Comic Writer Grant Morrison is Our Guest DJ
From KCRW DJ and Comic Collector Eric J Lawrence: In the pantheon of comic book writers (and since they write about god-like superheroes, why shouldn’t they be treated as god-like…
By Eric J. Lawrence • • 1 min readIn the pantheon of comic book writers (and since they write about god-like superheroes, why shouldn’t they be treated as god-like themselves!), Scotsman Grant Morrison is up there with the greats.
Having crafted mind-blowing concepts and stories since the late ‘70s, he has helped revitalize a sense of wonder in the moribund world of caped crusaders. Between his tackling of legendary characters like Batman, Superman and the X-Men, the rehabilitation of also-ran heroes as Animal Man and the Doom Patrol, and his own original creations in books such as Zenithand The Invisibles, Morrison treats his storytelling seriously, with equal amounts of cutting satire and earth-shattering bombast.
His recent non-fiction book, Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants,and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human, is both a savvy history of the comic book industry and a first-hand account of his own trippy biography.
With the Guest DJ Project, I’ve had the great, fan-boy pleasure to chat with a number of stellar comic book creators about some of their favorite music, but I knew a conversation with Morrison would be something unique. And I was not wrong.
Little did I know though that we would discussing a song about a talking electric heater (“Heater” by the Mutton Birds) or a Beatles parody that might even be better than the original (“Joe Public” by the Rutles)!
He was a terrific guest, chockfull of Scottish charm and wit, and his visit made for another excellent addition to the Guest DJ Project.
ERIC J. LAWRENCE