What I Did On My Holidays - Grant Morrison at the Edinburgh Book Festival 2012

Last week, Lady Transmissions and I made a 400 mile round trip to see Grant Morrison talk about Supergods at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. After convincing myself that morning that there would be no signing afterward (the talk didn't finish til 10:30pm) we rocked up to find that, of course, there was one scheduled immediately following the event... Rueing the opportunity to bring something ultra obscure and most likely faintly disturbing - like the hand coloured Abraxas advert that Tony O'Donnell sent me after I got over-excited at unwittingly buying something from him on ebay - I sank into a deep depression, alleviated only by the Lady buying me a copy of the Supergods paperback from the well-stocked on-site bookshop big top.Freshly minted paperback in hand we joined the queue and struck up conversation with a curious Irish/Canadian gent, who initially said he liked Grant Morrison but, it soon transpired, actually meant that he only liked Zenith. Hope he wasn't too disappointed afterwards when it turned out, perhaps understandably, not to be the hot-button topic of the evening.The talk was structured as a question and answer section between Grant and Adrian Searle, picking over the genesis of Supergods, Grant's love of bizarro Silver Age psycho-sexual hangups and the covers that showcase them, and the influence of the 70's and 80's 'Dark Age' on Morrison's work; with more than a couple of chuckles and a Russell Brand impression thrown in there for good measure. Answering audience questions at the end, he talked about comics fans tendency to self-flagellate over the state of the hobby (in answer to a question about whether enough women are reading comics now), the last time he met Alan Moore (Morrison sat opposite him at a dinner where Moore ate facing side-on so he didn't have to look at him), and what to expect from his upcoming Wonder Woman, which he's about 30 pages into (lots of good, wholesome, weird sex by the sounds of it). Though he also mentioned that he's working on a couple of movies and that he's *nearly* finished Dinosaurs vs Aliens, all other talk of upcoming projects was of the 'I can't talk about it yet' variety.By the time we got into the signing tent, me and the Lady were a bit manic - it had been a long day - but I was determined not to get too giddy at the prospect of meeting someone whose work I've devoted a frankly frightening portion of my free time writing about. When we got to the front of the queue however, I told Grant who I wanted the book signing for and then, prompted by a sharp, wife-like pain in my side, started mumbling about the site. "Oh aye, I read the Deep Space Transmissions," said the big man, "we should do an interview. I liked that one you did with Tom Peyer.". In my reverie, I didn't ask him for an email address or any contact details, I just told him to send me an email via the site. It's the button on the left that says 'Contact', Grant...Then I walked away, waving my signed Supergods book and clicking my heels like Simon and the Witch. And that's what I did on my holidays.