Chester Brown on Alan Moore and Watchmen

Watchmen n.3. Cover art by Dave Gibbons.

Excerpt from The Comics Journal n. 135 (April 1990). The complete interview is available here.

SCOTT GRAMMEL: CBG has pointed out as proof of comics’ maturity that we have hardcover collections of Watchmen and Dark Knight, and paperback collections of Chaykin’s Shadow, and the like. I’m wondering if you find any worth in the current vogue for high-gloss superheroes.

CHESTER BROWN: I like some of it. I like Alan Moore’s stuff. He’s a good writer, and I’m glad he’s moved beyond that stage, that he’s doing his own stuff now. But I read Watchmen and enjoyed it.

GRAMMEL: Do you think it proved that comics are art?

BROWN: I don’t think he proved it. I mean, wasn’t it proved before him?

GRAMMEL: But it’s now being taught in university classes. Didn’t you see that in CBG? [Laughter.] Which only goes to show that they’ll have classes in everything.

BROWN: Yeah, I know.

GRAMMEL: What did you think of the art in Watchmen?

BROWN: I liked it. Dave Gibbons is talented. He draws well.

GRAMMEL: Didn’t you feel claustrophobic reading it? It was so tight.

BROWN: No, I liked it fine.

The complete interview is available here.

Silk Spectre by David Roach

Art by David Roach.

Above, a gorgeous Silk Spectre portrayed by British comic book artist and writer David Roach.

1963 ashcans

Above and below, covers of the limited edition 1963 Alan Moore/Stephen R. Bissette IMAGE COMICS ASHCAN PREVIEW: THE FEARLESS FURY and IMAGE COMICS ASHCAN PREVIEW: THE UNBELIEVABLE N-MAN!
 

These ‘ashcan’ previews of then-forthcoming Image Comics series 1963 by Alan Moore, Rick Veitch, Stephen R. Bissette and friends were printed in limited quantities of 2500 copies each; produced and published by Moondog Comics. They're each 26 pages, feature bonus character design artwork and notes on the Fury and N-Man's creation.

Super Moore by Lorenzo Palloni

Art by Lorenzo Palloni.

Above, an inspired portrait of Alan Moore drawn by Italian comic book golden boy, artist and writer LORENZO PALLONI.

For more info about Lorenzo Palloni: blog - Mammaiuto

Alan Moore by Massimo Giacon

Art by MASSIMO GIACON.

Above, a stunning Alan Moore portrait by Italian Renaissance man, comic book artist, musician, painter, performer and designer MASSIMO GIACON.

More information about the artist can be found at his website, HERE.

Grazie, Massimo! ❤

Alan Moore and... the Brexit Poem

Alan Moore by Glyn Ackroyd.

Excerpt from a letter - dated 2 February 2017 - written by Alan Moore to comedian Stewart Lee in the series of correspondence in the Longplayer Letters.

 

Alan Moore: [...] I’d like to leave you with the ‘Brexit Poem’ that I jotted down in an idle moment a month or two ago:

“I wrote this verse the moment that I heard/ the good news that we’d got our language back/ whence I, in a misjudged racial attack,/ kicked out French, German and Italian words/ and then I” [...] 

The complete letter is available HERE.

Alan Moore and Eternalism

Excerpt from an interview published on Super Weird Substance.

The interview is a full transcript of the one filmed and shown at the debut Festival 23, which took place in South Yorkshire between 22nd and 24th July 2016. 

Alan Moore: [...] I found out this idea is called ‘Eternalism’ apparently. It’s the idea that’s as we were saying, that if this is a solid universe then we exist in that universe as fourth dimensional entities.

I imagine it as a bit like a spacetime centipede; it would have a lot of arms and a lot of legs and its tail would be emerging from between our mother’s legs, it would have its origins in genetic fluids; its far end would be cremated dust and it would be perhaps, what 70-80 years long. And this centipede-like life form is a little filament that is embedded in this huge, eternally unmoving, unchanging mass of spacetime.

It is just our consciousness moving along these centipede-like lines and experiencing each moment as if it was in a sequence, whereas in fact it’s like a strip of film that, all of those little moments on the strip of film, they’re not moving, they’re not changing – you can keep that strip of film for 100 years and those pictures will not have changed, they will not have moved.

Only when we have turned the projector beam, or by analogy, our consciousness, only when we run that over those images does Charlie Chaplain do his funny walk, does he fight the baddy, does he get the girl; do we have the appearance of a story, a narrative and motives and cause and effect and all of those things. Whereas actually, it’s just these frozen individual moments with our consciousness moving between them.

Now that would mean that in that huge block of spacetime, every moment that has ever existed or will ever exist are all existing conterminously, at the same time. Including all of those moments that made up our lives and the lives of everybody that we knew and the one thing that we can definitely say about those lives is that we were alive during them.

If this is an unchanging and unmoving universe, then we’re still alive during them because everything back there in the past, the fact that there’s no decent telly on a Saturday night, all those buildings we love, they got pulled down, those people that we liked, they ended up dying, Spangles, they don’t make them anymore! [...]

The complete interview is available HERE.

Alan Moore by Farel Dalrymple

Art by Farel Dalrymple.

Above, a superb portrait of Alan Moore (I love the ringed fingers and the flame!) drawn by American comic book artist and creator FAREL DALRYMPLE.

For more info about Farel Dalrymple: Official page - Tumblr