Grant Morrison is the one that injected new blood to comic books after Alan Moore retired for a more pacific life. He is from the U.K. and he has a thick Scottish accent, so if you ever search for an interview you will need subtitles.
His first break for a successful comic book was Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth. It came just about the time where the 1989 Batman movie premiered. So it was his first hit, but before all of that he writes beautiful stories crafted in an incredible way.
His style is over the top and it has a deep love for the medium, comic books back then was a joke, now they are a billion-dollar, he always took the medium seriously, and created a philosophy and a way on how to see the world that experts are using for comparing our universe to a new 5 dimension, or how some external beings would see our universe. All of this through comics!
His most iconic comic books are:
Table of Contents
This one is lightning in a bottle, the best Superman comic of all time, you can read this one multiple times and catch new things every single reading. You start to feel the hope and power that Superman is supposed to transmit on you. You will laugh, cry and be stoic on every single issue.
I own this paperback edition and it’s stunning. The art of Frank Quitely is on another level. You don’t have their big and impossible poses like in regular comics, everything feels natural and real.
This is the kind of work that he made that is simply disturbing, the artwork is one of a kind, the story is complicated to follow but simple in its premise.
You can’t reveal much without revealing its story, so I’m just gonna say that it sold over one million copies in ‘89 and that got recognized to be one of the best novels of that year.
This is one of the more gory ones. The premise is simple, a group of genetic and mechanic enhanced killing pets is running in the town. See, simple. In here we learn how pets are becoming a new problem in our society.
It’s a criticism on how people get often lost in pets and how it stops you from growing, also shows you the other side of the coin tells how important companion is and how it’s important for us to enjoy our time with them.
Crisis is an Event that happens in DC comics. This one is from Grant and it’s a wild ride. It’s almost as if you try to tell a story on tv where when something new happens it’s on another channel and you need to change it every 5 minutes.
It’s incredible and enjoyable, you have so many references and you can find it amusing even if it is your first comic book.
This one is quite famous now because it has a TV show!
In an absurdist fashion, a detective is very badly injured and as a result, he can see the imaginary friend of her daughter. So he needs to team up with him to find his lost child.
A Buddy-cop movie with the second detective being a blue unicorn.
This one was written long ago, it’s quite charming, a new superhero is in town.
Animal man has the power of an animal close to him. Starts campy but with time it touches depression, grieving, and loss. Finalizing with one of the best finales in any comic book history.
It’s a must-read for anyone wanting to start reading comics.
After the final crisis, we don’t know how it will possibly continue. This is the result of years of preparing for the next phase. Every chapter is self-contained in his story, but everything comes around in the end.
They are 8 unique stories and it features the first comic book that you can read from the beginning to the end and in reverse.
A homage to Watchmen and a hell of a complicated story is the best event in a recent comic book story.
Flex Mentallo is especially good if you are an artist or creator. This comic is a masterclass on storytelling, on how to use narrative techniques in your stories. With great quality this comic put Grant on the map for a reason, it’s a masterpiece.
And his book is incredible if you want to feel hope for the future and appreciate more comics.
Science fiction is always an extension of humanity. This book teaches you how reading these fantastic stories of people who fly and use spandex can make you a more kind and a compassionate human being.
Try to give it a read even if you don’t like comic books.
