Jan 28, 2021

Zander Cannon on Moore

In the past days, I found this text on my archive. I guess it's dated 2002. 
By comic book artist ZANDER CANNON.

From www.zandercannon.com (the site in not online anymore, sm)
What's it like working with Alan Moore?
Zander Cannon: The thing about Alan Moore's work that people usually notice is that it's easy to read. Alan has mentioned to me that he likes his scripts to be "artist-proof", a survival technique from his days at 2000 AD, when he would have no idea who would be drawing the next story that he wrote. For that reason, the scripts oftentimes seem as if Alan is hedging his bets (mentioning characters by name more often, describing an object that everyone is already looking at, commenting on the current plot development an extra couple times, etc). There are also unbelievably long descriptions for every panel on every page. He will almost always say where in the panel everything is located, including placing the characters in the same order as their word balloons. The bottom line is: Alan Moore has covered his bottom line. The story is readable almost no matter what. The real advantage to that is that as an artist getting this script, you are free (insofar as Alan Moore cares) to do whatever you want. As long as you get the basic gist of what's described in the panel, the word balloons will pick up the slack. I try very hard in my comics to make them as readable as possible and not rely on these devices, but sometimes when five things need to be happening at once, I'm awfully glad they're there. As far as what Alan is like as a person, he's awfully friendly to talk with (on the phone; I've never met him face to face), and he's enthusiastic as heck about telling stories (sometimes a smidge irritated about comics in general). He's told me some terrific anecdotes; I highly recommend working with him if you ever get the chance.

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