A Big Numbers moment

As you can imagine, I have several archives full of Moore-related things. And it's a mess, I confess. :D

So, this time I share a little gem posted by a certain Tallestpurpl on his X account the 18th of November 2023, date of Alan's 70th birthday. It's a funny memory, imho. Enjoy!

My favourite story: knowing nothing about comics but knowing Alan from the pub I worked in, I was told by my comic fanatic friend to ask what had happened to the rest of Big Numbers. I did over a pint one night; there was a moment of silence before Alan asked if I wanted a fight. - Tallestpurpl

Mad Love for The Mandlebrot Set

Below, selected excerpts from an article published in Speakeasy no. 86/87, June 1988, page 14. 

In that occasion Moore talked about his Mad Love Publishing and the upcoming The Mandlebrot Set project. We all know that later on the series changed his title in Big Numbers and in 1990 MPL published two of the planned twelve issues. Then MLP closed and the project remained unfinished. 

[...] The fist major work to be published by MLP after AARGH! is the cryptically titled The Mandlebrot Set, a twelve issue, 28 page black and white limited series to be released sometime toward the end of 1988, or early 1989. Concerning the building of an American style shopping centre in provincial British town, the series promises a major 'piece of fiction', the aim being to bring '... something of... and what an American shopping mall is all about. So it's also about skateboards, mathematics, shopping, history, sex, computers, all human life is here.'
Bill Sienkiewicz is handling the art chores and this is the first time the two have worked together on a project. [...]

Experimentation has become something of a watchword for both creators, and The Mandlebrot Set is bound to alienate some of the faithful. 'I'm aware that the majority of those Alan Moore fans out there are in fact Alan Moore superhero fans,' admits Moore, 'and I'll be pleasantly... interesting than a superhero.
'If I was to try to pin it down,' continues Moore, 'it takes the spirit of what J. G. Ballard said, that 'Earth is the last alien planet'. It's reality treated as if it is science fiction, so there'll be stranger characters, concepts, events and the like without there being one jot of SF. It's a completely uncompromised comic, but that's not to say that it's not going to be entertaining. [...] with The Mandlebrot Set I'm trying to go as far as Watchmen moved on from Swamp Thing. I'm going to try different storytelling techniques to get away from what's become Alan Moore cliches. It's going to be more sophisticated, more human, more personal.' [...]

For more info about Big Numbers visit this very special site, HERE.

Big Numbers, reality and fiction

Excerpt from an interview about Big Numbers published in 1990 on Deadline n.17.

Alan Moore: "[...] On one level Big Numbers is trying to make comics' fans realise that they don't have to be bitten by a radioactive spider or born with a mutant X gene to be interesting, that everybody around them is much more interesting than any superhuman.
Superheroes are very flat characters who demand simple motivations, driven psychotic vigilantes can only have two dimensions, they are not as interesting as the person you'd meet at the bus stop. I've always been against the idea of escapism even when I was doing things like Swamp Thing. 

Now I'm asking - why have the superhero in the first place? Why not just talk directly? And that's where I am now. I've gone completely off fantasy and science fiction. I've got to the stage where the real world seems so fabulous and fascinating and intricate and marvellous, that it almost seems an insult to reality to invent anything."

Unpublished Big Numbers cover by Bill Sienkiewicz

Art by Bill Sienkiewicz. Up for sale on Heritage, HERE.

Above, a stunning painted illustration by Master Bill Sienkiewicz to be used as cover for an unpublished issue of Big Numbers. 

The original artwork is up for sale on Heritage Auctions, HERE.

There you can read: "This piece is signed by Sienkiewicz and dated 1992, What cover it was intended for is unclear (likely #4 or 5), but it is a stunning work in oil on Bristol board with an image area of 19.5" x 19.5". In Excellent condition."

Auction ends in 23 Days. So... place your bid (if you can)! ;)

UPDATE (9th of April): Commenting on a post by Paul Gravett, Sienkiewicz wrote: "I think this was going to be for issue 6 or 7, as their characters' roles began to become more prominent. [...] It's actually acrylic, not oil. w mixed media and airbrush."

Bill Sienkiewicz on Big Numbers secrets

Part 1: HERE - Part 2: HERE

In a new series of videos, artist extraordinaire BILL SIENKIEWICZ talks about Big Numbers, his unfinished comics project with Alan Moore.

PART 1: HERE - PART 2: HERE

Ed Piskor and Jim Rugg volunteer for Big Numbers

Jim Rugg and Ed Piskor.

From their Cartoonist Kayfabe!, their YouTube channel, comic book makers Jim Rugg and Ed Piskor volunteer for completing... Moore's Big Numbers, his "lost" masterpiece (the video is available HERE). 

This happened just few days after the release of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Tempest N.6, (possibly) Moore's last comic book.

Ed Piskor said: "Listen, Alan. Your career is not done with this unfinished piece of work. You gotta let me and Jim finish this for you, man."

Furthermore, on Cartoonist Kayfabe! channel, several videos - under the banner "Read Moore Comix" - are available, investigating the works created by the Man from Northampton.
Go and watch them all!

Warren Ellis, Howard Chaykin and... Big Numbers

Big Numbers N. 2 cover by Bill Sienkiewicz.

Excerpt from Warren Ellis' "[ORBITAL OPERATIONS] 31jan16" newsletter.

"[...] And Alan Moore had a famous "big piece of paper" for BIG NUMBERS. Here's a curiosity - in the early 80s, Alan visited New York, and wrote about meeting Howard Chaykin and learning that Chaykin painstakingly worked out AMERICAN FLAGG's structure in advance. There were no more details than that, but at the end of that decade Alan was structuring a book on a vast graph (Gene Ha has a photo) [...]"

Sienkiewicz speaks about Big Numbers N.3

Some days ago, Pádraig Ó Méalóid, posted on his blog an intense piece by Bill Sienkiewicz, one of the most extraordinary Artists in the comics field, about his controversial work on Big Numbers and especially on the legendary "lost" third issue.

Sienkiewicz wrote: "[...] Alan's a genius, an absolute gentleman. Plain and simple. Yes, his scripts are dense. They're brilliant, layered, nuanced, variegated, textural, beautiful and daunting. Simultaneously so. And although Alan is incredibly deferential and generous as to allowances for alterations made by the artist, the scripts veritably beg, no, demand, to be adhered to in their totality. It's practically sacramental.
[...] Working with Alan was like going from the multiplication table to the periodic chart to quantum physics all in the space of one panel border. 

[...] To this day, I've lamented that Alan and I never finished the series. I actually literally can't stomach the thought of it remaining a hole in our creative lives, certainly in mine. And honestly, there's not a week that goes by that I don't think about completing it, about contacting Alan and saying, “Adult here. What say you? Let's kick out the jams!” I understand his great disappointment, though I've no doubt he's moved on. And gotten even more brilliant, if that's possible. I've apologized to Alan personally, and to the others, for my part. And I apologize to you - the readers."

The whole article is here. It's a must-read, nuff said!