Jan 31, 2012

League: Century N.3 - 2009


In CHAPTER THREE, the narrative draws to its cataclysmic close in London 2009. The magical child whose ominous coming has been foretold for the past hundred years has now been born and has grown up to claim his dreadful heritage. More here.

Jan 25, 2012

20th Anniversary Watchmen tribute: Adrian Veidt

Art by Luca Enoch
In 2006 I edited "Watchmen 20 anni dopo", an Italian Watchmen tribute book which was basically a collection of 12 brand new essays by well known comics experts analyzing Moore & Gibbons masterpiece in the occasion of its 20th anniversary. The volume was published by Lavieri with all net profits donated to AIMA, the Italian Alzheimer organization. 
The book also contained a 24 illustration gallery: above you can admire a very intense portrait of Adrian Veidt, the man behind Ozymandias, drawn by the amazing Italian author LUCA ENOCH.
So enjoy and...  many thanks to Mr.Enoch for his permission to post his illustration here!

Luca Enoch is one of the most well-known and popular Italian comics artists and writers. Some info, in English, about Enoch can be found in Lambiek Comiclopedia. He is currently working on his sci-fi series Lilith for SBE and on several other projects and stories.
More news and info about Luca Enoch at his Italian blog: here.

Jan 12, 2012

AM Portrait: Master of Reality

Master of Reality by T. Faraci (story) and P. Frisenda (art)

As I previously wrote, the Alan Moore: Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman tribute book also contained some comics short stories. 
Some contributors played with Moore-related characters and concepts but others had Moore himself as "special guest" of their story. The last one is the case of Master of reality (with an obvious reference to the Black Sabbath's album too), the 2page story shown here, created by acclaimed Italian artists Tito Faraci (writer) and Pasquale Frisenda (art).

It's a silent story full of "Easter eggs" in each panel. For example in the opening one you can see a lot of characters from the ABC line such as Promethea and some LXG members (on the left), Tom Strong (on the center) and Top 10's Toybox and Smax. Have fun trying to find them all! :)

The story can be read at page 100 of the sold-out volume and it appears here on AMW with the artists' permission. Again, many thanks to Mr. Faraci & Frisenda for their great contribution to the Alan Moore: Portrait.
Master of Reality by T. Faraci (story) and P. Frisenda (art)
Tito Faraci is one of the most appreciated, popular and prolific Italian comics writer. He worked for Disney Itay and penned stories for best selling series such as Diabolik, Dylan Dog and Tex (Sergio Bonelli Editore). He also wrote a bunch of Marvel superheroes stories and his Daredevil/Capitan America one, titled Dead On Arrival, was also published in the USA market. Recently his horror novel, Oltre la soglia, has been published in Italy by Piemme. 

Pasquale Frisenda started his career in the 90ies. Then he became part of the art team at work on Sergio Bonelli Editore series such as Magico Vento (he also provided covers for the series) and Tex, drawing in 2009 the acclaimed annual Patagonia.

Jan 1, 2012

Alan & Glycon wish you a Happy 2012

Art by  Frank Quitely (via Bleeding Cool)
From BBC Radio 4's Thought For The Day slot (Dec 31, 2011).
I discovered the transcript at Forbidden Planet blog.
You can hear it, directly from the voice of the Bearded One, here. :)

And, of course... HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hello everybody, my name’s Alan Moore, and I earn a living by making up stories about things that have never actually happened.
When it comes to my spiritual beliefs that’s perhaps why I worship a second century human headed snake god called Glycon, who was exposed as a ventriloquist’s dummy nearly 2000 years ago. Famed throughout the Roman Empire, Glycon was the creation of an entrepreneur known as Alexander the false prophet, which is a terrible name to go into business under.
A live, tame boa constrictor provided the puppet’s body, while its artificial head had heavy-lidded eyes and long blond hair. In many ways Glycon looked a bit like Paris Hilton, but perhaps more likeable and more biologically credible.
Looks aside, I’m interested in the snake god purely as a symbol, indeed one of humanity’s oldest symbols, which can stand for wisdom, for healing, or, according to etho-botanist Jeremy Narby, for our spiralling and snake-like DNA itself.
But I’m also interested in having a god who is demonstrably a ventriloquist’s dummy. After all, isn’t this the way we use most of our deities. We can look through our various sacred books and by choosing one ambiguous passage or one interpretation over another we can pretty much get our gods to justify our own current agendas. We can make them say what we want them to say.
The big advantage of worshipping an actual glove puppet of course is that if things start to get unruly or out of hand you can always put them gak in the gox. And you know, it doesn’t matter if they don’t want to go gak in the gox, they have to go gak in the gox.
Anyway, thank you very much for listening and from both me and Glycon, a very happy new year to you all.