The Bum’s Rush #11

Give Me That Job

Grant Morrison, aside from being on the short list of my must-read creators, is also one of my greatest influences. He is continually a source inspiration for me and shows me just how unlimited the potential for great stories are in graphic storytelling. There’s no medium quite like comics, which combines the written word and brilliant images with an almost utter lack of budgetary constraints. And no one uses this to greater effect (in my own humble opinion) than Grant Morrison.

He is the true originator of the “widescreen comic,” a term that came about in the late nineties, referring to comics that had the same feel and qualities as a summer blockbuster movie, especially in the vein of the fast paced, mind blowing visuals of early Michael Bay or Roland Emmerich films. That term is not one that is bandied about with as much regularity these days and is largely attributed to books like Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch’s original run on The Authority. But in truth you can trace the origins of the “widescreen comic” back to Morrison’s legendary relaunch and subsequent three-year run on JLA.

My point is that Morrison is a true innovator in the field of comics, always appearing to be one step ahead of the game when it comes to defining new trends in comics. In his books he is constantly bombarding the reader with unique and interesting ideas, visuals and twists on old techniques. To see prime examples of his inventiveness and ever-evolving style of storytelling, one only has to look as far as the trio of mini-series he launched from Vertigo a while back (Sea-Guy, WE-3 and Vimanarama) which signaled his return to DC Comics in a big way. Sea-Guy and WE-3 are currently available as trade paperbacks and Vimanarama just wrapped up with issue three a few weeks ago.

Currently Morrison is embroiled in his most ambitious project to date in the form of Seven Soldiers, featuring a re-imagining of seven (somewhat) forgotten DC heroes in seven separate, but interconnecting, four-issue mini-series. It was Seven Soldiers that led to Morrison’s latest achievement, which involves the Scottish creator overseeing the revitalization and reintroduction of the long lost, the underused, the discarded and the Z-list characters that hover on the fringe (if at all) of the DC Universe. Morrison will be tasked with writing books, and in some cases creating a character bible to hand off to other capable creators, featuring these cast-offs in the hope of turning them into popular and commercially viable entities.

And I say, dammit, give me that job. Not today of course. I couldn’t hope to fill the boots of one of the most amazing talents in the field. But one day, with a lot of hard work, yes please, give me that job. It is my biggest goal in this life, to become a creator and writer in my most loved of entertainment industries, so that I too can influence the direction of characters and worlds that I have come to know and love since I was young. I hope that I can reach as far, be as innovative and have as much fun (as obviously Morrison does, his excitement about and love of comics is infectious) writing about worlds beyond imagination. And of course, and I think this is the goal of all writers, I hope I can move people with my stories as Morrison moves me with his.

Visions of Kathmandu

Just as an aside, sure Morrison is a bit of a weird bugger at times, but to come up with the truly original and sometimes off the wall ideas that he does I think you’d have to be a bit weird. And what truly talented individual whose abilities influence the industry in which he (or she) resides is ever considered normal? I personally think that half of Morrison’s strangeness is part of an elaborate act, a public persona that he has created for himself to keep people guessing. And it works brilliantly.


Quick Bits

• Peter David and Mike Wieringo’s new Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman book is going to launch as part a 12-issue Spiderman crossover. WTF? The first three issues of the book will be part of this crossover and writers other than Peter David will handle two of those issues. What the hell kind of plan is that for launching a brand new comic book? Ugh! I was looking forward to that one too.
• Saw some of Andy and Adam Kubert’s work for DC in the latest Wizard. Good Lord, I can’t wait to see what these guys are going to be working on.
• Breach! I got Dana (The Weigh In) reading it! Now it’s your turn!
• I’m really, really looking forward to Frank Cho’s Zombie King.
• With all the possible, and as yet untapped, characters available to use for the next X-Men movie, why in the name of holy hell is Ratner sticking Stacy X in there? A forgotten character that was in a handful of issues during forgettable runs of Uncanny X-Men by Joe Casey and Chuck Austen? How sad. More and more I get the feeling X3 is going to SUCK!
• One of my new favorite online strips, Butternutsquash is making the move from the web to print thanks to Speakeasy Comics.
• Check out this beautiful preview of Green Lantern Corps: Recharge #1
• War of The Worlds might be poised to break Spiderman 2’s opening weekend performance. Which is too bad because it’s really not that great of a movie. I liked it okay, but it’s no Spiderman 2. But in a world where Titanic is still the number one top grossing movie of all time we can’t really expect much different can we?

NEXT WEEK:  Why I love superheroes . . . but don’t necessarily want to write just superhero comics.

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