It was two days before payday and I really couldn't afford to spend twenty bucks on an impulse purchase, but when I saw a copy of the Grant Morrison: Talking With Gods DVD on the front counter at the neighborhood comics shop, I could not just leave it lying there. Despite having to live on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the next couple of days, I have no regrets about buying this movie.
Through interviews with Grant himself and many of the writers and artists he has collaborated with the film traces Morrison's career in comics from his early days at British publication Warrior up to his recent work on Final Crisis and Batman. Among those interviewed are many of his most important collaborators such as artists Steve Yeowell, Phil Jimenez, Jill Thompson, Richard Case and Frank Quitely; writers Mark Waid, Warren Ellis and Geoff Johns; as well as authors Tim Callahan (Grant Morrison: The Early Years) and Doug Woolk (Reading Comics), and that listing only scratches the surface of those who director Patrick Meany talks to in the movie. The filmmakers also managed to track down Morrison's childhood friend Gordy Goudie. His recollections, combined with Morrison's candid reminiscences and anecdotes and insights from those colleagues and experts make Talking With Gods the most complete picture yet presented of one of the most important writers of the modern age of comics. Even with as much as I have read over the years about Morrison and his work, I still learned things about him that I hadn't previously known from watching this documentary. For instance, I had not previously realized the extant to which his greatest work in my opinion, Flex Mentallo, incorporated elements of autobiography.
It should go without saying that Grant Morrison: Talking With Gods is must-see TV for fans of Morrison, however it should also be seen by anyone interested at all in the medium of comics and how it has developed over the past couple of decades. Morrison and his work, after all, have been an integral part of that development.
But, hey, don't just take my word for it, check out this clip from the film.
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