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I've decided to immerse myself into the world of Alan Moore

  
 
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21:25 / 14.05.03
Up until this point the only comic book writers I've really read have been Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, and Warren Ellis. I've seen Alan Moore's name mentioned on this site a lot and, well, he did inspire Gaman to get into writing comics, so I decided I should give him a look. I had money to burn one day so at the bookstore I went to the graphic novel section. I checked the back of the "From Hell" book and saw a picture of the guy: I knew he was big and bearded but when I saw his picture I thought "H'mm, this guy looks insane. I really should check his stuff out." Soooo, I got "V for Vendetta", "Watchmen", "From Hell", and book 2 of "Promethea" (sadly they didn't have book 1). I figured this would be a good starting point.

So far I've finished "V for Vendetta" and I'm halfway through "Watchmen". I'll probably tackle the other two next week. "V for Vendetta" was really good, I liked that one a lot. Someone here said Moore and Morrison have been ripping each other off for years now: I have to wonder if Boy's deprogramming by Cell 23 in "The Invisibles" was inspired by Evey's stay in V's fake concentration camp...
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
21:35 / 14.05.03
It's time to move on to Daniel Clowes, man. There's a lot of other threads in which I offer Clowes buying advice, go check on them. Starting with Eightball #22 would be a brilliant start, and only set you back $6.

Trust me, Sypha!
 
 
Aertho
21:37 / 14.05.03
While I read and love both Moore and Morrison, I can't say I've read enough of their work to declare, say, or even insinuate that the two rip each other off. While that may somehow be true, I think the two of them may simply attack similar themes in the most concise way -developing stories that feel essentially the same. I mean, think of all the recapitulated Christ-like stories there are in culture. Moore and Morrison just find new ways of saying very old and very essential myths. And I know you'll love Promethea... just hang in there through volume three and four.
 
 
arcboi
22:05 / 14.05.03
I think GM's ripping on Alan Moore is pretty much in the past IMHO. These days they can both carry a decent story in their own particular stylee - as LOEG and The Filth have proved. Do check out Miracleman though.

Flux's recommendation for Clowes is spot on Sypha. What is it with Flux these days? The Geeky X Men Thread deserves a case of beer in itself.
 
 
Simplist
22:21 / 14.05.03
Not that it's available or anything, but my favorite Moore work is still his run on Miracleman. In the event that Marvel (as is rumored) really does manage to reprint it in the next few years it's more than worth your while. Also, DC has recently gotten his entire Swamp Thing run into print. As that's really the series that got me back into comics as a young adult (having "grown out of them" years previously), I'll always have a soft spot for it, I suppose.
 
 
Jack Fear
23:09 / 14.05.03
Moore's SWAMP THING run also lay the groundwork for Gaiman's SANDMAN in many important ways, specifically in its reinvention of the characters of Cain and Abel. It's very much steeped in the history of DC Comics, though--as was SANDMAN, initially, though it gradually moved away from the DC Universe.

Moore's influence has been so broad and pervasive that I'm afraid much of the impact of his early work will be lost to you, Sypha—just as a kid growing up steeped in post-Hitchcock film will likely be underwhelmed the first time he sees a Hitchcock picture: what was tremendously innovative at the time has become roiutine, even cliché—what's important to remember is that, at the time, there was nothing like it.

Alan Moore quite literally wrote the book on certain trends and techniques in comics. Even if you ignore WATCHMEN's reinvention of the superhero subgenre, it's still an important work simply for its methodologies: it's practically a textbook of storytelling technique.
 
 
dlotemp
23:10 / 14.05.03
Sypha - I think it's really hard to choose poorly when you're looking at Moore's oevre. In most cases, he applies a willful elegance to his writing that raises even the mediocre stuff above the tripe. For instance, his CAPTAIN BRITAIN collection, while fun, really shows its age and Moore's unpolished skill. It's a bit all over the place and the main villains and their motivations are 2-dimensional. Not bad but not great. Some of his DC stuff, like the Superman stories - "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow" and "For the man who has everything" - are far better superhero treats. I must agree that MIRACLEMAN was sterling but why get your hopes up for something you may never read.
 
 
waxy dan
08:09 / 15.05.03
Just came accross this on amazon.
Kimota! The Miracleman Companion

Link

  
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
08:32 / 15.05.03
More Moore.

Lots Moore if you use the search function.

  
 
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13:40 / 15.05.03
Daniel Cloves? I'll have to do some inspection there... Next week I'm heading back up to get the next Transmetropolitan trade paperback so I'll check then (why do I always get into these comics after their initial run?!?! Ah well, at least with "The Filth" I'm staying current. Then again it is quite a bother to have to wait a month in between each issue. I don't think I could have made it through The Invisibles six year run, thank god The Filth is only 13 issues).

Actually, come to think of it, I'm not that familiar with Morrison's other work besides those two titles. The only other thing of his I have is volume 2 of "Animal Man", which I wasn't too crazy about (mainly because I didn't like the artwork very much). I'm aware of the other stuff he's worked on (Flex Mentallo? Doom Patrol? Arkham Asylum?) but his stuff is very hard to find (I've been unable to find stuff like "Kill Your Boyfriend" or, tragically, his "Lovely Biscuits" book. When the hell is that thing being reprinted?)

And I'm aware that "Miracleman" is one of Moore's major titles, but again, can't find it anywhere.

As for Jack Fear's claim that the impact of the early stories would be lost on me, I don't really think so. I mean, punk happened before I was born but I can imagine the impact it must of had on music (same for those first wave of industrial groups like Throbbing Gristle). I can apply the same attitude to comics, I mean, "V for Vendetta" seems pretty daring considering it came out during the ultraconservative 80's, I mean, recently I've been researching AIDS in the 80's and reading about how some people were proposing concentartion camps for people with AIDS, and then to read a similiar thing in "V", it really struck me. I can see how it would be innovative for it's time period, just like I can see how Hitchcock's/Welles films were innovative at that time.

The main things I look for is good writing and if it moves me emotionally (well, hip dialogue, pop culture references and mind warping stuff is always a plus too, which is why I like Morrison so much, though he has done some stuff that's moved me emotionally). And Moore seems to be a very good storyteller, I like how he often juxtaposes two different scenes and relates through text (or images). It can take awhile to read though, I mean "Watchman pt. 4" took me like half an hour! I'm still getting dates and characters messed up in that one, but I'm sure all will be made clear by the end. I like some of the descriptions in that one: "All we see of the stars are old photographs", for example (I'm paraphrasing).

generally, if a writer can bring a tear to my eye (as I rarely cry) they impress me. With comics it only happened a few times. Like in "Sandman" when Barbie wrote "Wanda" in pink lipstick on Wanda's grave (yeah, that got the waterworks flowing). Or when Matthew the Raven didn't want to leave Dream at the end of "The Kindly Ones". Or in "The Filth" when Ned Slade buried the dead kitten. In "V for Vendatta" I got a little teary eyed when I read Valerie's letter.

Then again, when I was a kid I cried at the end of Jaws and Godzilla, mainly because I felt bad the title characters were killed. I was a stange child...
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
14:15 / 15.05.03
Wow. Reading Clowes for the first time and Warren Ellis back to back will probably be a weird experience - they are such total opposites, Clowes will really seem so different. Clowes has very little in common with Neil Gaiman, and the only similarities I can think of between Morrison/Moore and Clowes is a thoughtfulness about the craft of storytelling and art, but Clowes is far more advance in my opinion, which has a great deal to do with him being one of the best cartoonists in the medium as well as being one of its greatest writers.

Actually, I'm being too fair. I think Clowes is the best writer the medium has.
 
 
dlotemp
22:39 / 15.05.03
Flux - That a really interesting estimation about Dan Clowes. What traits do you think he has that place him so high as a writer? I'll be forthright and say that I pleasantly disagree with you but, on the other hand, I don't think Clowes is a bad writer. I think he's often to self-possessed, his own anxiety bleeds through too much, for me. But then, I haven't read GHOST WORLD, which sounds like his best work.

RE: Morrison - Sypha, you might be able to find the Doom Patrol TPB which reprints the first 6 odd issues of Morrison's run. Very fun and irreverent work, and you're sure to fall in love with Crazy Jane, the multi-personality superhero. But I highly recommend Morrison's earlier work on a British strip called ZENITH, who is a British pop sensation. Again irreverent but with a wonderful anchor in humanity and our fear of life passing us by, or rather history passing us by. You might be able to find the old TITAN collections of the series around the place.
 
 
8===>Q: alyn
03:55 / 16.05.03
Hmm... I've got the entire Eclipse run of Miracleman... rather, I've got all Moore's stuff. I only have #17 of Gaiman's. Do you suppose we'd get in stupendous amounts of trouble if we scanned them in and put them online somewhere?
 
 
000
07:12 / 16.05.03
Actually, there is an existing site that has the Moore MiracleMan work scanned, I encountered the link here, so a search should, ideally, take you there.
 
 
000
07:16 / 16.05.03
Ah! Here it was:

http://www.disappearhere.org/_marvelman/
 
 
waxy dan
07:36 / 16.05.03
They re-released Zenith quite recently, if you want to pick them up (great series, though I think it kind've lost a focus a bit towards the end. Yeowell's one of those amazing 2000AD artists that I feel quite bad for, as they became experienced in making beautiful black and white artwork, that just doesn't look half as good when coloured. Though this stuff on the Invisibles worked out pretty well, so maybe I'm talking pants):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/202-6783019-6819867

~~~B C~~~ that's a great link, thanks!
 
 
The Falcon
14:42 / 16.05.03
It's my bloody link. I put it here first.
 
 
PatrickMM
17:47 / 16.05.03
In terms of Alan Moore, Miracleman is excellent, and you can get it for prices that, while not great, aren't undoable on ebay. I paid $80 for Moore's complete run earlier in the year, and it was defenitely worth it.

And for Morrison. Check out Marvel Boy, extremely fun, and smart too, with a lot of out there Morrison concepts.
 
 
sleazenation
13:40 / 17.05.03
As ever i feel the need to point out that Zenith has NOT been reprinted recently - or rather its been printed but don't expect it to go on sale to the public anytime soon because of a rights dispute between morrison and 2000AD that neither party seem in too much of a rush to resolve.
 
 
Bill Posters
16:31 / 24.05.03
Um, personally I think Moore's Snakes and Ladders is a work of genius, but i'd say one would have to know about magick in order to appreciate it, so it's not necessarily a 'must read'. Just thought it deserved a mention here.
 
 
Dances with Gophers
17:12 / 24.05.03
Eddie Campbell's Egomania #2 has an interview with Alan Moore in which he explains his magical philosophy. It also has a picture of the bearded wonder filling the front page so you can't miss it.

This morning I went into the comic shop Charing Cross Road (London) to find that they now have a whole section dedicated to Alan Moore....It's like a shrine!
 
 
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21:19 / 24.05.03
I won Morrison's "Kill Your Boyfriend" on ebay recently, so that'll be something else of Morrison's I own. I still really want to read "Lovely Biscuits" though. I hope they reprint that thing one day.

Finished "The Watchmen" recently. It was quite good. I liked that Nite Owl guy a lot, not surprising as I like owls anyway. Next week I'll probably tackle "From Hell".
 
 
magobardo
00:41 / 26.05.03
Man, if you really like Alan Moore, you must read From Hell, and Watchmen, but his would-be masterpiece would be really BIG NUMBERS.See some rare images of it, as well as articles in www.alanmooresenhordocaos.hpg.ig.com.br And if Anyonww would like to discuss this amazing subject,write me (magobardo@yahoo.com)
 
  
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