― James Morrison (JRSM), Monday, 24 April 2006 01:43 (eighteen years ago) link
― James Morrison (JRSM), Monday, 24 April 2006 02:49 (eighteen years ago) link
― barefoot manthing (Garrett Martin), Friday, 5 January 2007 18:48 (seventeen years ago) link
― mh. (mike h.), Friday, 5 January 2007 19:53 (seventeen years ago) link
― 808 the Bassking (Andrew Thames), Saturday, 6 January 2007 01:36 (seventeen years ago) link
― Huk-L (Huk-L), Sunday, 7 January 2007 18:10 (seventeen years ago) link
― David R. (popshots75`), Monday, 8 January 2007 03:11 (seventeen years ago) link
― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 8 January 2007 03:36 (seventeen years ago) link
― David R. (popshots75`), Monday, 8 January 2007 05:07 (seventeen years ago) link
― J (Jay), Monday, 8 January 2007 13:45 (seventeen years ago) link
Does this guy have any kind of game in comic collector circles? I ask because while tidying up the attic last week, I found a copy of "near myths", a brit comic anthology zine from the late '70's. As well as an episode of Bryan Talbot's "Luther Arkwright", it contains an episode of Morrison's "Gideon Stargrave". I believe Morrison resurrected the character in recent years. It is really, really bad. But kind of entertainingly so.
Should I haul it up on ebay, or just stick it back on the shelf, dear ILC-ers?
― Pashmina, Wednesday, 28 November 2007 16:08 (sixteen years ago) link
OH YEAH
― Dr. Superman, Wednesday, 28 November 2007 16:19 (sixteen years ago) link
perhaps you may even get offers from ILComickers
― Dr. Superman, Wednesday, 28 November 2007 16:33 (sixteen years ago) link
Oh man!
― Douglas, Wednesday, 28 November 2007 17:08 (sixteen years ago) link
I have just discovered that they retconned out of existence the big twist from GM's New X-Men.
― The Real Dirty Vicar, Wednesday, 28 November 2007 18:56 (sixteen years ago) link
Which one... the everybody-will-be-mutants one? Or another one?
― James Morrison, Wednesday, 28 November 2007 22:57 (sixteen years ago) link
I thought they'd retconned the lot. Presumably because it left a bunch of X geeks and casual readers who'd just seen the movie all going "WTF? We don't want actual ideas in our comics."
― Stone Monkey, Thursday, 29 November 2007 16:53 (sixteen years ago) link
Most of them. Although they retconned Xorn within, like, days after GM's run ended. Evidently they didn't understand the entire concept.
― Douglas, Thursday, 29 November 2007 17:03 (sixteen years ago) link
"The Filth is good as a collection of ideas and reads better the second time through. It's part of Grant's "feel sorry for my dead cat" genre."
Can anyone explain this to me?
― MaresNest, Friday, 28 November 2008 12:28 (fifteen years ago) link
Which bit?
The Filth is good as a collection of ideas - it's certainly a collection of ideas, and I really like the ideas in the collection.
reads better the second time through - this is self-explanatory, though I haven't given it the second read.
It's part of Grant's "feel sorry for my dead cat" genre." - as seen in Animal Man, he's not above using the projection that humans place on lower lifeforms to get an emotional response, as part of the effect he's trying to generate with his stories.
― Andrew Farrell, Friday, 28 November 2008 14:48 (fifteen years ago) link
I actually think that The Filth's insistence that sympathy for non-humans is an essential aspect of humanity is pretty interesting. It's Feely's love for his cat that keeps him from returning to his old life. It's certainly heavy-handed, and something GM's perhaps done a little too much (both in Animal Man, and at least once in The Invisibles), but it is a pretty effective near-universal experience to tap into.
Also, yes, The Filth is certainly better second time through.
― arango, Saturday, 29 November 2008 20:02 (fifteen years ago) link
...he's not above using the projection that humans place on lower lifeforms to get an emotional response...
-- Andrew Farrell
Perhaps it's exactly as cynical as you suggest, but based on Animal Man, The Filth, We3, Seaguy, I get the impression that the issue is a bit more personal for Mr. Morrison. I.e., he's not coldly exploiting a projection so much as sympathetically exploring the emotional consequences of loss -- using personal experience as a tool. Loved The Filth the first time through, and no more (no less) the second.
― Suggest Ban Permalink (contenderizer), Sunday, 7 December 2008 19:38 (fifteen years ago) link
Servoret posts from way upthread are so damn great.
― Suggest Ban Permalink (contenderizer), Sunday, 7 December 2008 19:39 (fifteen years ago) link
Maybe it's not a big issue in The Filth, but I thought Animal Man and WE3 made it clear Morrison cares about animals and animal rights as such, so it's not always just about projection. WE3 is all about not seeing animals as mere intruments to satisfy human needs.
― Tuomas, Sunday, 7 December 2008 22:17 (fifteen years ago) link
wHAT tUOMAS AND sUGGEST bAN pERMALINK SAID. Sorry, typed without looking with caps lock on.
― James Morrison, Sunday, 7 December 2008 22:40 (fifteen years ago) link
question - somewhere in volume two of the invisibles, they all draw straws to decide what their role in the group is in terms of elemental symbolism. sadly this comes across as an excuse for the artists to start drawing ragged robin in leather, but the idea is still sort of interesting: does anyone know where morrison got it from?
― thomp, Tuesday, 24 March 2009 00:18 (fifteen years ago) link
Maybe he just came up with it himself? The idea of switching roles/responsibilities from time to time to avoid internal hierarchies from developing is quite common in anarchist-oriented grassroot politics, something which Morrison no doubt is familiar with. And combining that with elemental symbolism seems like a typically Morrisonian idea.
― Tuomas, Thursday, 26 March 2009 21:10 (fifteen years ago) link
hey tuomas is back!
― I am Robertson Speedo (Drugs A. Money), Thursday, 26 March 2009 21:28 (fifteen years ago) link
i heard a thing on npr the other day about how during harold washington's (1st black mayor of chicago) campaign, racist supporters of his opponent would sometimes wear blank white badges.
― meat of beef (Jordan), Thursday, 26 March 2009 21:32 (fifteen years ago) link
didnt read the thread but marvel boy is his best thing
― the most brazen explosion of clitoral lust in folk-metal history (cankles), Thursday, 26 March 2009 21:36 (fifteen years ago) link
Has anyone ever checked out that Invisibles' guidebook "Anarchy For The Masses?"
― Chris Barrus (Elvis Telecom), Thursday, 26 March 2009 21:50 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah, I have it. Well, it's actually in LA, along with my run of THE INVISIBLES, with a friend of mine who's had them for too long. I recall it illuminating a few points here and there but not quite as meaty as I'd wanted it to be. Maybe I'm already steeped in esoterica, so some of it was old news.
― Matt M., Thursday, 26 March 2009 23:13 (fifteen years ago) link
Despite his reputation for including various esoteric matters into his comics, I think Morrison is actually quite good at making them into an organic part of his stories and explaining them within the story, so I've never felt I'd need the help of some external reference guide. I've read some texts where various Morrison stories are interpreted via spiral dynamics, but I don't think knowledge of that theory is in any way necessary to understand what he's writing about.
The only thing in The Invisibles that was quite strange to me was The Hand of Glory (at first I thought it was something Morrison came up with himself), and even with that one, knowing it's an ages-old concept isn't really necessary for understanding what it does in the story. Of course there are some subtle in-jokes and references in his comics that require some outside knowledge to decipher (like Miss Rimbaud in the Miracle Man miniseries), but mostly they're just small details that make the whole richer, not something you need to get in order to understand the story.
― Tuomas, Friday, 27 March 2009 12:54 (fifteen years ago) link
Great News!
Flex Mentallo hardcover coming this fall!
http://vertigo.blog.dccomics.com/2011/01/04/flex-mentallo-is-back/
― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 4 January 2011 17:49 (thirteen years ago) link
"Beautiful deluxe edition" = time to start calling in all the debts yer owed.
I hope they kept the essays.
― "They did it with computers!" (R Baez), Tuesday, 4 January 2011 17:59 (thirteen years ago) link
Still have the singles. Which I got for less than twenty bucks (piecemeal).
I'm waiting for DC to decide to release THE COMPLEAT GRANT MORRISON LIBRARY editions of everything after THE INVISIBLES gets the Absolute treatment.
― Matt M., Tuesday, 4 January 2011 19:24 (thirteen years ago) link
ahhhhhhh
― assorted curses (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 4 January 2011 20:07 (thirteen years ago) link
xp -- could def. see that happening by mid-decade, assuming no Alan Moore-style falling out w/DC
― earnest goes to camp, ironic goes to ilm (pixel farmer), Tuesday, 4 January 2011 20:18 (thirteen years ago) link
Oh wow, this is the best news in ages! Now I don't have to squint at those cbr files ever again.
― Tuomas, Wednesday, 5 January 2011 07:16 (thirteen years ago) link
Great!
Now Zenith too, please
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 5 January 2011 09:13 (thirteen years ago) link
Is his new(ish) batman run any good? Pretty much the only time I'm not all abt morrison is his batman stuff - really couldn't get into arkham asylum at all fr example.
― toastmodernist, Wednesday, 5 January 2011 11:50 (thirteen years ago) link
It's probably the least cohesive (and my least favourite) of GM's mainstream superhero projects, but it's still pretty good. I'd try Batman #700, which is a fairly accessible done-in-one, and should give you an idea -- tonally, at least -- of what the rest of his run is like.
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 5 January 2011 12:40 (thirteen years ago) link
It starts pretty weak, but some parts of it are very good, especially Batman RIP and the Final Crisis related material. Basically, I don't think Morrison is at his best when trying to write "street vigilante" or "dark knight detective" stuff, but the more mind screwy bits of his run are quite fine. Actually, it's kinda odd that Morrison has stayed so long with Batman, as Batman is seemingly the character least suited for him among DC's major superheroes.
― Tuomas, Wednesday, 5 January 2011 13:17 (thirteen years ago) link
thankfully it's just a "deluxe hardcover", not ABSOLUTE (so far as I can tell) so hopefully not more than $25 retail
really enjoyed the Batman Morrison run; maybe it's because he's so unlikely to be a good Batman writer that it was so fun, especially as Tuomas says, the RIP/FC material. I loved the whole tone of the Black Glove arc, and even the constantly changing art teams still managed to work with the material, though I wish they could've kept Kubert or Williams on the whole thing
― Nhex, Wednesday, 5 January 2011 13:26 (thirteen years ago) link
most of the artists who aren't Williams do a lot of damage to anything in the "Batman" title (bar some bits of #700, and did John Van Fleet do that painted Joker one early on?), but Final Crisis is all good, and there are only three issues of Batman & Robin with shitty art, and even that's nowhere near as shitty as Tony Daniel. (Slightly shittier than Kubert.)
― Urban Coochie Collective (sic), Wednesday, 5 January 2011 22:48 (thirteen years ago) link
I think Batman Inc. is a lot of fun, and I like Yanick Paquette's (Kevin Nowlan-esque) art. Morrison seems to come up with a lot of ideas that seem nonsensical or out of character (like having Bat-partners around the world), but work anyway just from sheer energy level and the fact that he doesn't let the pace lag long enough to give them much thought.
― earnest goes to camp, ironic goes to ilm (pixel farmer), Wednesday, 5 January 2011 23:06 (thirteen years ago) link
Paquette's biting Nowlan's shading on faces, don't see too much else Nowlanesque in his layouts or spotting. The grotesquely OTT T&A in #1 almost put me off the series completely, but a combination of him reining it in a bit and me being braced for it helped #2 go down easier.
― Urban Coochie Collective (sic), Thursday, 6 January 2011 00:01 (thirteen years ago) link
Morrison seems to come up with a lot of ideas that seem nonsensical or out of character (like having Bat-partners around the world), but work anyway just from sheer energy level and the fact that he doesn't let the pace lag long enough to give them much thought.
― earnest goes to camp, ironic goes to ilm (pixel farmer), Wednesday, January 5, 2011 3:06 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark
love the bat-partners around the world bit, but largely because it's so unexpected. i'm completely sick of the "one dark & driven borderline bat-psycho going it alone against a fiendish web of crime (and his own inner demons!)" shtick. nice to see someone take the character in a new direction without sacrificing his basic essence.
― carles marx (contenderizer), Thursday, 6 January 2011 13:44 (thirteen years ago) link
Did love final crisis an awful lot. P. much agree with tuomas that batman isn't particularly well suited for him. Strange though because i generally do like morrison even more when he's reined in a little bit. His x-men run is probably my favourite thing in all of comics.
― toastmodernist, Thursday, 6 January 2011 14:01 (thirteen years ago) link
Fittingly, Flex seems to have a visual basis in Morrison's father.
― Dream impossible dreams (R Baez), Thursday, 6 January 2011 17:43 (thirteen years ago) link