Much like an obscure background character in an old comic book who very few people remember and even fewer care about, Grant Morrison has suddenly shown up to reveal that he’s actually very important and everyone needs to listen to him if they want to have any idea what’s going on. Also, the obscure background character is actually Morrison himself, and all of this takes place in a miniature pocket universe that Morrison created, and also all of us are actually Grant Morrison. Anyway, the important news that Morrison wanted to pass on—which comes to us from Entertainment Weekly and not, for once, Morrison inserting a fictionalized version of himself into this Newswire—is that Grant Morrison has been named the new editor-in-chief of famed sci-fi/fantasy/boobs magazine Heavy Metal.
Morrison is best known as a comic book writer who loves twisty, meta-narratives that occasionally make absolutely no sense (The Filth, Arkham Asylum, Animal Man), and he says that he’s hoping to “bring back some of that ‘70s punk energy” to Heavy Metal, while still trying to “update it and make it new again.” Morrison—who will be focusing on Heavy Metal for “at least a year or two”—will be writing comics and prose that will appear in the magazine, and he’s also looking to hire collaborators who will help with his overall plan to “dig into the roots” of the magazine and “tinker with the engine and play around with it.” That may sound like a mixed metaphor to you, but that’s only because you’re not high enough to properly comprehend the magnitude of this magazine that has both roots and an engine. Morrison’s run at Heavy Metal will begin next year.