Is Grant Morrison a genius or a hack? I just read his Arkham Asylum graphic novel and I thought it's one of the best comics I've ever read in my life. His Batman Inc. arc was pretty good as well and All-Star Superman made me cry like a child by the end of one of its issues.
By the way, I heard some people say he has written about his writing process for Arkham Asylum in his Supergods (?) book, can anyone tell me more about that?
Forgot to add that the reason I'm asking if you think he's a genius or a hack is because I also read his Animal Man run and I thought it was EXTREMELY disjointed and didn't make sense at all. Don't know why it's praised so much.
You ahve wierd taste my man.
Which Batman iInc did you read? Pre new 52, or new 52?
Because his new 52 Inc is genrally agreed to be sub par.
Also, "disjointed and confusing" is Grant's game.
Well, a hack, traditionally, implies somebody who re uses the same tired old tricks over and over to the point of it being "old hat" or, well, hackneyed
Just throwing that out there I actually don't have an opinion on the guy but I see this word thrown around a lot here and I feel people misuse it to mean "something I don't like" or "something bad"
He's my favorite writer and Arkham Asylum was the first thing I read by him so it's probably my favorite.
He wrote it completely straight-edge and induced delirium by sleep deprivation.
I love Grant but he can be hard to get into if you just want to read his stuff because of his name. I say if you get into his more weird stuff like Flex Mentallo or even the Multiversity you can find a deeper appreciation for the weird iand disjointed. I think people call him a hack because they either find it pretentious or to bandwagon, but honestly it's hard not to deny that his stuff can be hard to digest sometimes. At least in one sitting at least
I believe Grant Morrison is a genius.
Did you finish it? It's disjointed on purpose. Don't know what you mean about not making sense though, it's one of the easiest to read Morrison comics
I only read Pre-New 52 Batman Inc. so far, still got the new 52 arc left. I don't know man, the stories he wrote that I happened to have read before (All-Star Superman, Arkham Asylum, some of his recent Action Comics stuff, some of his Batman stuff around the time the hero 'died', Batman Inc pre-new 52) seems confusing at first, but they all come together in the end, but Animal Man seems to be pure disjointed mess.
Not a hack per se, but the most overrated comic book writer of all time, perhaps.
Didn't like his Batman run, loathed Final Crisis, but All-Star Superman was great, his X-Men was good, he's done a lot of experimental stuff that either turns out brilliantly or crash lands.
Some people would argue that he doesn't know when to stop with references and random plot points weaved together.
Finished two books so far, maybe it'll all come around by the third book and then I'll have no doubt that he's actually a genius.
Oh you're in for a treat.
ur in for som sht
Fuck, you're getting me hyped.
I remember reading that at the time, multiple writers would send each other the script of this book and would constantly mock Morrison for what he was trying to do. They treated him as the joke of the industry.
As for me, I found the idea of the Joker being super sane interesting but the book is raw compared to his later work.
>[...] which began when Morrison and editor Dan Raspler were unsuccessfully brainstorming ideas for a new take on the character outside the San Diego Comic Con, when they had a "shamanic" encounter with a man dressed as Superman which helped spark the creative process and inspired the cover to the first issue. Morrison states in an interview:[2]
>"He was perched with one knee drawn up, chin resting on his arms. He looked totally relaxed... and I suddenly realized this was how Superman would sit. He wouldn't puff out his chest or posture heroically, he would be totally chilled. If nothing can hurt you, you can afford to be cool. A man like Superman would never have to tense against the cold; never have to flinch in the face of a blow. He would be completely laid back, un-tense. With this image of Superman relaxing on a cloud looking out for us all in my head, I rushed back to my hotel room and filled dozens of pages of my notebook with notes and drawings."
Genius to me.
Literally.
hack. no argument about that
Source?
He's a genius in my eyes. Even his Animal Man is great. Finish it.
If I had to point to a weaker work by him, I'd say Doom Patrol. It's a pretty green piece of work. There's still a lot to like there, the Romantics, Jimmy the street etc.
I don't remember specifically what he said about writing Arkham in Supergods. But I do remember he does a lot of transcendental meditation, including retreats at the tops of mountains etc. He becomes convinced that magic is real, and can be used to affect our world. He also believes that not only are superheroes our modern versions of myths/folktales/gods, but their universe is in fact in existence. It's a parallel universe, a living, breathing one brought into being by us, that we can only access through comic books.
Or some bullshit like that.
>If I had to point to a weaker work by him, I'd say Doom Patrol.
this
Plebs.
ok champ
The point about the superheros universe existing is scientifically proven to be true.
Not saying I didn't enjoy it. But do you consider it to be his finest work?
Source?
Hypercrisis
>but their universe is in fact in existence. It's a parallel universe, a living, breathing one brought into being by us, that we can only access through comic books.
don't have a source but in an interview he explained it like this: he tells someone superman is real and exists in a dimension that can be accessed, and they call bullshit on it. he says he'll prove it, so he hands them a superman comic and says "look, there he is. he exists in the second dimension."
...
I forget where the 2nd book ends.
Did you read the part with the vision quest yet?
Morrison is great, but one of the biggest reasons Arkham Asylum was so good is the god amount artists Dave McKean. It took Morrison years to convince McKean to do a Batman book, he wouldn't even listen to Morrison's idea. Finally when Morrison worked him down and convinced him to listen to the idea he jumped at it.
Best Batman book
Le Scottish master trole face .jpg
This is so, so true. McKean is incredible. The lettering is also pretty great.
What about batman.rip?
McKean is incredible but he fucked up on Arkham Asylum.
Pretty amazing. Lot of plebs_ hate it though.
how so? I loved the outlandish horror art. It was ment to reflect how batman saw things while he was being analyzed by the joker
honestly, it's trash
silly ideas and uneven art
it works for some of the themes however McKean did say that a lot of the sybolism and character body language which was written into the transcript, while present, was much harder to see and he thinks the comic would have been better if he'd drawn it more clearly
You can not prove a theory, you can just fail to disprove it.
That said, multiverse theory is just an interpretation of that whole quantum stuff and it is not proven. I don't know much about physics (or anything about physics), but in the documentary Particle Fever they explained that if the Higgs Boson has a particular weight, that would be evidence against multiverse theory. If it had another, it would be evidence against a theory ruling out the many worlds interpretation. In the end, the weight was in-between those. Which can either mean that they need to gather more data or that they need to find a theory that fits this analysis.
Why does he use image of eyeballs so much?
Mckean is a perfectionist, he critisizes all his work
>If every single piece of somebody's work isn't great, the guy is a hack
You are so bloody stupid
well in Arkham Asylum insight and perception of reality were major themes so eyes obviously tie into that, although I don't think that's deliberate since in the transcript he explains all the symbolism used and doesn't mention the eye thing
>He lives in the second dimension
How can you not love this man
I mean all his work. There's often a giant eyeball or just symbol of eyeball in his work
it's funny because he got the whole concept from Moore, words are magic and all that
Moore didn't create it either
doesn't change a thing
the real question is why don't you?
I do a lot of eyeballs and eyes in the dark in my own drawing. And they seem to pop up in my dreams a lot too. I'm not sure why they work so well artistically but I find they do
Yes it does. Magic is magic, Moore doesn't have a monopoly on it, its existed for as long as human culture.
it doesn't matter, Moore did it first in a comic then Morrison started going similar way while badmouthing Moore for media attention
it's funny he continues riding the idea to this day is all
I used to own this but I can't find it anywhere, shitsucks.
Literally the scariest Joker ever.
Grant Morrison is a man of many tropes.
One of the big three that came up through 2000 AD. Modern comics owe a lot to Gaimen, Morrison, and Moore. Newfags should read their stuff.
imagine Arkham Asylum with more traditional comic art, ink and lettering
The art style makes it so unique IMO.
I am not a huge fan of Morrison, but that's great.
it would be garbage
Shit, the art is perfect the way it is.
What I like about him is that he creates things which make me think "I've not seen this before" or "hmm, what if he's right?".
His books have something in them which go beyond the story and stimulate that part of your brain which makes you want to go crazy, quit your job, fuck your wife's sister and become a drug addict.
on the absolute edition with commentary from morrison he talks about how all he had everything well planed like a proper comic book and then the work of Dave threw everything he had out of the window so he decided to just roll along with him and write the script more as a movie script and not a comic one.
Flex Mentallo is my favorite thing Morrison has ever done. Some good user storytimed it on here a few months ago
I'm still not really sure what happened in Multiversitiy but I had a good time. And his All-Star Superman stuff is GOAT (and superbro is also great)
apex pleb
remember that time batman turned into zebra? totally happened
praying for ya mate
you should be fapping if you want some results
>stimulate that part of your brain which makes you want to go crazy, quit your job, fuck your wife's sister and become a drug addict.
That's oddly specific, user
"Generally" ...nobody thinks it's sub par. Pre and Nu are both top tier. The only problem is continuity that becomes a little irrelevant.
i liked it when he slapped batmans ass and he chimped out
the joker should embody uncomfortable