Grant Morrison Announces First Novel Coming This Fall

Legendary Batman and Final Crisis comic creator Grant Morrison is officially releasing their first novel. The news was broken earlier this week in a report from io9, which revealed the first details surrounding the upcoming book. Titled Luda, Morrison’s novel is described as a fantasy story, which involves the worlds of drag queens and dark magic. This will be Morrison’s second book, following the bestselling nonfiction title Supergods: Our World in the Age of the Superhero in 2011. Luda, which you can check out the cover for below, is expected to be released on September 6th wherever books are sold. 

In Luda, Luci LaBang is a star: for decades this flamboyant drag artist has cast a spell over screen and stage. Now she’s the leading lady in a smash hit musical. But as time takes its toll, Luci fears her star is beginning to dim. When Luci’s co-star meets with a mysterious accident, a new ingenue shimmers onto the scene: Luda, whose fantastical beauty and sinister charm infatuate Luci immediately… and who bears a striking resemblance to herself at a much younger age. Luda begs Luci to share the secrets of her stardom, and reveal the hidden tricks of her trade. For Luci LaBang is a mistress of the The Glamour, a mysterious discipline that draws on sex, drugs, and the occult for its trancelike transformative effects.

But as Luci tutors her young protegee in the art, their fellow actors and crew members begin meeting with untimely ends. Now Luci wonders if Luda has mastered The Glamour all too well… and exploited it to achieve her dark ambitions. What follows is an intoxicating descent into the demimonde of Gasglow, a fantastical city of dreams, and into the nightmarish heart of Luda herself: a femme fatale, a phenomenon, a monster, and perhaps, the brightest star of them all.

“At the root of it I was mining and interrogating my past personal experience as young, working class, “genderqueer” and obsessed with performance…” Morrison tells io9. “As I grew older, the day came when make-up made me look like my gran in an open casket and I was struck by a poignant nostalgia for the old clothes and selves and possibilities that no longer fit so snugly! As anyone in the circumstances might do, I saw a way to unpack my feelings into a twisty psychological thriller!”

“I hope readers will enjoy the vulgar flamboyant language, the showbiz glitter and glam, the tricky, puzzle box narrative, the naked humanity, and the trip of a lifetime into an unrepeatable extraordinary individual’s mind!” Morrison said of the possibility of a sequel. “Luda is its own complete story but the “world” in which it’s set-the part-Brooklyn-part-Glasgow city of Gasglow-could play host to innumerable interconnected narratives!”

As mentioned above, Luda will be available on September 6th wherever books are sold.