Grant Morrison took the stage mid-day on Thursday at San Diego Comic-Con 2011 to a packed house – there was actually a line of hopeful attendees wrapped all the way around the meeting rooms waiting to get in. Luckily, we had snagged our place from the previous panel, and were front row for a lively Q&A with the modern master.
Since Morrison kicked it off by sitting solo on stage and just talking directly to the audience, we thought we’d do something a little different, and just present the audience member’s questions… And then Morrison’s answers, with very little commentary from us, mainly because the whole thing was so darn entertaining. Only thing we couldn’t capture? Morrison’s amazing accent(s). So here we go:
Q: “I loved Final Crisis!”
Morrison: “So you’re the one!”
Q: “The Invisibles changed my life.”
Morrison: “It was designed to change fucking lives.”
Q: “What was the difference – for you – in writing The Invisible and The Filth?”
Morrison: “My life just changed for the better, honestly, I was just trying to make a darker book. I thought The Invisibles was lacking a bit of dimensionality, I wanted to get down into the dark and the cat shit.”
Q: “Don’t ever stop – ever.”
Morrison: “Tell that to the grim reaper!”
Q: “Will you ever tackle Wonder Woman?”
Morrison: “I would still love to do Wonder Woman, there’s still some issues I’d want to work out. Wonder Woman was very successful originally, so I’d like to find a way to make it more contemporary.”
He’s still working on the screenplay for Dinosaurs vs. Aliens, and there’s a graphic novel coming. “It might be the first of my movies to actually make it to the screen.”
Q: “What’s up with Marvel Boy?”
Morrison: “I dunknow. I put him in this jail, basically working his way from the bottom to the top. That’s what it was, but they changed the tact on the character, and made him more conservative.”
Q: “I like the way you use words.”
Morrison: “God bless words!”
Q: “What would a sane Batman be like?”
Morrison: “Batman has always been sane, putting on the suit was a sane response. Most people would turn to alcohol and drugs, and a lifetime of therapy.”
Q: “Has the creative well run dry?”
Morrison: “I can’t speak for anyone else, I just read this amazing book called The Seven Basic Flaws, that we only tell seven stories. Everyone is one set of eyes in life, in the entire history of the Universe. And that’s what we do, the tell the truth of what we see. I think what maybe is happening is that people aren’t telling the truth. I enjoy a lot of comics I read, and movies I see… Maybe I’m just being an optimist.”
Q: “What’s going on with We3?”
Morrison: “We did it with New Line, and then New Line fell through the cracks. It’s in development, as they say. It’s working its way through the sausage machine.”
Q: “If you could make one thing unretconnable, what would it be?”
Morrison: “That’s impossible, someone will always change that stuff around… If I could do one thing, it would be you couldn’t screw up Animal Man’s marriage.”
Q: “What’s up with Dan Turpin?”
Morrison: “The guy’s had Darkseid in his head, he’s probably lying somewhere and trying to deal with it.”
Q: “And The New Gods?”
Morrison: “Darkseid and all of them have taken root again… They’re fundamental principles.”
Q: “Why do you collaborate with Frank Quitely so much?”
Morrison: “He lives just right down the street, so it’s easy to collaborate with it. I do have to say, he’s my favorite artist. If I could be the artist I want to be, it would be like him.”
Q: “Will Batman tie in with the New 52?”
Morrison: “Yeah, it’s going to fit in with all this new stuff. We’re wrapping up this season, and then in January, we’re doing a twelve-issue book called Batman: Leviathan that will wrap up my whole six year run on Batman. I guarantee you will cry.”
Q: “I heard you had a story for The Flash?”
Morrison: “I thought it would interesting to tell the story of a scientist that just got faster and faster and faster. It seemed to fit in to the Earth One idea. But it was just an idea for a Flash story I wanted to tell. I don’t know what the whole status of that project is right now.”
Q: “What’s going on with Action Comics?”
Morrison: “I’ve worked through sixteen issues so far. I almost see it as the early years of the guy we see in All-Star Superman. It’s very different from All-Star, but it’s big – possibly even bigger.”
Q: “Will we see new or old villains in Batman: Leviathan?”
Morrison: “It’s new villains, and also some classic villains. I haven’t told everyone who Leviathan is. There’s a big reveal at the end… I won’t say too much.”
Q: “I’m glad we could make contact!”
Morrison: “That’s what the Martians said when they had me.”
Q: “What’s going on with Seaguy?”
Morrison: “The next series of Seaguy is on the way, it finishes the story. Cameron Stewart is doing an issue of Batman Inc., and then a Multiversity story, so after that I’ll get him the Seaguy script.”
Q: “Have you ever thought of doing a Frankenstein movie?”
Morrison: “I mean, I’d love to do the version of Frankenstein I did for the DCU. I think it could be – one of my big ideas for that was do kind of a Hellboy, except he fights science based villains.”
Asked to do his New Jersey accent, Grant Morrison launched into a hilarious New Jersey accented rant that brought the house down, which definitely does NOT come through in a recap. Sorry.
Q: “Will you do more Chemical Romance videos?”
Morrison: “It’s the Return of the Jedi! I’m coming back in a third video as an evil bad guy.”
Q: “How do you create such disgusting characters?”
Morrison: “We just find that place inside where we can squirm where the maggots live. I’ve been reading stuff written by actual schizophrenics, Professor Pyg is all based on trying to recreate an actual schizophrenic voice.”
Q: “Talk about creating Dr. Hurt.”
Morrison: “I just wanted to see Batman up against The Devil. It doesn’t need to be the actual devil. It started with that, Batman beats the devil. He’s still rotting in a coffin somewhere at Wayne Manor, I won’t bring him back.”
Q: “Are superheroes meant to change, or are they iconic constants?”
Morrison: “It’s a natural progression based on what’s going on in the world. The way I see the superhero universe, these places existed in the ‘30s. They change alongside us, and sometimes they change even before us. We come in every generation and refresh. The idea of an iconic Superman… He’s always presented a different way for a new generation, changed just a little bit to make him a contemporary type.”
Q: “What about more creator owned stuff?”
Morrison: “I have a bunch of new plans for new creator stuff, but I don’t have any dates.”
Q: “Who do you like writing better, Batman or Superman?”
Morrison: “Ohhh… Nobody loves Batman like me, but I’m starting to get more buzz from Superman.”
Q: “Anything going on with eighteen days?”
Morrison: “I created the bible for the series… But again, anything that has to do with the moving image seems to take years.”
Q: “Is Superman Kal-El from Krypton, or Clark from Earth?”
Morrison: “I’m not quite sure what they’re doing on the other title. I’m just doing him as the farmboy who comes to the big city, Clark is the reporter, doing as much as Superman. He as a bigger reputation in Metroplis for fighting for social justice. You have to remember… Batman, two people died in his life, and he’s never smiled ever since. Superman, billions of people died, and he’s had a smile on his face ever since. He’s not brooding… Action Comics is go getting, it has him doing stuff. He’s no longer a friend of the law. He stands for justice, and that sometimes doesn’t agree with the law. He’s a trickster type.”
Q: “What do you think about magic?”
Morrison: “I want to be Dumbledore.”
Q: “Can I look at your idea book?”
Morrison: “No, I didn’t bring any with me… I have a stack of those… Finished comics come out, and you look back, and you have even better ideas in there.
Q: “Were you upset that DC is splitting up Dick Grayson as Batman and Damian Wayne?”
Morrison: “I always thought maybe they should keep them together for five years, or six years. There’s something that felt very fresh about them. But there’s something about Bruce Wayne, he’s the icon. But next year, you’ll get to see more stuff with Damian, and you will cry, and cry, and cry…”
Q: “What do you do when you get writers block?”
Morrison: “I never get writers block, for me, it comes all the time, like sweat. I just have to mop up and get going. I’ve never had a moment when stories don’t come. Every day something is happening in life, there are stories everywhere… You just have to catch them.”
Q: “Does Action Comics take place in the present?”
Morrison: “It catches up in issue seven, but after that it’s going back and forth in time.”
Q: “Will you be doing other acting, after your Chemical Romance videos?”
Morrison: “Are you kidding? Everybody said, “Oh the phone is going to be ringing off the hook with acting offers!” Not. One. I mean, I could be a guy who kills James Bond… I would love to kill James Bond. I would do it. In a heartbeat.”
Q: “Would you want to do any big characters in the DCU?”
Morrison: “I think I got through it when I did Justice League… I don’t feel the nostalgic thing with characters from when I was young anymore.”
Then a kid came up and asked if Morrison had seen THE DARK KNIGHT RISES teaser. When Morrison said he hadn’t, the kid said, “I have it on my phone, if you want to watch it.” After the laughter died down from the audience, the kid proceeded to launch into a scene by scene description of the trailer, which basically broke the audience. Morrison graciously then proceeded to ask him what he thought of THOR, because Morrison also hasn’t seen that.
Q: “What do you enjoy reading?”
Morrison: “I mostly read non-fiction books to get the ideas for the stories, science and whatnot.”
Q: “Will you have Superman take on issues from the LGBT Community?”
Morrison: “I’d like to cover all of those things. I don’t want to do relevant things, issue of the month, the ‘70s thing. I do want to see him representing people who don’t have a voice. Hopefully it will be subtextual.”
Q: “Will Action Comics be retelling old stories?”
Morrison: “It’s not drawn from any plot stuff. As with Batman, we’re trying to do new stuff. It will be old faces back in a new way, but certainly not storylines from the ‘40s.”
Q: “Why is Batman more successful on film than Superman?”
Morrison: “Batman is cool, he’s sexy, and he’s got money, and femme fatalles. Superman works in an office, and he can’t get the girl.”
And that was it! The crowd cheered, Morrison got mobbed, and then we all transcended to the next plane! Or something.
See you at the next panel!
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