Grant Morrison and Animal Man

Grant Morrison and his runs on Animal Man and the Doom Patrol were what really made me see comics as more than capes, conflicts, and costumes. Animal Man specifically and the appearance by Grant Morrison as a character in his own book. [Link]

Since I'm talking about firsts this week, let me tell you about the first comic that truly BLEW MY FRICKIN' MIND! And that would be Animal Man #26. Oh, I'd read Watchmen and all, but it didn't really open that door. See, when I moved away from my hometown to go to college, I finally had access to comic book stores. One such, 1,000,000 Comics it was called, was having a going out-of-business sale and I stormed the place and got entire runs of comics I'd missed out on (entire up to that point, obviously). LEGION, Dr. Fate, Milligan's Shade the Changing Man, Doom Patrol, and Animal Man (by Grant Morrison, Chas Truog and Mark Farmer). And they let me have them for half the cover price.

So I chow down on Animal Man #7 through 26 and... wait for it... IT BLEW MY FRICKIN' BRAINS OUT! Well, it pulled the trigger some time before 26, but by 26, my brains were splattered all over my living room.

It blew my mind too.