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Great Comics Artists Series
Grant Morrison: Combining the Worlds of Contemporary Comics
One of the most eclectic and distinctive writers currently working in comics, Grant Morrison (b. 1960) brings the auteurist sensibility of alternative comics and graphic novels to the popular genres―superhero, science fiction, and fantasy―that dominate the American and British comics industries. Morrison's comics range from bestsellers featuring the most universally recognized superhero franchises (All-Star Superman, New X-Men, Batman) to more independent, creator-owned work (The Invisibles, The Filth, We3) that defies any generic classification.
In Grant Combining the Worlds of Contemporary Comics, author Marc Singer examines how Morrison uses this fusion of styles to intervene in the major political, aesthetic, and intellectual challenges of our time. Morrison's comics blur the boundaries between fantasy and realism, mixing autobiographical representation and cultural critique with heroic adventure. They offer self-reflexive appraisals of their own genres while they experiment with the formal elements of comics. Perhaps most ambitiously, they challenge contemporary theories of language and meaning, seeking to develop new modes of expression grounded in comics' capacity for visual narrative and the fantasy genres' ability to make figurative meanings literal.
In Grant Combining the Worlds of Contemporary Comics, author Marc Singer examines how Morrison uses this fusion of styles to intervene in the major political, aesthetic, and intellectual challenges of our time. Morrison's comics blur the boundaries between fantasy and realism, mixing autobiographical representation and cultural critique with heroic adventure. They offer self-reflexive appraisals of their own genres while they experiment with the formal elements of comics. Perhaps most ambitiously, they challenge contemporary theories of language and meaning, seeking to develop new modes of expression grounded in comics' capacity for visual narrative and the fantasy genres' ability to make figurative meanings literal.
332 pages, Paperback
First published November 8, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 8, 2015
One of the best critical studies of an entire corpus that I've read. Singer fairly addresses Morrison's work, evaluating their flaws and failures along with their successes, without trying to force Morrison's corpus into a particular, singular reading.
February 15, 2012
An excellent academic overview of a fantastic comic book career, highlighting the relationships to Morrison's world view, personal life and the tropes and trends that permeate his work. (Although I could happily never read the words 'hypostasis' and 'synecdochic' ever again!)
January 20, 2021
Marc Singer's interpretation and review of Grant Morrison's work from his early days to the mid 2000's was a well written and thought provoking study on not only a writer's evolution, but also on the metamorphosis of ideas that Morrison often writes about.
This book goes project by project of Morrison's career up to the ending of Seaguy. So we really get an in depth analysis on not only the work and what it means on the surface, but also the subtext of each series. It explores themes, plots, allusions, theories, and much more. The chronological order of how each segment/chapter is arranged is really helpful as well, as Singer makes ties and links to things that are influenced or in direct relation/opposition to some earlier work, some early theme.
If I had to point out some things I disliked, its that it seems Singer has more of an appeal to certain works of Morrison. Where he will have pages and pages of one book, and a quick chapter on another. I would've like to have seen the type of analysis on all of his works, as sometimes I found myself wanting more. But I guess wanting more isn't so much of a bad thing.
If you like the works of Grant Morrison, you can't go wrong with this one. Recommended for people who like to read academic studies on comic book stories and histories.
This book goes project by project of Morrison's career up to the ending of Seaguy. So we really get an in depth analysis on not only the work and what it means on the surface, but also the subtext of each series. It explores themes, plots, allusions, theories, and much more. The chronological order of how each segment/chapter is arranged is really helpful as well, as Singer makes ties and links to things that are influenced or in direct relation/opposition to some earlier work, some early theme.
If I had to point out some things I disliked, its that it seems Singer has more of an appeal to certain works of Morrison. Where he will have pages and pages of one book, and a quick chapter on another. I would've like to have seen the type of analysis on all of his works, as sometimes I found myself wanting more. But I guess wanting more isn't so much of a bad thing.
If you like the works of Grant Morrison, you can't go wrong with this one. Recommended for people who like to read academic studies on comic book stories and histories.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews