Dreadful Beauty: Alan Moore on Jacen Burrows

Art by Jacen Burrows.

Excerpt from the intro written by Alan Moore for Dreadful Beauty: The art of Providence (Avatar Press, 2017).

"[...] Jacen Burrows is, in simple terms, the finest stylist to emerge from American comics in the 2lst century. His art, combining a realistic grasp of space, form and anatomy with the more usually humorous cartoon delivery and precision of the European ligne clair school, achieves a kind of perfect balance that is almost archetypal; makes the style appear somehow familiar despite its bold originality, as if it’s always been there. And indeed, if it had always been there -- if Jacen Burrows, born fifty years earlier, had been amongst the ranks of brilliant individualists that formed the classic E.C. Comics line-up, say-- it wouldn’t have seemed out of place. The artwork and the atmospheres it conjures have a timelessness, a blindingly apparent mastery that would distinguish them in any era. Burrows’ work, eschewing half-tones, hatching and all other modelling or shading styles as if they were a kind of visual noise, emerges as pure signal, albeit a signal lent immense intensity and power by the extraordinary weight of information and exquisite detail it is carrying. His almost forensic line, impeccably controlled, refuses any ambiguity and in this way conveys a sense that what is seen upon the page, no matter how alarming or impossible, has a verisimilitude that borders on the photographic. It might be thought to embody the exacting realism that’s required in presentations of the weird or the fantastical as posited by Lovecraft’s rigorous aesthetic, and as such made Jacen the only conceivable delineator for an opus as demanding and definitive as Providence would prove to be. [...]

Out from the Underground

Alan Moore, Out from the Underground
Cartooning, Performance, and Dissent
by Maggie Gray

"This book explores Alan Moore’s career as a cartoonist, as shaped by his transdisciplinary practice as a poet, illustrator, musician and playwright as well as his involvement in the Northampton Arts Lab and the hippie counterculture in which it took place. It traces Moore’s trajectory out from the underground comix scene of the 1970s and into a commercial music press rocked by the arrival of punk. In doing so it uncovers how performance has shaped Moore’s approach to comics and their political potential. Drawing on the work of Bertolt Brecht, who similarly fused political dissent with experimental popular art, this book considers what looking strangely at Alan Moore as cartoonist tells us about comics, their visual and material form, and the performance and politics of their reading and making."

The Green Side of Moore by Sergio Ponchione

Art by SERGIO PONCHIONE.

Above a gorgeously stunning portrait of Alan Moore in the shape of Swamp Thing or vice-versa, guest-starring John Constantine, by Italian amazing comic book artist SERGIO PONCHIONE.

PONCHIONE is a regular collaborator of Bonelli publishing house, currently contributing as artist on the cult-series Mercurio Loi. He also recently released his last graphic novel, Memorabilia.

His works has been published in English by Fantagraphics.

Grazie infinite, Sergio, for the fantastic portrait! Viva Glicone!

Italian edition of Jerusalem... in November

Rizzoli Lizard is going to release the Italian edition of Alan Moore's Jerusalem this 9th of November.

It's a huge hard-cover book, 1540 pages. Translated by Massimo Gardella.

Pictures are from Rizzoli Lizard Facebook page, here.

90s lost project with Rick Veitch

Art by Rick Veitch.

Some months ago Rick Veitch posted on his Facebook page the above picture: "Character design for an Alan Moore project we never got around to doing."

Veitch added: "It was conceived about ten years ago. Mostly as a vehicle to develop ideas Alan was interested in concerning time, space and higher dimensions in a Kirby flavored retro style. I don't think we ever had a title."

Lost Alan Moore interview in Full Bleed Vol.1

Full Bleed Vol.1 cover art by Cassey Kuo.

Full Bleed Vol.1 - a brand-new quarterly, hand-crafted print-only 200-page hardcover 'magazine' from IDW Publishing - will include a lost interview to Alan Moore conducted by Gavin Edwards and originally intended for Rolling Stone back in 2006. Below you can read a small excerpt.

The magazine estimated delivery time is December 2017.

For more information check the Kickstarter page, here. 

GAVIN EDWARDS: Do you remember your first trip to London?

ALAN MOORE: I think so. It was in a hired mini-bus with my uncle and my parents and my cousins and my brother. It was in the very early '60s and there were milk bars everywhere, which we thought terribly exotic.

GE: I've heard of milk bars, but I've never seen one outside of A Clockwork Orange. Did they literally serve milk, or were they ice-cream shops?

AM: I'm not even sure. I think it was a kind of café with coffee, tea, and milk. It seems strange looking back now—they can't have served just milk. It was very bohemian in London in the '60s. I presume they just didn't serve alcohol and there was presumably a pretty fast trade in pep pills going on instead. I remember going to the London Zoo and finding that a bit unnerving—I didn't like seeing animals in cages—except when there was an elephant that evacuated its bowels all over one of its keepers spectacularly. I shall never forget that. That was when I was six or seven. I didn't go to London again until I was a teenager and starting to get involved with the early part of comics fandom. I could never live there—it's a bit of a nightmare—but it's a fascinating city. I still go down about once a month.

Mighty Moore by Leomacs

Art by Leomacs.

Above an eye-popping Alan Moore portrait drawn by Italian acclaimed comic book artist LEOMACS, aka Massimiliano Leonardo. 

Leomacs has published works for both the Italian and the French market. He drew stories for Italian comics icons Tex and Dylan Dog. He is also the co-creator of vampire anti-hero Battaglia.

"Moore is not easy to draw but he has a very, very interesting face.", said Leomacs.

Below you can see the preliminary sketches he did.

For more about Leomacs: Facebook page - Blog

Grazie, Leomacs! ;)

Art by Leomacs.

Alan Moore's amazing shoes by Jeffery~West

Alan Moore and his new shoes!

From Jeffery~West Facebook page: 

"We were honoured to have manufactured Alan Moore's personalised Jeffery-West Poison's, made on bespoke Moon Lasts by Michael James of Springline. The last pair that we made for Mr Moore were the Infamous Gold Winged boots for his character Metterton in Jimmy's End; opposing societal norms in a cacophony of riddles! Only Mr Moore can satisfy our phantasmagorical imagination!" [27th of September 2017] 

Jeffery~West is an internationally acclaimed footwear brand based in Northampton. Their creations have been donned by celebrities across the globe including Mickey Rourke, Nick Cave, David Beckham and... Alan Moore, to name but a few.

For more info regarding Jeffery~West: Official site - Facebook

Lost Girls Expanded Edition

Art by Melinda Gebbie.

A new expanded edition of Lost Girls will be co-published by Top Shelf & Knockabout in July 2018.

The groundbreaking and controversial masterpiece of erotic comics, decades in the making, is now available in a sumptuous hardcover collecting all three volumes plus 32 pages of new artwork and commentary.

More information: HERE.

Jerusalem French Special Collector's Edition

Jerusalem French Special Collector's Edition.

French publisher Inculte has produced a very limited (200 copies) French edition of Jerusalem. It includes a special black cover with box featuring Charles Burns' portrait of Alan Moore from The Believer magazine, a signed ex-libris of the original cover drawn by Alan Moore and a special limited edition tote bag.
You can order it only online from Inculte site: HERE.

Jerusalem regular French ed. is available here.

Alan Moore by Frazer Irving

Art by Frazer Irving.

Above, a powerful Alan Moore drawn by British comic book artist FRAZER IRVING.

For more info about Frazer Irving: Twitter - Tumblr

Ed Piskor discovers Alan Moore

Art by Ed Piskor.

Ed Piskor, creator of the acclaimed Hip Hop Family Tree series, discovered Alan Moore in the 90ies reading the comics he wrote for Image Comics. Piskor told this story in a 1-page comics he did for Image+ magazine published this summer. 

Above you can see the panels featuring Moore; the complete page is available here.

Len Wein and Alan Moore

Below, the text contribution written by LEN WEIN for the sold-out Alan Moore: Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman book (page 37), published in 2003 by Abiogenesis on the occasion of Moore's 50th birthday.

Legendary comic writer and editor, WEIN co-created DC Comics' Swamp Thing and Marvel Comics' Wolverine, and contributed to reviving Marvel's X-Men; he was the editor for the original Watchmen series. 

WEIN passed away few days ago, the 10th of September: this is a small way to honour his memory.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

by Len Wein

Some random thoughts about Alan Moore (which somehow seems appropriate):

1) The first time I called Alan, he refused to believe I was me.    

I wish I could remember at this late date exactly what it was that prompted me to call Alan when I was looking for a new writer to take over Swamp Thing. I know I had been a fan of Alan’s work on 2000 A.D. and so he seemed an interesting choice as writer, assuming, of course, he was available and so inclined. I got his phone number somehow, made the international phone call, and Alan answered on the third ring. I introduced myself, told Alan I had an offer to make him, and he hung up on me.
When I called back, assuming the connection had been broken accidentally, I introduced myself again. Alan’s reply: “No, who is this really?” And he started going through a list of his mates, trying to figure out who had put me up to this and why.  It took me quite a while to convince Alan I was indeed me, and that I was interested in offering him work in the States, on my own precious baby. It took a lot of cajoling and convincing to talk Alan into taking on the assignment, but I’m glad he did. The changes he made on Swamp Thing helped to revolutionize the art form, his language was pure music. Under Alan, the graphic narrative suddenly grew up.
And the comic book industry has never been the same since.

2) The first time I met Alan, I couldn’t believe he was he.

DC Comics sent me to London to interface with what was then becoming a growing number of British creators who had started working on the DC books in Alan’s wake. People like Dave Gibbons, Kev O’Neill, so many others. We met in a local Pub, and Alan was the last to arrive. He came strolling in, eyes wild, that long tangle of hair and beard whipping in the breeze, looking for all intents and purposes like the mad monk Rasputin returning from a two-week bender. He was wearing a suit that was 40 years out of style, the jacket and pants cuffs each several inches too short, a ruffled shirt, a narrow tie in a piano keyboard pattern, garish socks that matched nothing on earth, and (if I’m recalling correctly) a top hat.
Alan apologized for being late, but explained that he had been at the optometrist, having his eyes checked. He explained that the sight in one eye was perfect, but the other not so much. The Doctor had recommended glasses with appropriate lenses. Alan said he had considered getting a monocle instead for the one bad eye, but had decided against it.
“Why?” I asked, foolishly.
Alan replied, “Well, frankly, I was afraid wearing a monocle might make me look a bit odd.”

And, that, in a couple of quick anecdotes, is Alan Moore.

All the best, my friend. Long may you wave.

Len Wein
Los Angeles,  CA
April, 2003

Warren Ellis reviews Alan Moore

Warren Ellis. Photograph by Ellen J Rogers.

Years ago, acclaimed comic book writer and novelist WARREN ELLIS wrote some reviews on Alan Moore's works for Artbomb.net, a site he co-founded. Excerpts are shown below.

Alan Moore's Magic Words: "[...] Not the same as an Alan Moore comic per se, since the artists are doing their own sequential-art interpretations of his songs, but, frankly, any Alan Moore writing is better than no Alan Moore writing. [...]"

The Birth Caul: [...] It's about magic. It's about invocation of something, about a shaman's conversation with the great and secret things lurking at the back of their own brain, about the genetic incantations of the vast skein of life we're brought out into in our silvered veils. [...] This is where Alan Moore's power has been hiding. Listen."

A Small Killing: "[...] It is, perhaps, more a song than the huge symphonies we've come to expect from Moore. But it is a very personal, tremendously affecting piece of work, and a keystone in his body of writing. [...]"

Snakes & Ladders: [...] This, as well as the cave, is where Alan, as a practising magician, does his workings: art as magic and magic as art. [...]"

All the reviews written by Warren Ellis for Artbomb.net are available HERE.

Marvelman vs. Kid Marvelman by Chris Weston

Art by Chris Weston.

Above a gorgeous sketchbook commission by the incredible CHRIS WESTON featuring Marvelman fighting Johnny Bates aka Kid Miracleman.

Game of Thrones and Watchmen

In an interview published on Vulture site, Isaac Hempstead Wright who plays Bran Stark in Game of Thrones, talks about his role and... Watchmen's influence.

The complete interview is available HERE.

Hempstead-Wright: "[...] It was a really challenging thing to do this season. I had a meeting with David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss], our showrunners, before we started filming. We had a chat about how we wanted to play Bran this season, and they suggested Doctor Manhattan from the Watchmen comic. Bran was slightly based on that, existing in all these different times at once, knowing all these various things, being this emotionless rock connecting these different timelines and the history of the universe. We wanted that, but we didn’t want a boring, monotonous character who would just go, “Yeah, I’m the Three-Eyed Raven, blah blah blah.” [...]

We also wanted to make sure that there was a bit of Bran left, a glimmer of a person still in there. It’s like he’s the first cyborg. We just connected a supercomputer to a human being’s brain. He’s a mainframe, but there’s a little bit of his personality. More often than not, though, Bran is a vessel for human knowledge."

The complete interview is available HERE.

Double Magical Moore by Gianluca Pagliarani

Art by Gianluca Pagliarani.

Above and below, two stunning and magical Moore portraits drawn by Italian comic book artist GIANLUCA PAGLIARANI. 

Pagliarani is a regular contributor to fantasy series Dragonero (published in Italy by Sergio Bonelli Editore); in the past he worked for Avatar Press drawing Aetheric Mechanics and Ignition City, both stories written by Warren Ellis. He is also the artist and co-creator of The Shadow Planet, a comic book that mixes retro science fiction with Lovecraftian horror.

More about Pagliarani at his blog: HERE.

Art by Gianluca Pagliarani.

The Show in the making

Art by Paul Chessell.

Today Mitch Jenkins has launched The Show official site on Instagram: "Official site for Alan Moore and Mitch Jenkins' new feature film, The Show. Regular updates now that the film is fully funded and in pre-production."

In his first post Jenkins announced: "Me and Alan start our new adventure as of now. It seems the bloody feature film has been fully funded. We will be posting everything Alan / Mitch and The Show here most days." 

Are you ready?

Dans la tête d'Alan Moore

Alan Moore

An awesome video interview with Alan Moore has been posted on the European Culture Channel ARTE.

The 8-part video interview is available HERE.

Rorschach by J.G. Jones

Art by J.G. Jones.

Above, a gorgeous and ruminative Rorschach drawn by the excellent J.G. Jones.

Chester Brown on Alan Moore and Watchmen

Watchmen n.3. Cover art by Dave Gibbons.

Excerpt from The Comics Journal n. 135 (April 1990). The complete interview is available here.

SCOTT GRAMMEL: CBG has pointed out as proof of comics’ maturity that we have hardcover collections of Watchmen and Dark Knight, and paperback collections of Chaykin’s Shadow, and the like. I’m wondering if you find any worth in the current vogue for high-gloss superheroes.

CHESTER BROWN: I like some of it. I like Alan Moore’s stuff. He’s a good writer, and I’m glad he’s moved beyond that stage, that he’s doing his own stuff now. But I read Watchmen and enjoyed it.

GRAMMEL: Do you think it proved that comics are art?

BROWN: I don’t think he proved it. I mean, wasn’t it proved before him?

GRAMMEL: But it’s now being taught in university classes. Didn’t you see that in CBG? [Laughter.] Which only goes to show that they’ll have classes in everything.

BROWN: Yeah, I know.

GRAMMEL: What did you think of the art in Watchmen?

BROWN: I liked it. Dave Gibbons is talented. He draws well.

GRAMMEL: Didn’t you feel claustrophobic reading it? It was so tight.

BROWN: No, I liked it fine.

The complete interview is available here.

Silk Spectre by David Roach

Art by David Roach.

Above, a gorgeous Silk Spectre portrayed by British comic book artist and writer David Roach.

1963 ashcans

Above and below, covers of the limited edition 1963 Alan Moore/Stephen R. Bissette IMAGE COMICS ASHCAN PREVIEW: THE FEARLESS FURY and IMAGE COMICS ASHCAN PREVIEW: THE UNBELIEVABLE N-MAN!
 

These ‘ashcan’ previews of then-forthcoming Image Comics series 1963 by Alan Moore, Rick Veitch, Stephen R. Bissette and friends were printed in limited quantities of 2500 copies each; produced and published by Moondog Comics. They're each 26 pages, feature bonus character design artwork and notes on the Fury and N-Man's creation.

Super Moore by Lorenzo Palloni

Art by Lorenzo Palloni.

Above, an inspired portrait of Alan Moore drawn by Italian comic book golden boy, artist and writer LORENZO PALLONI.

For more info about Lorenzo Palloni: blog - Mammaiuto

Alan Moore by Massimo Giacon

Art by MASSIMO GIACON.

Above, a stunning Alan Moore portrait by Italian Renaissance man, comic book artist, musician, painter, performer and designer MASSIMO GIACON.

More information about the artist can be found at his website, HERE.

Grazie, Massimo! ❤

Alan Moore and... the Brexit Poem

Alan Moore by Glyn Ackroyd.

Excerpt from a letter - dated 2 February 2017 - written by Alan Moore to comedian Stewart Lee in the series of correspondence in the Longplayer Letters.

 

Alan Moore: [...] I’d like to leave you with the ‘Brexit Poem’ that I jotted down in an idle moment a month or two ago:

“I wrote this verse the moment that I heard/ the good news that we’d got our language back/ whence I, in a misjudged racial attack,/ kicked out French, German and Italian words/ and then I” [...] 

The complete letter is available HERE.

Alan Moore and Eternalism

Excerpt from an interview published on Super Weird Substance.

The interview is a full transcript of the one filmed and shown at the debut Festival 23, which took place in South Yorkshire between 22nd and 24th July 2016. 

Alan Moore: [...] I found out this idea is called ‘Eternalism’ apparently. It’s the idea that’s as we were saying, that if this is a solid universe then we exist in that universe as fourth dimensional entities.

I imagine it as a bit like a spacetime centipede; it would have a lot of arms and a lot of legs and its tail would be emerging from between our mother’s legs, it would have its origins in genetic fluids; its far end would be cremated dust and it would be perhaps, what 70-80 years long. And this centipede-like life form is a little filament that is embedded in this huge, eternally unmoving, unchanging mass of spacetime.

It is just our consciousness moving along these centipede-like lines and experiencing each moment as if it was in a sequence, whereas in fact it’s like a strip of film that, all of those little moments on the strip of film, they’re not moving, they’re not changing – you can keep that strip of film for 100 years and those pictures will not have changed, they will not have moved.

Only when we have turned the projector beam, or by analogy, our consciousness, only when we run that over those images does Charlie Chaplain do his funny walk, does he fight the baddy, does he get the girl; do we have the appearance of a story, a narrative and motives and cause and effect and all of those things. Whereas actually, it’s just these frozen individual moments with our consciousness moving between them.

Now that would mean that in that huge block of spacetime, every moment that has ever existed or will ever exist are all existing conterminously, at the same time. Including all of those moments that made up our lives and the lives of everybody that we knew and the one thing that we can definitely say about those lives is that we were alive during them.

If this is an unchanging and unmoving universe, then we’re still alive during them because everything back there in the past, the fact that there’s no decent telly on a Saturday night, all those buildings we love, they got pulled down, those people that we liked, they ended up dying, Spangles, they don’t make them anymore! [...]

The complete interview is available HERE.

Alan Moore by Farel Dalrymple

Art by Farel Dalrymple.

Above, a superb portrait of Alan Moore (I love the ringed fingers and the flame!) drawn by American comic book artist and creator FAREL DALRYMPLE.

For more info about Farel Dalrymple: Official page - Tumblr

The Tempest is coming!

The final Tempest.

From the Top Shelf Panel at San Diego Comicon 2017. 
Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill will be teaming up for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol 4 called The Tempest, a six issue series in full color, and drawn from pop culture throughout time and space. This will be their “retirement project”, their last in comics, according to Top Shelf.

More at Top Shelf site: "[...] Opening simultaneously in the panic-stricken headquarters of British Military Intelligence, the fabled Ayesha’s lost African city of Kor and the domed citadel of ‘We’ on the devastated Earth of the year 2996, the dense and yet furiously-paced narrative hurtles like an express locomotive across the fictional globe from Lincoln Island to modern America to the Blazing World; from the Jacobean antiquity of Prospero’s Men to the superhero-inundated pastures of the present to the unimaginable reaches of a shimmering science-fiction future. With a cast-list that includes many of the most iconic figures from literature and pop culture, and a tempo that conveys the terrible momentum of inevitable events, this is literally and literarily the story to end all stories. [...]"

The Tempest miniseries will be published by Top Shelf and Knockabout, each issue 32 pages, with first issue to be released in June 2018.

Alan Moore, Gianluca Costantini and... the Truth

Art by Gianluca Costantini.

Above, an intense portrait of Alan Moore drawn by Italian comic book artist and graphic journalist GIANLUCA COSTANTINI.
Moore's statement is a quotation from the correspondence published on Cerebus N.219 in 1997.

For more info about Gianluca Costantini, visit his Official page 

Social Networks: Twitter - Facebook Page

Art by Gianluca Costantini.

Give banana! NOW!

The Mandrill explains his vision.

Video available HERE.

The Comedian and... Groucho Marx

Groucho Marx.

Excerpt from an interview with Dave Gibbons published the 15th of June on Entertainment Weekly.

Dave Gibbons: The one thing we knew about the character of the Comedian was he couldn’t look like the Joker. He couldn’t look like a deranged clown. So I thought, “Who else would be a comedian? Who could I think of?” The one that leaped to mind was Groucho Marx because he had the mustache and the cigar and the kind of slicked back hair. So he was very much a toughened-up version of Groucho Marx, which was what I had in mind. 

The complete interview is available here.

The Ghosts of Watling Street and... Alan Moore

Frame from The Ghosts of Watling Street video.

The Ghosts of Watling Street, a song by Oddfellow's Casino included in their upcoming new album Oh, Sealand, features the voice of... Alan Moore. Moore also briefly appears in the song's video.

Oh, Sealand will be released July 14th.

Frame from The Ghosts of Watling Street video.

H.P. Lovecraft: foresightful thinker

The Call of Cthulhu & Other Weird Stories

Above a small excerpt from the 7-page preface, dated 4 October 2016, written by Alan Moore for H.P. Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu & Other Weird Stories published by The Folio Society.

[...] The hindsight of almost a hundred years exposes H.P. Lovecraft as one of the twentieth century's most radical experimental writers despite the cobwebbed traditionalist disguise, as well as one of its most staggeringly original and worryingly foresightful thinkers. The infectious swoon of his delirious prose and his hallucinatory ideas evoke in the susceptible an escalating ecstasy of trepidation, like some legendarily unbalancing variety of absinthe that cannot be reproduced and isn't manufactured any more. [Alan Moore]

Gene Ha about Alan Moore

Art by Gene Ha and Zander Cannon.

Excerpt from an interview with the amazing GENE HA, well-known for his work with Moore on Top Ten series.

“It’s part of Alan Moore’s theory that the imaginary realm is one giant realm. [...] They’re all connected together inside of one giant glowing world, so it had to kind of reference present day ideas and past ideas and just mash them together. If you look at any of his recent projects, it’s all about that mash-up of everything from our imagination existing at once. It’s a big theme of his.

[... ] He is literally the fastest creative mind I’ve ever worked with, and I’ve worked with some really creative minds.” [... ] When I’m having a conversation with him and he throws out ideas, I can’t keep up. He’ll literally leave me in the dust.”

The complete article is available HERE.

Alan Moore by Werther Dell'Edera

Art by Werther Dell'Edera.

Above, a shining portrait of Alan Moore drawn by Italian superstar artist WERTHER DELL'EDERA who is well known to the American audience for his art on several series published by Marvel, DC and Image Comics. He is a regular collaborator of Sergio Bonelli Editore.

More info about Dell'Edera's Art on his blog, HERE.

The Call of Cthulhu: a new preface by Alan Moore

Art by Dan Hillier.

Alan Moore wrote a new preface for H.P. Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu & Other Weird Stories published by The Folio Society and available as both standard and limited edition with amazing illustrations by Dan Hillier.

Art by Dan Hillier.

"In a brilliant new preface, written for The Folio Society, author Alan Moore traces his own – and the literary canon’s – troubled relationship with ‘Providence’s paranoiac prophet’ and unearths a writer ‘more subtly insidious and more magnificently visionary… than the one that you remember or anticipate’. [...] 

Moore finds Lovecraft at once at odds with and integral to the time in which he lived: ‘the improbable embodiment of an estranged world in transition’. Yet, despite his prejudices and parochialisms, he ‘possessed a voice and a perspective both unique in modern literature’." 

You can buy these awesome books here and here.

Art by Dan Hillier.