Legendary Comic Book Creator Grant Morrison Breaks Down Their Writing Process
Legendary Comic Book Creator Grant Morrison Breaks Down Their Writing Process
Posting to their newsletter Xanaduum, Morrison shared examples of thumbnails they created for their seminal Vertigo series from the 1990’s, The Invisibles. According to Morrison, they start each comic project by drawing it out themselves.
“I start by drawing the story as it appears in my head in comic book form,” Morrison wrote in a subsequent installment of Xanaduum, “basing the major beats around interesting and arresting images and sequences.” For Morrison, it’s all about finding exciting things for them and their artists to draw: “I’d never ask an artist to draw something I wouldn’t enjoy drawing myself!”
After laying out the issue in “thumbnails” – akin to storyboards for comic books – Morrison then transcribes their images to script form. “I convert the drawings into text descriptions with accompanying dialogue ,” Morrison explained, “ and hand the ensuing script version to the artist.”
Morrison's description of their process is as fascinating as their completed work. “Dialogue and narrative caption ideas appear at this time and can be seen developing in the margins,” Morrison wrote, explaining how the writing flows organically from the images. After laying out the issue in “thumbnails” – akin to storyboards for comic books – Morrison then transcribes their images to script form. “I convert the drawings into text descriptions with accompanying dialogue,” Morrison explained, “and hand the ensuing script version to the artist.”
While their own thumbnails are crucial to Morrison’s process, the writer also explained in their Substack posts that they usually don’t share the first-draft sketches with their eventual artists: “The artist rarely gets to see the original thumbnails before they go to work turning the descriptions back into artwork!” This insight into Morrison’s process for creating comics is revealing in a number of ways. It absolutely makes sense that Morrison would start with the images when crafting their stories, as comics are a visual medium, and Morrison's writing is so deeply tied to the corresponding visuals.
It absolutely makes sense that Morrison would start with the images when crafting their stories, as comics are a visual medium, and Morrison’s writing is so deeply tied to the corresponding visuals.
Also they started out drawing comics before switching to writing.
Alan Moore's scripts are so detailed he either draws them or he has each panel visualised in his head.