Moore Music in Blow up!

Blow UP. n. 254-255.

Issue 254-255 (July-August summer special) of Italian monthly magazine Blow UP. dedicated to "music and other side effects" included a 4page special about Moore's musical connections and works by well known music critic Vittore Baroni for his great "Cabinet of Curiosities" column. 

Well done, Vittore! Bravo!

Universal Moore by Angelo Secci

Art by Angelo Secci.

Above, a stellar portrait of our beloved Man from Northampton by Italian artist and experimenter ANGELO SECCI. You can see a selection of his works here. 

The illustration has been used as cover for an Italian collection of Moore's interviews (here).

Alan Moore by Gabriel Hernández Walta

Art by Gabriel Hernández Walta.

"Warming-up with Mr. Moore..." Posted by acclaimed Spanish comic book artist and illustrator Gabriel Hernández Walta on his Twitter page, here. 

¡Bravo! - ¡Muy bien!

Alan Moore on Blake's The Ghost of a Flea

Art by William Blake.

Excerpt from an article published on the Guardian. The complete piece is available HERE. 

Alan Moore: As imagined by the Lambeth angel whisperer, the threatening and somehow smug abomination is theatrical in its demeanour, consciously performing for the viewer. Glossed by Blake, the flea is the transposed soul of a murderer trapped in a form that, while both bloodthirsty and powerful, is too small to become a mighty engine of destruction. Thus condemned, it struts its miniature domain and makes a swaggering display of cruelties that it can no longer accomplish. With nothing save an acorn cap to represent its drinking bowl of blood, with nothing but a thorn to serve as improvised prison yard shiv, this former demon is demoted and no longer dangerous. In its fallen state, more mischievous than malefic now, the has-been homicidal maniac is almost poignant.

Warren Ellis on Moore's retirement and LOEG

Excerpt from Orbital Operations, Warren Ellis' newsletter, dated 21 July 19.

Warren Ellis: I note here the official retirement of Mr Alan Moore from the field, after the conclusion of his LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN in collaboration with Kev O'Neill, Ben Dimagmaliw and Todd Klein. He changed everything.  Anglophone comics went through a profound transformation due to his work in the field. We wish him a peaceful retirement from the comics form and an immortal lifespan to enjoy it in.

I also note the conclusion of LOEG itself, a work whose final sequence is entirely without human characters, because none of the players are human: simply names and costumes moved around a burning stage before an audience numbed by their terrible aspect, and therein lies the lesson.

Also posted here.

These Boots Are Made for Flyin' by Otto Gabos

Art by Otto Gabos.

Above, The Flying Boots by Italian comic book artist, illustrator and graphic novelist Otto Gabos.

The illustration is paying homage to Alan Moore playing the role of Mr. Metterton in Show Pieces. Mo(o)re also HERE.

Grazie, Otto! Great boots, mate!

The Tempest: Gosh Exclusive 3-D Bookplate

Art by Kevin O'Neill. Colours: by Ben Dimagmaliw.

This October Gosh will release an A5 exclusive bookplate to celebrate the conclusion of The LoEG: The Tempest and its release in hardcover volume format.

The A5 plate features an original piece of work by Kevin O'Neill, coloured by Ben Dimagmaliw, and processed for 3-D by Charles Barnard & Christian LeBlanc.

Limited to  500 numbered copies signed by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill. Final plate will have 3-D elements!

More info HERE! Pre-order HERE!

TCJ reviews The LoEG: Tempest

Art by Kevin O'Neill.

Excerpt from an article by Brian Nicholson published the 29th of July on The Comics Journal site.

The complete piece is available here.

"[... ] The story that Moore needs to tell is a different one. It is not about the psychology that motivates the electorate and their representatives, but it does understand that psychology to be a fraught mess. Everyone involved has a different framework they’re approaching things with, and these are in conflict with one another for multiple reasons, not the least being that many of them are completely deranged. This is depressing on a lot of levels but it also heaps absurdity atop absurdity, and so while times have never been darker and the stakes are incredibly high, almost everything being said by anyone with any degree of power is very stupid all the time now. So it follows that The Tempest often does not seem to drive itself forward using a logic based in realistic characterization or mimetic naturalism. It is written in a register closer to the humor strips Moore wrote in his Tomorrow Stories anthology than it is to From Hell. Tragedy is repeating itself as farce, and Moore knows the material he’s parodying far better than Donald Trump knows Ronald Reagan’s presidency.

The two most recent interviews of Moore’s I’ve seen support the notion that his current work should be read as a political project: He interviewed the writer Jarett Kobek for a Youtube video, wherein Kobek talked about his new book, where an author’s attempts to write a fantasy novel give way to tormented complaining about the overwhelming state of the world. Talking about the impossibility of telling a story at this point in time, Moore nodded in agreement, even though The Tempest does satisfy as a narrative in a way I assume Kobek’s text is disinterested in. A few days before the final issue shipped to stores, Moore appeared on the podcast Chapo Trap House, a show whose political concerns basically correspond to the complaints about milquetoast centrist punditry I’m offering now. [... ]"

You can read the full article here.