant Morrison!
Creepy old Grant Morrison

19:52 / 05.12.03

All this feud talk is making me want to hear people's opinion on the Fifty-cent and Ja Rule feud. I'm partial to Ja Rule because he had Fifty-cent shot and now just ignores him, much better then the endless dis songs.

Very off-topic.

20:13 / 05.12.03

..also off-topic, but I think theres a debate we should be having 'round here, the Kyle/Hal one. The mighty group-brain that is Barbelith, running on maximum power, could probably settle that one once and for all in a matter of, oooohh, weeks. And it'd also prove that we can get down and geeky with the best of 'em.

Er, on topic? Great interview. Just 'read it again. Very funny. Ha Ha Ha

21:26 / 05.12.03

i'm always kind of baffled and disturbed by fanboys who take the natural urge to defend a favorite character to the extreme of making it some kind of full-time occupation. like the posters on those boards linked to who listed themselves as members of H.E.A.T. - Hal's Emerald Action Team, like they're some kind of volunteer militia defending the oppressed against those who would conspire to hold them down. that weird tribal siege mentality is scary to watch in any case, but people basically wanting to burn down GM's house and flog him in the public square for dissing a fictional character is fucking crazy.

22:38 / 05.12.03

Yes! Let's kill them! TO DEATH!

22:46 / 05.12.03

Yes! Let's kill them! TO DEATH!

Amusingly, this mirrors the early reactions of at least some of those fanboys--Ron Marz, the writer who "killed" Hal, received actual death threats from angry fans.

23:19 / 05.12.03

H.E.A.T. - Hal's Emerald Action Team

I think this is quite sweet. yes its baffling, yes it’s disturbing, but it’s also really quite sweet, innit?.

but people basically wanting to burn down GM's house and flog him in the public square for dissing a fictional character is fucking crazy.

You’re obviously only sniping at them because you agree with Grant that Kyle is the best, admit it!! And I bet Alan Moore loves Hal Jordan best, too.

Simplist - I remember reading an interview with Alan Moore around the time of Brought To Light, where he was talking about the death threats he received from neo-nazis/skinheads when that book was published: he said he’d taken the letters to the police, but wasn’t too concerned because (from memory) “they didn’t look capable of raising the airfare”. Various other things, stupid things, were mentioned in passing as being subjects likely to cause a death threat or two, the implication was they weren’t exactly unknown.

Lot of idiots out there: it’s a good job that Alan and Grant have their magic powers to protect themselves.

23:26 / 05.12.03

but people basically wanting to burn down GM's house and flog him in the public square for dissing a fictional character is fucking crazy.

But quite apt, given the 'when fiction attacks' theme that Morrison's been running with for years.

23:44 / 06.12.03

I'm pleased with it all, even the Fantomex bits nobody else liked - I can't wait to have the three big hardback collections in my hands and read it all in one sitting the way it's intended.

Oh yes, one of these days, you're gonna miss me baby ....

Comics For Collectors is having a 20% off graphic novels sale this weekend and the above persuaded me to drop $29:95 (-20%) on the vol 2 hardback, collecting nXm #127-141. It's incredibly frickin' cool and the guy who runs the store offered me the discount on vol 1 if I ordered it today too.

Think I'll give the pamphlet collection to my friend Rob, who's been enjoying reading them over my shoulder for the last 6 months or so.

02:33 / 08.12.03

Some of you people are just freaking crazy. Including Morrison. Much as I love ole Grumpy Grant, I'd have to take Moore over him any day. But really its quite sad that the two most prominant (only?)comic book writers/magicians regard each other so disdainfully. Morrison's comment (if containing an ounce of seriousness) sounds an awful lot like profesional jealosy to me. Oh well. I still like Grant's stuff immensley, especially, of course, The Invisibles. (I'd probably call him the best comic writer after Moore, especially given Dave Sim's recent metamorphosis into Ann Coulter). And Pop Magic, for those who haven't read any of it, is certainly the best 'How-to' intro to the dark arts that my inky hands have yet grasped around. Thrilled to hear he has expanded into a whole book.
That's it.

14:39 / 08.12.03

>> The fact is (and, yes, I've read the latest Promethea), I tend to think Al and Grant come up with these ideas contemporaneously simply by virtue of the fact that they read similar books, have similar interests and are both very interested in comics as a technology.... Y'know, it's not that big a hop skip or a jump for anyone that's come across 'Flatland' (or any of that multiple dimension theory jazz) to apply the FROM 2D TO 3D! stuff to their stories.

Well said. It's not like they invented magick or psychedelic mysticism. Plus, add a liberal dose of Philip K. Dick and their many other influences.

14:01 / 09.12.03

On this week's LYING IN THE GUTTERS, at www.comicbookresources.com:

>> Chris Weston has also been talking about his and pitches for a "Bizarro" book.

"I really want to work with Tom Peyer next, and together we pitched a 'Bizarro Vs. Brainiac' mini-series to DC, but it got rejected. Think about it, the DCU's dumbest character fights the cleverest... it would have been great! Here's my character design for Bizarro, whose skin I saw as being chrystalline and transparent."

"The plan was to follow that up with "World's Freakiest: Bizarro-Superman teams up with Man-Bat" which Grant Morrison wanted to write. Grant and I even got Bizarro's personal blessing when we summoned him up in a shamanic moment during last summer's San Diego convention. But it's not to be! Apparently, DC have 'other plans' for the character... whatever they are. They won't be as good as ours. All together now: aaaaah..... By the way, if anyone wants to buy that Bizarro sketch, it's yours for £40. Email me if you're interested."

--------------------------------------------------------

There's a great Bizarro drawing Weston did - my web-fu sucks so I'm not gonna attempt to link it.

Grant writing a Bizarro/Man-Bat story!?!??! Why not Bat-Mite!?!?

And they got the spirit of Bizarro to approve it?!?! MAN!!! WHY DIDN'T DC ACCEPT THIS PROPOSAL!?!?!?!?

17:37 / 09.12.03

Grant forgot that when the spirit of Bizarro SAYS he approves it, that really means that he DOESN'T approve it.

17:49 / 09.12.03

Grant forgot that when the spirit of Bizarro SAYS he approves it, that really means that he DOESN'T approve it.

you make very bad point. you am very stupid.

me am so happy me not be seeing stupid comic.

21:05 / 09.12.03

me disagree. weston draw un-seriously beautiful Bizarro that not make me want to see Braniac getting ass kicked. Bizarro not have fists like titanium hams.

(Editor's Note: I've always wondered how sarcasm worked on Bizarro-World. A really jaded and cynical denizen of Bizarro-world would be the most honest person on Earth here. "Invading Bizarro-Iraq poor idea. Me think it take team of unpatriotic idiots to come up with that idea!" )

Someone needs to make a Bizarro text-filter. Or at least national Bizarro Day. Hmmm....

01:11 / 10.12.03

I used to have a Bizzaro trade which was mostly silver age Bizzaro stories and for some reason I've never laughed so hard reading a trade. Because they didn't really have a logical system for their Bizzaro system, they just kinda made it up as they went along. I think the opposite of Christmas was like President's Day for some reason. Very very fun.

03:29 / 10.12.03

Is that the one where Bizarro becomes the Sherrif of Metropolis? He deputizes Bizarro Jimmy Olsen and they force a bunch of rampaging flying creatures of some sort underground and save the city - but then the cops offer him gold as a reward, and he's so insulted before Superman comes back. God, I love Bizarro.

And on the subject of threadrot, I personally think any Grant Morrison interview thread that does NOT mention Bizarro is dangerously off-topic.

03:34 / 10.12.03

Whoops! That should read:

"He's so insulted he flies back to Bizarro World before Superman gets back from space."

10:40 / 10.12.03

Didn't Ho Garden dissect the Moore/Morrison relationship, like, three years ago?

13:56 / 10.12.03

>> Grant forgot that when the spirit of Bizarro SAYS he approves it, that really means that he DOESN'T approve it.

LOL!

17:45 / 10.12.03

I don't know, Ganesh. Perhaps you could tell us more?

12:28 / 11.12.03

I beg your pardon. I never promised you a Ho Garden.

17:42 / 22.12.03

Er, okay, so obviously Ganesh is absolutely right to point out that various Barbelith brainiacs of the old school have discussed to death this Moore/Morrison ‘feud’, several times, over a period of years. I’m a newbie dunce and should have checked, and any other Johnny-come-latelys who want answers to all the questions on this that they haven’t even thought of yet, need only type “morrison moore” into the ‘Lith search facility and check out, like, the first three threads it comes up with.

So, a squillion apologies for whoever this irritates, but I only really revived this thread to hopefully spread some Christmas cheer via this link... [link removed]

...bottom of the page, ’GMandAM’, which, before you batter me, is only intended as a light-hearted festive-type joke which I’m using for my Christmas cards this year. It’ll be skulking at the bottom of the page for a short while yet, while the rest of the 'site' is empty/doesn’t work anyway. So if some kind soul wants to swipe it, hang it up it on a proper remote image-hosting thingamabob, and paste a copy into this thread so that the casual reader doesn’t have to bother with my crap link to get to the giggle, then please do so. Such techy web-fu is completely beyond my own limp skills (Oh, and a million zillion apologies to the God-like genius of Neal Adams, whose fantastic work I have ineptly pissed all over. May Heaven forgive me).

And Mods - if you want to move this to the Creation forum, just go right ahead. I only was inspired to post the damn thing by Olulabelle’s own lovely Christmas card over there in Creation, but the reason I put it here is I thought it’s a pretty thin joke that would only really be of any interest to the comic-y people who’ve already been pre-amused by this thread.

Matthew Fluxington

20:07 / 22.12.03

I've always gotten that impression because Invisibles as brilliant as it was can't hope to be as perfectly structured and comprehensively standalone as Watchmen.

Well, part of that has to do with it being one of Morrison's weakest efforts. If you compare anything Alan Moore has done in his career to Kill Yr Boyfriend or the best parts of the Doom Patrol, Moore's work pales in comparison.

21:09 / 22.12.03

Oh, please...

21:12 / 22.12.03

On both counts.

Have you read much Moore, Matthew? I'd recommend V for Vendetta; seems m[o]ore your kind of thing than Watchmen.

23:40 / 22.12.03

when i was fourteen I read the watchmen, saw taxi driver a few weeks later, and was angered that the people that made taxi driver had obviously ripped off the watchmen. Couldnt believe that this deniro hack could get away with saying rorschach's opening speech almost word for word.

Regrettable Juvenilia

10:24 / 23.12.03

Thinking about it, Moore really hasn't done anything quite as good as Kill Your Boyfriend... But then neither has Morrison!

10:30 / 23.12.03

kill your boyfriend for £2 currently in the old forbidden planet on new oxford st.

in both senses.

Matthew Fluxington

11:35 / 23.12.03

There is a certain joy to be had in being highly contentious re: Alan Moore.

18:16 / 23.12.03

I can imagine. I do get a vicarious thrill from Grant's occasional rudeness.

KYB is, to me, a nice wee comic. Nothing particularly outstanding about it, though. (imho)

19:00 / 23.12.03

See, the thing about Alan Moore is that, while he's a very good writer and (I'm sure) a nice human being, everyone in comics is so fucking serious and reverent when they talk about him.

"Comics one true genius" etc... blah!

Truth be told, there are quite a few bits of Moore's work that I love dearly, but I genuinely prefer, say, Kill Your Boyfriend, the Morrison/Case Doom Patrol run, various bits of Dan Clowes' Eightball, or Eddie Campbell's autobiographical stuff to anything Moore has ever written. Hell, there are a lot of comics that I havent mentioned yet that I rate higher than Moore's work, and I don't feel that this position is in any way inherantly wrong, despite what some people will tell you.

There are quite a few folk out there who are, for my money, a bit too heavy-handed in their Moore praise, and this gives the act of being a little irreverant (or, as the case may be, merely honest) when you talk about the man's work a little bit of charge, if only because you know there are a lot of folk out there whose eyebrows will shoot up upon reading the suggestion that anything (anything) could possibly be better than Watchmen.

Is this a tad immature? Maybe. But I think it's also necessary - I'm not lying when I say I think there are a lot of comics out there that are better than anything Moore's ever done. This is, of course, a highly personal opinion, but it's one I feel very comfortable with, and the fact that it seems in any way contentious speaks volumes, I think.

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