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Oct 27, 2020

Synchronic movie and... Alan Moore

Watch Synchronic trailer HERE.
Excerpts from an interview with film-makers Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson regarding their last sci-fi horror film Synchronic. The complete interview is available HERE
Watch Synchronic trailer HERE.
Moorhead: [...] You get the idea. And at lunch, I believe, Justin's like, "I had this idea based around this idea that Alan Moore uses a lot in a lot of his stuff," in Watchmen , in Jerusalem and a few other things, called eternalism or "block state universe," where time is all happening simultaneously. There's no distinction between the past, present, and future. And he thought, What if somebody could take a drug and see it that way? [...] what if you could just take that and it lets you see time the way that Doctor Manhattan sees it?

[...] Benson: Also, from an emotional standpoint, I think the person who put it best is Alan Moore. He said, with this theory, yes, it can be very scary to think that you're not experiencing time as it actually is, that's unsettling. But isn't it nice, isn't it beautiful that anyone you've ever known who's passed away, anyone you've ever loved, any structure you have ever left, anything, it's not gone? It's not behind you. It's just elsewhere. That's all. Hidden from your perception, but it's not gone.

Oct 26, 2020

John Constantine by Warren Pleece

Art by Warren Pleece.
Above, an intense Constantine pencil sketch by British comic book illustrator WARREN PLEECE. It was a great gift for me during Bristol Comic Festival 2002.

For more info about Warren Pleece visit his site: here.

Oct 24, 2020

On journalism and Hawkwind

Excerpt from "Ripping Yarns", an interview by Simon Lewis from Uncut n. 40, September 2000.
I did a little hit of rock journalism myself. I did a strip in Sounds called 'Roscoe Moscow', and occasionally I'd supplement my income by interviewing people like Hawkwind. Unfortunately if Nik Turner made me a cup of tea while I was interviewing them I couldn't write anything nasty about them. So I figured journalism wasn't for me. 
--- Alan Moore

Alan Moore writes an article about Hawkwind published on Sounds issue dated Nov 6, 1982 and titled Wind Power – Alan Moore joins the congregation at the church of Hawkwind.

Oct 23, 2020

Jon Osterman by Luca Genovese

Art by Luca Genovese.
Above, a shining portrait of Jon Osterman captured at the moment that marked his entire existence. 
Art by Italian comic book artist LUCA GENOVESE, realized as contribution to Watchmen 20 anni dopo, an Italian tribute book to Watchmen published in 2006 by Lavieri
"The Watchmaker chapter is my favorite one... I am a bit of a watchmaker myself so...
I wanted to capture Jon at his last moment as human being, watching time takes apart under a terrible light.
" - Luca Genovese
Preliminary sketch by Luca Genovese.

Oct 20, 2020

Arthur Machen and Alan Moore

Art by HUNT EMERSON.
Above, Alan Moore appearance in the Arthur Machen biography included in Lives of the great occultists by Kevin Jackson and HUNT EMERSON (previously published on Fortean Times' pages).
 
I strongly recommend Emerson's Lives of the great occultists: it's a fabulous reading and has lots of links with Moore's interests. Check it HERE!

For more info about EMERSON visit his site: HERE.

Oct 14, 2020

Dr. Manhattan by Mike McKone

Art by Mike McKone.
Above, a Dr. Manhattan portrait by British comic book artist Mike McKone.

You can follow McKone on his Twitter, HERE
Check his original art at TD Art Gallery, HERE.

Oct 12, 2020

Edward Blake by Carmine Di Giandomenico

Art by Carmine Di Giandomenico.
Above, a fantastic Edward Blake portrait, The Comedian, by acclaimed Italian comic book artist CARMINE DI GIANDOMENICO who drew several series for Marvel and DC Comics. 
 
The illustration has been realized as contribution to Watchmen 20 anni dopo, an Italian tribute book to Watchmen published in 2006 by Lavieri
"I wanted to draw a perspective cut that seemed like a CCTV frame, a sort of snapshot of the Comedian's private life.
It is a moment of reflection for the character; it's how he sees himself, alone and sad, disguised behind a bold and cynical attitude; he is searching for his own reflection, with the hope of meeting the best image of himself.
" - Carmine Di Giandomenico

Oct 11, 2020

Alan Moore and.. the lockdown

The Show!
 Excerpt from an interview published the 9th of October on Deadline.com.
DEADLINE: Hi Alan, what’s your lockdown experience in Northampton been like?
ALAN MOORE:
Me and my wife Melinda are still effectively living in late February – it’s about the same temperature. We are ignoring all advice from the government because we don’t think they have our best interests at heart, we’re just doing what we think is the most sensible thing, we’re maintaining distancing, having our stuff delivered. We haven’t seen or touched anybody in the last six months.

On the other hand, we’re finding that we’re closer to people even though we haven’t seen them in the flesh for ages. We’re spending a lot more time calling up and reading stories to our grandchildren, which is a lot of fun. Things that we didn’t find the time for back when the world was trundling ahead. Yes we miss everybody, but at the same time I can see different sorts of bonds forming. We will keep informed by listening to proper doctor and scientists.
The complete interview is available HERE.

Oct 9, 2020

Alan Moore by Alessandro De Bei

Art by ALESSANDRO DE BEI.
Above, an intense Alan Moore portrait by Italian engraver and painter ALESSANDRO DE BEI, part of his "Esoteric prospections" series.
 
More info about the artist HERE (in Italian).

Oct 7, 2020

Alan Moore: A Critical Guide

"A complete guide to the comics work of the writer Alan Moore, this book helps readers explore one of the genre's most important, compelling and subversive writers." 

Book's chapters are:
1. Introduction
Do We Need Moore?
The Original Writer
A Guide to this Guide

2. Historical and Biographical Contexts
Mage of the Midlands
Thatcherism
The British Invasion
Creator Rights

3. Key Texts, Part One
Invading British Comics
Origins
2000 A.D.: Short Stories, Skizz, DR and Quinch, and The Ballad of Halo Jones
The Bojeffries Saga
Reinventing Superheroes: Britain
Marvelman/Miracleman
Captain Britain
V for Vendetta
Reinventing Superheroes: America
The Saga of the Swamp Thing
Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?
The Killing Joke
Watchmen

4. Key Texts, Part Two
Horrors of History
From Hell
A Small Killing
Big Numbers
Brought to Light
Re-Imagining Superheroes
1963
Supreme
Moore's '90s Superheroes
Cultural Commons
“In Pictopia”
Lost Girls
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
America's Best Comics
Tom Strong
Tomorrow Stories
Top 10
Promethea
Histories of Horror
Lovecraft Cycle: The Courtyard, Neonomicon, and Providence
Crossed + 100
Cinema Purgatorio

5. Critical Questions
Themes and Techniques
Intertextuality
Magic
Psychogeography
Englishness
Representations
Race
Sexuality
Sexual Violence

6. Social and Cultural Impact
Authorship and Ownership
The Revised Superhero
Mature Readers?
Politics and/of Comics
Cultural Remixing
Moore After Comics, Comics After Moore

More info HERE.

Oct 5, 2020

The Show is... here!

 
From the mind of Alan Moore comes a new feature film directed by Mitch Jenkins starring Tom Burke, Siobhan Hewlett, Alan Moore, Ellie Bamber, Darrell D'Silva, Richard Dillane, Christopher Fairbank, and Sheila Atim. Watch the trailer HERE!
 
More info HERE

Oct 4, 2020

John Dee: a living and progressive force

Fossil Angel. Art by Marjorie Cameron.
Excerpt from Fossil Angels, an article about Magic written by Moore in 2002, intended for Kaos magazine n.15, which was never published. 
The article is available at Glycon Journal with Moore's permission: HERE and HERE.
John Dee, conversely, was perhaps more wilfully awake than any other person of his day. More focussed and more purposeful. He did not need to search for antecedents in the fictions and mythologies available to him, because John Dee was in no sense pretending, was not playing games. He inspired, rather than was inspired by, the great magic fictions of his times. Shakespeare’s Prospero. Marlow’s Faust. Ben Johnson’s piss-taking The Alchemist. Dee’s magic was a living and progressive force, entirely of its moment, rather than some stuffed and extinct specimen, no longer extant save in histories or fairytales. His was a fresh, rip-roaring chapter, written entirely in the present tense, of the ongoing magical adventure. By comparison, the occultists that followed some three centuries down the line were an elaborate appendix, or perhaps a bibliography, after the fact. A preservation league, lip-synching dead men’s rituals. Cover versions. Sorcerous karaoke. Magic, having given up or had usurped its social function, having lost its raison d’etre, its crowd-pulling star turn, found itself with just the empty theatre, the mysterious curtains. Dusty hampers of forgotten frocks, unfathomable props from cancelled dramas. Lacking a defined role, grown uncertain of its motivations, magic seems to have had no recourse save sticking doggedly to the established script, enshrining each last cough and gesture, the by-now hollow performance freeze-dried, shrink-wrapped; artfully repackaging itself for English Heritage. [Alan Moore]