As the immensely popular writer of numerous bestselling comics, including The Invisibles and JLA, Grant Morrison has garnered a well-deserved reputation as one of the hottest writers in the business. His vivid imagination and groundbreaking plots have combined to produce some of the most acclaimed comics being published today. It's no wonder, then, that fans across the country have been shocked to learn that Morrison plans on "vanishing into the undergrowth for a little while." This fall, in our Artists Speak message boards, Morrison answered more than 300 questions from his devoted fans. Read on for selected highlights from the discussion.
JLAnthony: Any new books you can give us a heads-up about?
Grant Morrison: New books? Umm...the next Invisibles collection is out soon, I think, reprinting the rest of Volume 2. I'm still trying to convince Vertigo to collect the rest of Volume 1 -- not to mention Sebastian 0, Kid Eternity, Flex Mentallo, and all the other work that lies unexploited in their drawers. For prose books, you could check out Lovely Biscuits, if you can find it -- it collects all of my previously published fiction and plays.
InhumanNature: Grant, how do you feel about having The Invisibles come to an end? Are you excited about it...or a little sad?
GM: I'll miss the characters, but I've met so many of their real-life counterparts that it doesn't seem so bad. I'm happy I got to the end of The Invisibles, and now I intend to take it off the page and into the world.
JimmyLove: When you say you met Ragged Robin [from The Invisibles], do you mean you met a redhead who looked like her and was perhaps similar in personality, or do you mean you met someone named Kay who had similar experiences to Ragged Robin?
GM: As for Ragged Robin -- in '96, after I got sick and life tumbled into an abyss, I emerged with a new understanding of magic and the possibilities of using my comics as magical sigils. My girlfriend and I had split, and when I saw Brain Bolland's cover for The Invisibles, Volumes 2 and 3, I decided I'd enchant for someone who looked exactly like Robin. Robin's doppelgänger materialized shortly after. When after a month of two of trying it turned out that we didn't get on at all, I learned that image isn't everything and shied away from such frivolous use of the hypersigil. Strangely enough, every woman I met that year and the next had red hair or other Robinlike qualities, including some who directly impacted on the storytelling of the book itself. Life and fiction are strange and interchangeable here. The "aliens" didn't choose me. I believe that everyone was "abducted" in a period roughly covering from '92 to '97. I'm not sure if it's an emergent structure in consciousness which we're identifying as alien and a little threatening. Or maybe it's aliens. The experience is unmistakable and real, and literally dozens of people I know personally went through classic or skewed versions of the whole abduction scenario during the '90s.
MelanieAstrogirl: The Invisibles mailing list was talking about the significance of flies appearing in your work. Apparently there have been recurring flies in The Invisibles and two other comics you've written. Is there a theory? Or is it all just a coincidence?
GM: Flies? Beats me. It embarrasses me to say that a lot of what goes down on paper is purely unconscious. I often read comics I've written with no memory of having been involved at any level. It's like the elves cobbling your shoes at night. This isn't a way of sliding out of admitting that sometimes things which don't necessarily appear meaningful can hide in narrative cracks, but it often seems that my conscious mind does nothing but wrestle with the dreamlike aspects of The Invisibles, et cetera, and more than often loses the scuffle. Much of it is beyond explanation but not beyond contemplation. Which is to say -- flies? I've noticed them, and they're never fully intentional or important to the plot. Beelzebub? The Lord of the Flies himself, perhaps? I have no idea why my literary droppings are covered in bluebottles....
AustinArmatya: There have been several scenes in The Invisibles that take place in Australia. What experiences have you had with Australia, the aboriginal culture, and Uluru in particular?
GM: I've been to Australia three times, and each time has been incredible. The first time I was in Perth, then went to Uluru and on to Sydney. Then I visited Darwin and Broome before another trip to Uluru. The only aboriginals I met were drunks, men whose heads had been hollowed out and infected with white man's magic. If you want to destroy a culture, kill its dreams; that's what has been done to many aboriginals. The "clever men" of old are undoubtedly still there but, quite understandably, tend to keep their secrets very secret. I had a profound totemic experience on the Rock, which led to my visionary rant about Ayers Rock being the "heart," the "magic stone" embedded in the Earth entity, in the same way shamans and abductees claim to have stones or crystals placed inside them.
dakini: If Invisibles is the spell, what is the intent?
GM: The intent is to create a global network of people who would not normally participate in global networks. It is designed to manifest parts of itself in reality and work as a bridge between the 3-D comics universe, the 4-D real-life universe, and the 5-D supercontext. It was designed to rewire my head and the heads of dedicated readers. It was intended to seed culture so that lots of things like Invisibles would begin to appear and hasten the arrival of the New Aeon of Horus or the emergence of the next level of human consciousness or whatever model of the experience you prefer. And you can read it, too. Or paper the budgie cage.
Kyle: Are there any plans for The Invisibles to go on TV?
GM: The BBC had it, and I'd written some scripts which told a revamped and extended version of the story from the first four issues. After five years of meetings and messing around, I was eventually told by a BBC high-up that "no one understands telepathy," and that was reason enough not to make the show. It went to Channel 4 and nothing happened there, and now it's floating around with Chris Carter and a bunch of other production companies in the U.S. I don't think it will ever get made. People seem almost scared of The Invisibles, and as I've said, [The Matrix directors] the Wachowski brothers already stole the theme, the characters, the code names, the leather, the bald heads, the torture scenes, the magic mirror, the insect-machine bad guys, the evil agents with special powers and shades, and just about everything else that would have made The Invisibles look great on film.
DanSouder: Your comments about The Matrix brought to mind something else I've been wondering about. What about Men in Black and its resemblance to Doom Patrol?
GM: I can't really claim any credit for Men in Black -- the concept's been around since the '50s in ufological circles. My twist on it was to introduce even weirder government agents like the Men in Green and the Men in Mauve. The Men in Black script was written by Ed Solomon, who is a smart cookie and someone I have a lot of time for (he also did the Bill & Ted movies), so I wouldn't want to steal his thunder.
Neurotic Boy Outsider: Any chance of a Doom Patrol reunion?
GM: I can't imagine doing any more Doom Patrol ever. Tom Peyer, I believe, is doing something with the '90s DP, and he's the only person I'd trust not to ruin my beloved characters. John Byrne has entertained numerous schemes over the years and will probably end up doing something with Doom Patrol -- like making it exactly the way it was in his youth but with enough of a Byrne spin to make everyone hate it.
PipTheElderRamrod: It seems that a lot of the best American comic-book stories are written by British writers. Why do you think that is?
GM: In the '80s it may have been true that the most innovative writers were from Britain, but I don't think it's anywhere near as true anymore. We have our own share of hacks, and there are some brilliant U.S. writers around now. The good writers tend to be ones who read and experience a lot of other stuff [outside of] comics and who are willing to put at least some of the fire in their souls down onto paper. At least that's how I judge it. Intelligence and a sense of humour really help, too.
JLErik: Why do you think it has become popular to kill off heroes in the last few years? Why not just have the character leave -- or just not use a character?
GM: Because we can. Where else do you get to have all the pathos and drama of death without the mess? These guys live in a universe where the important dead always come back, no matter how thoroughly the dirt is tramped down. We in our universe can wring endless thrills, spills, and tears out of those poor characters' sufferings. Life and death are the stuff of drama, I guess. Having said that, nobody important dies in Earth 2. And Metamorpho is currently "inert." Do you really think he'll stay that way forever?
Remic: Will we see Animal Man again?
GM: Yeah, Animal Man is back in JLA #39 and is instrumental in figuring out how to defeat Mageddon. Putting dialogue in Buddy's mouth was like kissing my first girlfriend again.
wallyoeste: Where did you get the idea for Animal Man?
GM: Animal Man was influenced by a couple of old Flash stories where the Flash met his editor, Julie Schwartz. I took that classic comic-book notion and spliced it with the the current ('80s) fad for "magic realist" or "postmodern" writing, in which the author becomes part of the text.
See more highlights from Grant Morrison's message board
