Grant Morrison Writes ... (Part 8)

There�s a lot of weird stories I could tell you,
but we�d be here all night.

I see. Well, I think I�ve pretty much gone through my list of twenty questions and then some. It�s been a pleasure talking to you this evening.

You, too.

Lots of answers to many questions. Let me ask you before I go: It�s been a while since we�ve heard you mention that you were practicing chaos magic in The Invisibles letters column, which is our (sort of) window into the home world of Grant Morrison.

[Laugh.] Yeah.

Are you still practicing chaos magic?

Oh, yeah.

And how much influence does that have on the success of Justice League?

Ah, probably much. [Laugh.]

Yeah, I mean, I do it all the time. It�s become easier now; I don�t know why. There�s a lot of weird stories I could tell you, but we�d be here all night.

But the magic is that it�s become something else. After I almost died last year, a lot of strange stuff happened, and I felt—this is mad, but basically I felt a healing power knocking. And I�ve used him, and it works, and it blows my mind, but I don�t know what it�s about. But it works.

God.

Religious practices all have to be done [while] waiting on a hand to take away character. [Laugh.] It freaks me out when nothing�s there to do it. So the magic, you know, is still there. It�s getting deeper. I want to try to get it in a comic book.

Well, everything seems to be working well for you. You�ve got the best-selling title DC has right now; you are working on an epic project with The Invisibles; you produced one of the finest mini-series that DC�s had in a while, Flex Mentallo, last summer—

Oh, I�m glad you liked that, �cause no one really read it.

I loved it. That is my favorite piece of work I�ve ever done. In spite of it.

I think it is the single best piece of work I�ve read by you. I was tremendously impressed.

Thank you for that.

I�m not a comic-art collector, but the one page of art I would love to own is Frank Quitely�s page for the "all those shitty, amazing comics" scene.

Yeah! Well, I�m glad you liked it, �cause that�s the one that I needed someone to.

Was [Pink Floyd's album] The Wall a big influence on that, or were the similarities incidental?

Hm. I think—and you�re the first person to mention that, but now that I think about it—yeah, it�s true.

No, I think it�s just—it�s one of those things, you know. I just haven�t had an experience frankly like it [laugh], so that�s what I�ve come to expect.

It did seem to come at a very interesting time for you.

Yeah. [I]t�s good. I�m always glad when people say they�ve enjoyed it, �cause that�s the one that is just the biggest disappointment for me in my whole career, is that that one didn�t really go across well.

Well, it may not have been a commercial success, but I think it�s going to be a tremendous critical success, given time.

Yeah, I�d like to think so.

Of course, I could be wrong—

[Laugh.]

—but I�m keeping my fingers crossed. Like I say, it�s the most impressive thing I�ve read that you�ve written, and that�s saying quite a bit.

Well, that�s great then. I must be doing something right.