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| Art by Lee Gatlin |
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.
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.[...]
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| Art by Zu Dominiak. Story by Chris Murray. |
Dominiak wrote: "Wraparound and interior art, lettering, coloring, inking... of a comic written by Chris Murray. It was one of my favourite projects to work on, including references to many of Alan Moore's works!"
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| Art by Zu Dominiak. Story by Chris Murray. |
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| Art by Nicolas Delort |
Delort: I recently had the high honor of illustrating the cover for 'The Great When', the next book by legendary author Alan Moore.
I would like to thank Alan Moore, the team at @bloomsburypublishing and art director @gregheinimanndesign for trusting me with this daunting job, and allowing me to go a little nuts on the clouds there :D
"The Great When", the first book in the Long London series, will take you on a winding journey through the city's occult underbelly, where an eccentric cast of sorcerers, gangsters and murderers awaits....
The artwork was created on 16x12" @ampersand_art claybord with ink pens and a scratching knife
The novel is slated to release in October '24"
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| Art by Nicolas Delort |
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| Art by Maël Lohbrunner |
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| Art by Titta D'Onofrio |
[...] Moore completists will love it. I found it too fantastical to be effective and too effective to be fantastical. [...]
Two stars out of five
[...] What I love about it is how the Maestro Moore has created a mid-century Britain that feels alive and then peppered it with a technicolour Otherworld, as if The Wizard of Oz were taking place in 1940s London, bookended with spivs and crooks that are equal parts East End and Cthulhu. The cast is stunning, barely dipping into any of them before the book draws to close, hinting at some of the adventures to come. [...]
Five stars out of five
[...] The story is wrapped up nicely but there are plenty of hooks for the series to continue and I certainly look forward to seeing how things pan out and what the motley cast of misfits get up to next.
My only criticism is that the lengthy prologue, which is about the same length as a chapter of the book, felt quite hard to get into. Even re-reading it after finishing the novel I felt that there were sections which I didn’t understand and can only assume that these are preliminary forays into the later books of the series. If the first few pages feel totally incomprehensible don’t give up, the main story is well worth waiting for.
Just as a note of caution - this is definitely a story for adults in language, tone and content. [...]
Four stars out of five
