Is Grant Morrison overrated?

Colin YNWA · 06 January, 2009, 09:44:51 AM

Quote from: "Bongo Jack"I'm playing catch-up with Morrison's back catalogue, and found this in Animal Man 24:

Man I always prefered his Animal Man run to Doom Patrol (as mentioned earlier). The most human of superhero stories all the more remarkable as it was from the post Dark Knight days when grim and gritty was all the rage. Morrison sat all that aside and said well actually if Superheroes were real aside from the grimacing, gun totting killers some of them might just happen to be confused husbands and fathers dealing with real, real issues and ethical questions not just informing the reader how many ribs were broken and what that felt like. Sure it had its dark, dark and heart breaking moments, I remember crying on the bus on the way home from my LCS reading issue 21 I think it was (those that have read the series will know the one) but it was all based on a very real human story about the most wonderful family in comics.

From there he sent it down a crazy path of typically brillant Morrison maddness, while still rooting it at the books core, the family, leading to the brillant issue 26 (sorry to be anal). My favourite run in comics ever possibly?

House of Usher · 06 January, 2009, 10:12:28 AM

Quote from: "ctaylor"I remember crying on the bus on the way home from my LCS reading issue 21

Ah, happy days! He he. The one that made me cry was #16, 'The Clockwork Crimes of the Time Commander'. Poor sod!

Richmond Clements · 06 January, 2009, 10:32:22 AM

Death of the Red Mask.

Colin YNWA · 06 January, 2009, 01:18:57 PM

HA yeah a book so good that at least three seperate people have blubbed at three different issues AND no ones mentioned issue 5 the Coyote issue yet - I'm sure that got a few people going too!

It would have been really interesting to see how this series would have got on in the Internet age. People think some of the things done today are controvesial but Morrison did some stuff in this run that we'd have been raging about/defending with real vigour!

Richmond Clements · 06 January, 2009, 01:21:01 PM

QuoteHA yeah a book so good that at least three seperate people have blubbed at three different issues AND no ones mentioned issue 5 the Coyote issue yet - I'm sure that got a few people going too!

The Coyote Gospel is fucking heartbreaking!

Al_Ewing · 06 January, 2009, 05:42:37 PM

If anything, I'd say Morrison's grotesquely underrated.

House of Usher · 06 January, 2009, 05:59:35 PM

I'm sorry to say I engaged with The Coyote Gospel on a mainly intellectual level, and I found more humour than pathos in the death of the Red Mask. Each to their own! Something different for everybody (to cry over), I think.

Dandontdare · 06 January, 2009, 07:57:50 PM

I never used to follow writers or artists and so I rarely know who wrote what - I've just checked Morrison's full bibliography and there are some absolute gems in there - Zenith was a highlight of a bleak period for the prog (long overdue for a reprint - have you seen the prices on e-bay? Crikey!); the Venus Bluegenes one-off sticks in my mind; some great Future Shocks and I even liked Big Dave!

The Filth is an insane but wonderful paranoid fantasy, and JLA : Earth 2 has some of the best "alternate versions" of heroes ever.

Finally, I can't pass up another chance to big up our public libraries and encourage y'all to visit yours - I've enjoyed Vimanarama, Seaguy, JLA-New World Order, Sebastian O, most of the Invisibles and a couple of the Animal Man books from mine in recent years.
:arrow:

Libraries - Use 'em or lose 'em, creeps!

Finally, I've recently bought All Star Superman vol1 based on glowing reviews but I can't say I'm that impressed. Ah well!

Byron Virgo · 09 January, 2009, 02:44:56 PM

I still remember reading Death of the Red Mask in one of those London Editions reprints for the UK along with Black Orchid and the Morrison/Lloyd Hellblazer two-parter when I was about nine or ten. Naive bastard that I was, I actually thought he was going to fly at the end.

Still, I have to say I'm shocked, with all the Morrison-love going on round here, that no one's yet mentioned the lonely and well-oiled depilous quest of the Beard Hunter...

Of course, as usual, Jimmy Olsen got there first:

//http://www.ihoz.com/comics/beard.html

Colin YNWA · 09 January, 2009, 04:04:43 PM

Quote from: "Byron Virgo"Of course, as usual, Jimmy Olsen got there first:

//http://www.ihoz.com/comics/beard.html

That there is pure gold!

I, Cosh · 09 January, 2009, 07:33:34 PM

Quote from: "Byron Virgo"Still, I have to say I'm shocked, with all the Morrison-love going on round here, that no one's yet mentioned the lonely and well-oiled depilous quest of the Beard Hunter...

That was another brilliant issue. Funniest thing I'd read since that LowLife story with the Nazi babies.

I, Cosh · 03 April, 2009, 10:45:04 PM

Just thought I'd resurrect this thread to recommend you all rush out and buy the first issue of the new Seaguy series, The Slaves of Mickey Eye.

I really enjoyed the first Seaguy series and this one seems to have the same tone. A slightly less over the top weirdness accompanying a tale of a man lost in a world that somehow isn't quite right. Cameron Stewart's drawings are quite a lovely accompaniment, capturing the dayglo world and its sinister shadows just right. The centrefold owes something to an episode of Calvin & Hobbes. Or Cricklewood Man from the Goodies Book of Records.

Remember, the world's made out of history and science.

Roger Godpleton · 03 April, 2009, 10:49:39 PM

Is Chubby in it?

I, Cosh · 03 April, 2009, 10:56:16 PM

Quote from: "Godpleton"Is Chubby in it?

That would be telling.

Yes.

satchmo · 03 April, 2009, 10:59:42 PM

I got it yesterday, it's brilliant, I've read it twice now.
[spoiler:27vi35l6]half animal on a stick shit me right up.[/spoiler:27vi35l6]