Title: Grant Morrison's DC Reading Project
Post by: Jupiter on May 04, 2009, 09:58:35 PMAs I've said before, I'm starting a reading project where my original intent was to read all of Grant Morrison's DC work in a year. I just about have all of it now, and I will have it all within a year, I hope. (I'm assuming they'll release his third JLA volume in hardback within a year, the second is due this summer...) I'm not going to put a time limit on it, though, because I know at least my reading time is extremely limited--I'm sure I'm not alone--and I tend not to read comics every day.
Grant has stated himself that he sees his work as one giant, living, cohesive thing. I've noticed several themes as I've read through his stuff before, and I'm hoping that by reading them all together, those themes and connections may pop out a bit more.
This is how Jeff Carter started a certain Grant Morrison reading project on the old board back in the dim mists of time. Having been a fan of Morrison's work before that, but knowing that I didn't really understand half of what he was going on about, I decided to join in and try to read everything Morrison had produced up to that point, and to analyse or discuss it to the best of my ability.
We've covered a fair bit of ground up to now, and I've learned a lot about Grant's themes and approaches (and much more besides). However, having come this far, I'd really like to see this through to the bitter end. The main characters in Morrison's The Invisibles live their lives with the belief that the world ends with the Eschaton in December 2012, so I've decided that I have to try to finish the project this year, or perhaps I never will. :-)
That's my comics-related New Year's Resolution. Now for the appeal.
In order to possibly finish it in the next 11 months, I'll need some help from the Legion, Captain Comic's All-Star Squadron, the Comics Cave Crew
ie YOU!
In the opening post of this thread, you can see all the work of Morrison's that I've covered so far in red hyperlinks, and the ones remaining are in normal type. Is anyone game to start a thread on any of the remaining work?
The really big ones are New X-Men, Morrison's only major Marvel U extended series,and 52, which was written along with Mark Waid, Greg Rucka and a certain Geoff J Johns esq. Both series are thoroughly deserving of a good reread I'm sure.
Or you might want to try one of the shorter series Morrison has embarked upon, (sadly without the assistance of Geoff Johns.)
As for the Phantom Gifts, I thought I might offer a bit of an incentive. No, they are not the Figserello version of the No-Prize! Some of you already know about the thick collections of classic Phantom adventures that are produced every year here in Australia. I figure every true fan of superhero adventures or classic comics would want at least one such volume in their collection. The Phantom is the world's first superhero after all*, and a hard-ass who Alan Moore was going to include in Batman's team in his never completed Twilight of the Superheroes.
Well, dig out a few of those old Morrison comics, write up your thoughts in a dedicated thread, and I'll happily buy you one and send it by way of appreciation. The only thing is that it is published on the 27th of January and will only be in the shops a few weeks after that. So I'll only have a short time to see who's being naughty or nice...
If you are interested, let me know on this thread.
*Arguably. :-)
Replies
I guarantee I'll want to discuss Flex Mentallo when the collection is finally published in March. In the meantime I'll read Kid Eternity ASAP (right now it's in another city I won't return to until next week). BTW, I recommended Gene Wolfe's novel Peace to you over in the non-comics reading thread.
Oh-ho! Well, if you're resorting to bribery... ;)
I think I've got a copy of The Mystery Play in my to-read (well, to re-read) pile already; perhaps I'll move that puppy up. And I reread Morrison's Adam Strange story in the Mystery In Space tribute to Julie Schwartz just last year -- if it's still where I can find it, I'll throw that one in as well!
(My first thought was Sebastian O, but I see that's been covered. Oh, well -- I should reread it anyway!)
ComiXology is running a 99-cent sale on Morrison's New X-Men TODAY until 11 PM EST. Just sayin'.
I finished re-reading the last two trades of Grant Morrison's New X-Men this very week. I've been contemplating starting a thread (or even writing one of my no-longer-weekly columns) regarding them.
I've got other things I'm trying to read and threads I want to start. However, I love Morrison's New X-men. Unless Chris the X-pert Fluit beats me to it, I may start the thread. I'll flip through my hardcover tonight and see if I'm inspired to get it going. Don't know if I can commit to leading it though.
I did see your Flann O'Brien reference and was most intrigued. I was hoping to write a longer reply soon on the thread itself. My time is very short these days. I'm playing Mr Mom and Dr Doolittle combined these days, as well as Pater Familias.
Believe it or not, I just took out Morrison's Fantastic Four 1234 HC from the library. Haven't read it yet but maybe will post about it!
Fantastic, indeed! I'm looking forward to rereading that too. Of course, I'm still holding out for you to finish the Batman thread with the detour towards the Headwreck that is Final Crisis. Is that still a goer? I'd just love to see what you make of FC on an issue by issue basis. In any case, you are the guy after Mark who helped push the Morrison project forward, so a big Aussie 'Good on yer!' for that.
Rob - Those two books would be great. For a while now I've been wanting to see what something more than drive-by commentary from you might be like. Give me a little notice before you post so's I can read them myself and figure them out. I've never read the Mystery Play, but the Adam Strange story is a little gem with much to say.
I was hoping to write about that Adam Strange story as the next entry in this specially fashioned Adam Strange thread, so you can drop your thoughts in there when you are ready. I started the thread to learn a bit of background to both Waid's Adam Strange JLA issues and Morrison's half-issue tribute story.
Chris, I did remember that you were working your way towards New X-Men. DId you read all the issues leading up to it? That's a lotta reading. I'd love to see a longer look at the series than one blogs worth if that's possible, but of course, I'll take what I can get. (I'm sure there's an awful lot to discuss about the series.) I've only read 1/3 of it back when it was coming out, so I'd need a bit of lead time to read the whole series before I could reply.
If anyone is pondering any of the remaining comics on the list, WE3 is a fantastic comic that everyone should read, and the Flash run with Mark Millar is a fun superhero title and ties in with Morrison's JLA quite nicely. I only started the All-Star Superman thread with a note about the plot debt of the first issue, but anyone can look at the whole series. A*S is one of the major comic series of the last few years, and worth a discussion.
For that matter, if anyone wants to cover the remaining volumes of Animal Man or Doom Patrol, that's fine too, although I'm aiming to get back to them sometime if not.
This is good. I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel now...
Yes. I've read everything from X-Men #1 (September 1963). That includes the Children of the Atom mini-series that takes place prior to X-Men #1 (published in 1999) and John Byrne's Hidden Years which takes place between X-Men #66 and Giant-Size X-Men #1. That also includes most- but not all- specials and mini-series (I will never get back the ten minutes that I wasted on Obnoxio the Clown vs. the X-Men). As I mentioned in the "What Have You Read Today?" thread, I'm finishing up the final comics before the 2004 reshuffle which put Joss Whedon on Astonishing. I've been at it, on and off, for a couple of years and should hopefully finish sometime this year.
As for Morrison's New X-Men, I don't know how extensive I'll get. I may keep it to one blog post. Or I may find that I have a lot more to talk about and take it a couple of trades at a time. When I wrote about X-Treme X-Men, which is roughly the same length, I ended up writing a three-part column. I won't start writing until at least next week, and the column wouldn't appear until the week after that so you've got a bit of time to get going.
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