RIOT MAGAZINE #0, AUGUST 1997 TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY BOY INTERVIEW BY SCOTT BRADEN "Are you ready," a voice echoes across the Atlantic, giving fair warning. "Are you ready?" Writer Grant Morrison's on the phone, wanting to know if we're ready for what he has to offer. Well, are we? Are we ready for imaginative stories, new and inventive concepts, and genre-breaking epics? Are we ready for his sophisticated brand of storytelling which he first brought over to America all those many years ago? Are we ready for the future? Looking at the numbers for his reinvention of DC Comics' Justice League of America (JLA to most) — yeah, bring it on! Morrison's coming at us, and coming at us with a vengeance. Born, raised, and currently living in Glasgow, Scotland; Morrison, 37, tells imaginary stories month after month that prove without a shadow of a doubt that his powers are far beyond those of mortal men. With a history that's almost as colorful as his stories, Morrison's fought off death, taken drugs, and had an unexplained Rendezvous With Rama that's changed the way he's looked at his life, the world, and his work. Morrison's also very well off, he says. But let's begin at the beginning, shall we? Grant Morrison exploded onto the American comics scene in the mid- eighties, reinventing tired old concepts like DC Comics' Animal Man and Doom Patrol by casting them in a radical, new light. Storylines consisting of the karmic implications of animal testing and the occult significance of the Pentagon Building led most to consider him a rebel, a bad boy, and someone to watch. So what's he doing writing comics for kids — or even comics in general? Why hasn't he written novels, plays, or even scripts that would allow for real live actors to strike a pose on the telly? Well, the truth of it all is, he has. But what's done is done, and now Morrison's precious time consists of working on The Invisibles (His conspiracy tour-de-force which is considered by many to be his crowning achievement), the reenergized JLA (A personal favorite from the writer's childhood and a dream project made real), as well as co-writing The Flash with fellow Scotsman Mark Millar (Swamp Thing, JLA Secret Files). This means that Morrison's writing to what may be the broadest, most diverse audience he's ever had. So from where he's standing right now, comics are where it's at — at least for the moment, anyway "As a medium," Morrison explains, "comics have so many unexplored potentialities. The best work hasn't even been done yet. Whereas in other media, you have so many talented people producing so many good things, that at least the limits have been explored. But in comics, the lim- its haven't even been defined yet! And that's what keeps me in there. It may be different when I disappear from comics in the year 2000 to do my film, but for now, it's enough." Before the millennium arrives though, Morrison's on a crusade to save the industry that he loves. In with the good comics, out with the bad! He's even bringing along friends to make sure his back is covered. So while lesser writers turn green with envy, Morrison is ultraviolet and futuristic. What else would you expect from a twenty-first century boy? Read on. Grant Morrison is possessed! Having survived a near-death experience over a year ago that involved an infected lung and a case of medical ineptitude, Morrison's since applied a superhuman voracity towards both his life and his work. Bubbling over with new ideas, it appears that his ordeal apparently has endowed him with energy to spare. And after talking to Morrison, you even get the idea that he's damn near indestructible, as is the book he's recently rejuvenated, JLA. Having proven itself worthy with its return to epic storylines and its acquisition of massive sales, JLA is the book to watch, But when finally cornered as to the secret of the series' success, Morrison only laughs. "The only reason sales dropped off in the past is that perhaps there wasn't a clear understanding of JLA's mythical underpinnings, which was what really gave the book its power. With JLA, you're dealing with concepts that are rooted in the mythologies of every single culture on Earth. Every mythology has a messenger of the gods who's got super- speed. Every single mythology has a god who derives his powers from the sun. Every single mythology has a dark denizen of the underworld, and so on. When you look at each individual Justice Leaguer, whether it's Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, or even the Martian Manhunter, you can map them onto a different mythological character, and that's why they're so strong. That iconic power of the characters is what makes this book so successful. And with comics like the X-Men, you don't have that. You don't have characters so strong that they're almost gods." Morrison also sees a great potential in superhero comics as a whole. Though some might think comics, especially those portraying costumed- clad do-gooders, are just four-color fantasies that offer an escape from the ordinary, Morrison believes that they are something much more. "Superheroes are as powerful, as they are symbolic. They say so much, but even today they have the potential to say so much more. The same goes with their stories, Writing a good superhero story is like playing with dreamstuff. It's that imaginative; it's that powerful; it's that profound. And people think these things are stupid? As Sydney Mellon-ish as it might sound, I honestly see genuinely useful mythical resonances in the best superhero comics. Comics are incredibly sensitive barometers of social change. Just look at the way that Batman has reflected the culture over the years. This material has a psychological and a spiritual significance, whether we're embarrassed to admit it or not. I look at the stories that Jack Kirby and Stan Lee did, or whoever... and I see mythical structure, a spiritual vision and complex cultural trends expressed through the most basic language and imagery. And it's fun! That's what excites me about reading comics and writing comics." Taking a step back, Morrison confesses, "Before I broke into comics, I started out wanting to write novels. I even wrote a couple when I was a teenager, but nothing really came out of it. Then I saw Alan Moore's work on the Marvelman strip (reprinted in the States as Miracleman by Eclipse Comics) that ran in Warrior.'Finally,' I thought to myself, 'you can do comics and write them as well as you'd write a novel.' Alan's work inspired me, even though I'd been doing comics before he came along, I'd done some adult stuff: Real underground, black and white, weird stuff. But after reading Marvelman, l realized you could apply those same ideas to super-heroes — so I did." Even though he loves the genre, superheroes aren't the only outlet in which Morrison relays his notes from the underground. There's always that rare opportunity to become invisible... "This is the comic book that I wanted to do all my life," was once Morrison's response when asked what inspired him to create The Invisibles, his paramilitary, psychedelic, hi-fi, sci-fi, quasi-religious, apocalypse-ridden conspiracy treatise and subversion manual that he introduced to wide-eyed comic book fans back in 1994. But after his post-modern, London-based revolutionaries were met with a luke-warm response (at best), Morrison had to drop back and regroup. Having recently brought on board artist-extraordinaire Phil Jimenez, moved the team's adventures to America, and repackaged the book as The Invisibles Volume Two, Morrison has once again attempted to create (that voodoo that he do so well.) But knowing that, what's the series about? What's the truth behind The Invisibles? "When I thought up the book," Morrison explains,"I knew we were approaching the millennium, and that everybody would be panicking, I wanted to do a comic that would tie into all that. So I came up with this idea in '93 to make a comic that would document the psychic condition of the world until the year 2000. I've also taken things that have become modern myths, like the Roswell Crash and Area 51, and tried to put a new spin on them that nobody's seen before. Whatever the truth of those things are, they've become so powerful in the public imagination that everyone knows about them. "I've also been 'making patterns,' as people tend to do. Human beings need to make patterns out of the chaos that surrounds them. The world and the universe may be entirely chaotic, but the wonderful thing about our brains is that they organize. For example, when you look up into the night sky, what you actually get is a complete chaos of stars, Yet we look up there and see constellations, though there's no such thing as a constellation until a human being looks at six stars and decides that he can see a bear. That's the great virtue of the human mind. So by the same means, I'm taking all the chaotic input that I can get from the madness that is the end of the twentieth century, and making a cohesive mythology out of it," Morrison pauses,"I'm working towards a theory that things like The Invisibles and The X-Files have taken the place of mythology. We just don't have it anymore. We've lost God. We've lost spirituality. They say 'the truth is out there,' and we know something is out there because too many people have had similar experiences. Everybody knows that the scientific, orthodoxical view of the world doesn't explain everything. It doesn't cover all the bases. But we have nothing to explain it anymore. Science refuses to look at the truth, while the church can't handle it, because the things that are happening now are even too weird for religion. So we have to come up with a new mythology for the twenty-first century I think that things like The Invisibles, things like The X-Files, things like the type of films we get, the interest in science fiction, and the fascination with alien cultures impacting with our own culture have all become so popular because people are desperately trying to strive for a new spiritual vision." With that said, one can see that Morrison has a real passion for the issues he raises in the series. But is mild-mannered Morrison actually an Invisible himself? Enquiring minds want to know. "To a certain extent, I suppose. I was brought up with antiestablishment principles, but at the some time, I also live in a nice big house; I've got money; and I do what I do. "There are actually people out there on the front lines that are a lot more involved in this thing than me. So it would be hypocritical for me to say that I'm an Invisible. I certainly don't go ahead and blow up military installations, but if someone does, then 'thumbs up!' " So it appears that Mr. Morrison has got some secrets of his own. Getting back to the original question then, what's The Invisibles really about? Where did the story come from? "What people don't know is that the basic story behind The Invisibles is based on an experience that I had in Katmandu when I was on holiday. I had what seemed to be an alien contact, where lots of things were explained to me all at once. I received all this information from some unknown source that was consistent enough to make me think, 'Well, that's an interesting theory.' And from that theory, my entire life has been turned upside down for the better. I can't really explain it, but it's worked for me, whatever 'it' is. And ever since the incident, I've had this rush of energy that's allowed me to create the concepts behind The Invisibles and even JLA. The stories that drive them are basically about how the universe was explained to me, and I'm using them, especially The Invisibles, to get that explanation across. "The Invisibles is my way of pulling everything together. It covers everything from Nazi experiments to weirdo cults, and I'm tying that all to one working cosmogony, which in the end — in the final issue — will explain what the universe is, what it's made of, why it's constructed, who constructed it, and what it's supposed to do. Is it the ultimate truth? Well, no, not the ultimate truth. Still, any cosmogony is a truth. Judeo-Christian mythology is a truth. Hindu mythology is a truth. They're all consistent, and they all explain the universe in a certain way. I've just come up with another way to explain the universe that's personal to me and will involve stuff that I've been dealing with since way back." Morrison laughs,"You know, if I wanted to start a religion, I could've done so. Fortunately for you all, I've decided to write comics instead!" As you can probably tell by now. Grant Morrison's a man with a mission. Or rather, missions. Here's another one for your inspection. Tired of the days of "grim and gritty characters," Morrison wants to put the hero back in superhero comics. To do this, he's looking to the past, while again setting his sights on the future. "Several of us writers have looked at the patterns of comics over the years, and have noticed that it moves in cycles. Looking at some of today's more popular comics, they appear similar to the 'upbeat' superhero titles made during the Silver Age of Comics, which was in its height in the late-fifties and early-sixties. The Silver Age began when DC Comics editor Julie Schwartz and his little stable of writers revitalized the market with lively, science fiction-oriented heroes. Julie brought an adult point of view to mainstream comics, and what several of us have been talking about recently is that characters from that era, like the 'Barry Allen' Flash and the 'Hal Jordan' Green Lantern, were all 'grown-ups.' I read Gerard Jones' book, The Comics Book Heroes, and he pointed out that these were heroes who never fought amongst themselves; held interesting jobs; and had wives or girlfriends. They were just very together, unlike most heroes today. Even in their spare time, the Silver Age heroes just hung out reading books about science and tackling weird medicine." "Looking at where comics are now," Morrison adds, "I also want to approach characters as adults. And when I say that, I don't mean that I'm going to make those so-called "adult comics" that were produced in the eighties, where you've got these lunatics running around and hurting people or themselves. The last few years we've seen nothing but those tortured characters — the 'Dark Knight' Batman basically became a tortured adolescent — and what me and a few others like Mark (Millar) and Mark Waid (Flash, Kingdom Come) would like to do is bring heroes like Batman back as men. I'm talking about the Batman that I remember. The Denny O'Neil, seventies Batman with a big hairy chest, who was always kissing girls, and flying about in the Batplane all over the world. "I think that attitude is needed again, because superhero comics have become so tired being tied in with the whole Punisher/Rambo feeling of the eighties. How many comics with guys shooting each other for no reason can today's kids read? And you can see things starting to change, especially with writers like us at DC speeding up the process by bringing back grown-up superheroes who do great things. When you read our comics, hopefully you'll have fun, learn some stuff, and get some mind-expanding ideas out of them as well." But isn't that a strange philosophy coming from the man who brought his Doom Patrol's world crashing down around them? "For me," Morrison explains, "my current work is an extension of what I did in Doom Patrol and Animal Man, but those stories were probably more overt than what I'm doing now. Back then, my cards were on the table. Today, the same ideas will still be in the books for those who want to dig them out, but I'll just hide them so your average twelve year-old kid can read and understand the comic he or she's just bought." "The model I'm using for my more mainstream stories are fairy tales," Morrison adds, "where kids pick up on the psychological significance and the symbolic structure, but they won't need to know that kind of stuff to enjoy the story. When I did Arkham Asylum, for example, I wrote an adult comic with huge symbolic structures that featured Freudian messages hidden in the panels — which nobody got. The problem was that there wasn't a strong enough story for kids to read so that they could absorb all the symbolic structure. So I did that all wrong there, but at the same time, it taught me to simplify and be able to tell a story that a child will be able to get, while also giving him or her some fuel for the imagination." Though Morrison doesn't want to limit his audience to just kids — The Invisibles is definitely not a children's book — he does see the importance of bringing them back to comics. Of course, he also thinks that you'd have to be stupid not to. Working up cool ideas such as Justice League Junior — a hip and happening superhero team that would showcase younger DC characters such as Superboy, Mary Marvel and Impulse — he's setting out to attract the once prevalent, currently dwindling, younger audience, as well as attempting to safeguard the future of the industry he loves. "So much effort was put into creating an adult comic market in the eighties, that we lost the kids," Morrison laughs bitterly, "and as you might know, most adults really don't buy these things! "The main reason I'm writing mainstream comics like JLA and Flash is that I want to write stories for kids. I want to pass on the seed, because that's what was done to me when I was young. Back then, the Flash was the best comic out there! It had the coolest superheroes, the best villains, and its stories were so imaginative; it offered strange and wonderful ideas on every page. It was also the most bizarre comic I ever read! Those old Flash stories fueled my imagination and helped me produce the kind of stories that I'm doing now. I want to create the same level of powerful, imaginative work for the next generation, that the Flash did for me, which hopefully will inspire them to carry on the flame." Morrison hesitates for a second, "When I say we should do comics for kids, I don't want people to think that I want books like Preacher, The Invisibles, or even the Fantagraphics stuff to disappear. What I do want to disappear are any superhero comics that have the high level of unpleasantness, viciousness, and meanspiritedness, which is what I see in so many titles. They shouldn't be published. We shouldn't be feeding kids' minds with that kind of stuff. "In a perfect world, I'd want to see kids start off reading really good kids' comics, and then progress onto something like JLA, which is for teenagers. And from there, they could progress onto high quality comics geared for adults. That's how we could build a really healthy market, and that's more of what I'm looking for. "We've got to think about things like that," Morrison finally shrugs. "We've got to think about the future."