It’s been a good year so far regarding Alan Moore related work. Here are books and comics I’ve read concerning and/or written by Moore.
First up, I was lucky enough to be given Lance Parkin’s biography
Magic Words: The Extraordinary Life of Alan Moore. It’s quite in depth and
there’s loads I hadn’t seen before, including a school photo and good insight
into Moore’s affiliation with and empathy for 1970s art labs. Parkin is an
admirer of Moore, which came across in his previous Essential Guide, and here
too. Parkin treads a delicate line between admiration and criticism though.
There are many memorable passages here, because Moore seems such an
uncompromising figure. For example, his continued defiantly naïve perspective
on what the relationship between publisher and artist should be, signing less than perfect deals on
his ABC characters, and up to his current Top Shelf contract, which also relies
on trusting that the company is made up of (by his definition) decent people.
Another good read was Eddie Campbell’s From Hell Companion.
I bought this book last year, read a bit and then was inspired to finish it
after the Parkin biography. It presents excerpts from the script interspersed
with commentary from Campbell. There is some terrific writing from Moore here. To
paraphrase Campbell, the text that usually only the artist would read. What is
very striking almost right from the beginning is Campbell’s confidence in what
he is doing. He is in no way slavish to Moore’s script. When Moore writes of and
in his own script, “None of this rambling junk is sacred”, Campbell takes that
on board. Throughout we see Campbell do different layouts than suggested by
Moore, who famously gives detailed instruction to artists and says that if
something “would work better another way then just go ahead and do it”. This
book contains the best evidence I’ve seen of the artist doing something else.
Perhaps it’s because Campbell is such a strong authorial voice in his own
right, with all his autobiographical and Bacchus comics behind him. Campbell’s
a great writer too, with a hilarious family table story concerning “Annie and
Eddy”. This book was terrific, and gives an insight into the two talented men
who made From Hell.
The collected BoJeffries Saga has finally appeared. This
started back in the 1980s as instalments in Warrior. The art by Steve Parkhouse
is very good. His style is perfect for this story; it’s homely, caricaturesque,
and slightly skewed and bizarre. Over thirty plus years the BoJeffries stories
have been published under various houses, and Parkhouse’s convention of signing
with a year attached is slightly distracting, but easily ignored. For example
the first chapter is Parkhouse, 85, the second Parkhouse 82, etc. Parkhouse’s
introduction is a bit sad, with his statement that “at some point in my career
I had forgotten what it was like to have fun with drawing”, which is a shame
for him. But certainly in these stories, possibly inspired by the fact that “the
end result has always made me laugh”, his artwork is lively and full of fun.
Finally I’ve read the latest League of Extraordinary
Gentlemen spin off Nemo: Roses of Berlin. Boy, It’s a delight to see these come
around periodically. The fantastic cityscapes and mention of Rotwang clued me
in to the fact that we are in Metropolis land here. Very exciting to see the False
Maria robot as I love that movie so much (and yes, it’s the 1980s edit that I
like, with the Giorgio Moroder soundtrack featuring Jon Anderson, Adam Ant, etc).
I won’t comment on the ending, but suffice to say, one should not mess with
Captain Nemo. A very enjoyable comic, but can we get Kevin O’Neill cloned? Because
I miss Marshal Law.
I’m now looking forward to the third Nemo comic, the fourth
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and the sequel to Neonomicon. And I still
haven’t read Fashion Beast yet!
PS. Check out Moore’s interesting history of comics from the
“Occupy Comics” series. Well worth a read.
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