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A history of superhero comics written by my favorite comic book writer, Grant Morrison. Or at least that’s what it’s billed as. The book quickly evolves into Grant’s autobiography and a retrospective on their practice of chaos magic. I think more than anything else it’s an awesome insight into one of the greatest comic writers of all time. I’ve recc’d Grant’s works time and time again. If you ever want to get into trippy Scottish punk superhero comics, you should start with Morrison’s Animal Man (1988 - 1990), followed by their historic run on Doom Patrol (1989 - 1993), then be permanently changed by their four-issue Flex Mentallo (1996) miniseries (my favorite comic book of all time), be blown away by All-Star Superman (2005 - 2008) (arguably their most acclaimed work), and if your brain hasn’t melted into mush yet you should experience The Multiversity (2014 - 2015). God I love comic books.
Apr 6, 2025
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You should check out the Invisbles and Kid Eternity, I especially love the art on Kid Eternity and it’s pretty short. But Invisibles is their magnum opus imo
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the trailer for "i saw the tv glow" has me thinking about my favorite analysis of the media/fan relationship, flex mentallo!
dc comics' vertigo imprint in the 80s/90s was as fringe and weird and beautiful as dc comics can get, but flex mentallo was no one's expectation for a character that would be the focus of the deconstruction of the reader's relationship with comics. initially created for grant morrison's 80s "doom patrol" run, flex mentallo is a superman archetype straight out of the golden age, not quite as punk as the rest of the doom patrol cast but surely twice as strange: he's so strong he can fight people by flexing his muscles and using the vibrations to alter reality, even turning a pentagon into a circle!
morrison's 1996 flex mentallo miniseries was released over 4 issues and can be purchased as a graphic novel wherever you buy your comics. abandoning the proper dc universe, this miniseries follows parallel journeys of flex solving the mystery of a missing friend, and a depressed rockstar who loves comics. no spoilers, but historical context is necessary: the first three issues revolve around the three "eras" of comics at the time: the golden age, following great world war 2 era comics like superman and batman, the silver age, with scientific wonders like the fantastic four and the flash, and the dark age, the post-watchmen era that this comic was contemporary to, and that third issue really highlights all the wrong lessons that contemporary writers learned from alan moore's genius deconstruction of superheroes.
the fourth issue? maybe the very future we live in today! i think this comic grows more relevant with time for the comics medium, but it can say a lot about people who grew up loving any art and their adult relationship with it.
definitely requires a reread or two, so good thing it's short. grant morrison (who is also gerard way's comics mentor) is a master of the medium, and this is my favorite of their works, and there's nothing like a good quitely book.
Feb 29, 2024
gonna give this my first read-through since high school, it's been on my mind lately, i love these freaks, i love the 80s, and i love grant morrison
Jan 17, 2025
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asterios polyp - david mazzucchelli (and also batman year one!)
diary of a teenage girl - phoebe gloeckner
black hole - charles burns (any charles burns, really)
we3 - morrison and quitely
my favorite thing is monsters - emil ferris
all lisa hanawalt comics make me cry laughing
some classics that are classics for a reason : all-star superman, dark knight returns, new frontier, watchmen
idk how many longer storylines you’re willing to get into (if any) but invincible is the greatest superhero comic of all time from beginning to end, the ed brubaker captain america stuff is amazing, y the last man, scalped, the miles morales ultimate spider-man stuff, the alan moore miracleman.
that‘s a ton but those comics all changed my life and i love them deeply!
Jan 14, 2025
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