(via Memepulp)

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Full Story: Hatch 23.

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My friend Richard Phantastica has a blog, with posts about EsoTech, Grant Morrison, Gilles Deleuze, and William S. Burroughs. Check it out.

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I think this is the original Channel 4 Disinfo show segment. There doesn’t appear to be any Morrison here that doesn’t appear on The Disinformation: Complete Series DVD, but it is a different edit. There is an interview at the end with artist Howard Hallis about his Picture of Everything that doesn’t appear on the DVD.

(via Phase II).

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The Invisibles: Say You Want a Revolution.

(Disclosure: this review was commissioned by the R/evolutionary Culture Shop)

The Invisibles is a psychedelic sci-fi series about a team of anarchist freedom fighters who employ time travel, magic, martial arts, and drugs in their battle against the tyrannous Outer Church. King Mob, the group’s leader, explains: “We want to show people how to make their own exits, even if they have to use dynamite… We’re trying to pull off a track that’ll result in everyone getting exactly the kind of world they want. Everyone including the enemy.”

Grant Morrison, a Scottish comic book writer, is fond of explaining that he wrote the Invisibles in response to his alien abduction experience in Kathmandu in the 1994. He also calls it a “hypersigil,” a form of magical fiction. Morrison says that he strongly identified with the King Mob character and found that the by incorporating real aspects of his life in the series, he could make fictional aspects of the series bleed into his own life. When the series was almost canceled, he encouraged readers to use a chaos magic technique to save the series. Apparently, it worked and he was able to finish the series as planned.

The first volume begins in modern times, with the Invisibles recruiting Jack Frost - a teenage delinquent from Liverpoor who may be the next Buddha. Frost’s first mission involves accompanying the team back in time to rescue the Marquis de Sade from prison during the French revolution. Later volumes continue to sprawl backwards and forwards in time, with characters’ actions from different time periods reverberating throughout history.

Although the Invisibles begins as a romantic “good guys vs. bad guys” story, the lines begin to blur as Morrison deconstructs issues such as conformity, activism, and violence. Brilliantly complex and inherently mind altering, the Invisibles is a countercultural “must read.”

Buy The Invisibles: Say You Want a Revolution from the R/evolutionary Culture Shop.

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These comments from the Grant Morrison in Arthur Magazine thread but I thought it would be worth highlighting them on the front page.

The first comment comes from Trevor Blake:

Role models for Aryan supermen, cartoon ethics, trusting in Bush / Blair /Nixon, negating the drive toward individuality, the holocaust was perfectly valid… y’all remember this next time you hear someone say ‘I don’t like [x], he’s a fascist.’

Morrison found flaws in his previous sense of what the purpose of his life and life in general was. He ditched the flawed understanding. Excellent.
He replaced it with a bigger ‘purpose’ in which everyone is as groovy as everyone else. Bunk.

Here’s the scoop: he, me, everyone, and everything has no ‘purpose.’ Some humans can give themselves a purpose that is satisfying. That’s about it.

My response:

Here’s another choice Morrison quote:

“Asked about the current state of the world, particularly the war in Iraq, Mr. Morrison offered, ‘perhaps it’s just an essential part of the system, as horrible as that may seem.’ He wasn’t particularly interested in being part of any active anti-war movement, and noted that in his previous experience, a number of those people only seemed to be ‘interested in meeting up with the police.’”

I’d like to think that it goes with out saying that I don’t endorse Morrison’s philosophy on this, but since people very frequently confuse my opinions with the opinions of people I quote here, I figure I’ll set the record straight: I think Morrison’s whole “it’s all part of the system’s plan” philosophy is a bunch of crap. I’m also not fond of his “individuality is an illusion” stuff.

I don’t disagree with what I’ve read about Manuel DeLanda’s position on individuals and societies, but I haven’t read his new book yet. Shaviro’s review is here. He seems to reach a logical conclusion distinct from the over-romanticizing of of the individual and the problematic concepts of new age collectivism.

I look forward to reading Bloom’s Lucifer Principle as well.

“Here’s the scoop: he, me, everyone, and everything has no ‘purpose.’ Some humans can give themselves a purpose that is satisfying. That’s about it.”

Agreed, more or less. Nothing has any meaning save for what we impose on it. This is not bad/depressing, but liberating.

Bush and his cronies did not have to invade Iraq to fulfill some systemic destiny. They made a choice. We have a choice as well - accept the decisions made by the control machines, or struggle to change things.

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Arthur Magazine has posted their now classic interview with Grant Morrison on their web site:

And The Filth came out of that, trying to understand that every cherished thought and belief had an equally valid counterpoint. Once I realized I had to think about this stuff and I had to deal with it, I decided to treat it as an Abyss experience, based on the ideas of kabbalistic magic. Because that at least gave me a context to deal with the experience. According to Kabbalah, or to Enochian magic, the Abyss is a kind of Ring-Pass-Not for consciousness, which means that beyond that, the typical self-aware 11-bit consciousness you use to get through the day, doesn’t operate. The kabbalistic idea of the Abyss is manifold. There’s a kind of crack in Being and the crack is the moment of the Breath before the Big Bang. It’s also the crack of dead time where we do nothing when we’d like to do something, the crack between the thought of doing and actually doing. That gulf can become immense and daunting. We might decide to be President and do nothing, leading to a life of reproach and regret. [chuckle] Then you’re in the Abyss. So I felt this confrontation with difficult material coming, and I chose to frame it as a trip into the Abyss, I took the Oath of the Abyss, from the Thelemic version of Kabbalah, the Aleister Crowley version, and…again all this stuff really is to me ways of contextualizing states of consciousness. Crowley also talks about the demon Choronzon who’s the guardian of the Abyss, and Choronzon is a demon who takes any thought and amplifies until it becomes a completely disorienting storm of disconnected gibberish.

Full Story: Arthur Magazine.

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Vertigo is offering free downloads of the first issues of various series, including Exterminators (one of my current favorite comics), Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol, and Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing.

Here’s the full list. Books with a “#1″ icon next to them include free downloads.

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Nagi Noda has directed this Coca-Cola ad, which I believe is airing in the U.K. and Australia. We witness a girl drinking cola then progressing in iterative static poses down through the house and out into the garden. Here other people are encountered in similar sequential mode, providing a dizzying display of colour based on the Coke branding. The characters interact and the static scenes are seamlessly intercut with live action throughout the continuous long shot.

For anyone familiar with The Invisibles, by Grant Morrison, Noda’s commercial struck me as extremely reminiscent of the issues in which Ragged Robin gets stuck in and outside of time. Interesting to watch if you’re a fan of the comic or the concept in general.

Watch an embedded video via the jump. (more…)

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I haven’t read a Grant Morrison interview in a while… here he is talking about his work on Batman, including a good dig on Frank Miller:

Well, I still intend to do ‘Miller’-style first person narrative captions which give some insight into Batman’s thought processes but it seems more ‘realistic’ to imagine Batman as a hardcore fightin’ man who wouldn’t even notice his injuries until long after the fight was over, so no more of that ‘MY BACK SPLINTERS INTO A THOUSAND SHARDS OF AGONIZED BONE. HE’S GOOD. HE’S YOUNG. HE’S TOUGHER AND YOUNGER THAN ME. AND TOUGHER. DID I MENTION TOUGHER ? MUSN’T BLACK OUT…’ In Batman #657 we see some of the pulp noir narration and non sequitur imagery that goes through Batman’s mind during a fight and keeps him from being distracted by his aches and pains.

There’s some preview images as well (though the issue being previewed’s actually out already).

Full Story: Newsarama.

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IGN’s notes from the event.

CBR’s notes from the event.

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Something I’ve been meaning to blog for a while: Barbelith’s been compiling a Grant Morrison interview archive.

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Grant Morrison to write Batman.

And Authority and WildCATS.

More info on upcoming Morrison projects.

Alan Moore takes v3 of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to Top Shelf.

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LVX on meeting Grant Morrison:

Me and two buddies hit the scene Friday night at Isotope Comics in San Francisco. They were hosting the first of two big party’s for the annual Wondercon comic convention and Grant Morrison was the guest of honor. Packed in amongst the fanboys (and occasionally their women), we gawked at original artist renderings on the walls, leafed through unknown comics, and drank freely from the open bar. While standing outside Grant and his wife Kristan hopped out of their cab looking appropriately dashing, said “good evening” to those of us hanging about, then moved into the store to meet the fans.

Full Story: LVX23.

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All Star Superman preview.

Interesting sketches by Frank Quietly and quotes by Grant Morrison.

(both links via plasticbag.org where you’ll also find a discussion about the “S” design).

A Grant Morrison Q&A I’m not sure I’ve read.

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Thinking about generational issues made me dig up this old Grant Morrison quote from the online Filth letters pages. In response to someone talking about “the next generation” of magicians, Morrison says “THERE’S ONLY ONE GENERATION. I’M GLAD TO SEE THAT IT NEVER DIES.”

Link.

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Nice review:

For one thing it’s sort of about Everything and Nothing, only Everything isn’t as far reaching as you thought and Nothing seems like a crowd. It’s also weird because the main characters aren’t really the point; often they’re annoying stereotypical, sometimes spectacularly dated - one of the ‘heroes’, King Mob, mostly looks like the planks who used to Socialist Work and then spend hundreds of $$$ on fetish wear and urban-primitive chin-spiking chic.

No, The Invisibles works because of the bits inbetween and the characters that circle the main fray; the gaps between the stories are where Grant Morrison really opens up. One segment humanises the nameless baddy hordes with a slice of life from one of the Conspiracy foot soldiers… imagine seeing a Stormtrooper coming home for tea, wifely kisses and grief over his autistic children.

Link.
(more…)

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Grant Morrison will be doing a new monthly Superman comic called All Star Superman this June. Wow, with David Lapham on Detective Comics and Peter Milligan on X-Men, that means I’ll be buying Superman, Batman, and X-Men comics every month. Weird. Now they need to get Alan Moore or Neil Gaimon on Green Lantern…

Link.

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Fanboy Rampage is a comics satire column I stumbled across today while searching for a reference to Grant Morrison’s comments about Dr. Octagon for this Key 23 thread.

(fake) Grant Morrison interview:

Grant Morrison: Oh, yes. I find with New X-Men, the more quickly I write them, the better they turn out. I had gotten to the point where I was writing an issue a day, but that really wasn?t turning out satisfactorily. Now, I?m producing an issue every forty-five minutes or so.

Paul Gravett: An entire issue. How can you do such a thing?

Grant Morrison: Magic. Literally.

Paul Gravett: Yes, well, I?ve been meaning to ask about that, since you?ve made your stance on magic well-known. What sort of magic are you talking about, exactly?

Grant Morrison: Well, the term ?magic? encompasses many different specialties and disciplines, and?

Paul Gravett: No, I mean, when you say ?I?m producing an issue of New X-Men every forty-five minutes because of magic,? what do you mean by magic, in that exact context?

Grant Morrison: In that context?

Paul Gravett: Yes.

Pause.

Grant Morrison: Red Bull and crystal meth.

It gets better.

Upcoming exploitive Alan Moore items:

Alan Moore?s Letters to Penthouse Forum, Vols. I-IV: Don?t be fooled. These four volumes from Blood Money Press, enclosed in a lovely slipcase, actually detail only one letter, despite the title. Running a total of two hundred pages per volume, this letter comprises a sexual encounter between Alan Moore, two women, and a coatrack in West End. Volume I, for example, is a complete psycho-geographical and mythico-historical study of West End where the encounter happened, and apparently the digression on the evolution of coatracks (in Volume III) is a red-hot page-turner. There?s also an extensive endnotes section by the editors, contrasting, say, the original opening to the letter (?Dear Penthouse Forum: I recently ejaculated upon the face of History, allowing the orgasmic unfettering of shackled feminine mystery, and in many ways not only is Superman to blame, but Beano and a lecherously inclined coatrack as well.?) with one revised with an eye to publication (?Dear Penthouse Forum: I?ve always been a big fan of your letters but thought they were more than likely made up. However, something just happened to me that I just had to write to you about, and besides what is all of human history but a mutually agreed fictional construct, anyway? If it gets me and a very naughty coatrack a bit of action, who?s to say the world?s worse for it??). No illustrations, but unless you?re as much a furniture fancier as Mr. Moore, that may be for the best. Four books in slipcase, five hundred dollars for all. Yikes.

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I just found dvd special features-esque section on Grant Morrison’s Crack! Comicks site. Interesting stuff!

Link.

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He’s doing a new three part JLA story this year and series called Seven Soldiers next year:

these reluctant heroes have to do the job without actually meeting one another! Lucky for them, every action has long-ranging consequences in Seven Soldiers; a chance decision made by a character in one book can, and usually does, reverberate through all the other titles and profoundly affect other characters in the story.

Link.

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Barbelith is running a frickin’ huge interview with Grant Morrison. I haven’t had time to read much of it yet, but it sounds pretty interesting.

Suddenly I thought, ‘What the Hell is Disney?’ Walt Disney’s dead now but Disney persists as a concept and people who were born after the death of Walt Disney grow up and assume positions within Disney. What are they assuming positions within? It’s in this really devotional way too. What makes you grow up to wear a Mickey Mouse head and go round scaring children? Or ‘I’m going to end up on the Board of Directors of Disney?’ Why, why do these things occur? So I was just seeing them as in the way the Demons in the old Grimoires were seen which was kinda aggregates of power to which people could adhere themselves to or join in cultish fashion so I began to think I could talk to them like that and use ceremonial magic methods to talk to corporations and found there were ways of doing it - that’s why I’m wearing a suit - this is my magical garb for this working. That_s why we evoked gmWORD Ltd. They’re very powerful, ravenous weird things -corporations, strange to deal with.

Link.

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Morrison has mentioned in interviews before that this is some of his favorite work.
Link (via Barbelith).

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One of the best interviews I’ve read with Grant Morrison has been published by Sequential Tart.

Perhaps I’m unnaturally attuned to unreal worlds and characters. At an important time in my life, between the ages of 12 and 19, I was practically autistic at home. I had a lot of fun at a boys school during the day but evenings were grim beyond Morrissey’s most rueful yodellings, spent huddled in our flat above the Finefare, drawing my own homemade comic books and writing fantasy novels with cock in hand (see Flex Mentallo #3 ). I believe utterly in the ‘reality’ of fictional characters and assume that they all exist independently of my imagination with needs and requirements of their own, like Buddhist tulpa thoughtforms. I’ve always felt that my best writing is more like channeling the voices and adventures of real characters doing this stuff in a real place ? the comic as it exists in the future perhaps. Call me crazy if you like but it’s working very well for me so I’m unlikely to be convinced at this stage that my conclusions are mistaken.

Link (via Barbelith).

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Here’s a great sub-site from a Borges site with analysis of Borges’s influence on numorous writers, including: Grant Morrison, William Gibson, Joyce Carol Oates, Neil Gaimon, Harlan Ellison, Umberto Eco, and others.

Morrison: I had a dream where I was on a train going through a horrible bone-like station. The name on the platform said “Orqwith,” so I’d thought I’d use it. Also, part of this dream was that this fictitious world was infiltrating parts of itself into our world. But like you say, it’s got a lot to do with stealing work of a blind Argentinian writer.

AH: I’m afraid I stopped reading after “The Garden of Forking Paths.”

Morrison: So you haven’t finished Labyrinths?

AH: I did read ‘”Tl?n, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” and the one about Don Quixote.

Morrison: I think he’s wonderful. I just have baths in this sort of thing. That was one of the things I wanted to Introduce in Doom Patrol. All those strange paradoxes and philosophical curios.

Link (via the Barbelith Underground).

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