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He makes a fair point. I love comics, but I’ll always try not to describe myself with all that self-hating shit comic fans always do, “geek”, “nerd”, all that crap. I’m an ordinary guy.

Sod being a subculture. Go overground.

I.

LOVE.

Grant Morrison.

Godwin’s Law. Grant invokes Hitler, and there is nothing left to say.

Godwin’s Law. Grant invokes Hitler, and there is nothing left to say.
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Is that a way of saying he’s wrong?

Because that’s not Godwin’s Law…

He makes a point, it’s like the difference between comic ‘collectors’ and comic readers. One is obsessed and entitled and the other just likes good words on a page.

Geek is used in a positive way in every other form of entertainment, i dont think being a comic geek is any different just because Morrison says so.

Well, if you redefine geeks as only the insane and angry, then no, they shouldn’t get power.

I consider myself a geek and am proud of it.

I’m a geek and proud of it. I think anyone who is into the crap we’re into as much as we’re into are all geeks. To deny that, that’s self-loathing.

And Morrison is fairly wrong. The movies have the potential to open the field of comics to everyone, but never has. The movies go huge and those sales never translate back to the source material.

I’m actually not surprised to see him say this. I often disagree with statements that he makes in interviews, but I once met the author at a signing and found him to be one of the most polite and well-meaning people I’ve ever met. Posting that statement on Barbelith.com resulted in getting lambasted as a sad pathetic shut-in fanboy. Self-loathing takes on a new meaning on that forum.

So… generalizations never work, but I wager that Grant Morrison is actually speaking of specific instances rather than trying to make a blanket statement.

Grant Morrison is a geek.

Oh, he’s a HUGE geek. He apparently smoked lots of hash and then read Super Powers alone in his hotel room. He even put references to other comics and cult TV programs into his work. Looking at the comment into the context it seems that he is trying to empower comic book medium by talking about its versatility (something Warren Ellis used to say a lot before proving it with his pen), but at the expense of the comic book fan community… which is a very odd thing to do given that his career relies heavily on servicing fans.

It’s like Tori Amos flipping off fans saying ‘get a life’ rather than saying how great it is to meet them.

Then again… he may just be saying this to attract attention. If so, it worked to some extent.

No, Grant Morrison is actually not a geek. The public’s perception of a geek is a pot-bellied, messy haired, socially mal-adjusted person that is unable to function properly in the real world, and so he/she becomes absorbed into a fantasy world, usually sci-fi, fantasy or comic books.

Grant Morrison’s stance is that there is no reason that a well-adjusted person cannot play sports, socialize at bars, be sexually healthy, and also READ COMICS. Since we all know that there are GREAT comics out there at the mainstream has no idea about, we should be giving our copies to them to read, so that they can be comics fans too, and we can end this stupid charade, where Spider-man FILMS are cool, but Spider-man COMICS are for geeks.

I do not accept that a person that memorizes sports statistics and gets excited about sports, and paints his face like sports figures is COOL, but someone that does the same with comics is a ‘geek’. ;Geek is a negative stereotype. I don’t want to be associated with the characteristics above, so don’t call me a geek.

For the record, the geeks are also narcassistic, hostile, tempermental, and annoying. Maybe at one point I was like that, but I grew out of it! If you’re an adult, and you can’t grow out of these childish characteristics, then you ARE a geek, and you’re ruining our wonderful hobby!

-Mike–EL
The Comic Book Syndicate