Nemo news

Art by Kevin O'Neill.

Topshelf site reports details about the final book in Nemo trilogy scheduled to be released in Spring 2015, co-published by Top Shelf and Knockabout:

"In a world where all the fictions ever written coalesce into a rich mosaic, it’s 1975. Janni Dakkar, pirate queen of Lincoln Island and head of the fabled Nemo family, is eighty years old and beginning to display a tenuous grasp on reality. Pursuing shadows from her past—or her imagination—she embarks on what may be a final voyage down the vastness of the Amazon, a last attempt to put to rest the blood-drenched spectres of old.

With allies and adversaries old and new, we accompany an ageing predator on her obsessive trek into the cultural landscape of a strange new continent, from the ruined city of Yu-Atlanchi to the fabulous plateau of Maple White Land. As the dark threads in her narrative are drawn into an inescapable web, Captain Nemo leads her hearse-black Nautilus in a desperate raid on horrors believed dead for decades."[from Top Shelf site]

In the meantime, Gosh! is releasing a new exclusive screen print, limited to 250 copies and signed by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill, featuring Janni Nemo and chief baddies from the book. More details here. 

Previously they produced this and this. 

Nemo exclusive screen print. Art by Kevin O'Neill.

Alan Moore by Giuseppe Palumbo

Art by Giuseppe Palumbo.

Above, an intense portrait of Moore drawn by acclaimed Italian artist Giuseppe Palumbo for Alan Moore: Ritratto di uno Straordinario Gentleman (2003, Black Velvet Editrice, page 146), the Italian edition of the Alan Moore: Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman book.
The image was specifically created for the Ritratto and it is contained only in the Italian edition.

For more info about  Giuseppe Palumbo visit his site: here.
A short Palumbo bio, in English - even if outdated - can be read on Lambiek Comiclopedia: here.

Alan Moore by Glenn Fabry

Art by Glenn Fabry.

Above, a portrait sketch of Alan Moore by acclaimed artist Glenn Fabry. Drawn inside a copy of Fabry's Sketchbook II produced by BerserkArt.

More info about Glenn Fabry: HERE.

Alan Moore and Glycon

Art by Facundo Percio.

We already talked about God is Dead: Book of Acts ‘Alpha’ here. The book will be released from Avatar Press in August and contains a short written by Moore. 

Moore himself appears as a character in the story when his ‘snake puppet’ god Glycon is demanded to manifest himself on Earth. 

Above and following you can see some interior pencil pages by Argentine artist Facundo Percio.

More info about the project at BleedinCool site, here.

Art by Facundo Percio.

Miracleman by Rick Veitch

Art by Rick Veitch.

The great Rick Veitch is drawing new covers for Marvel Comics' reprint of Miracleman. Above you can admire the pencils for upcoming issue N.10.

For more info about Miracleman art by Veitch visit his site: here.

Dark cute Alan Moore by Tuono Pettinato

Art by Tuono Pettinato.

Above, a funny but maybe "plausible" portrait of Alan Moore drawn by well-known Italian cartoonist Tuono Pettinato for my personal collection.

For more information about Tuono Pettinato visit his blog (here) and Tumblr (here).

How would Gilliam have ended his Watchmen movie?

Joel Silver talks about Terry Gilliam's idea for the ending of his lost Watchmen movie adaptation. Read the complete interview at Comingsoon.net: here.

CS: Speaking of ones that got away, as a die-hard Terry Gilliam fan I have to know if there's anything juicy you can tell me about his conception of "Watchmen"?
Joel Silver: It was a MUCH much better movie.

CS: Than the one Zack Snyder made...
Silver: Oh God. I mean, Zack came at it the right way but was too much of a slave to the material.

CS: Agreed.
Silver: I was trying to get it BACK from the studio at that point, because I ended up with both "V For Vendetta" and "Watchmen" and I kinda lost "Watchmen." I was happy with the way "V" came out, but we took a lot of liberties. That's one of the reasons Alan Moore was so unpleasant to deal with. The version of "Watchmen" that Zack made, they really felt the notion. They went to Comic-Con, they announced it, they showed things, the audience lost their minds but it wasn't enough to get a movie that would have that success. What Terry had done, and it was a Sam Hamm script--who had written a script that everybody loved for the first "Batman"--and then he brought in a guy who'd worked for him to do work on it [Charles McKeown, co-writer of "Brazil"]. What he did was he told the story as-is, but instead of the whole notion of the intergalactic thing which was too hard and too silly, what he did was he maintained that the existence of Doctor Manhattan had changed the whole balance of the world economy, the world political structure. He felt that THAT character really altered the way reality had been. He had the Ozymandias character convince, essentially, the Doctor Manhattan character to go back and stop himself from being created, so there never would be a Doctor Manhattan character. He was the only character with real supernatural powers, he went back and prevented himself from being turned into Doctor Manhattan, and in the vortex that was created after that occurred these characters from "Watchmen" only became characters in a comic book.

CS: That's fascinating. Very META.
Silver: Oh yeah. So the three characters, I think it was Rorschach and Nite Owl and Silk Spectre, they're all of the sudden in Times Square and there's a kid reading a comic book. They become like the people in Times Square dressing up like characters as opposed to really BEING those characters. There's a kid reading the comic book and he's like, "Hey, you're just like in my comic book." It was very smart, it was very articulate, and it really gave a very satisfying resolution to the story, but it just didn't happen. Lost to time.

Alan Moore portrait by Nicolò Pellizzon

Art by Nicolò Pellizzon.

Above, a stunning and weird portrait of Alan Moore drawn by Italian artist Nicolò Pellizzon for my personal collection.

For more information about the hyper-talented Pellizzon visit his site: here.

Why I hate Alan Moore by Steve Niles

The Saga of Swamp Thing N. 37 featuring the first appearance of John Constantine.

From the sold-out Alan Moore: Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman book, page 73. 

In the following you can read the contribution written by acclaimed horror writer STEVE NILES.
Posted on this blog with the author's permission. 

Why I hate Alan Moore

© Steve Niles

There are signposts in life, crossroads, and for me Alan  Moore is one of those markers.

I’d never heard of Alan  Moore when I first read comics. I was strictly a Marvel kid with the occasional defection to Creepy, Swamp Thing and Batman. By the time I was 14, I’d given up on them. I sold my collection and used the money to buy stereo equipment and some other teen supplies, and I thought comic books were behind me for good. I stopped thinking about them. No more Spiderman, no more Fantastic Four. After a short lifetime of reading and collecting, I was done.

A few years went by. I was in Washington D.C. visiting my dad on one of those terminally awkward, post-divorce weekend visits. There was a comic store in Georgetown. Completely unaware I’d abandoned funny books my Dad slapped me with some cash and sent me into the store.

I was stunned. Comics had changed since I fled the scene. There seemed to be some excitement brewing in the musty little shop. Something sinister and fun. There was a guy behind the counter. His name was Don and he demanded I buy a title. He said if I liked horror (and I did) I had to buy The Swamp Thing by Alan  Moore. He shoved a copy in my face and added the bait.

“It’s the first comic from one of the big boys WITHOUT the comic’s code.”

Really? Sounds like trouble. I was sold. Wrap it up!

I read Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing and was hit by the narrative like a locomotive. I was shocked, and happily appalled. Here was a comic that hit me on a gut level, spoke to me like I was a...a...well, a reader. There wasn’t any of the guarded storytelling I’d grown used to and out of.

That’s really the thrust of this little ditty... Alan  Moore dragged me back into comic. I was out and I had no intention of looking back because comics had become a thing of my childhood, colorful little stories which had no place in my blooming adult life... until Moore came along with his scary and sophisticated, cutting and gripping tale of a swamp creature lost in an impossible nightmare.

I never left comics again and I blame Alan  Moore. Every time I pick up a title I hope it will have the impact of that first issue of Swamp Thing, the first appearance of Constantine, or the first time Abby and Alec kissed.

And now, All these years later, I’m still in and into comics, I still read everything Moore writes. That guy Don from the comic store? He grew up to be Don Murphy, the producer of Moore inspired films From Hell and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Small, weird, weird world.

So why do I hate Alan  Moore? There are two reasons really. The first for dragging me back into comics. What would my life had been like if I hadn’t read that issue of Swamp Thing? I’ll never know. I’m knee-deep in the shit now, anxiously awaiting the next issue of LoEG.

The second reason I hate Alan  Moore, and this is the big one, is because the man is as close to the perfect comic writer as we may ever see. He manipulates the medium to its fullest potential, juggling words and pictures effortlessly, and always managing to amaze.

I guess both reasons are sort of the saying the same thing; I hate Alan Moore because he makes comics worthwhile. The bastard.


Steve Niles
Los Angeles
March 30 2003