Terry Gilliam, David Bowie and... Rorschach

In 2019, while appearing on BB6’s Paperback Writers, Alan Moore revealed an interesting what-if about Terry Gilliam’s never-made Watchmen movie.

Alan Moore: "I was just remarking that I did hear that when Terry Gilliam was supposed to be doing Watchmen, back in the 1980s. I remember he told me that he had a number of phone calls from David Bowie asking to play the Rorschach character."

More info HERE.

Magic Moore by Matías Bergara

Art by Matías Bergara

Above, a stunning portrait of Moore by acclaimed comic book artist Matías Bergara. 

Bergara drew it the 18th of November to celebrate Moore's birthday.  

More info about the artist: HERE and HERE.

Swamp Thing: Child of God by Jesse Jacobs

Art by Jesse Jacobs.

Acclaimed Canadian comic book artist, illustrator and game designer JESSE JACOBS has created his own unofficial story featuring Swamp Thing. 

It's available here: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3
Enjoy!

Art by Jesse Jacobs.

Swampy Moore by Fr3nk Zappa

Art by Fr3nk Zappa

Above a green, creepy but cool Alan Moore emerging from a Lousiana swamp!

Art by Italian illustrator FR3NK, who's also the co-founder and art director of popular streetwear brand Doomsday and regular collaborator of Italian rapper and producer Salmo.

 

Grazie, Fr3nk! ;)

Alan Moore by Timo Würz

Art by Timo Würz

Above a great portrait of The Man by painter Timo Würz, discovered on ComicArtFans.

Warrior n.6: Alan Moore replies

Alan Moore replies to a fan from the letter column of Warrior n. 6, October 1982.

The Warrior Team,
I have just bought and read Warrior 1 and must congratulate you on an excellent British comic - one which can hold its head high among the best of the U.S. competition. The variety of the stories and the quality of the artwork were exceptional and the whole thing was a long and satisfying 'read'. I hope that Warrior will continue and find the appreciation it deserves.
I do however have one serious complaint, one which attaches itself to the script-writing of Alan Moore. I am a Christian, as well as a comic fan, and I find his constant use of the name of Jesus as a swearword very upsetting. Apart from this his writing is superb. I would simply plead with Alan to bear my feelings in mind (I am sure many other people would find the stories more enjoyable without the constant blasphemy) and reduce or eliminate these references.

I trust that Warrior will develop into a great comic not only in plot and illustration but also in a sense of moral respect.
--- M.L. Evans, 9 Church Street, Rhondda, Mid. Glam.

Alan Moore replies: The Comics Code Authority. Right. I remember that while I was growing up I found it curious that the characters who populated my four-colour reading material, upon being hit by an Ultra-Beam, Theta-Blast, or just-plain-old-fashioned hail of machine gun bullets, would respond with nothing more spirited than an exclamation along the lines of 'Great Scot!' or, a personal favourite, 'Sockamagee!'
Comparing these to the less restrained exclamations that I heard from my tousle-haired playmates made a couple of facts very plain. Firstly, whatever an Ultra Beam was, it didn't hurt much. Secondly, that these splendid characters in the tights and capes were not in the least bit like the real people of my acquaintance, and thirdly, that nothing they said or did mattered very much in the long run as a result of that. They weren't meant to be real people. They were cut outs.
Now that I have, arguably, grown up and find myself in the enviable position of being paid for something that I would probably do as a hobby anyway, I'm in a position to change that situation a little bit. As a script-writer, I want readers to care about my characters, and to care about what happens to them. I believe that the only way to do this is to make them as real as my meagre talent allows ... real in the way they think, real in the way they act, and real in the way they talk. If they are hurt then they feel pain, they bleed, they need time to recuperate. They don't grit their teeth and say 'It's okay, Sarge, that armour-piercing devastator bullet only grazed my scalp.' If they are in love, they might, on occasion, feel the need to express that love physically. Real women and men don't express their affection for each other by trying to uncover the secret identity of their paramour. If they get hit by an Ultra-Beam, or even get one dropped on their foot, they are liable to sum up the situation in language a little more forceful than 'Holy Broken Bones'.
The Warrior audience, as I see it, is made up of adults of all ages. From the moment a child starts school he, or she, is likely to become rapidly conversant with language far stronger than anything likely to appear in the pages of Warrior. To imply, by means of strict censorship, that there are words or concepts that are just too grown up for the feeble little minds of children is both patronising and insulting. I won't be a party to that, and I imagine my creative colleagues on Warrior feel the same way.

The question of whether the usage of words such as 'Jesus' or 'Christ' is permissible is a slightly more complicated one and deserves a serious answer. I think my position is this: That while I respect the right of anyone to follow their own particular faith, it is not realistic to portray a world in my writing which is only populated by Christians and Christians alone. Surely, a knowledge of the way people speak needn't be seen as an instruction to speak that way yourself? Surely, it doesn't affect your faith one way or the other to know that there are people who do not share it, people to whom words like 'Jesus' and 'Christ' are merely to be used as exclamations with little thought for the ideology behind them? I would have thought that in all Christian literature, the Bible included, there are examples of anti-Christian behaviour of a far more serious nature than that of taking the name of the Lord in vain. I notice also that you voice no objection to the wholesale killing of several human beings throughout the various stories in Warrior 1. Surely this too is anti-Christian behaviour, and, as a Christian, upsetting to you?
Like I said, I respect your sentiments entirely and was very pleased by the polite and civilized way in which you raised your objections. Unfortunately, I don't see what I can do to make you any happier about the situation and remain true to my intentions as an artist to portray reality in the way that I see it. Perhaps other readers may have some thoughts on this issue which might be helpful?

A.Moore 67

Happy 67th birthday, Uncle Al! 

Above, a great photographic portrait by Piet Corr, published in 2003 on the pages of Alan Moore: Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman (Abiogenesis Press).

The Man has style, for sure!

Again... Auguri, Master!

Discarded Watchmen page

Today, during the Comic Art Live weekend, BritComicsArt.com sold a very special piece of (unfinished) original art and comics history: 

"Rare unpublished Watchmen page of Dr Manhattan on Mars. Drawn for the series in 1986 but discarded when Dave [Gibbons] decided to change the layout. A historical glimpse into the creative process." 

Above, the unpublished page (it's page 28, the final one from issue n.4, "Watchmaker"): panel 3 and 4 are not present and caption boxes in panel 1 and 2 are differently positioned respect to the final printed page (below). 

 

I have no details about the final selling price.

Moore Comics and the City

The book Comics and the City - Urban Space in Print, Picture and Sequence contains two essays about Moore comics:

9. Anthony Lioi: The Radiant City: New York as Ecotopia in Promethea, Book V

12. Björn Quiring: "A Fiction That We Must Inhabit" - Sense Production in Urban Spaces According to Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's From Hell

The volume, edited by Jörn Ahrens and Arno Meteling, is published by Bloomsbury. 

More details HERE.

On Harry Potter and... being scary

Excerpt from an interview published in 2004 on comicworldnews.com, a translation from a French interview done for Comic Box. The complete article is available here: Part 1 and Part 2.

Comic Box: As a specialist of magic stuff, how do you look at the Harry Potter phenomenon?
Alan Moore: Well, I try to think about it the least possible! I don’t want to be rude or insulting for Ms J.K. Rowling, because it is a wonderful destiny for a young single mother to succeed in making a worldwide hit book, written on her spare time. I bought the first book when it came out, because I liked the illustration on the cover, but I never read it. When everybody started talking about it I remember it was that book. So, I forced myself to read the first twenty pages, but I wasn’t convinced. Maybe, it is because it is aimed at children… Still, usually I love children books. I just find that the quality of Harry Potter in terms of writing is not up to the standards I’m used to for children books.

C.B.: You have to admit that considering your style, it’s a surprise to hear you like children books! You do everything in your power to look scary!
A.M.: And it’s not going to change (laughs). My wife offered me a very very long coat for my birthday. Very gothic, I must say, like the monks’ robe, very frightening (laughs), I like it a lot… But I wouldn’t like to see somebody dressed like that coming out of the mist! I was already scary without the coat! One night I was coming home, I petrified a group of men going out of the pub! And when I moved away I heard them say: «Phew! I don’t even want to know what THAT was!» (laughs).

C.B.: And you also have a lot of rings! Kids remark that…

A.M.: That’s true. But they don’t seem to be scared by that. They don’t necessarily have the references to be scared by someone like me, they’re my greatest fans! I have also some success with the old ladies. When they realize that I won’t kill them or steal their bags, they are so relieved that they find me pleasant. Now I have to convince the people between the young and the old, who represent the major part of humanity, and I should do something good!

The Man from Northampton by David Roach

Art by DAVID ROACH.

Above, a mesmerizing, awesome Alan Moore portrait, captured in a real moment of grace, by phenomenal British comic book artist, illustrator and comic art scholar DAVID ROACH.

 

It's simply a marvel! Fantastico! Grazie, David!