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Underground > Comic Books >

Alan Moore trivial questions

18:40 / 12.09.05

I was re-reading LOEG volume 2 last night and I remembered a load of things about it that puzzled me due to my poor classical education.

For example who is Tim the tiger? In the trophy room, I recognise the picture of Dorian Gray (Grey?) but not the long-legged skeleton, or why the pocket knife is on display. Whuzzat?

Trivial details I know, but I thought Barbelith comix forum is the best place to ask these things. There's plenty of other little details in Moore's canon too, ask questions here to the folks with comic madskillz.

18:44 / 12.09.05

Tiger Tim was a British comic chartacter from Magnet... the other stuff you can get from Jess Nevin's online annotations...

Are Being Stolen By Bandits

18:57 / 12.09.05

Which can, of course, be found here.

19:05 / 12.09.05

How long has Moore had the beard? And I mean THE BEARD, beard.
And has he ever done anything that was not super-tightly-structured? Fast-wheelin' pop-mania overdrive sleep-deprivation getitoutasfastashecanthink material?

19:07 / 12.09.05

Not sure if this should go here exactly but.....
I've read Watchmen recently & LOEG previously and was wondering what else by Moore is worth a look. Any suggestions?

Essential Dazzler

19:11 / 12.09.05

The only other Moore I've read is V for Vendetta, and Promethea, both I'd rate above watchmen and LOEG, although I doubt many people would agree.

Promethea is a risky one to recommend, but V for Vendetta I can't imagine anyone not enjoying.

miss wonderstarr

19:15 / 12.09.05

I didn't enjoy V for Vendetta. I would recommend Moore's work on Top Ten, Miracleman, Swamp Thing and (with a little reservation as it may seem dated or restricted by its 2000AD origins now) Halo Jones.

miss wonderstarr

19:22 / 12.09.05

And has he ever done anything that was not super-tightly-structured? Fast-wheelin' pop-mania overdrive sleep-deprivation getitoutasfastashecanthink material?

I thought Tom Strong was meant to be that kind of thing. It came off a bit flat to me though.

19:32 / 12.09.05

Even 'Tom Strong' had too much thought and those moments you know he hit on something and went back and wrote in a small element that could later develop into something bigger.
I'm not a particularly big fan of Moore's works, aside from LoEG and 'V for Vendetta' and believe I'd actually love to see his 'Dark Knight Strikes Again and Again and Again' as it were.

miss wonderstarr

19:38 / 12.09.05

The great loss to comic book heritage is his Twilight end-of-the-superheroes epic, which was at least partially teefed and adapted into Waid's Kingdom Come. I read Moore's novella-length proposal for this majestic maxi-series online about ten years ago, and even his draft plans for it are just hauntingly good.

Are Being Stolen By Bandits

20:54 / 12.09.05

I'd recommend From Hell, personally, although almost all the other recommendations made in this thread so far are good. His run on Miracleman, in particular, has to count as one of the finest pieces of superhero fiction I've ever had the pleasure of reading, and it's a crime that it isn't currently available.

His thinly-veiled Superman epic, Supreme, is also well worth investigating - disregard the Liefeld associations and check it out.

miss wonderstarr

21:03 / 12.09.05

Oh yeah, and his short story "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow", which is (was) available as a prestige-format reprint.

09:58 / 13.09.05

Ta for the link. Fanboytastic trivia!

08:46 / 14.09.05

Oh, come now, we all know he's never equalled the giddy heights of characterisation and plotting he achieved with D.R. and Quinch. Glory days, glory days.

A fall of geckos

11:48 / 14.09.05

I would definitely recommend From Hell, Voice of the Fire (his novel), V For Vendetta and his spoken word performances (though these are kind-of an acquired taste).

His early 2000AD work is generally fun though a little slight – I’ve always had a perverse fondness for D.R. and Quinch...

My name's Ernie Quinch college student. I like guns and starting fights. My psychiatrist says I'm a psychotic deviant.

miss wonderstarr

16:10 / 14.09.05

I once got Alan Moore to sign "Maxwell the Magic Cat".

21:24 / 20.09.05

Alan Moore returns to the ABC line for one brief shining moment (or a few of them), to write 2 Tom Strong issues and a few short tales of other ABC characters:

from DC's newest solicits:

>> TOM STRONG #36

Written by Alan Moore
Art and cover by Chris Sprouse & Karl Story
It’s “Tom Strong at the End of the World” as Alan Moore and Chris Sprouse reunite for one final, breathtaking story! The events of the last several issues of PROMETHEA are recalled as our hero — and special guest stars Jack B. Quick, Greyshirt, Splash Brannigan, The Cobweb, Jonni Future, and many others — discover what happens when the world comes to an end. But that's all small potatoes compared to the really big news revealed within these pages! Final issue.
On sale December 14 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

TOMORROW STORIES SPECIAL #2
Written by Alan Moore & Steve Moore
Art by Rick Veitch, Eric Shanower, Jim Baikie and Cameron Stewart
Cover by Gene Ha
ABC. Four fantastical stories set in a world of whimsy and charm by some of comics’ top creators! The America’s Best team leads the way to the future, The First American and U.S. Angel show us the way to a better life, and Little Margie takes a walk down memory lane. Plus, the rollicking conclusion of a 2-part Jonni Future story!
On sale Dec 28 • 64 pg, FC, $6.99 US

23:04 / 20.09.05

WHAT!?

What happened to the well-accepted idea that the ABC characters would continue after Moore's 'retirement'? Seems that Tom Strong's monthly is drawing to a neat close, even tying in the end of Promethea.

I wonder if this was always going to happen, or whether Alan's huff about V For Vendetta has changed things. Does Alan's ABC deal give him that kind of power? I would doubt it, but I can't imagine him signing on with Wildstorm without that kind of proviso - "You have complete control of these characters, Alan, whatever happens..."

And with LoEG going to Wildstorm, the only series which appears to be on-going, it very much seems that ABC are finished, and Mr Moore's long-mooted retirement may actually occur.

We know that Dark Dossier is on it's way, so let's hope that DC realise that it's their LAST ALAN MOORE and produce and market it accordingly. (Unless it comes out after that last Tom Strong issue.)

By-the-by, whatever happened to Lost Girls? I downloaded the first issue in .pdf, and only flicked through it because I felt so guilty. But that was like a year ago, and I've never seen it in 'my local comic book store'.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

23:18 / 20.09.05

Thought it was fairly well known that the ABC universe would end with Moore's retirement? I seem to remember someone saying that Promethea's ending the world would -end- the world, but they kept publishing and now it's finally hitting the zero moment.

08:32 / 21.09.05

I think that Lost Girls, like the forthcoming LoEG stuff, is coming from Top Shelf; three hardback volumes, if memory serves.

Maybe it’s just me, but I’d always imagined that Sophie’s laughter in that issue of Promethea which explicitly refers to Tom Strong’s comic book version of the apocalypse events was a nod to the frequency problems of that book, if not the ABC line in general… nice to see that stuff actually panning out, though.

12:14 / 21.09.05

Yeah, I liked that bit too. Reminded me that Tom Strong is both real in ABCU, and a fictional character. He promotes his own semi-fictional comic book. Hence, the Promethea/Tom Strong/Apocalypse overlap will hopefully be both real - as in ABCU, and double-fictional, as in Tom's account of the ABCU events as they occur in ABCU(ComicBookUniverse).

Worlds within worlds, and the final example of how the end of the world occurs even AFTER the Apocalypse has already happened.

14:49 / 27.09.05

Rich Johnston says this week:

>> The new, revamped edition of the "Alan Moore Across The DC Universe," namely "The Alan Moore Omnibus," will include a couple of new stories. "Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow" and "The Killing Joke." The cover price will still be $19.99.

05:48 / 11.10.05

I just posted this in a somewhat wrongly named thread ("V for Vendetta the movie") that nevertheless showed up in the comics forum, but it didn't seem very buoyant.

So I'm doing a repost here since this was the first Alan Moore thread I came upon, and it contains trivia anyway. Which this might be seen as.

Repost:

"But there's not a V for Vendetta thread in here, is there?

At least I could not find one by searching, so I'll just post this here.

Anyway:I just found this at a "page of the day" thing at an Alex Toth site, and was amazed by the similarity to the "ideas are bulletproof" in V for Vendetta.

Thought you might like to know."

12:35 / 12.10.05

I can't remember where, but I remember reading an interview with Moore where he was talking about the end of his ABC run. If I remember rightly, hesaid that anyone can write his characters when he's finished with them, he doesn't care - although they will have to figure out how to get past the fact that the world has ended.

I found this quite humourously obtuse, and it certainly explains some of the questions in this post.

Henningjohnathan

18:19 / 12.10.05

If you like his SUPREME, you should also pick up his "Whatever happened to the Man of Tomorrow" and "For The Man Who Has Everything" (which was adapted into the JLU cartoon).

Also, I'd recommend his early CAPTAIN BRITAIN for Marvel UK (w/ Alan Davis art). He was obviously more like a DC hero than a Marvel one.

Another loss to comics is Moore's BIG NUMBERS series. Bill Sienkewicz only did #1 and then couldn't take the demands for the rest of the series. I'd love to see Dave McKean tacle it.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

18:44 / 12.10.05

Sienckiewicz did two, didn't he?

Henningjohnathan

19:41 / 12.10.05

Never saw the second issue. The whole thing was supposed to have been taken over by Sienkewicz's assistant/protoge (Al somebody?) but he had some kind of breakdown and zipped out of existence for a while.

19:42 / 12.10.05

Yes Sienkiewicz dod art on both issues of Big Numbers. I believe he also did art for issue 3, which was published published as part of a massive interview thing a few years age... Al Columbia was supposed to be taking over on the series, but had a breakdown and burned all the art he produced. McKean was never involved in the project to the best of my knowledge.

For more on Big Numbers and Alan Moore generally, you could do a lot worse than check out Gary Spencer Millidge's Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

19:51 / 12.10.05

Thinking of Big Numbers- were it to get finished now, do you think it would work? Remember, chaos theory and stuff was all the rage back then. Also, as part of an evolving medium, the publication of the first two (which was quite a big deal at the time, I seem to remember) would itself probably have helped things move on.

I reckon the quality of the piece would probably pull it through, though I think it would seem very of its time.

21:20 / 12.10.05

It would work now in the same way V for Vendetta works now - much of it is dated or relient on bad science (the survivability of a nuclear-near miss), but it still remains compelling. One of the things I find most amusing about the impact of time on Big numbers is its format - It was consciously attempting to ape the shape of Vinyl Albums as a possible way for the future of comics. Less than a decade later the vinyl album was obsolete...

Henningjohnathan

21:24 / 12.10.05

And now you can get comics on Compact Discs.

The future is stranger than fiction.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

21:34 / 12.10.05

sleaze- yeah, I was kind of thinking about the V for Vendetta comparison myself.