‘IN THE END IT WAS JUST ME STABBING MYSELF WITH BOTTLES'
The filth e ement
Back home at DC comics, GRANT MORRISON is immersing himself in his art. Henry Northmore chats to him about superheroes and celebrity no-hopers.
rant Morrison is a man exploding with ideas.
complex narratives that challenge story
structures and the interplay between art. cultural references and words. He's one of Scotland‘s most prolific authors and right now he‘s on lire. You can see it burning in his eyes. the excitement and passion for his current creations brimming over. He rewrote the rule book on superheroes with .lus'tiee [.eugue ofxlmerim and is set to do it all over again when he takes over Superman this autumn.
Having just stepped down from X-Men at Marvel he‘s moving back to DC. ‘Something in me resonates with the l)(‘ universe; Marvel‘s too grounded for mef he explains in his thick accent. And their trust seems unparalleled having told him: ‘You can do anything you want as long as you do that run on .S'upermun.‘
Morrison‘s notion of what comics can achieve is far removed from what many think the genre has to offer. Take. for instance. his series The l’illh. which was recently compiled into a darkly perverse compendium. It‘s a saga that surrounds you in the miseries and grime of modern life before ripping that reality away as it descends into a disconcerting world of double identities so deeply implanted that even the participants are unaware of their existence.
'I just took myself apart.” he recalls of the experience. ‘I was enmeshed in all this darkness because I was trying to watch everything horrible and put it in this comic and somehow purify it. But in the end it was just me stabbing myself with bottles and trying to dive off balconies in Los Angeles: I was actually losing my mind trying to get The Filth right.’
This is a man who clearly immerses himself in his work. However. it‘s his most recent mini-series Vimanarumu. a tale of arranged marriages. Hindus. Muslims and other dimensions found in the basement of a local corner shop — that has been receiving the most attention of late. But why the renewed interest in this consistently excellent. wilfully disorienting writer‘.’ ‘I think it was because it had a non-traditional hero. and it was the concept of a white man sitting down to write a comic like that.‘ according to Morrison. ‘l was listening to Bobby Friction and I became really excited by the culture mash that was happening in Britain. So Vimunurumu was my attempt to do the same thing with comics.~
Before that was his tale of cybernetically enhanced animal killing machines W13. ()r: ‘lnereilihle .qurnev meets (‘loekimrk ()runge.~ as he succinctly puts it. And now he's launching into one of his most ambitious projects yet. Seven Soldiers. a 3()-issue ‘.~\ltman’-style story taking a selection of forgotten heroes (Shining Knight. the (iuardian. etc) and creating a huge epic. ‘You can read an individual story and its complete in 22 pages: if you read all four of them you get a movie-style character arch. Then if you read all the mini—series together you get a 3()—part story which fits together like a jigsaw. Also. I wanted to do something like I'm a Celebrity (1e! Me Out ofHere where you get no-hope ('-|ist people. put them into an interesting situation and see who shines.‘
Vimanarama and Seven Soldiers are out now. His run on Superman begins later in the year.
llit
THE BEST BOOKS. COMICS & EVENTS
>l<
* 11m Hinton He could well have created the Great Australian Novel with 1991 's Cloudstreet and now he‘s back with what may be the Great Australian Short StOry or two in his new collection. The Turning. See review. Picador
>l< EC Sogar A welcome collection of ten years of spinach-gulping and muscle- flexing in the less than surprisingly titled The Complete EC Segar Popeye. See review. Fantagraphics.
>l< Grant Mon-hon He’s a busy boy right enough. and with the Superman series set to take off later in the year, it's not going to get any less frenetic for the Scots-born writer. But that shouldn‘t stop you enjoying his current product, though. See preview. Vertigo/DC.
* Louise Welsh One of our most accomplished young writers reads from her own excellent writing. Ramshom Theatre, Glasgow, Thu 17 Mar. >l< am More poetic magic with the biggest event of its kind in the country. Tom Pow, Diana Hendry. Roger McGough (pictured). Michael Morpurgo and Thomas Lynch are all involved. Van'ous venues, St Andrews, Thu 17—Sun 20 Mar.
* Noam Chomsky One of the foremost thinkers of his time. the arch-critic of US policy at home and abroad speaks out. See feature. page 18. McEwan Hall, Edinburgh, Tue 22 Mar.
‘ ‘—':‘ ’x‘vz' THE LIST 31