Gentlemen in the dark

Art by Matteo Scalera

Above an intense League of Extraordinary Gentlemen portrait drawn by Italian comic book artist Matteo Scalera.

For more info about Matteo Scalera visit his blog.

Alan Moore and the Sardinian mask

The Romans used to say "tempus fugit". So it was 2002 and I wrote these little piece after sending... a Sardinian mask to Master writer Alan Moore as a gift for his 49th birthday. Enjoy! :)

Alan Moore and the Sardinian mask

by smoky man
photos © pietdesnapp

It's a long story with a happy ending.

Or, if you prefer, a fan's dream come true.

It is no secret to I say I love Alan Moore's work. He is the best writer the comics medium has ever had. And I conceived a whole "online special" as a homage to his work and genius!

But let's get straight to the point.

Recently I co-edited the enriched Italian edition of "The Pocket Essentials - Alan Moore" and I had the great fortune to have contact with The Man himself. He was very gentle and supportive with the project. A real Extraordinary Gentleman.

I knew he had a huge collection of strange objects and paraphernalia. I mean, he is a Magus, he had to like strange stuff! 

So, some weeks ago I thought to send him a special gift. An early gift for his 49th birthday.

Living in Sardinia, a beautiful island set in the middle of the Mediterranean sea, it was easy to find a typical product from local folklore.

And I decided to send Alan a traditional mask used during the carnival ceremonies in a little Sardinian town called Ottana.

It's a wooden mask in a shape of a horned bovine. It is related to the ancient agro-pastoral rites performed by the locals to pray that Mother Nature be fruitful in Spring and, maybe, to drive the evil spirits out. Anyway, I am not an expert, so don't believe everything I've said.

What is important is Alan liked it very much and was very pleased by the "originality" of the object. And I know he has reserved it a special place on one of the walls in his home.

The photos that you can see here are the proof of this fan's dream come true (a special thanks to photographer and friend Piet Corr and to Alan for his permission to show them).

Ah, if I am still dreaming please don't wake me up ;-)

Originally posted in November 2002 on Ultrazine website.

All photos © pietdesnapp

Fast forward to... 2010.
Dodgem Logic issue six, October-November 2010. Alan Moore's short essay titled The possibility of Life on another World, with illustrations by Hoax.
Look at page 37... the mask is there!!!
Sardinia rules! 'Nuff said! :)

Dodgem Logic N.6, page 37. Illustration by Hoax.

About Hoax's Dodgem Logic N.6 making-of 

visit this link and watch the related video.

Marvel of the future

Art by Paul Renaud

Above a Marvelman portrait by French comic book artist and illustrator Paul Renaud.

For more info about Paul Renaud visit his site.

AM Portrait: Antony Johnston's homage

From the sold-out Alan Moore: Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman book (2003, Abiogenesis Press, page 119), in the following you can read the piece written by Antony Johnston to celebrate Mr. Moore's 50th birthday.

Posted on this blog with the author's permission.

Pick up the phone
© Antony Johnston

I can't do it. I can't pick up the phone.
Rewind: I'm eleven years old. I read comics. When I grow up, I'm going to draw them. I know this, in the unconscious reaches of my juvenile heart. I know it. And the comic I will work for is called 2000AD.

Understand, this was a time when 2000AD wasn't the only boy's comic on the newsstands. ACTION, BATTLE, SCREAM, EAGLE... Seemed like every six months there'd be a new comic launched, a new way to spend that pocket money. And spend it I did. Who needs sweets when you can have comics?

But there was never any question that 2000AD was the superior comic. Some of us read other comics too. Some of us - well, me - read pretty much every other comic too. But in the playground, on the way home from school, wherever you went in my world, everyone read 2000AD.

EAGLE had DOOMLORD, and DEATH WISH. SCREAM had THIRTEENTH FLOOR. BATTLE had CHARLEY'S WAR. ACTION had ACTION FORCE.

But 2000AD had D.R. & QUINCH, and SKIZZ, and HALO JONES, and ABELARD SNAZZ, and these amazing TIME TWISTERS that bent your mind out of shape.

2000AD had Alan Moore. But I didn't realise it.

Forward a year or two: somewhere in the darkness, a switch is thrown. A light bulb comes on above my head. And I realise, for the first time, that a comic doesn't just come into being. An artist doesn't just sit down and draw stuff until a comic bursts from his head fully formed like Athena.

Someone actually sits down and writes a story. And someone else sits down and draws it. And someone else sits down and puts the letters on.

And some people write more than one story.

Great Scott!

That was it. That was when I began reading credits. This would culminate in my current state, a state where I must read the indicia of a novel, where I must watch the credits of a movie, where I perplex my friends by nodding and saying, "Oh yeah, them" in a knowledgable grunt when I see casting companies credited on screen.

It all started here. With 2000AD. And Alan Moore.

Naturally, I was going to write and draw my stories, because I was special. And my prepubescent plagiarism logically went, well if he writes really good stories, I should read them and re-read them, because they'll teach me how to write really good stories.

Bear in mind, at the time I was also blatantly copying Steve Dillon's artwork.

Forward another year or two. My stories are, of course, still crap. Even I can tell that. Doesn't stop me exactly, but despondency is starting to set in. I'm fourteen years old, and hardly anyone I know still reads comics. We've all started playing roleplaying games instead. My parents don't have the faintest idea what this comics lark is about. Frankly, they're amazed I'm still reading them.

These are the dark days. I have no-one to turn to. No-one knows my pain. (Insert other teenage angst here as appropriate.)

Then. Then, my local TV station repeats a late-night series made the year before, called ENGLAND, THEIR ENGLAND. It showcases unusual British talents and success stories. I can't remember what the rest were - doubtless people who run proper businesses, with big buildings and machines and everything - but this one, I remember.

It is called MONSTERS, MANIACS AND MOORE. Oh, yes.

I duly set the VCR.

Like the tape I would have some years later of Bill Hicks' RELENTLESS performance, MM&M would get to know the inside of my parent's VCR very well indeed in a short space of time. I had, in my clumsy teenage fashion, found a guru.

The programme taught me three major things about Alan Moore.

1) He is fucking bonkers. (See 2)
2) He is probably the most sane person on earth. (See 1)
3) He is from Northampton.

Wait a minute! Northampton? That's just down the road from me! My great-grandfather still lives there!

From that day on, my confidence never wavered. It was possible to come from a working-class family (check), to have a distinctly average formal education (check), to be from the Midlands (check), and yet still write comics. Great comics, at that.

I could do it. I was going to do it. I had it all planned out.

And then along came beer, sex, more beer, and... Well, I carried on reading comics. For a bit. But, you know - sex. And beer. Comics didn't stand a fucking chance.

Forward: what about this bloody phone? Yeah, yeah, I'm getting to that.

So it's early 2000. A few months previously, I'd started reading comics again. Because I'd decided I wanted to write them.

(The intervening time is a long and largely boring story. All you need to know is that my art skills never progressed beyond the age of sixteen, and that's not saying much. A writer, then.)

So this friend of mine, this guy I've gotten to know since entering the now-largely-online comics community, asks me if I want Alan Moore's phone number. Do what, I say. He repeats the offer. Just don't tell anyone where you got it, he says, or Alan will fucking kill me. Go on then, I reply. Why not?

Half a millisecond after I write it down, I realise why not: I can never call this number.

I mean, since I last read an Alan Moore comic he's stopped going to conventions. He's become a magician. He doesn't even have an internet connection, for heaven's sake! This man clearly does not want to be randomly contacted by some star-struck old fanboy. And this star-struck old fanboy does not want to approach publishers and have them think, "Fuck, this is that guy Alan Moore told me was stalking him. Reject! Reject!"

Paranoia does horrible things to your brainmaggots, I can tell you.

So I didn't use it. I was terrified to my core.

Forward again: it's 2002, and I've just been approached by Avatar to adapt a short Alan Moore story into comic form. After picking myself up off the floor, I do just that. It goes well. Alan seems to like my stuff, and what I've done with his story.

Piiiiick meeeee uuuuup, whispers the phone. Phooooone hiiiiiim.

No. Abject terror, it turns out, is a powerful deterrent. Who knew?

Forward again: it's later in 2002. I get an email from the producer of the FROM HELL movie. He's interested in one of my comics, wants to talk about maybe optioning it. Now, by this time I've already had some first-hand experience of producers, and realised that they're just like everyone else; some are good people, some are fuckwits, and it's sometimes hard to tell which camp someone falls into until you've already wasted hours on the phone.

So I look up the guy's credentials. Turns out he's produced some damn good films. Friends tell me "Yeah, he's for real. He's a good guy." But these are people who live and breathe the movie industry. I want an objective opinion, from someone who isn't afraid to speak their mind.

I can tell you're ahead of me, here.

I am literally shaking as I pick up the phone. Every possible response runs through my head. "Who the fuck are you and how did you get this number?" surfaces with alarming regularity.

I can't do it. I can't pick up the phone. He's not going to know who the hell I am. Why should he?

Deep breath. I remind myself that this is nothing to do with comics. Nothing to do with the adaptations I've done of this man's work. Nothing to do with me being a fanboy. This is business. Everyone's told me he's a nice guy, so long as you're not wasting his time or trying to rip him off.

Yeah, like that helps me any. I'm still shaking, and now my throat feels like a camel's gonads to boot.

I pick up the phone.

"Hello, is that Alan?"

"Yes." (Christ, his voice is deep! Jesus fuck, does he chew gravel or something?!)

"Alan, it's Antony Johnston--"

"Oh, hello Antony. How are you...?"


Antony Johnston
17/03/03
England

Antony Johnston is an award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of graphic novels, video games and books, with titles including Wasteland, Daredevil, The Coldest City, Dead Space, and ZombiU. He adapted several Alan Moore prose works into comic form for Avatar Press, including The Courtyard and Another Suburban Romance. He has also adapted into a 10 issue series Moore's Fashion Beast, a screen play commissioned by Malcolm McLaren and written by Moore in 1985.

All frames are from 1987 documentary show "Monsters, Maniacs and Moore".

Mini Watchmen

Art by Chris Giarrusso.

Above a nice portrait of the Watchmen as... babies. Kind of. 
Illustration realized by artist Chris Giarrusso. 

Extra details here and here.

For more info about Chris Giarrusso visit his site.

AM Portrait: An unearthly gentleman

From the sold-out volume Alan Moore: Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman (published in 2003 by Abiogenesis Press), pp. 89-92.

In the following you can read (click on the image to enlarge) An unearthly gentleman, a 4 page comics homage, co-written by Randy & Jean-Marc Lofficier and drawn by Gil Formosa.
It's a funny little gem with some surprising references and an atmosphere similar to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. So... Enjoy!

The comics story has been posted on this blog with the authors' permission.

For more info about GIL FORMOSA visit his site. Original art here.

For more info about RANDY and JEAN-MARC LOFFICIER visit their site.

An unearthly gentleman. Story by Randy & JM Lofficier, art by G. Formosa.

Alex Ross: the League and 30 Rock

Art by Alex Ross.

Artist extraordinaire Alex Ross portraits the cast of American television comedy series 30 Rock as... The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

More details here.

AM Portrait: Louis: Lost on the Moore

Art by Metaphrog.

From Alan Moore: Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman (pubblished in 2003 by Abiogenesis Press), pp. 65-69.

In the following you can read (click on the image to enlarge) Lost on the Moore, a 5 page comics homage, written and drawn by METAPHROG, featuring their character Louis in a little adventure full of references to Moore's comics and characters.

The comics has been posted on this blog with the authors' permission. Enjoy!

For more info about METAPHROG and their works visit their site.

 

 

 

Louis: Lost on the Moore. Story and art by Metaphrog.

Alan Moore in NY, 1987

Alan Moore during the Watchmen Signing at Shakespeare and Co. Bookstore, New York City in 1987.

All photographs by Jeff Vargon. Published on this blog with his permission.

Thanks Jeff for sharing these great memories from the past.