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| Art by Jeffrey Lewis |
In the past days, I was lucky to exchange some emails with the great NYC comic book artist and musician Jeffrey Lewis. He suggested that it would be better off including all his various Moore-related stuff "in one post, because it's more valuable for people to see it all in one
place for discussion, rather than parcelling it out to various posts
where people won't see it all at once (which is, essentially, the
situation all this material currently exists in, some on my FB, some on my website, etc)."
So, here I am with this second post that integrates the first one I did (here). I am not sure it is the complete thing but... I tried my best, Jeffrey. ;)
Before starting, I highly recommend Lewis' The Complete FUFF Comix Collection: you can order a copy HERE!
Above, a Watchmen-inspired illustration posted on the 15th of March. Of course it's referred to the terrible, terrible war in Ukraine.
On a lighter note, in 2013 Lewis created the lo-budget biopic The story of Alan Moore (listen and watch here) and that same year, during his UK tour, he met... The Man Himself! Below, some pictures that Lewis sent me to share. Photographs by Heather Wagner.
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| Alan Moore and Jeffrey Lewis, 2013. |
- Watchmen, of course - "[...] it's a work of literature in a way that no other comic has even attempted. It's not even the best of what it does, it's the only thing that has ever tried to combine that kind of narrative richness in the comic book form. [...] I like the fact that it really can't be assimilated into literary culture because it is so lowbrow, and yet it's undeniably of a level of richness to which no other comic has ever come close. [...]" Read the complete piece here.
- V for Vendetta - "[...] nobody could make a list of the ten greatest comics of all time and not include V For Vendetta. Probably half the greatest comics of all time are Alan Moore comics [...]" Read the complete piece here.
- A small killing - "[...] This is probably the best Alan Moore book, in terms of sheer consistency, because it was written as a piece. [...] It's a paranoid fantasy that keeps revealing different layers of this ad executive's life. It's very sharp, page for page, the way that the story unfolds. There is a sense of revelation and unfolding mystery as you read it. [...]" Read the complete piece here.
- Swamp Thing - "[...] Probably the best artwork in any mainstream comic of all time. Steve Bissette, John Totleben and Rick Veitch did really incredible artwork. And probably the best writing in any mainstream comic of all time. [...]". Read the complete piece here.
Back to Watchmen, which is a fundamental influence: Jeffrey Lewis wrote his college thesis on Watchmen and since the end of the '00s he gave lectures dedicated to Moore & Gibbons' masterpiece.
"I'll just be talking about things that I've found in the book and my
theories on what they mean, hopefully sufficiently backed up by evidence
from the book so that people don't just think I'm crazy. I'll be
projecting slides of certain panels that I refer to, but just using
projections when it's necessary to point out certain details or certain
panels or compare certain panels. Mostly I'll just be talking. I suppose
I'll do a Q&A session after the talk. It's definitely for people
who have read Watchmen, probably boring (and definitely a "spoiler") for those who haven't." More details here, dated 2019.
In 2010, he drew a whole Watchmen page homage for his sketchbook, featuring ROM, his favourite character, a recurrent appearance in Lewis' works. See below.
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| Art by Jeffrey Lewis |
In 2015 Lewis was interviewed by The Comics Journal. The introduction said: "For 18 years, he has been sporadically working on a book about Watchmen." In March 2017 Lewis wrote on his Facebook page: "After a mere 20 years of re-re-re-editing this I'm just about getting ready to draw a book-cover for it and call it done (I hope)." See picture below.
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| Art by Jeffrey Lewis |
Last but not least, in December 2021, on his Facebook page, he shared some gems from his "autograph collection (circa 1990s)!" And... ta-da, Gibbons and that bloody smiley badge!
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