Grant Morrison doesn’t really need the attention of Comics Comics, but I’m due for a post and his two most recent books are rolling around in my head. To start with, I ought to note that until his recent All-Star Superman, which I loved, I hadn’t found a lot of his work too interesting. I liked Animal Man but found The Invisibles, The Filth, etc. etc. more or less incomprehensible. But I have always been impressed with the sheer verve of the guy, and his uniquely British ability to become a “personality” as much as a writer. It’s that Michael Moorcock thing. Gotta love it.

He seems at his best when taking everything he knows and distilling it down into a seemingly straightforward story. He is also saddled with the unfortunate disadvantage of often pretty lousy artwork, placing undo emphasis on his dialogue and ideas. With Frank Quitely he actually has an equal collaborator. Quitely’s nuanced, beautifully composed drawings actually convey meaning. This allows Morrison to shut up and let the pictures tell some of the story. Y’know, cause they’re comics and all. Their recent Batman collaboration is a perfect example of brilliant superhero comics.

Anyhow… really what I’ve meant to write about is Batman R.I.P. and Batman: The Black Casebook. I read R.I.P. and could basically understand the idea of it: Morrison’s Batman has experienced the last 60 years of comic book adventures in just 15 years of “his” time. And this becomes impossible for his brain to process. A villain tips him over the edge into insanity and he develops a second personality to cope. Then there are fights and he disappears. It’s a tough slog. The main problem is that the artwork by Tony Daniel adds nothing to the story: no character development, no set pieces — just gritted teeth and stiff action. It’s so funny — after all this time people kinda forget that comics are best when word and image complement each other. Morrison has spun this elaborate tale, but Daniel can’t bring it to life. Batman’s anguish is never manifested in a visually compelling manner. Nor is his madness. It’s all drawn in the same high-energy, hyper-scratchy, distorted manner. The colors never change, etc etc. Basically, nothing the comics does well is harnessed to tell the story. So, while I get the feeling Morrison must intend more for his stories –I mean, the clarity and depth of his work with Quitely in Superman and Batman is just stunning and in such sharp contrast to his other work.

The most interesting part of R.I.P. is its oddball spin-off: The Black Casebook. It’s a modest 144 page trade paperback — flat colors printed on off-white newsprint — filled with reprints of the stories Morrison used as research for Batman’s history in R.I.P. He focused on the most outlandish of the 1950s comics, replete with atomic fear, aliens, personality switches, and anxiety. It’s a wonderful book in a lot of ways (OK, the cover design is bad, but I’ll live) and I love the idea that Morrison treats the “off-model” history of a character/property as canonical. He simultaneously re-jiggered the history of the property by bringing those stories back into print and also treats the “mythology” seriously, under the kind of charming assumption that everything written is admissible.

And then, as a project it’s the first time I’ve seen an “artist’s choice” project with a popular super hero since the Spiegelman/Kidd Plastic Man/Cole book. It’s great to see just a slice of Batman viewed through the eyes of clever writer — I’d love to have see another writer or artist take a crack at this kind of historical project. Bringing that level of subjectivity to the topic and treating as part of an ongoing creative process is pretty fun. Plus, of course the work inside the book is fantastic. Many of the stories are written by Bill Finger, who really can’t be lionized enough as a comic book writer, and drawn by Dick Sprang and Sheldon Moldoff. Sprang’s angularity and grotequeries make him a little stronger than Moldoff, but just by a hair. They’re both fantastic artists and crisp, clear storytellers. So go check it out — Like D&Q’s recent Melvin Monster, The Black Casebook is a lesson in the complex art of deceptively simple comic book storytelling.

Is this a pretty lightweight post? Yep, I think it must be summer.

Labels: Batman, Frank Quitely, Grant Morrison