The Lakes International Comic Art Festival has announced writer Grant Morrison MBE as a guest at this year’s annual gathering of comic creators, publishers and fans in Bowness-on-Windermere next month (Friday 26th – Sunday 28th September 2025).
One of the most original and widely respected writers in comics, Glasgow-born Grant Morrison got their start with British indie comics during the late 1970s and early 1980s, including work on the DC Thomson digest title, Starblazer, before working on Marvel UK titles such as Zoids.
After co-creating the popular strip “Zenith” with artist Steve Yeowell in 2000AD, Morrison made their mark in America with DC Comics, where they revived an obscure hero to critical acclaim in his Animal Man series.
In 1989, they wrote the best-selling Batman graphic novel Arkham Asylum and began a memorably surreal run as writer of the freakish heroes of DC’s Doom Patrol. Subsequent DC projects included Kid Eternity, Sebastian O, Flex Mentallo, Kill Your Boyfriend, Aztek, Invisibles, DC One Million, The Flash and a hugely popular revamping of DC’s JLA.
Morrison then shifted focus to Marvel Comics, where they had already made a brief pit-stop co-writing 1995’s bizarre Skrull Kill Krew with Mark Millar. In addition to their groundbreaking four-year New X-Men run, Morrison’s Marvel credits include Fantastic Four: 1234 and Marvel Boy. They have since returned to DC, where their later credits include Seaguy, WE3, Vimanarama, JLA: Classified and Seven Soldiers. While serving as a special creative consultant to DC editorial, Morrison wrote All-Star Superman, and the flagship Batman title and its spinoff Batman Inc.; co-wrote the event series, 52; and served as the mastermind behind Final Crisis.
They are also the author of the New York Times bestseller, Supergods.
Last year, they announced a partnership with teamed with fellow Scot and film director Etienne Kubwabo, on a new comic book project, Worlds Collide featuring Grant’s first ever superhero, Captain Clyde, and DJ ET, with art by Ben Wilsonham. Captain Clyde was first published in the Govan Press and the Clydebank & Renfrewshire Presses from 1979 to 1982 on the TV listings pages.
Their first novel, LUDA, which centres on a flamboyant drag artist, was published by Europa Editions last year, described by comedian and comic creator Frankie Boyle as “impeccably realised phantasmagoric plunge into an alternate Glasgow” and “A sensory onslaught, swirling with allusion and metaphor” by the Financial Times.
In television, they have developed adaptations of their comic series Happy! for Syfy and Netflix and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World for Peacock. In addition, Morrison is an award-winning playwright and musician.
Based in Glasgow and Los Angeles, Morrison was awarded an MBE for services to film and literature in 2012.
Grant joins an exciting lineup of international creative talent for panels, workshops and signings, alongside this year’s sold-out Phoenix Festival, headlined by Jamie Smart, in the centre of the Lake District.
Announced guests include Charlie Adlard, Philip Bond, Shelly Bond, Kate Evans, Comics Laureate Bobby Joseph, Michael Lark, Mike Perkins, Sean Phillips, Martin Rowson, Mohammad Sabaaneh, Alison Sampson, Lucy Sullivan, Bryan Talbot, Mary Talbot, Donya Todd. Craig Thompson, and more.
• Tickets for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival 2025 are on sale here
• Grant Morrison is online at grantmorrison.com | Substack | Facebook | Instagram | IMDB | Threads | X
Luda, Grant Morrison’s first novel, was released last year by Europa Edtions.
Luci LaBang is a star: for decades this flamboyant drag artist has cast a spell over screen and stage. Now she’s the leading lady in a smash hit pantomime.
When Luci’s co-star meets with a mysterious accident, a new ingenue shimmers onto the scene, and Luci is immediately smitten with the fantastically beautiful Luda and her sinister charm.
Luda begs Luci to share the secrets of her stardom and to reveal the hidden tricks of her trade. For Luci LaBang is a mistress of the Glamour, an arcane discipline that draws on sex, drugs, and the occult for its trancelike, transformative effects.
But as Luci tutors her young protégée, their fellow actors and crew members begin meeting with untimely ends. Now Luci wonders if Luda has mastered the Glamour all too well.
What follows is an intoxicating descent into the demimonde of Gasglow, a fantastical city of dreams, and into the nightmarish heart of Luda herself: a femme fatale, a phenomenon, a monster, and, perhaps, the brightest star of them all.
Coming Soon: Scotland’s first black superhero, a character invented by film director Etienne Kubwabo, DJ ET, created for his superhero series, Beats of War, meets Grant Morrison’s 40-year-old news strip hero, Captain Clyde, protector of all territories surrounding the River Clyde in Scotland.
Following work published in the comic anthology Near Myths between 1978 and 1979, Grant wrote and drew “Captain Clyde”, published in a number of local weekly newspapers between 1979-82.
The strip ran for some 150 episodes, during which time Grant began writing, and drawing, for early issues of DC Thomson’s Starblazer SF digest title.
• Tickets for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival 2025 are on sale here
• Grant Morrison is online at grantmorrison.com | Substack | Facebook | Instagram | IMDB | Threads | X
- About the Author
- Latest Posts
John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: 2000AD, British Comics, Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Events
2000AD Ian Richardson signing announced 
2000AD Talent Search Returns to Thought Bubble 
In His Own Words: Carlos Ezquerra on his Early Judge Dredd designs 
Dredd versus Dalek, and Comics and Beyond, a special artists event in Eastbourne