Comics Legend Grant Morrison’s Novel Is Coming, and We’ve Got a First Look

Grant Morrison is well-known for their many acclaimed contributions to comics—with writing credit for Marvel (Fantastic Four, X-Men) and DC (Batman, Superman), in addition to the upcoming Flash film, Peacock’s Brave New World collection, their nonfiction e-book Supergods: Our World within the Age of the Superhero, and a lot extra. But now they’ve written their first fantasy novel, Luda, and io9 has a primary look!

Today we’re thrilled to share the quilt for Luda, in addition to a chat with Morrison and an excerpt from the e-book. Morrison followers, look no additional—and in the event you’re new to the author’s work, maintain studying and get hooked.

Here’s a quick synopsis of Luda:

Luci LaBang is a star: for many years this flamboyant drag artist has solid a spell over display screen and stage. Now she’s the main woman in a smash hit musical. But as time takes its toll, Luci fears her star is starting to dim.

When Luci’s co-star meets with a mysterious accident, a brand new ingenue shimmers onto the scene: Luda, whose fantastical magnificence and sinister allure infatuate Luci instantly… and who bears a placing resemblance to herself at a a lot youthful age.

Luda begs Luci to share the secrets and techniques of her stardom, and reveal the hidden methods of her commerce. For Luci LaBang is a mistress of the The Glamour, a mysterious self-discipline that pulls on intercourse, medicine, and the occult for its trancelike transformative results.

But as Luci tutors her younger protegee within the artwork, their fellow actors and crew members start assembly with premature ends. Now Luci wonders if Luda has mastered The Glamour all too properly… and exploited it to realize her darkish ambitions.

What follows is an intoxicating descent into the demimonde of Gasglow, a fantastical metropolis of goals, and into the nightmarish coronary heart of Luda herself: a femme fatale, a phenomenon, a monster, and maybe, the brightest star of all of them.

And right here’s the total cowl by artist Chad Sell:

“As a lifelong comics reader and graphic novelist, I was thrilled when Del Rey contacted me about illustrating this new book by comics legend Grant Morrison,” cowl artist Sell stated in an announcement offered to io9. “I have been reading Grant’s work since I was a teenager, and the fact that they’ve written this story about a darkly magical drag queen felt like a perfect fit for me! For many years, I was best known for my illustrations of drag queens, and I loved exploring how queer creativity can transform queens into more magical versions of themselves. Illustrating the Luda cover allowed me to return to that world of the gorgeous and the garish—the design tries to balance artistry and outrageousness, the impeccable precision of this queen’s beat contrasted with the lipstick spontaneously scrawled across her face. I hope the final result is magical, mesmerizing, and a little bit menacing.”

Next up, we’ve received an e-mail interview with Morrison, adopted by a quick however tantalizing excerpt from Luda!

Cheryl Eddy, io9: You are clearly very well-known in your acclaimed work in comics and graphic novels, however Luda is your first novel! What impressed you to shift mediums at this level in your profession?

Grant Morrison: The final time I completed a novel I used to be 19, so after quite a few false begins, it felt like time to commit!

io9: What are you able to inform us about Luci LaBang, the primary character of Luda, and her particular magical powers?

Morrison: Luci’s main energy, I hope, is to weave an unlikely story so convincing her viewers will come to just accept every part she tells them regardless of how outlandish!

Otherwise, there’s nothing supernatural in Luda—or IS there?—and nothing that couldn’t simply be taking place now… besides it’s strained via the weird, psychedelic, occult filter of our distinctive narrator’s thoughts!

io9: Is Luda the antagonist of the story? How would you characterize the dynamic between Luci and Luda?

Morrison: Is the face you see within the mirror an antagonist or an ally? Our story begins as a story of instructor and pupil, grasp and padawan… till it turns into one thing extra sophisticated and harmful.

io9: What made you wish to middle a speculative fiction story on this planet of drag queens?

Morrison: At the foundation of it I used to be mining and interrogating my previous private expertise as younger, working class, “genderqueer” and obsessive about efficiency…

As I grew older, the day got here when make-up made me seem like my gran in an open casket and I used to be struck by a poignant nostalgia for the outdated garments and selves and potentialities that not match so snugly!

As anybody within the circumstances would possibly do, I noticed a option to unpack my emotions right into a twisty psychological thriller!

io9: What are you most excited for readers to expertise whereas studying Luda—and is that this a standalone story, or can we anticipate extra adventures on this world?

Morrison: I hope readers will benefit from the vulgar flamboyant language, the showbiz glitter and glam, the tough, puzzle field narrative, the bare humanity, and the journey of a lifetime into an unrepeatable extraordinary particular person’s thoughts!

Luda is its personal full story however the “world” through which it’s set—the part-Brooklyn-part-Glasgow metropolis of Gasglow—might play host to innumerable interconnected narratives!

In the start, I had no separate stage identify for what I turned after I was dressed and made up; as I stated, there was no inside division. It was solely later, after we began up the Troupe, that I christened myself on the font of Mercurius:

I turned Luci LaBang, a nom de plume dripping with steaming pearls of which means.

But latterly, I’d given up Luci. I’d made my tearful farewells. Her clothes haunted the closet, unworn, sulking spooks. Being trustworthy, I used to be scared to name her again, sure she’d by no means enable my face, that pocked and dimpled canvas retrieved from a carpet-bombed museum, to distort her magnificence. I used to be terrified of what I would discover after I dug her up, smelling of mothballs and accusation.

But I knew there was no backing down; Widow Twankey, avatar of the Three-Times-Perfected, had delivered the right excuse. I used to be being introduced with the chance to give up to one thing stronger, quicker, extra actual than something I’d been for thus lengthy. I’d gentle my outdated lamp and dirt off my wand, my rusty dagger, my cup, and my books. My Louboutins and Agents Provocateurs.

I’d summon the Glamour one final time and let it burn me to chemical incandescence in its blue occult flame.

A few drugs began me down the Yellow Brick Road. Vodka tonic, double. What’s the worst that may occur? I believed. I’ll shit myself and choke alone vomit at the back of a taxi or onstage. At least I’ll die with dignity.

Excerpted from LUDA by Grant Morrison. Copyright © 2022 by Grant Morrison. Excerpted by permission of Del Rey, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No a part of this excerpt could also be reproduced or reprinted with out permission in writing from the writer.

Grant Morrison’s Luda arrives September 6; you possibly can pre-order a replica here.

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