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Grant Morrison

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Grant Morrison (January 31,1960 - ) is a Scottish comic book writer and cartoonist best-known for his non-linear narratives and counter-cultural leanings. He is often credited as being one of the most creative writers ever to work in mainstream comics. He is also a practicing Chaos magician.

Biography

Early career

Morrison was born in Glasgow and became accustomed to comic books during the 1960s and 1970s. His career began when he worked on a magazine called Near Myths along with Bryan_Talbot. After working on Captain Clyde for a local Glasgow paper, he was employed by DC Thomson in the 1980s.

Later he and artist Steve Yeowell created the Zenith series for 2000 AD. Zenith, one of the then-trendy deconstructions of the superhero genre, featured a shallow rockstar-turned-superhero, reluctantly fighting a pandimensional alien conspiracy. He also created St. Swithin's Day with Paul Grist for indie publisher Trident Comics.

American fame

Most of Morrison's subsequent work has been for industry giant DC Comics. His first assignment was a revival of the minor DC character Animal Man, which explored animal rights and meta-textual concerns, including a meeting between the character and his creator. He wrote for the ongoing Doom Patrol series for several years, where his use of free writing techniques made for an inventive and often surreal departure from the (previously ailing) comic's norm. In the mid- to late-1990s, he authored the ambitious series, The Invisibles, considered by many to be his most important work to date, a series combining political, pop- and sub- cultural concerns that, Morrison claims, was a strong but unacknowledged influence on The Matrix movies. In a speech Morrison gave at DisinfoCon in 1999, he claimed that much of the content in The Invisibles was information given to him by aliens that abducted him in Katmandu, (he went there to be abducted) who then told him to spread the knowledge to the world. He also relaunched -along with Howard Porter- the Justice League of America as a gathering of the most powerful super-heroes of the DC universe. This incarnation of the Justice League proved greatly succesful, and helped popularizing widescreen action comics such as Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch's The Authority.

Morrison has recently returned to DC Comics after several years at Marvel, where he wrote the New X-Men series and the miniseries Marvel Boy and Fantastic Four 1234. At DC Comics Morrison has already written three new miniseries. The three titles - Seaguy, We3 and Vimanarama - involve respectively a picaresque hero in a post-utopian world that doesn't need him; cyber-enhanced pets running from their captors in what Morrison calls his "western manga"; and ancient Hindu/Pakistani myths translated into Jack Kirby-style adventures. All are published by DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. Morrison also returned to the JLA with the first story in a new anthology series JLA: Classified, tales set within the JLA mythos by various creative teams.

Current works

In 2005 DC Comics is publishing what was dubbed the first ever "megaseries". The Grant Morrison-scripted Seven Soldiers of Victory is a reboot of an old DC Comics staple. Morrison's Seven Soldiers feature new/updated versions of old characters Guardian, Mister Miracle, Klarion the Witch Boy, Bulleteer, Spawn of Frankenstein, Zatanna and Shining Knight. The megaseries consists of seven interlinked four-issue miniseries with two "bookend" (introductory and conclusive) volumes - thirty issues in all.

In late 2005 DC will release a new Superman maxi-series by Morrison and Frank Quitely. To be called All Star Superman, the series will not so much revamp or reboot Superman, but present an "iconic" Superman for new readers.

In the process of selling his Seven Soldiers of Victory project to DC, Morrison presented a series of ideas for revamped characters, any of which would have worked in the context of the fictional DC Universe as a living entity (a concept he has been proposing, based on the concept of Hypertime introduced during the "DC 1 Million" event). Dan DiDio, current President of DC Comics, was impressed with his idea, giving him the unofficial title of "rewrite guy", and has asked him to assist in sorting out the DCU in the wake of the Infinite Crisis.

APEARANCE AS COMICS FGURE

Grant Morrison apeared IN comcis first in #26 of Animal Man and then in to him-unrelated work-a Simpsons comics episode,where hes seen fighting with Mark Millar over the X-Men titles(and ironicly,none of his not-so ordinary work such as ANimal Man or Mystery Play are mentioned).

Bibliography

References

  • Morrison, Grant. (2003) Pop magic! Book of Lies, pp. 16-25 ISBN 0-9713942-7-X
  • Disinformation: The Complete Series Disc 2: DisinfoCon. (1999) Speech by Grant Morrison. Distr. Ryko Distribution.
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