iF: Image Comics has been very active in promoting creator owned comics and new ideas, as someone who’s made a name for big, new ideas, how do you feel about the creator owned movement in comics and bringing something new to the table?

Grant Morrison: As much as I enjoy contributing stories to long-running franchises and work-for-hire superhero universes, I’ve made a point of owning my own stuff all the way from when I started out as a teenager in the ‘70s doingCaptain Clyde and the strips in Near Myths to Joe the Barbarian just last year. For numerous reasons, I think it’s important for any writer in the comics business to maintain a healthy portfolio of creator-owned material and IPs and I’m encouraged and inspired by the fact that companies like Image exist to provide that platform and permit a level of creative self-expression that’s hard to find in other media.

Everybody knows we need new, contemporary characters and stories that are relevant to the world we live in; I’m delighted that 2012 is shaping up to be a banner year for fresh and original comics.