Old News; or Everything I Know About Writing I Learned from Bullpen Bulletins

Post date: Aug 04, 2012 10:6:59 PM

Hola, loyal Deep Space Transmissions-ites! I would apologise for the lack of updates recently but I'm not really down with that sort of thing. Suffice to say you'll get your Batman Incorporated annotations on time, and I'm slowly creeping up to date on the Action annotations too. Action Comics #8 annotations are here and #9 should be done real soon - only 3 more issues to go and I'll be up to date...

On to some Morrison news that may have passed you by over the last few months -

Item! Grant's long-standing DC Comics exclusivity is now officially over. Comic Book Resources are in the midst of a three part interview where he talks about hitting the home stretch with both Batman Incorporated - which will conclude with issue twelve - and Action Comics, where he'll wrap up with the expected issue sixteen; as well as having a customary sly dig at Alan Moore over all the Before Watchmen farrago. There's also some insight into Happy, his first post-DC project due to ship from Image in September. Part one of the interview is here, and part two is here. Part three hasn't dropped yet but should imminently. Morrison first laid down the skinny on Happy a couple of weeks prior with this interview over at Newsarama.Item! Speaking of Batman Incorporated, DC made the decision to pull the latest issue off the stands in light of the recent tragedy in Aurora, Colorado. Issue three has been rescheduled for an August release, September's zero issue stays where it was in the solicits, and issue four will now come out in October. All signs point to issue three hitting the shelves exactly as it would've done originally, just a month later. The physical copies are with the retailers and DC have made no overtures about recalling or pulping the book, so don't be hoodwinked into paying over the odds for it on ebay. Patience is it's own reward.Item! To tie-in with the cinema release of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises (which is excellent by the way), Rolling Stone ran a piece where Grant talked about Batman's various big screen outings, from the 1950's serial ("like an Andy Warhol Batman") to Nolan's recently concluded Bat-trilogy. A lot of it is reiterating what Grant said in Supergods but it's still worth a look.Item! Also debuting alongside The Dark Knight Rises were two teaser trailers for Zack Snyder's Superman reboot Man of Steel. One of them features a Russell Crowe as Jor-El voiceover that draws heavily on Grant's "In time, they will join you in the sun" speech from All-Star Superman #10.Item! Dinosaurs vs. Aliens was released back at the beginning of June, though it seems to have flown a little further below the radar than perhaps publishers Liquid Comics were hoping. The book itself is a fine if uncomplicated piece of work, but it probably hasn't helped that it's only got about 56 pages of comics in it for the $20 it'll cost you, and it's only the first part of what's probably a three part story. Yahoo are running a motion comic version of the book if that's your sort of thing - episode one is here. There's also a Wired interview with Grant and co-creator Barry Sonnenfeld here.Item! Over at Sequart's website, Grant Morrison: Talking With Gods director Patrick Meaney is well underway with a spiritual sequel to Tim Callahan's Grant Morrison: The Early Years book - Grant Morrison: The Day-Glo Years; covering creator-owned stuff like The Mystery Play, Sebastian O, Flex Mentallo and Kill Your Boyfriend, as well as Grant's runs on JLA and New X-Men. Patrick's already covered The Invisibles in his book Our Sentence Is Up, also well worth a read if you haven't already.Item! The guest list for next month's Morrisoncon has been finalised on the quiet - emails were sent out and big deals were made about gradually revealing the guests, but after Jim Lee was announced I didn't get any more. Looking at the convention's website however, I see that Robert Kirkman, Darick Robertson and Jason Aaron will be joining the previously announced Lee, Gerard Way, Jonathan Hickman, Frank Quitely, J.H. Williams III and Chris Burnham. I'm pretty gutted that my 'last three guests' predictions of Alan Moore, the ghost of Bob Haney and Metron weren't on the mark, and super-envious of anyone reading this who's actually going to the convention. Be sure to steal me some swag.

Item! Finally, as he did last year Grant is making an appearance at the Edinburgh Book Festival on August 17th to talk about Supergods, which was released in paperback in the UK and the US last month. Haven't picked it up yet but there is some additional material in there, most likely about the Superman movies and specifically Christopher Reeve, that didn't make it into the hardback. Thanks to my awesome wife I will also be making an appearance at said festival, as 'man in audience at Grant Morrison panel'. I might even write something about it when I get back.