The Anatomy of Zur En Arrh: new book from Sequart

[nepenthes]

Understanding Grant Morrisons Batman

Via BC

Let's just say I've been waiting for something like this a long time. Sequart are always excellent and I suspect this will be an eye opener even for the most rusted-on Morrison fans. Buying today.

[daningotham]

Nice! I'm going to have to check this out!

[Iron Mike]

Awesome! Thanks for the heads up. I hope it offers something new. To be honest, I think the fans did a great job annotating and dissecting the entire run.

[nepenthes]

Awesome! Thanks for the heads up. I hope it offers something new. To be honest, I think the fans did a great job annotating and dissecting the entire run.

This is true. I've often wondered whether a wiki or Barbelith style resource will pop up eventually, somewhere readers can pool and organise their annotations. I'd also pay for a book of writings from some of our very own posters at CBR (these guys know who they are - get writing gents! ).

Samples of the book have already been posted at Sequart on topics of Damian and Grayson villains

[ABH]

I didn't even know this was a thing. I've never heard of Sequart, but this is pretty cool.

Awesome! Thanks for the heads up. I hope it offers something new. To be honest, I think the fans did a great job annotating and dissecting the entire run.

Heh, I like that you say "the fans" but I think it was mostly you and Retro that did a lot of that dissecting.

[Nick Miller]

before i read this, i am still waiting on his entire run to be collected in nice large chunks, maybe a 3 volume set, oversized of course.

[K. Jones]

No re-reads or writing from me until I see those funky/fresh Chris Burnham pages.

I'll admit, various Tomasi beats are tempting me to go back for a comprehensive re-read.

[oasis1313]

Somebody please tell me where the Zur-En-Arrh name comes from or what it means? I missed it somewhere.

[Iron Mike]

Heh, I like that you say "the fans" but I think it was mostly you and Retro that did a lot of that dissecting.

Thanks. Retro for sure. There were tons of great blogs too. Mindless Ones, Tim Callahan's blog, Retro's blog, and a couple more I wish I could remember off hand. It was a really fun time to be a Batman fan.

[nepenthes]

Somebody please tell me where the Zur-En-Arrh name comes from or what it means? I missed it somewhere.

In real life it was first used in 1958 as the made up name of another planet, home to another Batman far stronger and smarter than Bruce. Within the comics it began as a comment Thomas Wayne made about throwing "Zorro in Arkham" as the family left the cinema; the thought took root in Bruce's mind and formed a more resilient back-up personality that would take over in the case of a debilitating mental attack.

[t hedge coke]

I'd love to be optimistic, and I'm sure it'll have a few gems, but I've been generally disappointed with Sequart (especially the critical anthologies, less so the single-author books). The adamant use of "reconstructionist"/"revisionist" where Deconstruction does perfectly well, the occasional common contributors' concern with linearizing everything, the weird disdain for whatever they happen not to like as fans.

The heavy lifting in annotating Morrison's Batman has been done all across the web by solid folks, and while I welcome more criticism, I'd rather see Warren Ellis looking at it, or Andrew Hickey, or Robert Jones... someone who'd look at it from a different angle than the standards and be genuinely critrical (not pessimistic, critical). I don't need a book to "understand" Morrison's Batman and neither to any of you. Any of you at all. We just need the comics.

Cody Walker, I don't doubt, knows this. Because he's written about the same sort of thing, before, with other comics. Walker, in my estimation, does trust his readers to be good readers.

And, it's a Batman comic. When I say "It's a Batman" comic, I don't mean that dismissively, I just mean that it's obviously written to be understandable upon reading. And it is. Are there subtle references or later reveals that take a fuller reading to appreciate? Sure. But pick up any single issue or storyline and you can suss out what's going on. A critical book would be appreciated. A guide is almost pretentious.

[Creeper75]

Will try to check it out, seems interesting.

Always wondered how Zur En Arrh is both Bruce alternate personality and the trigger phrase Hurt used to bring batman down.
I guess batman wispered Zur En Arrh during the insolation experiment, and Hurt used it as a trigger, then Bruce subconcious created the emergency personality, with the same id. It ended Being batman minus the Bruce personality

[Diggy]

Couldn't resist, just bought it on Amazon. I'll try to read it next week and give my opinions on it.

[Maxpower00044]

I think it's a given I'll be reading this at some point.

[popgunchaos]

The heavy lifting in annotating Morrison's Batman has been done all across the web by solid folks, and while I welcome more criticism, I'd rather see Warren Ellis looking at it, or Andrew Hickey, or Robert Jones... someone who'd look at it from a different angle than the standards and be genuinely critrical (not pessimistic, critical). I don't need a book to "understand" Morrison's Batman and neither to any of you. Any of you at all. We just need the comics.

Cody Walker, I don't doubt, knows this. Because he's written about the same sort of thing, before, with other comics. Walker, in my estimation, does trust his readers to be good readers.

And, it's a Batman comic. When I say "It's a Batman" comic, I don't mean that dismissively, I just mean that it's obviously written to be understandable upon reading. And it is. Are there subtle references or later reveals that take a fuller reading to appreciate? Sure. But pick up any single issue or storyline and you can suss out what's going on. A critical book would be appreciated. A guide is almost pretentious.

Hey there! Cody Walker here! I'm new to the forums (I suck at trying to keep up with forums, so that's why I've never joined) but I saw this thread and wanted to respond.

You're totally right that you don't need my book to "understand" Morrison's Batman. It holds up on its own and my interpretation may severely differ from yours or anyone else's. I don't hold that my interpretation is the "correct" one or that it is anything more than just my own interpretation.

In titling the book, we used the subtitle "Understanding Grant Morrison's Batman" mostly because we needed to show the subject of the book. Maybe we needed to use a different verb because the word "understanding" comes off as stuffy or presumes you don't get it. And for that, I apologize. It wasn't my intention, but I can totally see where that word can be interpreted as presumptuous.

Furthermore, thanks for for the compliment about me trusting my readers. I absolutely do almost to a fault some times. When I write about comics, I assume that everyone has read everything that I have and that can get me into trouble because I sometimes don't explain as much as I should. I assure you though, this book is very accessible. I worked with a number of editors to ensure that everything is clear.

To address the pretentiousness of the book, again, it was never my intention to say "I get this and you don't." It was written from the mindset of "this is what I think and I wonder what you think about it too." Of course, a book is a one way street compared to a forum or comments on my website or Sequart's, but when I read Tim Callahan's "Grant Morrison: the Early Years" I felt like we were having a conversation. I loved that book because I felt like someone understood Morrison and I learned a lot from Callahan and it made me reread Morrison in a different way. But it challenged me too and I don't really agree with everything Callahan writes and that's okay. It doesn't make me love the book any less.

I hope you'll give the book a read, because I'm really proud of it. I know a lot of people have annotated Morrison's run before and those are really great too. It was never my intention to say my book is better or definitive. I just wanted to add to the conversation and talk about something I love.

Thanks for reading this.