Grant Morrison

Grant Morrison 

Okay, full disclosure I haven't read a massive amount of Grant Morrisons work.  Of course I know the name, not only from 2000AD but from his work for DC and Marvel too. I remember reading Zenith in 1987 but it wasn't much later on that my hiatus from comics began.  So, as much for my sake as anything else, here's a little synopsis of his career (God bless Wikipedia).

Much like Garth Ennis, Morrison started young his first work being published when he was about 17 years old in a British alternative comic called Near Myths.  1986 saw his debut in the galaxys greatest comic, with two Future Shocks soon followed by the well loved Zenith. Then, DC took him into their fold where he got the gig for writing Batman and Doom Patrol amongst others. From then on his star was in the ascendancy check out more here:  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Morrison

Happily, as I'm trying to write this blog to highlight some of the work of these creators, I have read a couple of very different books by Grant Morrison on my return to comics.  The first one was given to me as a gift from a friend. She went into Mega City Comics in Camden and told the guys there that "he likes 2000AD and he likes horror". The chap working there suggested the following graphic novel, which she promptly bought.

The book was the trade of 2015s Nameless, from Image, what an introduction to Morrisons work that was. I've read it a couple of times and I'm still not 100% sure of what it's all about. In a nutshell, it's a space based horror story, the hero of the tale has no name, he is the titular Nameless.  

Nameless is an occult expert called upon by an eccentric billionaire (think a more batshit Branson) to go into space and be part of a mission to save the earth from destruction by a 14 x 6 mile asteroid hurtling in its general direction. Sounds straightforward?  This story goes off on so many tangents and themes, space horror, body horror, ancient cultures, iconography you name it it's all there with a generous side order of blood and gore.  

The art by Chris Burnham is amazing throughout, his own imagination must have been

stretched by the imagery demanded of him by
Morrisons script.  His work, with excellent colouring by Nathan Faibairn, lets us revel in the madness, blood and gore of the story. Lettering is by another 2000AD alum Simon Bowland, who has worked on Kingdom, Jaegir and Survival Geeks to name just a few. 

So, if you like your sci-fi horror to make you think and even question what you are reading then this is for you.  Trust me you'll never be bored with this story, you may wonder what the fuck it's all about, but you wont be bored. 

Next time I'll look at a more mainstream, but no less thought provoking piece of work from Grant Morrison.