Tag Archives: Grant Morrison

“Happy!” Christmas: Possibly the Weirdest Advent Blog EVER

[The following is a guest column by Matthew William Brake.]

This may be the weirdest Advent post ever.

Cover to HAPPY! #1Grant Morrison’s Happy! is an odd little comic (now adapted to a TV series on SyFy) about a former-cop-turned-hitman Nick Sacks who, after a particular hit, finds himself pursued by powerful people believing that he has a password belonging to a deceased (but very rich) don. After the hit at the beginning of the story, he has a heart attack and now finds himself seeing an imaginary blue unicorn named Happy. Happy is the imaginary friend of a young girl named Haley, who has been kidnapped. For some reason (we find out later it’s because Nick is the girl’s long lost father), only Nick can see Happy. Continue reading “Happy!” Christmas: Possibly the Weirdest Advent Blog EVER

Elizabeth Coody and Biblical Shock through Comics – 003 Sacred & Sequential Audio

Those not fortunate enough to attend the 2017 American Academy of Religion annual conference, particularly its final morning of presentations, are in luck: We’re joined by a frequent Sacred & Sequential contributor, Iliff School of Theology’s Elizabeth Coody, for a redux of her paper, “The More Savage Sword: A Theory of Biblical Text Used for Shock.” For the podcast, visual input is offered by host A. David Lewis, but online audiences can follow her accompanying Prezi here.

Mapping Heaven, Hell, and Superheroes

Grant MorrisonReaders of superhero comics have been buzzing this week about the release of Multiversity #1 from the mind of award-winning writer Grant Morrison. The new, dimension-hopping series also features a revised map of DC Comics’ storytelling universe…with some notable repercussions. As the site Multiversity Comics notes:

While the multiversal map depicts the Source Wall as existing beyond Monitor Space and the Orrery of Worlds, characters of the DC universe have often interacted with it, or at least aspects of it. What lies beyond the Source Wall isn’t entirely clear. It is often described as a void, known sometimes as the source. It is home to a omnipowerful, God-like being referred to at times as “The Presence” or “The Overvoid.” Morrison has likened this area to a blank page, upon with the stories and pictures of the DC universe are written, drawn, and told (which makes the pun of the “Source” rather clear).

In addition to this meta-approach to the God-like Source of the DC Universe, there is also the flatly plain charting of Heaven and Hell amongst all the other realms. A peculiar theology seems to be underpinning Morrison’s outlook on the company’s fiction…

 

Multiversity-map

Millar (vs. Morrison’s) Christian Use for Swamp Thing

In their ongoing analysis of comic book writer Mark Millar’s body of superhero works, Sequart recently featured a piece written by Colin Smith on Millar’s Christian undertones for the Swamp Thing series, as compared to his collaborator Grant Morrison’s more universalist streak. Read here.

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ReligionLink Targets Comics, Misses a Lot

ReligionLink.com is, by its own description, “a non-partisan service of Religion Newswriters” that is “by journalists, for journalists.” So, it’s understandable that they encourage religion writers to think further on the intersection of the comics-based genre of superheroes and religion in recognition of Superman’s 75th anniversary and new film. Clearly, Rao endorses this viewpoint, too.

However, the “background and expert sources” they claim to provide prove sadly lacking; though lengthy and exhaustive-looking, it reads as the result of Google searching and Amazon browsing rather than an actual, knowledgeable resource. Their list of recommended books leaves out any title that isn’t Judeo-Christian, and, similarly, their article list includes one mention of Islam in regards to coverage of The 99; likewise, their manifest of three dozen experts seems to only include one focusing on Arabs (the esteemed Fedwa Malti-Douglas) and one on occult practices (the weirdly unattributed Christopher Knowles). They even get Professor Malti-Douglas’s URL wrong!

ReligionLink on Superheroes

But it’s easy to criticize. What else should have been there? Well… Continue reading ReligionLink Targets Comics, Misses a Lot