0:00:05 > 0:00:08There is the country where heroes are made...
0:00:10 > 0:00:14Biggest comic creatives in the world right now, biggest superheroes creatives,
0:00:14 > 0:00:16they're all from Scotland.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22..it's home to super men
0:00:22 > 0:00:24and to dastardly villains...
0:00:27 > 0:00:31Without exaggerating, Grant Morrison and Mark Millar
0:00:31 > 0:00:34are The Beatles and Rolling Stones of comics.
0:00:35 > 0:00:40It's a weird thing to spend your days coming up with menaces for Superman to face.
0:00:40 > 0:00:48..and it's a lot closer than Gotham or Metropolis. They're already here!
0:00:48 > 0:00:51They live amongst us!
0:00:53 > 0:00:56Out there!
0:00:58 > 0:01:00EVIL CACKLE
0:01:35 > 0:01:40- AMERICAN ACCENT:- 'My first gig for the Caledonian Planet, and Chief had given me a tough assignment -
0:01:40 > 0:01:44'to track down Scotland's comic book heroes.'
0:01:44 > 0:01:47Naw, don't need the American accent.
0:01:48 > 0:01:53'Because, this country has changed the superhero universe forever.'
0:01:53 > 0:01:56Scottish creatives made Batman bonkers,
0:01:56 > 0:01:58and Superman a Socialist.
0:02:00 > 0:02:05Writers and artists began at mild mannered DC Thomson of Dundee...
0:02:05 > 0:02:08and ended up the heroes of New York's DC Comics
0:02:08 > 0:02:13They sell millions around the world, Hollywood can't get enough of them
0:02:13 > 0:02:20and this rookie reporter wants to know how we transformed into super-Scotland?
0:02:21 > 0:02:22Hello, Scott Symbol.
0:02:25 > 0:02:28Yes, Chief, I'm right on it.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31Yes, sir, it's an amazing story.
0:02:38 > 0:02:40I hit the streets
0:02:40 > 0:02:44looking for the Lycra literati.
0:02:44 > 0:02:48'My first stop - a small Glasgow comic shop.'
0:02:52 > 0:02:55'The whole place seemed to besotted by one guy -
0:02:55 > 0:02:59'comic writer Mark Millar.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02'So I wondered if he'd ever created a hero?'
0:03:02 > 0:03:05The first one I did was Wanted, it was a big Angelina Jolie movie,
0:03:05 > 0:03:07and I did Kick-Ass, starring Nicholas Cage,
0:03:07 > 0:03:12and I think there's about five in development at the moment.
0:03:12 > 0:03:16I'm doing one with Tony Scott, the man who did Top Gun, called Nemesis,
0:03:16 > 0:03:20I'm doing a new one called Superior with the director of Kick-Ass
0:03:20 > 0:03:22and another one called American Jesus.
0:03:22 > 0:03:24Over at Sony, I've got War Heroes
0:03:24 > 0:03:27and I'm sure there's another, but I can't remember right now.
0:03:31 > 0:03:35It turns out, that Scotland's Mark Millar is one-man hero factory.
0:03:35 > 0:03:37His comics Kick Ass and Wanted
0:03:37 > 0:03:40have both been turned into movies, and between them,
0:03:40 > 0:03:45have taken over 450 million at the box office.
0:03:45 > 0:03:51And when Hollywood need to give their superheroes a gallus Glasgow swagger, they call Mark.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55But whilst his films have brought him fame,
0:03:55 > 0:03:59he's always been, first and foremost, a comics writer.
0:03:59 > 0:04:04I've been writing comics since I was 19, I've been doing the job all that time and I love it.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07I got to write all these characters I loved as a kid,
0:04:07 > 0:04:10and there's a tremendous joy to doing that, you know,
0:04:10 > 0:04:13somebody you dressed up as, as a kid, in Coatbridge...
0:04:13 > 0:04:16I made an Iron Man suit when I was seven or eight,
0:04:16 > 0:04:21so to actually sit and figure out his future is really exciting.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25But in comics, you can say what you want and inside a few weeks what was in your head
0:04:25 > 0:04:29can be being read by someone in the world. It's the last pirate medium.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36'Everywhere I looked there were Scottish comics -
0:04:36 > 0:04:41'sophisticated, sad, strange and sinister comics.
0:04:41 > 0:04:47'And this is no longer just for Glasgow geeks or Fife freaks.'
0:04:47 > 0:04:52'We looked for legitimacy from the arts crowd in the '80s and '90s
0:04:52 > 0:04:55'and now realise we don't need them, we're so much bigger than them.
0:04:55 > 0:04:58'All the metropolitan intelligentsia in London and so on'
0:04:58 > 0:05:01who would always be quite disdainful of graphic novels
0:05:01 > 0:05:05and not put them in review sections, we sell 100 times more, you know?
0:05:05 > 0:05:09We don't need them. They're the niche, we are the mainstream.
0:05:09 > 0:05:13Hollywood changed the comics industry, which was amazing for guys like us,
0:05:13 > 0:05:18because we went from being in a despised medium to being in something that's quite cool.
0:05:19 > 0:05:24But when it comes to creating comic heroes, writing isn't the full story.
0:05:26 > 0:05:31In a grubby building in the shadow of Glasgow's central station...
0:05:31 > 0:05:32the Gods are made.
0:05:32 > 0:05:36This guy is Frank Quitely
0:05:36 > 0:05:41who is, quite frankly, one of the most sought after comic artists on the planet.
0:05:41 > 0:05:47Most people would probably imagine that American comics are written and drawn by Americans.
0:05:47 > 0:05:51A few times over the years I've had people's genuine reaction
0:05:51 > 0:05:55when they've found out that I draw comic books, they say,
0:05:55 > 0:05:58"Oh, are they drawn?!"
0:05:58 > 0:06:01"I mean, I know they're drawn, but I never actually thought,
0:06:01 > 0:06:02"I've never thought
0:06:02 > 0:06:05"that somebody would sit and draw all those pictures."
0:06:05 > 0:06:08You think, "How do you think they got there?" You know?
0:06:08 > 0:06:15American publishers DC Comics only entrust a few select artists to draw their iconic heroes.
0:06:15 > 0:06:20But Frank's artistry and imagination have earned him the right
0:06:20 > 0:06:25to draw The X-Men, The Invisibles, Superman and Batman.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28'You can't make radical changes to the costume,
0:06:28 > 0:06:33'it's got to still look like Batman, but they're very good
0:06:33 > 0:06:39'at allowing individual artists to let their own natural style come through.'
0:06:39 > 0:06:42And Frank's got style. His artwork is in constant demand
0:06:42 > 0:06:46with American comic companies
0:06:46 > 0:06:50and he's gained a worldwide cult following.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55There are people who are fans of my work,
0:06:55 > 0:06:58irrespective of what the character is or the story is.
0:06:58 > 0:07:03When you're stuck in working and stuff, and it's quite slow work you know, you do forget
0:07:03 > 0:07:08that there are people out there that really appreciate it,
0:07:08 > 0:07:11but most of the time, I'm just a guy in Glasgow,
0:07:11 > 0:07:14working in here. Sitting drawing, you know?
0:07:14 > 0:07:16Like all good superheroes,
0:07:16 > 0:07:21Frank pretends to be an ordinary Glasgow guy,
0:07:21 > 0:07:26but he is a superstar of comic art, having won four Eisner awards -
0:07:26 > 0:07:29the Oscars of the comic world.
0:07:29 > 0:07:35And Hope Street Studios is HQ for up and coming new comic talent.
0:07:37 > 0:07:42A lot of comics go on here, a lot of pieces of comics get assembled here,
0:07:42 > 0:07:44and then shipped off somewhere else.
0:07:44 > 0:07:49Basically, people are exporting their skills and importing dollars into Glasgow.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52Sometimes, I'll find myself voicing lines
0:07:52 > 0:07:53that the characters are saying,
0:07:53 > 0:07:56and getting right into the vibe, you know?
0:07:56 > 0:08:01You'd need to ask the other people I work with how much I go, "pweooch!"
0:08:01 > 0:08:03When I'm drawing something blowing up, you know?
0:08:03 > 0:08:06I think everybody does, I hope everybody does.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11- Is this a sound effect I've got to do?- Aye.
0:08:11 > 0:08:14'You need to think up a noise for the claw coming up his nose.'
0:08:14 > 0:08:16- What about schnikt? - Aye, schnikt!
0:08:16 > 0:08:21They work for comics big and small, on both sides of the Atlantic.
0:08:21 > 0:08:23And for these guys, every story,
0:08:23 > 0:08:28every hero, and each individual panel, is a labour of love.
0:08:28 > 0:08:32With colouring, specifically, you can really set the mood,
0:08:32 > 0:08:38and it gives the colourist a lot of space to put there own creative slant on things.
0:08:38 > 0:08:40Say it was a hardboiled detective story,
0:08:40 > 0:08:46you might want it to look more realistic and blunt, so you don't want to make it look splashy,
0:08:46 > 0:08:49you want to make it look cramped and claustrophobic.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52How do you spell the sound effect?
0:08:52 > 0:08:54'F-L-I-K-T.'
0:08:54 > 0:08:58Do you want to draw it? Bit of hand-lettering? Cos I'm not going to...
0:08:58 > 0:09:01Heroes and Villains fly across the world at the click of button
0:09:01 > 0:09:03and the guys claim their rewards.
0:09:03 > 0:09:06I think when I got my first cheque from DC Comics
0:09:06 > 0:09:09with the big DC logo on it, that was it. It was like...
0:09:09 > 0:09:10And it was in dollars, you know?
0:09:10 > 0:09:15And I took it into the Clydesdale Bank, like, "There you go."
0:09:15 > 0:09:182,000, like, "What are we going to do with this?"
0:09:18 > 0:09:20I was like, "I don't know, you're the bank."
0:09:31 > 0:09:34But something doesn't make sense,
0:09:34 > 0:09:38why was Scotland a place for comic book heroes?
0:09:38 > 0:09:43Surely, the first comics came out of New York, London or Paris?
0:09:43 > 0:09:48But no, it's claimed that the first comic in the world,
0:09:48 > 0:09:51came from...right here.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53This is emphatically, unequivocally,
0:09:53 > 0:09:59the very first comic in the world and it comes from Glasgow.
0:09:59 > 0:10:05This is issue number one of the Glasgow Looking Glass from June 1825.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11It was a bit of a gossip sheet, it was aimed more at the literati,
0:10:11 > 0:10:14it is meant to make you laugh and think.
0:10:14 > 0:10:19The early illustrators were not of the best quality,
0:10:19 > 0:10:21but they expanded it later,
0:10:21 > 0:10:25and by the time we get to issue ten, it's quite magnificent.
0:10:29 > 0:10:34So this is number 15 with the magnificent My House In Town.
0:10:36 > 0:10:41Of course in old tenements, the rich people lived up the stairs,
0:10:41 > 0:10:44as you go further down things become a little more middle class
0:10:44 > 0:10:45then working class,
0:10:45 > 0:10:48these are the porters and all that,
0:10:48 > 0:10:51some of these will be servants for folk who live upstairs.
0:10:51 > 0:10:56And the coal cellar, as things start to become less nice, as it were.
0:10:57 > 0:10:59Down the bottom, a guy enjoying himself,
0:10:59 > 0:11:01but in slightly straightened circumstances,
0:11:01 > 0:11:03not got the same headroom.
0:11:03 > 0:11:08It's not a kids story, it's not got superheroes in it,
0:11:08 > 0:11:13it's not adventurous, but does it have regular strips? Yes.
0:11:13 > 0:11:16Does it have recurring characters? Yes, it does.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20Does it have word balloons? Yes, it does.
0:11:20 > 0:11:22Did it appear regularly? Yes, it did.
0:11:22 > 0:11:27So every single question covers any definition, I think, of a comic periodical.
0:11:32 > 0:11:36'So the Glasgow Looking Glass was the world's first comic
0:11:36 > 0:11:39'but the chief wants a story about Scottish comic book heroes,
0:11:39 > 0:11:44'and that meant there was one place I had to go.'
0:11:44 > 0:11:46Scotland's comic city -
0:11:46 > 0:11:48Dundee.
0:11:55 > 0:12:01For more than 75 years, Dundee's DC Thomson has published legendary comics like The Beano, the Bunty
0:12:01 > 0:12:03and The Broons.
0:12:03 > 0:12:04And I had a tip off
0:12:04 > 0:12:08that it was once home to Scotland's very own caped crusader.
0:12:08 > 0:12:12DC Thomson's did experiment with some British superhero characters.
0:12:12 > 0:12:15Notable example would be Amazing Mr X.
0:12:19 > 0:12:23It starred the Amazing Mr X as Len Manners,
0:12:23 > 0:12:27he was very much a Clark Kent Superman prototype,
0:12:27 > 0:12:30he was always referred to as a super man or mysterious super man,
0:12:30 > 0:12:32he wore a little mask.
0:12:34 > 0:12:38He was always leaping between sandstone buildings,
0:12:38 > 0:12:40the kind you'd see in Dundee or in Edinburgh,
0:12:40 > 0:12:45and it just doesn't look the same as soaring between sky scrapers.
0:12:45 > 0:12:47Unlike an American superhero,
0:12:47 > 0:12:52our Amazing Mr X, um, stopped people stealing lead from roofs
0:12:52 > 0:12:54and maybe caught a poacher.
0:12:54 > 0:12:59In one episode, he wrestles with a stag, and it just didn't really work.
0:12:59 > 0:13:00That was how we operated,
0:13:00 > 0:13:04it was what you would call kitchen-sink superheroes.
0:13:05 > 0:13:11Tucking into a cow pie was a good conclusion for a story, rather than saving the world.
0:13:15 > 0:13:20Sincere superheroes didn't really fit at DC Thomson.
0:13:20 > 0:13:25Because in Scotland, what readers loved was local heroes.
0:13:25 > 0:13:27We all grew up with it.
0:13:27 > 0:13:28We took it for granted,
0:13:28 > 0:13:32we all read Oor Wullie and The Broons when we were kids.
0:13:32 > 0:13:34It was a training in the relationship
0:13:34 > 0:13:35between words and pictures.
0:13:35 > 0:13:40It's part of a fabric of Scottish culture that does contribute
0:13:40 > 0:13:46to the way contemporary writers and artists draw on their own experience.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49It's quite remarkable that all that cultural input
0:13:49 > 0:13:51has come from one company.
0:13:51 > 0:13:55You think of the great publishing cities for comics round the world,
0:13:55 > 0:14:00you think of New York, Tokyo, London, Dundee!
0:14:00 > 0:14:03When do you ever see Dundee mentioned in a list like that?
0:14:07 > 0:14:10No matter what type of comic book hero you wanted to write,
0:14:10 > 0:14:12all roads led to DC Thomson.
0:14:14 > 0:14:16It was certainly the best training in UK,
0:14:16 > 0:14:20because you would be with young guys in offices
0:14:20 > 0:14:23where the talk all the time was of comics,
0:14:23 > 0:14:27and of how you design pictures, what worked, what didn't work,
0:14:27 > 0:14:30we were producing so many comics and magazines,
0:14:30 > 0:14:32if you were on our staff, very shortly,
0:14:32 > 0:14:34you would see your stuff in print.
0:14:38 > 0:14:43DC Thomson ensured Scotland was a hive of comic creativity,
0:14:43 > 0:14:47but I'm looking for Scottish superheroes.
0:14:47 > 0:14:48And I wasn't the only one.
0:14:48 > 0:14:53In the 1970s, frustrated by years of couthy comics,
0:14:53 > 0:14:55a group of writers left DC Thomson
0:14:55 > 0:14:59and dared to imagine an action-packed future.
0:14:59 > 0:15:04They were taught in this very staid formalised environment - and once they got out of there,
0:15:04 > 0:15:08their minds just explode with imagination and it was, we can't wait
0:15:08 > 0:15:14to shove two fingers in the direction of anyone who tells us what to do.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25They set up 2000AD, the ultra-violent punk comic...
0:15:25 > 0:15:27where anything goes.
0:15:27 > 0:15:30I just couldn't believe it - here was a British comic
0:15:30 > 0:15:37going down the route of American comics I'd enjoyed so much as a teenager,
0:15:37 > 0:15:42but had still retained its cutting edge.
0:15:42 > 0:15:46You get 2000AD and suddenly it's just completely different.
0:15:46 > 0:15:49It changed the face of British comics completely and utterly.
0:15:49 > 0:15:53I noted the star writers, Alan Grant and John Wagner,
0:15:53 > 0:15:56were both Scottish, and both DC Thomson-trained.
0:15:56 > 0:15:59Their new comic allowed them to create characters like Judge Dredd...
0:15:59 > 0:16:05who was a million miles from Oor Wullie.
0:16:05 > 0:16:09- Why is he so popular? - Mainly because he appeals to the bastard in everybody.
0:16:09 > 0:16:15We wanted it to be funny obviously and we wanted it to be sort of true to life.
0:16:15 > 0:16:19We used to buy all the tabloids, go through the tabloids looking for ideas
0:16:19 > 0:16:24that we could extrapolate into the future...
0:16:26 > 0:16:30This story here, "Twas the Night before Christmas".
0:16:30 > 0:16:34Here comes Santa Claus and his reindeer coming into Megacity One.
0:16:34 > 0:16:38He doesn't respond to the city defenders' call to
0:16:38 > 0:16:41identify himself so they set off a couple of missiles...
0:16:41 > 0:16:44They actually blow up Santa's reindeer.
0:16:44 > 0:16:49Dredd follows the trail of blood and finds Santa Claus with his sack.
0:16:49 > 0:16:51He's saying "Gotta deliver!"
0:16:51 > 0:16:58So Dredd's chasing him, and he shoots Santa dead with his bike cannon.
0:16:58 > 0:17:05And we end up saying a belated Merry Christmas to all our readers after we've just killed Santa.
0:17:05 > 0:17:10I would say Alan Grant is one of the unsung heroes of Scottish comics, of British comics.
0:17:10 > 0:17:14The material the Wagner-Grant partnership created in the 80s was stunning.
0:17:14 > 0:17:19It's the golden age of 2000AD for a reason, and Alan Grant was a big part of that.
0:17:19 > 0:17:26Basically we were allowed to do whatever we wanted because the comic was successful and most publishers
0:17:26 > 0:17:32don't interfere if they've got a successful publication, so they just left us to get on with it.
0:17:32 > 0:17:37The success of 2000AD was noted by the comic companies across the Atlantic.
0:17:37 > 0:17:42At last, Scottish writers were given a chance to play in the Super League.
0:17:42 > 0:17:48One day, completely out of the blue, we got a call from the senior editor on DC's Batman titles...
0:17:48 > 0:17:55and basically what he said was he'd been reading 2000AD and he really liked the hard edge
0:17:55 > 0:18:01we'd given to Judge Dredd and could we do the same for Batman?
0:18:01 > 0:18:05For people who had grown up reading Superman, Batman and Spiderman,
0:18:05 > 0:18:09the chance to go and play with the big boys' toys was irresistible.
0:18:12 > 0:18:16Alan Grant wore his politics on his superhero sleeve...
0:18:17 > 0:18:21and ensured that his Caped Crusader fought the good fight.
0:18:22 > 0:18:26I made Batman completely different from the Batman of the 1950s...
0:18:26 > 0:18:31no longer did he fight alien invasions or jellyfish
0:18:31 > 0:18:34or all the rest of the stupid things that they had him doing...
0:18:34 > 0:18:41I tried to make him a champion of not so much the poor but the underprivileged -
0:18:41 > 0:18:44those who couldn't find justice any other way.
0:18:46 > 0:18:53I think people like Alan Grant brought a kind of new take on American superheroes...
0:18:53 > 0:18:59almost a kind of distance from them which many of the American writers brought up within that system,
0:18:59 > 0:19:04brought up idolizing those characters, didn't have
0:19:04 > 0:19:09and people like Alan Grant brought a breath of fresh air into Batman.
0:19:11 > 0:19:15Not only did Alan Grant put Scotland in Batman,
0:19:15 > 0:19:18he also put Batman in Scotland.
0:19:18 > 0:19:25The background to the story takes us to the Highland Clearances, both Batman and Fergus Slith,
0:19:25 > 0:19:29the villain, come from the Highland Clearances and have gone to America.
0:19:29 > 0:19:32Batman's family, and he says at one point in this book...
0:19:32 > 0:19:34some of my ancestors are actually Scottish...
0:19:34 > 0:19:39but his ancestors were the landowners and they were responsible
0:19:39 > 0:19:43for sending the villain away and clearing him out of his land.
0:19:43 > 0:19:50And now in the 20th century, the villain is coming back to wreak havoc and to kill innocent people.
0:19:50 > 0:19:57So there are very serious questions being raised about innocence and guilt
0:19:57 > 0:20:02across generations... a very Scottish theme.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09Batman, Superman, Iron Man...
0:20:09 > 0:20:14behind every superhero, there seemed to be a mild-mannered Scot...
0:20:14 > 0:20:18And there was one name that came up again and again.
0:20:18 > 0:20:23A scary, mythical figure who had lived a life as dramatic as the heroes he writes.
0:20:23 > 0:20:28The Glasgow writer who's been the biggest name in the comic universe for decades.
0:20:37 > 0:20:42In the comics world, I mean Grant Morrison is MASSIVE, I mean he's...
0:20:42 > 0:20:48seen as this huge brain, this massive intellect that he brings to his work.
0:20:51 > 0:20:59This guy, Grant Morrison, is one of the most sought-after comic writers in the world.
0:20:59 > 0:21:04He divides his time between LA and Rothesay...
0:21:04 > 0:21:09And his love of superheroes is rooted in his own attempts to save the world.
0:21:11 > 0:21:15My parents were antinuclear activists and brought me out here
0:21:15 > 0:21:22as a kid to protest against American Polaris submarine presence in this very place...
0:21:31 > 0:21:36Out of that came my need for something that could counteract the bomb,
0:21:36 > 0:21:38and I found that in Superman and Superman comics...
0:21:38 > 0:21:40you saw that guy and he would just stand there
0:21:40 > 0:21:42and the atomic bomb would explode off his chest
0:21:42 > 0:21:44and then he wipes his nose and laughs.
0:21:49 > 0:21:56For over 20 years, Grant Morrison's wild imagination has been stunning readers across the world.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59He wrote stories for DC Thomson,
0:21:59 > 0:22:00then 2000AD...
0:22:00 > 0:22:06then was headhunted by the big American publishers who put him in charge of Batman,
0:22:06 > 0:22:10Animal Man, the X Men and a whole universe of superheroes...
0:22:10 > 0:22:15I like the broad range, I like that operatic sort of range, colourful personalities.
0:22:15 > 0:22:20Yu know what Superman stands for you know what Wonder Woman stands for.
0:22:20 > 0:22:25I can understand the world in terms of these ridiculous conflicts in comic books.
0:22:30 > 0:22:34But for Grant, it wasn't enough just to write super heroes...
0:22:34 > 0:22:37he wanted to walk amongst them.
0:22:37 > 0:22:43And things took a post-modern twist in his acclaimed series The Invisibles when he created King Mob,
0:22:43 > 0:22:45a character fashioned in his own image.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52I made myself look like him and meshed my life into him as much as
0:22:52 > 0:22:56could be possible without actually becoming an occult terrorist...
0:22:56 > 0:23:03I began to put him through situations without knowing what it might mean for me.
0:23:03 > 0:23:05Weirdly, life began to mimic art...
0:23:07 > 0:23:11I put him through a situation where he was captured by his enemies and tortured.
0:23:11 > 0:23:15And he's on a torture chair, his lungs collapsed he's been shot,
0:23:15 > 0:23:17he's convinced he's got necrotising
0:23:17 > 0:23:22fasciatus bacteria eating through his face cause they've used a mind control drug on him
0:23:24 > 0:23:27I'm blithely writing all this stuff then three months later,
0:23:27 > 0:23:29suddenly I'm in hospital...
0:23:29 > 0:23:34I've got a hole in cheek, lung collapsed completely,
0:23:34 > 0:23:36poisoned and dying.
0:23:36 > 0:23:41In the same kind of circumstances as character...
0:23:41 > 0:23:44It was almost the idea that I created a voodoo version of myself,
0:23:44 > 0:23:48a voodoo doll in this environment and suddenly by affecting him
0:23:48 > 0:23:50I could make changes in my own life... .
0:23:54 > 0:23:57There's often a grant Morrison proxy that appears in comics.
0:23:57 > 0:23:59the superhero becomes an other imagined self,
0:23:59 > 0:24:03tying into the great theme of doublings in Scottish literature...
0:24:03 > 0:24:08And he very much preaches this idea that you can invent
0:24:08 > 0:24:12a fictional character, a fictional personae and then step into it.
0:24:19 > 0:24:22After year at the cutting edge of comics,
0:24:22 > 0:24:25Grant has returned to the hero he first idolised...
0:24:26 > 0:24:31All Star Superman celebrates 70 years of the Man of Steel...
0:24:33 > 0:24:35It was me writing it, Frank Quitely drawing it,
0:24:35 > 0:24:37and Jamie Grant colouring it,
0:24:37 > 0:24:41and it's three Scottish guys suddenly doing the best selling superman comic in America,
0:24:41 > 0:24:45but we liked the idea that this was specifically coming
0:24:45 > 0:24:47completely from Scotland.
0:24:48 > 0:24:52The huge success of Scottish comics writers...
0:24:52 > 0:24:56at the moment is perhaps something that Scots
0:24:56 > 0:25:01aren't as aware of as they should be. This is very much a big deal.
0:25:01 > 0:25:07These are some of the most important and beloved characters in the world
0:25:07 > 0:25:10that people like Mark Millar and Grant Morrison
0:25:10 > 0:25:11are getting to play around with.
0:25:15 > 0:25:17From the Mr X to Mark Millar's Kick Ass,
0:25:17 > 0:25:21I'd uncovered Scotland's rich contribution to the art form...
0:25:22 > 0:25:26..but I didn't understand why we were so good at it.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29How did Scotland produced so many great comic creatives?
0:25:34 > 0:25:38When we were kids we were all fascinated with America,
0:25:38 > 0:25:44cos America was the world's number one country and it was where the culture came from...
0:25:44 > 0:25:48so we took in everything we could about America
0:25:48 > 0:25:51and I guess it just got mixed up with our Scottish stuff
0:25:51 > 0:25:54and then regurgitated when it came to our stories.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59You have writers and artists who are very self conscious
0:25:59 > 0:26:04about the history of the American comics and American graphic novels
0:26:04 > 0:26:07but are also very confident of their own Scottishness,
0:26:07 > 0:26:08you know, not to worry about it...
0:26:10 > 0:26:14What's happening is a sort of colonization in reverse.
0:26:15 > 0:26:19American writers were much too interested in maintaining their
0:26:19 > 0:26:21own kind of childhood vision of characters.
0:26:21 > 0:26:25We came in with a lot, you know, lot more punkish and anarchic attitude.
0:26:28 > 0:26:32The superhero in their world isn't this all-knowing character who
0:26:32 > 0:26:35can defeat any evil with a flex of his muscles.
0:26:35 > 0:26:40Very much a character who is rife with internal problems
0:26:40 > 0:26:43rife with psychological problems,
0:26:43 > 0:26:47he's very much ill at ease with his own authority,
0:26:47 > 0:26:49doesn't wear power well,
0:26:49 > 0:26:53and if you think about that in a Scottish context,
0:26:53 > 0:26:56the Scottish relationship to power, imperialism
0:26:56 > 0:26:59and authority is of course a very problematic one
0:26:59 > 0:27:03and I think Scottish writers very much reflect that.
0:27:05 > 0:27:09But after nearly 200 years of Scottish comics, The local fan boys
0:27:09 > 0:27:12are getting the moment they've long been waiting for...
0:27:12 > 0:27:15Mark Millar's new film, Miracle Park,
0:27:15 > 0:27:21will feature characters who are 100% superhero and 100% Scottish...
0:27:21 > 0:27:25'So I just thought stealing it back you know, doing a superhero idea
0:27:25 > 0:27:27'but setting in Scotland could be quite interesting.
0:27:27 > 0:27:31'And not to make it a really obvious jokey kind of thing that people
0:27:31 > 0:27:34'imagined it would be but that's not really what my stuff's like.
0:27:34 > 0:27:38'Just making it a great sci-fi superhero drama.
0:27:38 > 0:27:42To bring the seriousness of something like Trainspotting
0:27:42 > 0:27:43like a Danny Boyle movie...
0:27:43 > 0:27:48Doing it like that, setting it in Scotland, but it's about a bunch of people who have super powers,
0:27:48 > 0:27:52so there's no capes and costumes and that kind of stuff, it's a very
0:27:52 > 0:27:55real gritty superhero drama done for a modern audience.
0:27:57 > 0:27:58My report hit the newsstands...
0:27:58 > 0:28:03I revealed to readers that our comic book heroes just needed belief.
0:28:03 > 0:28:10Because when it comes to imagination We don't need anyone to rescue us.
0:28:10 > 0:28:16We can all be truly, utterly and indisputably,
0:28:16 > 0:28:18international superheroes!
0:28:21 > 0:28:25And it's a story that looks certain to be continued...
0:28:41 > 0:28:44Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:28:44 > 0:28:47Email subtitling@bbc.co.uk