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Aug 31, 2024

a spell of words

Alan Moore talks to The Bookseller on the occasion of the upcoming release of his new fantasy novel, The Great When, the first book in the Long London quintet. Interview conducted by Katie Fraser and posted on the site the 30th of August.
You can read the complete piece HERE.
Moore is “making more of an effort to conjure this spell of words to involve the readers, to make them feel like they are viscerally there, like these things are actually happening to them in a vicarious sense”. But he expects the same effort in return: “I’m depending upon readers to do at least part of the work, because I think that the more work they do, the more they will enjoy it.

Aug 29, 2024

A walk across Northampton

Excerpts from a great video posted some months ago on Youtube by
London-based film-maker and writer John Rogers. Rogers walked across Northampton together with acclaimed writer Iain Sinclair and then they visited Alan Moore for a great chat.
A fascinating walk exploring elements of the deep history of Northampton with writer Iain Sinclair on the way to a conversation with Alan Moore, author of Jerusalem, The Watchmen, Voice of the Fire, The Great When (Long London Trilogy). Our route takes in St Peter's Church, Gold Street, All Saints Church, the Guildhall, St Andrew's Hospital, and the County Ground. The cast of characters mentioned include John Clare, William Smith, Lucia Joyce, Samuel Becket, John Deakin and more.

Presented as Unearthing Alan Moore at Swedenborg House in Bloomsbury, London.

Alan Moore: [...] The meaning and the poetry of people and places is much more real than the actual substance... I mean if you go to a place and you don't know anything about it... it's just a place, it's not it hasn't got any presence... but if you know all of these little coincidences and things

[...] it's only when you actually scratch the surface of what is popularly known that you discover this kind of seam of fossil material that is full of energy, full of fuel...

[...] I think that the past is ever with us and I think that it just becomes more noticeable when you are approaching the point where you will become the past...

Ian Sinclair: ever with us and ahead of us...
Alan Moore: and ahead of us, yeah...
Watch the complete video, HERE!

Aug 28, 2024

Moore by Nabiel Kanan

Art by Nabiel Kanan
Above (scanned from the original art), an spectacular portrait of Moore, "surrounded" by some of his characters, drawn by British artist and illustrator NABIEL KANAN
The illustration is included in the sold-out Alan Moore: Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman book, published in 2003 by Abiogenesis Press.
 
For more info about the artist: Profile - Lambiek

Aug 26, 2024

Magic Moore by Francesca Ciregia

Art by Francesca Ciregia
Above, a stunning, intense, magical black and white portrait of Alan Moore by Italian comic book artist and illustrator FRANCESCA CIREGIA who regularly collaborates with Bonelli Editore and Image Comics. I really love it! Grazie, Francesca!

For more info about the artist visit her Instagram page, HERE.

Aug 25, 2024

Watchmen Page Zero

Art by Dave Gibbons
The page was included in Watchmen Artifact Edition, published by IDW in 2014. Art by Dave Gibbons. 
 
Project mastermind Scott Dunbier explained that it “was done for DC as a sample of the style the book would be. Note the page number in the bottom right corner.
 
Amazing artifact! More info HERE.
 
The page appeared for the first time in the extras section of Watchmen limited edition published by Graphitti Designs in 1988. The same extras were included in the Absolute Edition published by DC Comics in 2005. The page was presented with a yellow flat color on each panel. The IDW edition showed the b/w, original art page.

Aug 24, 2024

On Mary Shelley, Iain Sinclair, Moorcock and more...

Below, excepts from a great interview published in 2004 on Salon.com. 
It's titled The man who invented the future and conducted by Scott Scott Thill. 
I highly recommend it! There is also an extremely interesting section focused on the political situation of the time.
Scott Thill: [...] my contention in this article is that it's pretty much undisputed that you're the heavyweight champion of comics, but that you should also be considered among the world's literary greats, up there with Pynchon and DeLillo, because of what you do with language and narrative.
Alan Moore: Well, thank you. That is praise indeed. I'm a huge Thomas Pynchon fan. But, I don't know, it's nothing that I'm really that bothered about. Over here, the literary establishment is still running, as back in the days of Jane Austen, on the novel of manners, which she more or less invented. And, of course, they're about the social intricacies of the middle class, who were also the only people at the time who could read or afford to buy the books. They were also the people who made up the book critics. And I think that, around this time, critics were so delighted by this new form of literature mirroring their own social interactions that they decided that not only was this true literature, but this was the only thing really that could be considered true literature. So all genre fiction, anything that really wasn't a novel of manners in one form or another, was excluded from that definition.

Do you still find that to be the case?
I recently saw a program about the history of the novel on TV over here -- it was a short series and it was ridiculous. I predicted before the thing was actually shown that there would be nobody representing any form of genre fiction whatsoever -- and I was, for the most part, right. They managed to get through the 18th and 19th centuries without a mention of, say, the gothic novel. Fair enough, perhaps the gothic novels weren't as extraordinary as literature, but they also didn't mention Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," which is an incredibly important book for all sorts of reasons. But I guess it has become what they would term genre fiction, so it is amongst the literary damned. My only mistake was that I said I didn't think there would be a mention of H.G. Wells, but my girlfriend told me they did mention "The History of Mr. Polly," which is one of the few works by Wells that I have not been able to get through. To completely ignore "The War of the Worlds," "The Time Machine," "The Invisible Man" and all his other work shows you the way that the literary critical establishment tends to regard even people in so-called lower literary genres. So if you are working in comics, which is considered a whole lower medium, well, let's just say that I'm not anticipating being given the Booker Prize anytime soon -- and I'm immensely glad of that.

You're not too worried about mainstream appreciation.
 
No, I think that the real life in any culture happens on the margins. I'd agree with what the brilliant, divine, wonderful Angela Carter said about Booker Prize-winners; I believe she referred to them as shortlist victims, which I think pretty well sums it up. The most interesting writers are the ones that are seldom going to get anywhere within shouting distance of a literary prize because they are considered too vulgar. Take Michael Moorcock, for example, who wrote the wonderful "Mother London," one of the most astonishing London novels ever written -- and there have been a great many astonishing London novels. "Mother London" is a tour de force; it is the best thing he's ever written, but there is no chance of Moorcock ever being given literary respectability because he has dabbled in ignored, disregarded and, some would argue, frankly juvenile comics or fantasy.

Are there other authors you feel are devalued because of the nature of their work?
 
Sure, people like Iain Sinclair, who is I think perhaps one of the best writers of the English language who is currently alive and working. His books are not an easy read. They're very dense with a lot of information on a single page. Culture today predisposes us to receive our information predigested and prepackaged, and most, as a rule, tend to shy away from anything which hasn't been simplified to the level where anyone could understand it. That is not the job of an artist or a creator, yet all too often in the mainstream you'll find that is what people are doing in order to remain popular. They know their audience, and they know if they push the right buttons in the right order that they can create another bestseller or whatever. I'm very content with this kind of strange, underground ghetto that I've been shunted into. It's a wonderful place and you meet a much nicer class of people. [...]

Aug 18, 2024

Swamp Thing by Tony Moore

Art by Tony Moore
Above, a great Swampy by acclaimed American comic book artist Tony Moore. The pic was posted few days ago on the artist's Facebook account.
Possibly the best SWAMP THING I have drawn to date. Pretty recent, inked with calligraphy nib Microns. - Tony Moore

Aug 17, 2024

Mina and V by Mike McKone

Art by Mike McKone
British comic book artist Mike McKone has created 99 brand new, amazing illustrations and he is offering them to fans to buy on his Bigcartel page, here.
mckone.bigcartel.com is open to preview the 99 drop happening 18 August at 3pm EST.
Mina Harker and V are included in this awesome set of portraits! So... carpe diem!

Aug 16, 2024

Magic is in the air

PRH International Comics posted, on their X account, a short video showing real, hard copies of the long-awaited The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic. View the whole thing HERE.
The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic
On Sale October 15
The most acclaimed writer in comics history, Alan Moore, joins his late mentor Steve Moore (no relation) for one last graphic grimoire.
@IDWPublishing  @topshelfcomix

Aug 15, 2024

Harvey Pekar in Northampton

Pages from Around the world and back to Earth, story by Harvey Pekar with art by Ed Piskor, included in Pekar's American Splendor: Our Movie Year (Ballantine Books, 2004). 
The story chronicles the world tour of Pekar to promote American Splendor movie. Pekar was accompanied by his wife and comic writer Joyce Brabner and daughter Danielle Batone.

Aug 9, 2024

D.R. and Quinch by Lee Gatlin

Art by Lee Gatlin
Above, the hilarious and dangerous duo of D.R. and Quinch by American illustrator and cartoonist LEE GATLIN.

For more info about the artist: Official site - Instagram - Twitter

Aug 4, 2024

1981: working in comics vs cleaning toilets

In May 1981 The SSI Newsletter, the official organ of British Society of Strip Illustration, published a 7-Q&A interview with 5 comic writers (namely: Angus Allan, Pat Mills, Steve Moore, Alan Moore, Steve Parkhouse) focused on the relationship between writers and artists. 
Alan Moore’s response to question tree is below. 
Q3. Do you find your work satisfying - or would you (do you) prefer to write for other mediums e.g. short stories, t.v.? (Disregard obvious financial advantages involved when answering this).
Alan Moore:
I love my work, although having previously been employed in cleaning toilets this is perhaps less than surprising. And while one day I'd certainly like to have a crack at writing novels, short stories, T.V and film scripts, stage plays, kiddie porn and all the rest of that stuff, at this point I can't see comics as ever becoming anything less than my principal area of concern.
Without condemning individuals for what, after all, is their own decision, I must admit to being a little disturbed at the current trend of comics being used as a way-stage to fine art, with the creative people hanging around in comics long enough to gain a cult reputation before retreating to some sumptuous decorated studio and turning out self-indulgent portfolios at twenty quid a throw. It seems to me there is still some sort of creative stigma attached to working in comics, and that too many of the people in the medium regard themselves as failed novelists, film producers or fine artists.
Whereas to me the medium is possibly one of the most exciting and underdeveloped areas in the whole cultural spectrum. There's a lot of virgin ground yet to be broken and a hell of a lot of things that haven't been attempted. If I wasn't infatuated with the medium I wouldn't be working in it. After all, whatever the economic situation, this country will always need toilet cleaners.

Aug 1, 2024

Rick Veitch on Alan's brain

Excerpts from the introduction that the great RICK VEITCH wrote for  the Italian edition of Alan Moore's Writing For Comics, published by ProGlo Edizioni (Prospettiva Globale) in 2007. 
Veitch posted the complete text in 2018, on his Facebook page (here).


I’m convinced that, after many more creative and productive decades, when Alan finally gives up the flesh and joins the transmigration of souls into idea space, a careful study of his remains will reveal that certain areas of the Moore brain, especially those parts associated with imagination, intuition, memory and language, to be far larger than one might expect in the normal human. Perhaps scientists will discover extra arteries pumping an enhanced blood flow to those cranial regions or some enzyme that promotes rich neuron growth. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if they come upon some sort of new and bizarre mutation in the formation of the lobes.
This isn’t as flip as it sounds; at least when talking of a highly developed creative mind like Alan’s. Mozart, thought to have musical and mathematical brain functions that bordered on autism, provided the world with some of the most sublime music ever created. And, after death, Albert Einstein’s brain was doled out in slices to scientists seeking a link between those analytical and intuitive centers that gave us the theory of relativity.

I include Alan in this august group with some degree of certainty based on a couple decades worth of phone conversations.

[...]

Now I’m a writer, too, so I’m familiar with the process most creative people struggle through to get their initial inspirations to a finished state. It usually (often) takes a fair amount of drafting and editing before a good idea is crafted into a solid piece of writing.

Not with Alan. His mind is capable of plucking ideas from the imagination fully formed and realized. Countless times, while kicking around possibilities for a story, he has startled me by saying “I got it” and proceeded to unspool complete scenes, including panel descriptions and finished dialogue. He calls them his “bits” and he appears to use them as the foundation blocks for his scripts. I believe he expects them to be waiting for him, ripening on the tree of knowledge, whenever he is on the creative hunt. Like every other comic book writer in the world, I could only sigh when Alan mentioned in a recent interview that pretty much every comic book script he has written has been a first and only draft.
 
[...]

Rick Veitch
September 2007