Past

Grant Morrison: The Comic Book Author

This class has passed
This class has passed

What’s it all about?

If you haven’t heard of Grant Morrison, he is a best-selling comic author, chaos magician, media darling and pop star manqué (see his appearances in videos by My Chemical Romance). He may also be completely mad. This class introduces the enigmatic Glaswegian, while also focusing on how he has drawn inspiration from underground culture to become a highly successful commercial writer.

What will we cover?

The discussion will cover Morrison’s early popular work such as Animal Man to The Invisibles, showing how in a time before the ceaseless self-promotion of Twitter he was already well able to market himself to a growing readership, and then focuses on how his more mainstream writing for X-Men, Batman and Superman retains a thematic consistency.

Additional titles that will feature include his autobiographical writings which typically also serve as comments on his lifelong obsession with comics – Flex Mentallo and his novel Supergods – as well as the dark and disturbing cult title The Filth. Morrison’s various public personae and how he uses media to promote himself as a brand will also be addressed.

Who will be teaching?

Emmet O’Cuana is a freelance writer based in Melbourne, currently researching a paper on Grant Morrison for publication. He has written for Filmink Magazine, has both comics and short fiction due for publication in early 2013, and co-hosts a blog dedicated to Australian comics titled Beardy And The Geek.