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.

The Lord of the Rings by LRNZ

Art by LRNZ.

Above, a stunning illustration created by sensational Italian artist LRNZ featuring our beloved Bearded One and his... rings! The illustration has been digitally colored starting from a commission he drew for a "fanatic" (guess who?): you can watch the whole drawing project here (grazie Lorenzo for sharing the link!).

LRNZ (aka Lorenzo Ceccotti) is an Italian artist based in Rome. He works in different fields of visual creativity: graphic design, motion graphics, animation, illustration and sequential art. He created Golem, published in US by Lion Forge, and contributed to Ghost in the Shell: Global Neural Network anthology for Kodansha Comics. 

For more info about LRNZ, visit his site here. 

LRNZ can draw!

Alan Moore on The Wire

Excerpt from an interview published on Entertainment Weekly site in 2008, here. 

EW: Do you ever relax and just watch television?

Alan Moore: Selectively, mostly on DVD. The absolute pinnacle of anything I’ve seen recently has got to be The Wire. It’s the most stunning piece of television that has ever come out of America, possibly the most stunning piece of television full-stop.

That’s a great example of storytelling that takes its time.

Absolutely, that is grown-up television! It’s novelistic. 

You get to find out about all these tiny different aspects of Baltimore, to build up a huge picture of the city with all of its intricacies — from the wharf side, to the kids in the projects, to the power structure with the boardrooms and police department and governor’s office. And it’s got some great writers: it’s got George Pelecanos and David Simon. And so many wonderful characters, Bubbles, Omar. So yeah, everything else looks pretty lame next to The Wire.

Enlightened is the Beard by Sergio Gerasi

Art by Sergio Gerasi.

Above, a hairy, hypnotic portrait of our beloved Man from Northampton by Italian comic book artist, illustrator and graphic novelist SERGIO GERASI. Below, a preliminary sketch.

Sergio Gerasi is a regular collaborator of Sergio Bonelli Editore and has drawn several issues of Dylan Dog and Mercurio Loi series. He is the author of In Inverno le mie mani sapevano di mandarino and Un romantico a Milano, graphic novels published by Bao Publishing. He has drawn for important Italian magazines and newspapers including La Gazzetta dello Sport, La Lettura and Sette. He is a drummer and founder of the punk rock band 200Bullets and performs in live painting with the theatrical duo Formazione Minima. Official web site: www.sergiogerasi.com.

Art by Sergio Gerasi.

Comics Writer No More! by Joe Linton

Art by Joe Linton.

Above, an imagined Moore retirement cover by Joe Linton.

Linton is a Moore expert and scholar, co-author of Facts in the Case of Alan Moore’s Providence; his blog is named The Periodic Fable.

The cover, which is also an obvious homage to Romita's cover of Spider-Man n. 50, contains a lot of "easter eggs" related to Moore's personal life and works.

Thanks to Joe for his permission to share the illustration here on this blog. Grazie.