Geekscape Interviews: Grant Morrison, Author of ‘Annihilator’

What’s it like to be pushed to the brink? To stare into your own mortality? To have nothing left, and to make one last Hail Mary pass to prevent your own obscurity? Most importantly, what’s it like to embark on a quest with a living character that you made up?

It must be a hell of a road trip.

Backed by publisher Legendary Comics, Annihilator is the newest book written by Grant Morrison and with art by Frazer Irving. A poignant (and sometimes funny) dark sci-fi adventure about a failed screenwriter embarking on a journey with a living, breathing being crafted by his own deisng Morrison tries to make sense of death and mortality, manifested as a black hole at the center of the universe.

I spoke to the prolific writer about the inspiration of his new series, its art direction and why writing can be “quite sexy.”

You’re finishing up the Multiversity and now you’re back to original stories. What’s it like to do original content instead of tentpole characters like Superman?

Grant: Well, I like to do the DC Universe stuff and the Marvel stuff, I’ve mostly done DC. I like to do it because it’s kind of like entering a very specific world with very specific rules and heroes and heroines … but I kind of recently wanted to get back to writing about real things, y’know? About real experiences and people I’ve met. The new books like Annihilator and Nameless coming out from Image later this year are a lot more about that.

What can you tell me about Annihilator? I understand it’s about a failed screenwriter embarking on a journey. Can you elaborate a little more?

Grant: Yeah, that’s a very barebones description! [laughs] Definitely. It’s about a character called Ray Spass who is basically, not so much “down and out,” but he’s kind of alienated people that he loves. He’s fallen out with everyone and he has a final chance to create a new screenplay for a tentpole franchise for a big studio. And that movie is called “Annihilator.” And it’s about a character called Max Nomax, who has been the kind of ultimate rebel in the galaxy. The artist, the creator, the lover, the escape artist. And Nomax has been sentenced… to a space station orbiting around a black hole at the center of our galaxy, the “Great Annihilator,” for some unspecified crime which we’ll learn about as the series progresses.

Sounds exhilarating! What’s the inspiration for the story? I get a kind of Dante Aligheri-type of vibe, a character going on an ethereal journey. What was the idea behind Annihilator?

Grant: The story is actually very material. The whole story is about the material and the way how it contrasts very vividly with the world of illusion. So Max Nomax is certainly, I think you’re right, quite a satanic character. We took the archetype of the neurotic boy inside the black clad, high-cheek bone young man … and we took it all the way back to Milton’s Satan and built it up again [for it] to become Max Nomax. And connected him to lots of pop culture anti-hero figures like Fantômas from the early French pulp novels through things like Diabolik, the criminal of the Italian comics of the 1970s, which were about these weird anti-heroes. So that’s the kind of guy. We were trying to bring him back to life and sort of say, “Here’s Max Nomax.”

The life of a writer is terrifying, no doubt, it’s a quest on its own. But you’ve conquered that journey! In 2006 you were named the #2 Favorite Comic Book Writer by Comic Book Resources.

Grant: Yeah! Number two! Number two! [laughs]

But because of that, are you referring to at all to the struggles you’ve experienced as a screenwriter in Annihilator?

Grant: Sure, I said before I’ve worked in Hollywood for quite a long time and I’ve done a whole bunch of studio screenplays and been paid quite handsomely. But not one of them has been made. And you pour so much soul into them. Because in Hollywood there are so many drafts, the work can become quite beautiful by the end of it. If the drafts are done well then it becomes really great, but if they’re not done well it falls apart.

But I have seen work that have been turned into shining gems, some of them are my favorite stuff and they have not been filmed. And I’ll probably die before they’re ever filmed. So basically, yeah, this is about that. Sometimes you can pour your heart and soul into something that never gets made in Hollywood. In comics you kind of get to do what you want when you put out your ideas, which is why I love them so much.

There’s also no budget so there’s no limit to what you can do.

Grant: Yeah. It costs an awful lot for a movie or a TV show, but for a comic not so much. Also you can experiment and try things.

You’ve worked with artist Frazer Irving many times. What was it about his style that you wanted for Annihilator?

Grant: I actually wrote the story for him. After we worked on Batman and Klarion the Witch Boy at DC, which was a kind of young adult god. A Harry Potter for Puritans. So I kind of figured he was the one to do this ultimate, romantic, dark — you know, it’s [about] orbiting a black hole. So I thought Frazer was the best, and also because he works with light, I mean his work is so beautiful, he colors everything himself and it’s all done with light. I mean, what is most exciting is not only does he capture the kind of “haunted house” atmosphere, but is his versatility. He’s never been there, but he captures the orange-pitch of chemical light of Los Angeles so amazingly. And it almost becomes a character itself, you know the quality of light. It was written for him and I think it surpasses his previous work.

I think he did a fantastic job too! I’ll have to read the rest of the book to see if it surpasses his past work, but I can’t wait to read it. Finally, what is it ultimately that you want to tell with Annihilator? I can’t help but think you’re writing this as kind of a warning for aspiring writers. Kind of like, “Hey, this is what writing is like, and it’s dangerous!” 

Grant: There is a bit of that, writing is really dangerous but it’s also quite sexy and exciting. It’s the way we make meaning. And ultimately, the story of Annihilator is that the notion of orbiting that black hole. And the black hole is death or mortality, but around that central idea that we’re all gonna die, we create so much meaning. We make stories, we make movies, or paintings, and we try to explain that black hole. And the black hole swallows everything and we try to explain it. That’s what it’s about. I was trying to say something quite ominous about how I see mortality and death, but in a funny way. I try to keep emphasizing that it’s funny. [laughs] Anyone trying to talk about mortality and death just seems morbid.

Annihilator is out on store shelves today, September 9!