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This is an odd, odd topic, methinks, but since it seems to me that people are writing off some of Clowes' work a bit too harshly here, I'll have a go at contributing something.
First of all, I have to say that there are many, many people comics which I would rate above most of Alan Moore's work. This, in large, comes down to personal taste, but it's a factor here. And I think that this is important, because as moriarty notes, these aren't the only two options out there--comics is a wide field, and there's a lot more to the medium than this.
I do think the tendancy to take it as granted that Moore is superior to virtually everyone in the field is a bit odd, to be honest. He's very talented, for sure, and has produced a lot of wonderful work (I'm very, very fond of From Hell, Top 10 and V for Vendetta, for example), but I don't feel like he towers above everyone else in any way.
But anyways, this is a thread about Moore and Clowes, so I'll try and stay on topic from now on...
Right--to be honest, I find comparing them very hard because they're "such different talents". It's true that Moore's work has engaged with a wider variety of genres than Clowes' has, but a lot of this comes down to the fact that they work in very different ways.
On a really basic level, I think you could argue that Clowes' work is "narrower" than Moore's, but this alone wouldn't necesserily mean that Moore was better. The actual quality of the writing could count for a lot. Even so... I'd say that Clowes covers a lot of ground in his comics. More than he's getting credit for here, at the very least.
Eightball #22 is, in my opinion, the most formally complex comic book I've ever read--it tackles a variety of genre's and styles in its 37 pages in a way that is both self-aware & intelligent, and also engenders a lot of sympathy for its large cast of complex (and very different) characters.
There's a lot going on technically and structurally too--threads going through the various stories; the manner in which the stories are arranged and paced (truly masterfully, in my opinion--somehow simple and effective despite the fact that Clowes'is juggling so much stuff); the differing narrative and artistic styles; the visual tricks, like the times Clowes pushes half of a speech bubble outside the panel etc...
It's funny as all hell too, but that's by the by at this point.
And it's not just Eightball #22 that's complex and rewarding.
Ghost World and the best stories in the Caricature collection deal with a wide variety of characters, situations and emotions in a very complicated and (yes) emotionally engaging way, and to dismiss them as narrow and juvenile seems to me to miss so much.
This is very textured stuff, and I get a hell of a lot out of it so... whatever. This is probably a lot to do with personal taste, but I do prefer it to anything Moore has ever written.
I'm not dissing Moore here--he's a smart man, and a great writer who plays well off of various styles and genres and who is very good at creating intelligent plots, worlds and characters. He's good at tying together a lot of complex information, and he's a hell of a storyteller to boot, but as I've already said, I don't think he is indesputibly superior to the everyone else... his work is certainly not so good that it leaves little room for discussion, is it? |
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