Grant Morrison developing The Invisibles for TV

[Frank]

Claims Morrison first came to the attention of comic readers on Animal Man, which is outrageous. How can you ignore Captain Clyde?



Grant Morrison Inks Deal To Bring 'The Invisibles' To UCP
Rob Salkowitz

Superstar comics writer Grant Morrison may be best known for his work on iconic DC superheroes like  Superman, Batman, Justice League and Green Lantern, but he first made his mark on the industry in the late 80s and 90s with surreal and subversive titles like Animal Man, Doom Patrol, and his magnum opus of revolutionary weirdness, The Invisibles.

Yesterday, it was announced that Morrison will be developing The Invisibles for television as part of an overall content deal with Universal Cable Productions. UCP is currently producing Happy!, an adaptation of the graphic novel by Morrison and artist Darick Robertson, which is going into its second season on SyFy.

Variety reports the Glasgow-born Morrison will "work with the studio to develop and producer original content for network and streamers." This follows similar deals struck with high-profile comics creators like Mark Millar (Netflix), Robert Kirkman (Amazon) and Neil Gaiman (Amazon).

The Invisibles, which debuted in comics form on DC's mature-themed Vertigo imprint in 1994, features a multicultural and gender-fluid crew of adventurers who use magic(k), altered consciousness, time travel and other metaphysical machinations to battle secret threats to humanity and unravel conspiracies against freedom.

It was simultaneously ahead of its time in its use of a traditional superhero-style of comics to tell a complex and sophisticated story, and very much a product of the technopagan Mondo2000/Burning Man counterculture of the mid-1990s.

The series was a modest success and cemented Morrison's status as comics' philosopher-king: a writer capable of smuggling the truly radical visions of people like William S. Burroughs, Philip K. Dick, Robert Anton Wilson and Terence McKenna into the pages of DC comics.

But as he was spinning these stories of subversion and reality hacking, he also moved decisively toward the superhero mainstream in his other work, with best-sellers like JLA, X-Men, All-Star Superman, Final Crisis, and a 10-year stint at the helm of Batman.

He also found time to write plays, author a book on the iconography of superheroes, edit the long-running science fiction magazine Heavy Metal, and pocket an MBE honor from the Queen for his contributions to British art and letters.

For long-time fans of Morrison, the possibility of seeing The Invisibles adapted into episodic TV is a cause of excitement, particularly in the current cultural environment. The idea of a revolutionary cell devoted to the liberation of consciousness and a never-ending battle against the dark psychic powers of fascism and oppression seemed trippy and cool in the 90s. By 2020, when the UCP series is set and is likely to debut, it may well feel like current events.

The comics, which featured the artwork of Steve Yeowell, Jill Thompson, Chris Weston, Phil Jiminez and others, deftly combined action, suspense and character interplay with high-concept plots and thematic overtones. Reading it often felt like watching a TV show. Now Morrison will have the chance to bring his masterpiece to that medium, hopefully with the vision and impact undiminished.

I am an author, consultant and educator with a professional interest in the business implications of new media and a personal passion for comics and visual communication. My 2012 book Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture (McGraw-Hill) looks at trends in entertainment. I'm faculty at University of Washington CommLead, and consult on future trends in technology and entertainment.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/robsalkowitz/2018/11/08/grant-morrison-inks-deal-to-bring-the-invisbles-to-ucp/#178d0193699f

[Dandontdare]

The Invisibles was one of those weird entities that should have ticked all my boxes, but left me cold.

[Jim_Campbell]

The Invisibles was one of those weird entities that should have ticked all my boxes, but left me cold.

I remember being incredibly excited for this before it came out, but I think I stuck with it for less than a year. It felt… calculated. It felt like Morrison trying to do Morrison instead of just being Morrison, if that makes any kind of sense…?

[IndigoPrime]

What was especially great about The Invisibles was the way the art towards the end was so incoherent that the story Morrison had apparently set up for years was incomprehensible. It was so bad they had to redraw some of the pages for the trades – which then helpfully also missed out a few pages. Even then, it needed a companion volume for me to properly make sense of everything.

I actually really liked the underlying mythos of the strip, but it felt like it was trying too hard to be clever. (Compare with, say, Image's Prophet, which is just fucking weird and alien because it is.)

[Fungus]

Left equally cold. It was just there, you were always going to pick it up, but I don't remember enjoying it. One of those cases of thinking 'it must just be me...'. Given up on that nonsense long ago :-)

[TordelBack]

From a pretty unimpressed-with-this-pretentious-shite start I warmed to The Invisibles a lot as it went on,  to the point of it being some of my favourite Morrison, although I still haven't read the last two collections because they keep being nicked from the library. Or so they say.

I enjoyed the anachronistic Stranger Things crossover too.

[Dandontdare]

yeah, I read most of the trades from the library - did my best to read in order, but not always possible. That was when they spent a lot of money building up a large GN collection - I asked recently why the shelf space had shrunk so much, and why they didn't seem to be adding much new stuff anymore, and was told that they just get stolen at a phenomenal rate, which is depresing. I used to be able to get six books I'd never read, week in and week out, but I don't visit much anymore as I can rarely find anything.

[Professor Bear]

Invisibles is stupid and I hope this fails.

[Frank]

How many hours of masturbation do you think it took just to get this show into development?

Worth bearing in mind if there isn't any news about the Dredd TV show, soon*


* I vote we all use this image of Greg Staples as our sigil

[Tiplodocus]

Cosh will be along to defend it soon. Nd I have his set of Invisibles comics under my bed. Started three times... can't get past had a dozen issues. Will try again though...

[JamesC]

The Invisibles is a prime example of Morrison having lots of good ideas and having an excellent sense of what looks cool but failing to put those elements into a coherent story with engaging characters. It’s just bollocks.
For me, the most successful of his mind-bending meta-textual projects is The Filth. It gets pretty weird towards the end but I can still get a satisfying interpretation together. Plus it all looks amazing thanks to Chris Weston.

[JayzusB.Christ]

The Invisibles was one of those weird entities that should have ticked all my boxes, but left me cold.

I remember being incredibly excited for this before it came out, but I think I stuck with it for less than a year. It felt… calculated. It felt like Morrison trying to do Morrison instead of just being Morrison, if that makes any kind of sense…?

Absolutely. I didn't read it till years after it came out. I was waiting for my mind to be blown, for the magic Grant allegedly infused it with to alter my consciousness and open my third eye, but it all just seemed a bit laboured and messy.  I've always meant to reread it on shrooms to see if it made more sense then (not that that's by any means a regular habit for me, you understand).

I still think the whole Zenith series is his best work.

[Matty_e]

Wow. You guys are a tough crowd.

Invisibles Vol1.12 Last Man Standing is one of the best single comics ever.

Volume 2 by Phil Jimenez and then Chris Weston is incredible. Like John Byrne's X-men run in a 90s style.
And Weston came of age with a whole tpb full of greatness.

Brian Bolland put in his best ever cover work and imagination

But yes apart from the glory of Frank Quietly's last issue, the final ark of Vol 3 was a bit of a mess. Never sure if it was intentionally sabotaged as they had missed the Millennium deadline and I think Grant had nothing left to give.

He's my hero anyway.

[Greg M.]

I think The Invisibles is generally great, but it takes a while to get going. I feel like it finds its feet in the issues collected in the second TPB, Apocalipstick, not least because of the increased focus on Lord Fanny, probably the most likeable character in it. (Notably, Morrison writes Fanny almost identically to how he writes Emma Frost in his X-Men run.)

The Filth is more focused and consistent, mind you, but The Invisibles is a big, mad, crazy quilt of a saga.

As for Morrison's best work... We3? All-Star Superman #10?

[Colin YNWA]

Morrison's best work is defo Animal Man still... or Zenith... or maybe the Batman run... or JLA (re-reading that soon)... or 7 Soldiers... no no its Animal Man...