Grant Morrison Sez “Just Write Good Comics”
Posted by: Dustin Christian // Category: DC, Dark Horse, Dynamite, IDW, Image, Marvel, Small Press, Vertigo
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First of all, I highly recommend that you read IGN’s excellent interview with Grant Morrison. It touches on everything from Morrison’s approach to storytelling on previous works as well as current projects like Final Crisis, All-Star Superman, and Batman: RIP to his post-Crisis and RIP plans to his plans to reconcile the discrepancies that came from Death of The New Gods, Countdown, and the beginning of Crisis.
I’d really love to talk about everything in that interview, and maybe I will come back to it another time, but for now I want to focus on Morrison’s take on the whole “Creator-Owned vs Work-for-Hire” kerfluffle that resulted from Robert Kirkman’s call-to-arms video editorial that he posted last week on Comic Book Resources. Morrison perfectly summed up my thoughts on how silly the whole debate really is.
I suppose I’m slightly amused by the reformer’s zeal with which each new generation approaches the problem of ’saving’ comics. It reminds me of humanity’s charming, self-regarding notion that it’s our job to ’save’ a planet which has survived fine without us through several mass extinction events, climactic overhauls and planetary disasters.
I’ve been listening to people talk about ’saving’ the ‘industry’ for over 20 years while comics have continued to be published and have, in fact, become better, to the point where the only conclusion I’ve come to is that comics are best ’saved’ by sealing them in Mylar bags! Everything else is just messianic inflation. Just do good books and stop trying to be the savior of a whole medium that’s been doing okay without you and will continue long after you’re gone.
Yes, I think Kirkman’s right, in that I’d like to see more of our creative community unleashing their wild imaginations onto the page and less of the obvious ‘movie pitch on paper stuff’ that’s come about recently as a result of comic creators chasing the Hollywood dollar but I don’t have a problem with writers and artists working on Marvel and DC properties if they enjoy it. I’d rather read a good Green Lantern story by someone who cares than work my way through a ‘creator-owned’ project that’s been created solely to appeal to lowest-common-denominator movie executives.
To which I say “Fucking DUH!” Beyond their own bank account, which I totally support writers looking out for, what does it matter who you’re writing for as long as you’re writing good stories? If you write well, the readers will come.
Morrison also points out that the vast majority of major comic writers do have their own creator-owned properties that they’re working on, which I knew but hadn’t really thought of, if you get what I mean.
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August 29th, 2008 at 1:11 am
Personally I like the thought of, “Creator Owned.” Mainly because as you know I’m trying to break into the comic book world myself. At the same time though it’s out of the fear of somebody destroying my ideas, or taking my characters in a direction I feel is wrong. Paranoid, I know, but can you blame me? As far as those who create comics/characters for the sole purpose of getting a movie deal; The can just fuck off. I’d like to think all of us true fanboys would be able to see through their bullshit.
August 29th, 2008 at 1:12 am
And by the way, if you’ve never had a grilled cheese sandwich made with Potato bread and Provologne cheese, go fucking try it! I was bored and hungry and so i got creative, it paid of. (Tip: a little garlic makes it even better)
September 1st, 2008 at 1:31 pm
[...] I’m sure someone could draw some kind of argument about compression vs decompression and all that shit, but who cares? Like Grant Morrison says, “Just write good comics!” [...]