Today is the release date for Supergods, a new work of non-fiction by Grant Morrison, author of The Invisibles, and numerous other comics.

Published by Spiegel & Grau (an imprint of Random House), Supergods bears the rather lengthy subtitle “What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human”.

Supergods explores the history and mythology of the superhero archetype. We’ve seen this before, notably in Our Gods Wear Spandex (my review here), but Grant Morrison’s likely to do it in a style unique to himself.

From the publisher’s description:

For Grant Morrison, arguably the greatest of contemporary chroniclers of the “superworld,” these heroes are powerful archetypes whose ongoing, decades-spanning story arcs reflect and predict the course of human existence: Through them we tell the story of ourselves, our troubled history, and our starry aspirations. In this exhilarating work of a lifetime, Morrison draws on art, science, mythology, and his own astonishing journeys through this shadow universe to provide the first true history of the superhero—why they matter, why they will always be with us, and what they tell us about who we are . . . and what we may yet become.

For more, see Scott Thill’s interview with Morrison in Wired.

Despite David Itzkoff’s mixed-to-negative review in The New York Times, I’m looking forward to reading this.

Grant Morrison: Talking With Gods, directed by Patrick Meaney
Halo 8, 80 minutes, 2010

I suspect there are only a few kinds of people who’ll be interested in the documentary Grant Morrison: Talking With Gods – either serious documentary fans, devoted comic-book readers, or magical practitioners. Each of them will come away from this film quite happy.

Director Patrick Meaney largely works with a familiar pattern for this kind of celebrity documentary – one of mostly stepping back and letting the interviews (and, of course, editing) tell the story. There are several attempts to visually represent the psychedelic elements of the tale created by cinematographer Jordan Rennert, though the results are far less annoying than is often the case in such films! The perspective is mostly one which aims at the comic-reading audience, introducing them fairly gently to the core of occult thought that permeates his work.

The film opens with a montage of several comic-book writers and artists talking about Morrison’s reputation as a very successful comics creator who is also out as a practicing chaos magician who’s no stranger to psychedelics – and the usual kind of “drug-crazed madman” rumours that inevitably follow. Continue reading »

Talking With Gods is new documentary about Grant Morrison with the tag line “See the true story of a fictional life.” Nice.

Directed by Patrick Meaney, the film was previewed at Chicago’s C2E2 Comic Con. After the screening, it was picked up by Halo-8. (Click for an excerpt of the film on Halo-8′s blog.)

It includes interviews with a number of Morrison’s collaborators, such as Warren Ellis, Douglas Rushkoff, Geoff Johns and more.

The film won’t be released on DVD until November 22nd, 2010, but the Internet’s already abuzz. For early reviews check out Coilhouse and io9.

For more Morrison check out this interview on Wired.com, and hey, he’s now on Twitter.

Update: Thanks to @catvincent who pointed out that the film can be purchased for 10$US as a legal downloaded from Halo-8′s online store right now.