Whenever Vic Fluro and I get together and have a few beers, talk always turns to comics characters and what – given the chance – he or I would do with them, were we comics writers. I say “were we” but he actually is one, or at least is working his way up the greasy comics pole. Of course this doesn’t mean that our indulgent chatter is anything other than fannish speculation but it’s good fun nonetheless.
So hats off to Grant Morrison, who is now essentially getting paid to do just this for DC Comics as their resident imagineer. All the fun of idea generation, none of the sweat of getting the series down on paper. Envy isn’t the word! Except that Grant M is one of the most imaginative people in the industry, and he’s also sometimes a bit crap at endings, so this is his ‘ideal job’ for readers as well as the man himself. My only concern would be that this maybe limits the opportunities for newer writers to come through and pitch their own amazing reinventions – but by all accounts DC Editorial holds a pretty tight rein, so maybe those opportunities were figments anyway.