How can anyone forget Heath Ledger’s riveting performance of the Joker in Christopher Nolan’s Batman: The Dark Knight? The performance that won him an Oscar that he sadly was not there to accept. But was it this dark character that killed him? Or was it really an “accident, resulting from the abuse of prescription medications” ()? If it was becoming this dark character that drove him to abuse prescription meds, then the question must be asked, who came up with this sadistic character? Grant Morrison.

Grant Morrison’s comic, Arkham Asylum was part of his extensive Batman series. It gave readers a look at the dark side of Gotham city and it’s criminals particularly, the Joker. Heath Ledger reportedly had a “joker diary, which he kept four months before shooting” (). In it there were notes; details of what the joker would be like.  Things the Joker would find funny “-including AIDS, landmines, geniuses suffering from irreversible brain damage, brunch, and sombreros” (). Even more twisted things like “blind babies, doctors, accidents…Heath wrote it all down” ().  All his notes, all his descriptions were word for word what Grant Morrison has written in his comics. Morrison created one of the most dark, twisted, sadistic characters of all time. To have to become that character, and make the performance believable has to mess with your head. Between both Heath Ledger and Grant Morrison, they created a man that “just wants to watch the world burn”().

And burn it did. The news of Ledger’s death was devastating. At only twenty-eight years old; his career just opening up; and he wasn’t there to see it. Medical examiners labeled his death as an accident from “a dangerous mixture of drugs” (). Specifically Oxycodone, Vicodin, Valium, Temazepam, Xanax, and Doxylamine; a mixture of painkillers, anxiety medication, and sleep aids (). These drugs combined cause a slow respiratory arrest. It is not likely any doctor would prescribe these medications all at once. The medical examiners did rule out suicide, but reported that Ledger indeed did abuse the drugs that were in his system, which is not accidental ().

Accidental or not, Heath Ledger’s death was a tragedy. An amazing performance of an amazing character is my theory of his death. It just goes to show how passionate of an actor he was. To get that deep into a character is a phenomenal talent. But, I guess sometimes talent can be your demise.

Although his work in comics seems to be most of his career, Morrison has had a hand in many other areas of art as well. He has made appearances in albums from The Mixers, The Fauves, and Super 9. He also did the artwork for Robbie Williams’ Intensive Care album. He has worked in game design creating the story concept for Predator: Concrete Jungle and the story concept and initial script work for Battlestar Galactica.

He also doesn’t just come up with story ideas for comics either. He’s pitched scripts and plot lines for major movies such as Teen Titans and Sherlock Holmes. His film pitch for Sleepless Knights, where a time machine breaks and the world is stuck on Halloween, almost came to fruition. It was sold to Dreamworks, but a director could not be found. No matter, Morrison has plenty to work on. Including the upcoming movie Area 51 (Vineyard).

For a guy with so much work, and so many deadlines to meet, how does he manage his inspiration and creativity? From my personal experience as an artist, that is one of the most difficult things, finding inspiration. Especially when it is demanded. Well for Grant Morrison, he simply takes a walk. It doesn’t matter where, a walk through the woods or down a riverbank. Anything in it’s natural state. Then he wonders. How did those elements of that one landscape come to be? How were they made? How did they get there? And somehow somewhere in the depths of his genius mind, a story forms. Maybe not the whole plot, maybe a chapter or two, or the color of her cape, or the design on his mask, but the idea sparked in that one moment. And that one moment creates a whole new story to tell. So he does what he does best. He tells it.

First, like any artist, he creates thumbnails. From that he sketches out the entire story, or what he has of it so far. Then he translates the images into words. He rewrites the entire story in text from the sketches he drew. He then sends just the text to the artist, so they can illustrate the text.

You can call Grant Morrison and accomplished man, an artist, or an author from the small town of Glasgow. Some have the honor of calling him friend; some have the honor of illustrating his stories or collaborating on projects. To me he is an artist, a storyteller, and one hell of a multi-tasker. As a Graphic Designer, I know how difficult it is to have a million projects going on at once. And I’m sure at some point some of the projects he’s worked on have collided with each other. But even with all that stress of having big name projects, one after the other, he still manages to tell a great story. If I can do that, if I can be so stressed out from the million projects I have and still keep the quality of my work half as amazing as his, I’ll have done my job.

His first work was published in 1987 and he was getting paid 10 pounds a page. When he created “Zenith 2000 AD,” it caught the eye of DC Comics and his career took off.  When at DC he pitched a few comic ideas and eventually his idea for “Animal Man” was published. In the late 80s he came out with “Doom Patrol” and shortly after, “Arkham Asylum,” which was important. This comic was the inspiration for one of the best onscreen performances of all time. Anyone who has seen The Dark Knight knows the spine tingling performance Heath Ledger gave. Most of his inspiration came from Morrison’s comics and he would take notes in a “Joker Diary” (Arkham). In an interview Morrison states, “ It gave me this chill…” (Arkham) “ Because it was word for word what Morrison had written in one of his Batman stories” (Arkham).

Arkham Asylum sparked interest in viewers because it was a different take on batman. It was a look on the darker side and made $120,000 on its first release. Then came the “Invisibles,” his most popular comic. Richard Metzger, the founder of Disinformation, states that his work is like "a bullet with a candy coating". (Talking) And the way Morrison achieves this, especially in the Invisibles, is that he becomes the character. One character in particular in the Invisibles that Morrison connected with. He connected so much with this character that he started to dress like the character, talk like him, hang out at places the character would hang out, even perform rituals that the character would perform. The reason he does this is to provide a sense of realism in the actual comic. He wants to go what the character goes through so he can tell the story truthfully. He goes so in depth that when he wrote an issue where the character got sick, Morrison, a few weeks later, got sick.

What is an artist? How can one be defined as an 'artist'? Everyone has a different perception of what an artist should be. A painter; a sculptor; a musician. I believe an artist is someone who creates. Someone who can create something out of nothing, whether it's a blank canvas, a block of marble, or a pair of shoes.

Grant Morrison has been doing just that since he was a teenager. He's a writer, an author, and a storyteller. And yet, he has not pidgin-holed himself into that single area of art. He has also had a hand in music, video game concepts, and even album artwork. I figured that because of my area of study, graphic design, has a broad range of professions, Grant Morrison would be the ideal man to study.

Early life for Morrison was not easy. He grew up during the cold war; his father being a World War Two veteran. He lived in Glasgow, Scotland and at the age of twelve, attended an all boys’ school. A lot of his comics are based off the truth of his life and actual events that happened to him. He models some of his characters after real people in his life. He does this to keep a sense or realism in the fantasy world; something most artists find difficult to accomplish, but he does it, and does it well.

While in an all boys’ school he didn't have any interaction with girls and he was what he calls a "super nerd" (Talking). He turned to comics during this time and started reading comics and even writing and illustrating his own ideas for comics. By the age of seventeen he was illustrating his own original characters and coming up with his own plot lines. When interviewed by a local newspaper at 16 years old he stated, "I'm hoping to take up art as a career, if that doesn't come off, I have nothing else in mind" (Talking). His passion for art was obviously evident at a young age. And this passion did eventually blossom into an art career that has made his name famous.

He applied to art school, and was rejected. This was one of the biggest disappointments in his life. So, he went back to comics. He claims "comics saved my life,” which is why I

love them so much and I keep going back to them"(Talking).