Dundee Comics Day 2012
Biographies of Speakers
Joining Grant Morrison at Dundee Comics Day 2012 will be several of his collaborators, including Frank Quietly, Jill Thompson, Rian Hughes, Frazer Irving and Cameron Stewart:
Grant Morrison is one of the world’s most successful comics writers. He started his professional career in the late 1970s and early 1980s working for DC Thomson in Dundee while also working for independent comics such as Near Myths. In the mid-1980s he started work for Marvel UK writing short Doctor Who stories, and then he created Zenith for 2000AD. Morrison was quickly head-hunted by DC Comics in America, where he produced post-modern deconstructions of Animal Man and Doom Patrol. Morrison continued to make a name for himself with his strange vision of Batman’s world in the graphic novel Arkham Asylum, with artwork by Dave McKean. Morrison’s most mature and personal work emerged in the mid-1990s, and included Flex Mentallo (1996), and arguably his most important project, The Invisibles (1994–2000). He also wrote the enormously popular Justice League of America (1996). Morrison continued to balance personal work with mainstream success, with The Filth (2002) and We3 (2004) on one hand, and Marvel Boy for Marvel and The Flash for DC, and has helmed several radical re-workings of major titles, notably New X-Men. His run on All-Star Superman, with artwork by Frank Quitely, produced some of the best Superman stories since the 1960s, and in his Batman R.I.P. storyline he killed Bruce Wayne, having Dick Grayson take up the mantle of Batman. Beyond comics Morrison has become involved in writing scripts and treatments for films and computer games. He has written two plays and several short stories, many of which are collected in the anthology Lovely Biscuits(1999).
Frank Quitely is one of the most sought-after comics artists in the world, and has worked with Grant Morrison on comics such as Flex Mentallo, The Invisibles, New X-Men, We3, All-Star Superman, and Batman and Robin. He started out in comics producing work for Electric Soup, parodying DC Thomson’s The Broons in his strip, The Greens. Quitely’s stylish artwork has made him one of the most influential artists in the comics industry.
Jill Thompson is a comic artist and writer whose best known work includes The Invisibles (with Grant Morrison) and The Sandman (with Neil Gaiman). She has also worked on Wonder Woman, Swamp Thing, Books of Magic, and The Little Endless, featuring manga versions of characters from The Sandman, such as Death. She is creator of the Scary Godmother series of children’s books and comics, which have has been made into animated films.
Rian Hughes is a graphic designer and comics artist who runs a successful design company, Device, which has an impressive client list. He is author of the book Cult-ure: Ideas can be Dangerous, and illustrated Grant Morrison’s controversial reworking of one of Britain’s most beloved comic characters, Dan Dare, in 1990’s Dare, as well as working for various characters for 2000AD, such as Really & Truly (also with Grant Morrison), and Robo-Hunter. Some of his work in comics is collected in the limited edition graphic novel Yesterday’s Tomorrows. Although he no longer does much in the way of comics illustration his distinctive sense of design continues to have a profound effect on the world of comics.
Frazer Irving started work in the comics industry, like many before him, by creating Future Shocks and a few Judge Dredd stories for2000AD, but unlike many who had taken this route his style marked him out as quite different. His dark and twisted style found a perfect match with Gordon Rennie’s writing for the horror story Necronauts, also in 2000AD. He collaborated with Grant Morrison inSeven Soldiers of Victory, and has gone on to illustrate some of Morrison’s recent work on Batman.
Cameron Stewart is a Canadian comic artist whose credits include Catwoman for DC Comics (in the famed run by Ed Brubaker), the Eisner award nominated The Other Side for Vertigo (with writer Jason Aaron), as well as his own webcomic Sin Titulo. He has collaborated with Grant Morrison on Seaguy, Seven Soldiers of Victory, and Batman and Robin.
Find out more about Dundee Comics Day 2012, including how to book.
Posted: 17 September 2012
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