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June 23, 2009
[comics] Steve Bissette on the Creation of Swamp Thing #20 … Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 … a long multipart post (including many pages from the script!) on the first issue of Alan Moore’s run Swamp Thing. It’s an interesting issue – it was produced under considerable deadline pressure and has never been reprinted much because it’s a transitional issue as Moore deals with the plot the previous writer had left him with and sets up stage for the next issue – The Anatomy Lesson. [via Metafilter] 
May 25, 2009
[comics] Jess Nevins annotations for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – Century 1910 … ‘Panel 6. “Misplaced memorials.” I trust one of my British readers can fill me in on what Moore is referring to. Is there a misplaced memorial at King’s Cross? There are memorials to veterans of World Wars One and Two–anything else? “Forgotten fires.” I’m assuming this is a reference to the King’s Cross fire on 18 November 1987, which killed 31 people in the King’s Cross St. Pancras station. I’m not particularly sure why this counts as “forgotten”–even I, American that I am, knew about it. (Is the King’s Cross fire memorial plaque in the station misplaced somehow?)’
April 29, 2009
[comics] Alan Moore’s Glory Notes … a proposal from Moore on how to revamp one of Rob Liefeld’s Awesome characters … ‘I suppose this as good a time as any to discuss my ideas about how the sexuality in Glory should be handled. As with my notes on Youngblood, my central idea is to prime the story with plenty of open spaces for the readers’ filthy, disgusting thirteen year old minds to inhabit… which is only natural… without doing anything that is anything other than entirely innocent and in keeping with classic comic tradition. I think the word for our best approach is “disingenuous”.’
March 27, 2009
[comics] Pádraig Ó Méalóid (aka Livejournal’s Glycon) reveals the story behind Big Numbers #3 making it’s way to the internet … ‘Anyway, the story I heard was that Al Columbia completed this issue, had it sent off for lettering and then went a little crazy and refused to release the art for publication … In any event, this art did exist long enough for it to be photocopied.’
[comics] Eddie Campbell on Big Numbers: ‘Another thing I remembered, and I don’t think I ever mentioned it to Alan, but I always felt a certain resentment that Billy the Sink got Big Numbers and blew it while i was stuck drawing Jack the bloody Ripper for ten years (I once described it as a penny dreadful that costs thirty five bucks). I stand by my opinion that Big Numbers was the superior idea and would have been Alan’s masterpiece.’
March 26, 2009
[comics] Big Numbers #3 … the complete issue of Alan Moore and Bill Sienkiewicz’s unpublished Big Numbers #3 has been posted to Flickr … 
March 23, 2009
[comics] Hollywood super-hairo: the comic book genius who won’t make a penny from £65m Watchmen … Alan Moore as viewed through the lens of really poor tabloid journalism … ‘The movie adaptation of his comic book Watchmen has raked in more than £65million since its release this month. But writer Alan Moore will not receive a penny – although it looks as if he could do with a pound or two for a trip to the barber. The eccentric writer lives in a modest terrace house in Northampton and remains a recluse amid the hype surrounding the Hollywood blockbuster.’
March 22, 2009
[comics] Advice Rorschach Says… ‘American Love – Like Coke In Green Glass Bottles… They Don’t Make It Anymore.’ (more…)
March 18, 2009
[watchmen] Charlie Brooker On Watchmen: ‘Fun as a massive great spectacle, but it surely can’t make any sense whatsoever to anyone who hasn’t read the comic; it was a bit like watching an impressive animated version of a collection of snatched memories of what the comic was like, if you see what I mean.’
March 9, 2009
[comics] Tom Spurgeon Reviews Watchmen … ‘Unless you were playing book bingo, there was little that was transcendent or particularly memorable about any of the moments from movie. I’m having a hard time latching onto anything a mere 10 hours after sitting in the theater watching it, a single moment like that weird shimmy that Heath Ledger did in the nurse’s outfit in Dark Knight or Robert Downey relishing a hamburger while announcing a major life decision in Iron Man or Clark Kent getting out of his own head for a moment by racing a train in Superman.’
March 6, 2009
[comics] Who Makes The Watchmen? … A illustrated guide to the tortured history of the production of the Watchmen movie … ‘Hurm. Snyder and Tse seem to have faithful adaptation. Minus the squid. But keeping the violence. Fine with me.’
[comics] Review of the Watchmen Movie by Pádraig Ó Méalóid … a real Alan Moore fan reviews Watchmen … ‘There is a scene in the film where Doctor Manhattan is being interviewed in a television studio, just before he abruptly leaves the Earth to go to Mars. He describes something – I don’t recall what at this point – as being as useful as a photograph of Oxygen would be to a drowning man. And this is actually the most apt description I can think of for this film: It looks a lot like the original Watchmen book, but has none of its grace, or beauty, or subtlety, or sinuously beautiful timing.’
March 5, 2009
[comics] rorschachsdiary … if Rorschach had a blog it would be on Livejournal… ”yet another example of government oppression: hear scans_daily down for good. irritated; will not have to pay money to find out how the black freighter spin-off turns out. expect veidt behind it…” [via jzw]
March 3, 2009
[comics] Alan Moore, the man with a graphic vision … the Observer profiles Alan Moore … ‘As novelist and Watchmen fan Susanna Clarke puts it: “He took something very American – the superhero comic – reinvented it [more than once] and sold it back to them.” And, one might add, didn’t even want to keep the profit he made on the deal.’
March 2, 2009
[comics] Legendary Comics Writer Alan Moore on Superheroes, The League, and Making Magic … ‘I had DC buying the company I had just signed contracts with, which is flattering in one way and very creepy in another. It’s like being stalked by a very rich demented girlfriend who can just buy your entire street in order to be close to you.’
February 27, 2009
[watchmen] The Visceral Horrors of ‘Watchmen’ Movie Merchandise … On a Comedian Costume: ‘So, how many people are going to wear this without realizing that they’re dressed as a serial rapist who shot a pregnant woman in the face?’
February 23, 2009
[comics] Reading The Watchmen: Ten Entrance Points Into The Esteemed Graphic Novel … Tom Spurgeon on Watchmen … ‘One thing the film trailers have reminded us is how gob-smackingly weird and lurid and intense Dave Gibbons’ visual interpretation of Moore’s script was in the original graphic novel. All those oranges and browns and yellows set against mostly somber grays and blues. And then the squid shows up.’
February 20, 2009
[comics] BeaucoupKevin(dot)com: Why I will not be seeing Watchmen … ‘The more I see of the film version of Watchmen, the less I like it, and perhaps more importantly, the more I dislike what it represents: the dumbing-down of something greater for the sake of a false “authenticity” that’s apparent only to those shallowest of readers of the source material.’
February 17, 2009
[comics] The Collector – ‘Profits of Doom’ Photostrip story … ancient Alan Moore photo comic story from Eagle in 1982.
February 2, 2009
[comics] Forthcoming Work by Alan Moore for 2009 (and Beyond..) … from Glycon’s Livejournal … ‘Saga of the Swamp Thing, Book 1: The first volume of Moore’s run on Swamp Thing, collected in hardback for the first time, and including Saga of the Swamp Thing #20, never previously reprinted.’ [via Forbidden Planet’s Blog]
January 10, 2009
[comics] Watching Dave Gibbons … one more interview with Gibbons on Watching the Watchmen. ‘… there was a misguided idea where we might do Rorschach’s Journal or The Comedian’s Vietnam War Diary, but I don’t think you need to see that. It’s much better if it’s hinted at.’
December 26, 2008
[comics] Archaeologizing Watchmen … Dave Gibbons interviewed on his new book Watching the Watchmen … ‘The second time around, I am amazed by how much thought we put into Watchmen, how hard we labored over every detail. But I think that is one of the reasons for its longevity. In comics, there are depths that don’t reveal themselves immediately, and the stuff that you might consider anal about Watching the Watchmen — like the notes where I plot the rotation of a perfume bottle through the air — might not be particularly obvious to anyone who reads it. But those who do will note the consistency, the reality behind it all that exists in great depth. It gives it a more magical quality, which it wouldn’t have had if we just made things up as we went along or changed it to suit the latest continuity. It does give it a feeling of authority.’
December 4, 2008
[comics] Watchmen Unmasked … Occult symbolism in an Alan Moore comic. Really?! … ‘On the morning of September 11th, 2001 A.D., I was not working. On my day off, my mother phones me at 7:00 PST to wake me up: “Something incredible is happening”. When the first tower came down, I saw the beast more clearly than I have ever seen it, and yes, for a moment it looked just like a giant octopus driving this giant building straight down DIRECTLY THROUGH THE PATH OF GREATEST RESISTANCE LIKE A NAIL. And I thought, “It’s Chapter Twelve of Watchmen. It’s a stunt, a gag, a hoax. Someone has done this thing to fool us all again. Who? WHO HAS DONE THIS THING TO ME?’ [via BeaucoupKevin]
November 3, 2008
[comics] Alan Moore on the Shadow … early Alan Moore text piece from 1970 – another scanned rarity from the Glycon’s Livejournal … ‘Apparently Gibson (who, I might add was also a professional magician) had written the story, and all that was left was for S&S to find a suitable cover. The only one they could find however, with anything like a shadow featured on it showed an inscrutable oriental type cowering against a wall. The Shadow, it seems, was his own. (Damn clever these Chinese!) Unfortunately, Gibson’s story didn’t feature any orientals, so naturally rather than give S&S the trouble of finding a new cover, Gibson rewrote the whole thing. (Rumour has it that Gibson invented the Shadow at five o’clock while he was shaving).’
October 20, 2008
[comics] Jonathan Ross on Watchmen … ‘But what makes this a genre-transcending bona fide masterpiece is that, alongside the pulse-pounding action and suspense, the soap-opera style romantic dilemmas and the story of some good but misguided people trying to apply simple remedies to complex maladies, Moore and Gibbons also manage to deliver a devastating critique that cuts to the very heart of the pitiful, timid male fantasy that is the superhero genre at its purest and worst: muscular men and busty women in tight costumes solving all the world’s problems with a well-placed punch or a blast of super-breath.’ [via Forbidden Planet’s Blog]
October 18, 2008
[comics] Alan Moore CD Covers … a collection of the covers of Moore’s musical output from the Glycon blog (a must-visit site for anybody interested in Alan Moore rarities.)
October 2, 2008
[comics] Alan Moore Knows the Score … the Guardian art critic on Moore … I wouldn’t want to make him sound respectable. Moore’s comics are utterly mad. He believes in the occult and is a practising Magus. In Black Dossier his characters end up in a mystic alternate reality which he seems to be claiming is a real place, not a fiction. In fact he appears to believe that fictional personae have their own existence in some spiritual realm he can access through magic. Now you’re disturbed. Well, we’re always being told art should disturb. Moore makes artists like the Chapmans look like the middle-class entertainers they are. He’s a real force of imagination in a world that is full of fakes.
[tags: Alan Moore, Comics][ permalink][ Comments Off on Alan Moore: ‘…a real force of imagination in a world that is full of fakes.’]
September 9, 2008
[comics] Mr. Moore defends rational thought … another reason why Alan Moore is the greatest living Englishman … ‘The protest, organised by Northampton Socialist Forum, came after an information sign about Darwinism at the museum was partially covered following a complaint by what appears to be a Christian fundamentalist. Pat Markey explained the events leading up to the protest, and writer/artist Alan Moore gave an entertaining speech about religion, free speech, and censorship.’
September 3, 2008
[comics] How would you answer if asked what Watchmen is about? … interesting question posed by Tom Spurgeon … ‘Watchmen is the ultimate mid-life crisis: like Fight Club, but with giant blue balls.’
August 14, 2008
[comics] Watchmen Movie Poster Comparison … compare the recent movie posters with Dave Gibbon’s original posters for the comic … ‘Who Watches the Watchmen?’
August 13, 2008
[comics] The Craft … another long interview with Alan Moore … I remember Julie Schwarz telling me – who was a lovely man – he told me about Mort Weisinger’s funeral – and this was probably just an old Jewish joke that he’d adapted – for Mort Weisinger – but he said that apparently during Jewish funerals there’s a part where people can stand up and spontaneously will say a few words about the departed – personal tributes, things like that. So it’s Mort Weisinger’s funeral, and it gets to this bit in the funeral and there’s absolute dead silence, and the silence just goes on and on and on and nobody gets up and says anything and eventually this guy at the back of the synagogue gets up and says: “His brother was worse!” (laughter).
July 21, 2008
[comics] Alan Moore Still Knows the Score! … Moore interview from Entertainment Weekly … ‘I was also quite heartened the other day when watching the news to see that there were demonstrations outside the Scientology headquarters over here, and that they suddenly flashed to a clip showing all these demonstrators wearing V for Vendetta [Guy Fawkes] masks. That pleased me. That gave me a warm little glow.’ [via Forbidden Planet’s Blog]
June 20, 2008
[comics] You want Moore? You got it! … second part of a Alan Moore interview … On his new novel, Jerusalem: ‘It’s mostly all new stuff, well not new stuff, because most of it’s historic, but I’m just finding out new material all the time. I found out the other day that Hitler’s invasion plan for England ended with Northampton, and there was also the eighth century monk who was directed by angels to place a stone cross here because it was the centre of the land. So the way I see it, that if people want to argue with me about the importance of Northampton, then they’re not only arguing with me, they’re arguing with God, and they’re arguing with Hitler. And that, I think me, God, and Hitler, that’s the dream team!’
June 16, 2008
[comics] We’re off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Northampton – Pádraig Ó Méalóid talks to Alan Moore … first part of a long interview … ‘I think that apparently the hardback collections are about the only thing where you’ve got signs of an increase in sales. The pamphlets are falling by the wayside and you’ve got to suspect that this is probably the future.’ [via Pete Ashton]
June 5, 2008
[comics] Comics USA: Alan Moore Visits New York in 1984 … scans of an article written by Moore after a visit to America in 1984 … ’24th August, Thursday – My Taxi to Heathrow arrives driven by comics’s answer to Robert de Niro, Jamie Delano, who combines scripting ‘Nightraven’ and ‘Captain Britain’ with taxi work. Phyllis and the children Amber and Leah make a brave attempt at concealing the turbulent emotions aroused in them by my departure, but I can tell they are secretly heartbroken. My flight is a seven hour sneak preview of purgatory. I read Alexei Sayle’s ‘Train to Hell’ from cover to cover. I’m sitting in the central aisle and I can’t see out of the window. What’s the point of flying if you can’t see how many thousands of feet you’ve got to fall shrieking to your death?’
May 13, 2008
[comics] The Comic Book Script Archive … interesting list of scripts from Alan Moore, Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction, Brian K. Vaughan and many others… From Alan Moore’s intro to the Killing Joke script: ‘I want you to feel as comfortable and unrestricted as possible during the several months of your bitterly brief mortal lifespan that you’ll spend working on this job, so just lay back and mellow out. Take your shoes and socks off. Fiddle around inbetween your toes. Nobody cares.’
April 28, 2008
[comics] Alan Moore’s Outbreak of Violets … ‘In 1995 Alan Moore wrote the text for a set of 24 cards, called Outbreak of Violets, which were given away at the MTV Europe Music Awards 1995, and have since become something of a Holy Grail for fanatical Alan Moore completists. Like me. The last time a set came up on eBay I bowed out of the bidding at £200, and the item eventually sold for £800, if I remember correctly…’ [via meowwcat]
April 27, 2008
[comics] Invisible Girls and Phantom Ladies: How far have we come? … a scanned Alan Moore essay on women and sexism in comics from 1983 … Moore on being a teenager: ‘From what I can remember of my own time spent in that frenzied, pimply nightmare-world almost anything is likely to become grist to the mill of the adolescent’s deranged fantasies. Me, I was nuts about Hayley Mills…’
April 7, 2008
[comics] The Alan Moore Primer … a beginners guide to Mr. Moore … [via Robot Wisdom] The tangled history of Miracleman—from its origins as a British derivation of the 1940s Captain Marvel character to its current status as the source of a seemingly bottomless legal quagmire—is a Primer unto itself. Moore’s run on the title stretched from its 1982 revival as a feature in Warrior through 16 issues. It begins with the middle-aged Micky Moran remembering he has the ability to transform into a superhero with the use of a magic word, and it ends with Moran’s alter ego becoming a god on earth. In between, Moore teases out the troubling implications always present in the genre. What do these power fantasies mean, and, if left unchecked, where would they take us? Can the gulf between humanity and superhumanity ever be closed? “His emotions are so pure,” Moran tells his wife early in the run, “when he loves you it’s gigantic. His love is so strong and clean… When I love you it’s all tangled up with who’s not doing their share of the washing up and twisted neurotic things like that.” By the end of Moore’s story, the part of Moran that asks such questions is gone.
March 14, 2008
[comics] “…He sure as hell is angry, but he does have moves.” … Progressive Ruin looks at the issue of Denny O’Neil’s The Question where he teams up with Rorschach … ‘Moore and Gibbons aren’t credited at the beginning of the comic with anything in this issue, but they are given a special “thank you.” I wonder if either of them were even aware Rorschach went walkies into this book, and out of their control.
Anyway, Vic and his ’80s hair start reading, and it’s apparently compelling reading since he immediately nods off.’
March 4, 2008
[comics] Big Brother With a Bleeding Heart — interesting blog post critically looking at Alan Moore’s work on V for Vendetta and Watchmen … ‘Rereading this really crystallized for me what I think is the biggest problem with Moore’s writing — his weakness (to paraphrase Borges) for appearing to be a genius. Moore’s an extremely smart writer and plotter, and he fancies himself a metaphysician and political seer. As a writer, he tends to have all the answers, and while that can look pretty amazing when enmeshed in the story, when you take a step back, the discordant cacophony of all the begged questions starts to get a little irritating. Evie occasionally yells at V and tells him he’s a pompous asshole who cares more about puzzles and quotations than about human beings. Of course, Evie always backs down and accepts that V only tortured her because he loves her…but it’s hard not to feel that Moore is loading the dice. It’s Moore, after all, who sits behind that mask; it’s him who’s rigged the game.’
February 27, 2008
[comics] More Alan Moore — unpublished excerpts from an interview in the March edition of Word Magazine … ‘In real life, Graham Greene based Harry Lime in The Third Man on Kim Philby, who’d been his handler in MI6. When Philby defected in 1963,the newspaper headlines read PHILBY IS THE THIRD MAN, but they were simply reiterating a literal truth from a work of fiction. Philby had been the third man all along. And then… Philby was named after Rudyard Kipling’s Kim. Kipling lived in Broadstairs which is where John Buchan wrote The 39 Steps, near the real 39 steps down to the beach. So it all ties together. There’s something about it all that’s more than coincidence. It drives you mad after a while.’ [thanks Fraser]
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