Customer Reviews

Grant Morrison: The Early Years

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What Timothy Callahan has done here is to open up Grant Morrison's early texts, which are often confusing for many readers. Even as an avid fan of Morrison -- I've read virtually EVERYTHING he's written -- I learned a lot from this book. Callahan's interpretations and insights are both clear and fair, and they actually expanded my knowledge. I can only imagine how much this book would have helped me if I hadn't read ZENITH (Grant's early masterpiece, published in England in 2000AD and not currently availalbe) or if I hadn't already spent countless hours going over ARKHAM ASYLUM. Even so, Tim managed to expand my understanding of ARKHAM, which is really saying something!

And the interview in the back, after the main text, is also very eye-opening, allowing Grant to reflect back upon his early work through the eyes of an older, perhaps(?) wiser man.

Truly wonderful stuff, and one of the very, very few serious books about comics out there -- one that's not too stuffy or too slight. I'm eagerly awaiting a second volume!

I edited this book, so obviously I'm biased. But as I was reading it for the first time, I truly realized how little I new about some comics that I've read countless times.

I always thought I GOT Grant. I understood this guy. He's a cool, trippy writer, and I figured out his most dense works. Well, during the reading / editing of this book, I was shown SO MUCH MORE by Tim, a true Morrison freak. After reading this book, I HAD to go back and read all of the comics Callahan covers in EARLY YEARS. It was like going back through a movie a 2nd time (that kind of confused you the 1st time) in order to understand the stuff you missed and really being blown away by that 2nd viewing.

The themes that Morrison used, the analysis that Tim conjures, it was a real joy to have things I thought I had figured out explained in different, better ways.

I just feel lucky to have read this book. It enriched my comic book experience immensely.

Much like Pat Meaney's Our Sentence is Up, this little book really helps fill in all the background information on Mr. Morrison in his career. In many ways an understanding of Morrison and his life is necessary for reading many of his works. For those just a little curious to the Morrison fanatic, this book is for you.

Timothy Callahan has outdone himself, in this excellent look at Zenith, ANIMAL MAN, DOOM PATROL, ARKHAM ASYLUM, and his "Gothic" storyline from BATMAN: LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT. His appendix looks at Morrison's even earlier British work, for 2000AD, British DC annuals, and Doctor Who. Plus, there's an interview with Grant Morrison himself. An easy, approachable read that any fan can enjoy and learn from.

the book overlooks several of the more obvious interpretations of GM's work in favor of a more bland and pop-cultural take on it. One wonders why the author of the book did not read a little more up on not only GM's interviews, or if he did why he overlooked the many references (beyond what has become pop-cultural phenomenons such as Jung and post-modernist chic) that dovetails so nicely into the books and authors he recommends all the time.

Having said that this is a monumental undertaking and one wonders how there can be a market for such a book at all, given that it focus on an authors decidedly esoteric years, but also an author who have chosen comic books as a medium. May there be more studies such as this.

The interview at the end is alone worth the price of the book.