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Underground > Comic Books >

The Best Of ... Alan Moore

  
  

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The Natural Way
19:18 / 18.03.06
I just said "rationable"...

Fucking Jesus....
 
 
smurph
20:10 / 18.03.06
Ah, I see. I wasn't reading carefully enough and assumed "cosmic" meant big outer-space stories, beings older than time, devourers of worlds, etc. As a non regular Fantastic Four reader, I sort of associate them with that type of story.

Re-reading the points made up-thread, they seem to echo a conversation I had with a friend. I noticed that he had the first volume of Top Ten, but hadn't picked up the second. I couldn't concieve of anyone not loving Top Ten so I asked why. He responded that it didn't seem to have as many ideas in it as earlier Moore like V. or Watchmen.

After thinking about it for a bit, I came to the conclusion that I did indeed love Top Ten more for the craft and the artistry of the story telling rather than any particularly challenging or stimulating themes or ideas. That being said, I still love Top Ten. The way that Moore juggles all of the subplots and characters, weaving them in and out, wrapping up each one at exactly the right moment seems perfect to me, like watching a musician hit every note exactly right.
 
 
Jack Denfeld
05:07 / 22.03.06
I'm reading Moore's Supreme now, and it's awesome. I like the flashback sequences, the silver agey stories, it's pretty much just Superman isn't it?

But my question is this. Why the fuck would Alan "Take my name off the shit I don't own" Moore decide to do a run on a Rob Liefeld Superman knockoff? I'm about a quarter done with his run and he doesn't seem to be slackin', the stories are great. And he even tries to incorporate some other Image stories and characters in it. Why didn't he just take over Superman? Did Liefeld pay him a gajillion dollars?

Just seems odd.
 
 
Deculture Aquatripper
(prev. Dcdnt Dytrppr n Lv)
05:17 / 22.03.06
Moore won't work for DC if he can help it. ABC had it's checks cut interestingly, for to preserve Moore's integrity and still pay him.

And, really, Liefield telling Moore he's wrong and can't do something for aesthetic, business, literary, or any reason at all is inherently funny but kinda unlikely. Even Rob Leifield has to know that. Even if I'm not Moore's biggest fan, I'll put the two of them on far ends of the aestheto-sensible spectrum.
 
 
Lunch with Lenny
(prev. Secret Bat-Fairies)
06:28 / 22.03.06
cloud: I thought the most interesting story was about the Green Lantern Corps - where one of them is sent to find a new GL for a planet whose inhabitants have never been able to see, and hence have no conception of light or colour. Really excellent stuff.

I must concur - Katma Tui & The F-Sharp Bell is one of the best comical book stories I've ever read. Good work with the speculative-type sci-fi. Additionally, the art is the gorg.
 
 
Jack Denfeld
06:43 / 22.03.06
Oh yeah! They even come up with a new oath for him.

In loudest din or hush profound

My ears hear evil's slightest sound

Let those who toll out evil's knell

Beware my power, the F-Sharp Bell!
 
 
Deculture Aquatripper
(prev. Dcdnt Dytrppr n Lv)
06:52 / 22.03.06
Alan Moore's shorts, limited to one or three central ideas to extrapolate from. It's when he tries to do it in long-form, and layer them that the tightness... maybe he's just too efficient?
 
 
Lunch with Lenny
(prev. Secret Bat-Fairies)
06:56 / 22.03.06
Moore versus Morrison ...'s the difference between Margaret Atwood and Angela Carter, to be cross-medium about it. Atwood's word choice and imagery is all extremely tight, cog-like - Carter uses more explosive word choice and loose, wild sentences. They both have their place, but I think Moore is extremely good at shorts, as you say, which lend themselves to tight consideration.
 
 
Jack Denfeld
07:13 / 22.03.06
Really? From Hell is like a phonebook and it's one of my favorite books. Also Morrison's shorts are really great too, Kill Your Boyfriend, Arkham Asylum.
 
 
Digital Hermes
00:22 / 12.04.06
Almost done Voice of the Fire, and while not a comic, is exemplary Moore. Everything from transcendant revelations to normal human drama, this is the kind of novel that you already knew Moore could put out. Considering how much history, and how much reality went into it, it's wonderful work, and on par with any of his other greats. Sorry, I'm gushing, but it's really that good. Cures headaches, too!
 
 
Uncle Batman
(prev. Superman)
00:47 / 12.04.06
I'd just like to say in response to

not that one issue where Swamp Thing goes to the robot planet. That was just pretentious.

WRONGGGGGGGGG!
It's very good. I hate how abused the word 'pretentious' is. Grrr.
 
 
Bots'wana Beast
00:55 / 12.04.06
I've yet to contribute, and this is because of the terrible emptiness in my life that is my non-ownership of 'V for Vendetta', which is what I always say as 'best Moore', but am incapable of affirming if that remains true today.

So, the other favourites, and then I might get to booting a Pete Milligan ish in this series.

Over the last decade, and I've not read any of the Arcade, is it? - the Liefeld stuff apart from Judgment Day is it? The trial of the Youngblood guy entwined through a whole cloth comics and universe history composed on the spin. That was alright, pretty impressive. Anyway, over that timespan, I think Top Ten's actually the tightest and best high-concept... well, there's all that magic gear, Birth Caul, Disease of Language, which is probably cleverer but it does go on, doesn't it? Anyway, it's not as enjoyable as Homicide: Life on the Street (best TV ever, if you need reminding) crossed with a superhero universe confined to a single city. Numerous subplots, quality revolving cast, tightly bound - apart from that Rumour plot which was probably done in the spin-off by the other guy, but fuck that anyway. There's some deeply impressive singles in Promethea, the last issue and the tarot one in particular, but the whole Qaballah thing was awful dry and didactic, and some of the dialogue was awful clumsy. 'Haha, yes, that's just like...[unifying concept of this particular sphere]'

Prior to ABC and Wildstorm/Image work, I really loved the sci-fi soap of Halo Jones, all that fighting in heavy gravity, desolate planetary outposts guff. Don't have that either. I don't particularly rate Moore as a short writer, that said, really unimpressed with Tomorrow Stories apart from the Kyle Baker Splash Brannigan remix of Pictopia (also very good) in the ABC 64-pg Giant, and the only other I particularly rate is the absolutely incredible Abin Sur Green Lantern one with the terrifying Kev O'Neill art. Thank god I never read that as a child; I can kinda see why the comics code initially banned it outright. Qu'll of the Five Inversions. Brr.

A lot of the latter Swamp Thing stuff I really rate, love the whole cross-cosmos journey really, but particularly 'My Blue Heaven' #fifty-something, which is quite possibly the most emotionally affecting superhero-type comic ever written. I loved Captain Britain, too, which seems to have invented about five new tropes for superhero comics but I'm slightly leery of the recommendation having recently checked those Excaliburs that I said were good in the Ellis thread, only to discover that they are at least 50% shite.
 
 
Bots'wana Beast
01:14 / 12.04.06
Fuuuck. 1963.

1963 is amazing. It's just Moore riffing on Marvel's 1963 output basically, satirising the whole bullpen, dodgy politics thing in sidebars and adverts. It's great, the whole comic is created by Alan Moore and cohorts, every page, it's like a somewhat knowing timewarp. That, and when the tomorrow Syndicate face their Communist alter-egoes from another world is just the best antiself villains bit ever ever.
 
 
matthew.
04:03 / 12.04.06
MacReady, why is that issue of Swamp Thing good in your opinion?

I didn't like it because I did not connect with it. I felt it was too much of a collage of ideas and images. I didn't feel the bits added up to anything spectacular. I felt like Moore was just writing something... showy.

According to this, I was using "pretentious" correctly according to syntax and meaning. I don't think I "abused" it. Whether or not you agree with the judgement....
 
 
Bots'wana Beast
17:46 / 12.04.06
Well, I fail to see how a story can in itself 'claim unjustified distinction or merit'. It wasn't titled 'I/We deserve a fucking Eisner for this one' was it?

Also, you are wrong.
 
 
Uncle Batman
(prev. Superman)
17:52 / 12.04.06
matt, I think if something tries something different, it's not automatically 'pretentious'. Too often that word is used to mean 'I didn't get it/like it'.
Why's it good?
Cos it's a brilliant homage to the purple prose of the pulp sci-fi short stories of the 50's and 60's; becuase it's a genuinely disturbing story, involving the literal violation of a character who has nearly god-like powers; because it's a genuine attempt to create an 'alien' environment; because it really stretches the expectations of a 24 page monthly comic (in 1986).

I just think 'pretentious' is a rather glib reduction.
 
 
Our Lady in Her Haus
(prev. Our Lady Drinks Your Milkshake)
20:49 / 12.04.06
I would have to agree that pretentious is not really the right word in this case, it seemed like quite a straightforward story to me. Where it falls down for me is more in the art department, which to me hasn't aged at all well in twenty years. Mind you, I don't get why Jack Kirby is rated so high as an artist, so that probably renders me ineligible to pass comment...
 
 
Mark Parsons
20:58 / 14.04.06
Saw Kirby's art up close at the Museum of Contemporary Art Masters of Comic art exhibit here in LA.

I've loved the King for 25 years, but this experience was REVELATORY. In addition to pages from the usual suspects (FF, New Gods, etc) they included a double page spread featuring some kinda energy being/alien from DEVIL DINOSAUR (lent by Glen "Carter Beats the Devil" Gould). The black, inky image is surreal, hallucinatory and unbelievably powerful. Eye popping, really. Visionary? Yes. There's a page from Black Panther that also just completely rocks, and even CAPTAIN VICTORY is incredible to look at up close.

Kirby held his own alongside Eisner, Kutrzman, Crumb, Ware, Panter, Speigelman, McKay, Herriman, et alia, all of which were on display (the last two at another location).
 
 
matthew.
22:44 / 14.04.06
matt, I think if something tries something different, it's not automatically 'pretentious'. Too often that word is used to mean 'I didn't get it/like it'.

Fair enough. I understand your reasoning. People do generally conflate that word with unecessarily confusing ideas and execution.

BUT, I think the issue was showy. I thought it was a "tasteless display; flashy". It had very few elements that redeemed its extravagent art and style, which is to say that I did not connect with it whatsoever. Therefore, I felt it was pretentious.

Perhaps "ostentatious" would be a better word?

I will eat my words if it can be successfully argued that my lack of connection with the issue is the meaning behind the art and style.
 
 
dmj2012
22:00 / 16.04.06
V for Vendetta and Watchmen will always be etched in my mind as pivotal works. Promethea is a big fave of mine, because I love the study of mysticism from a modern perspective. Tom Strong is a lot of fun.

The thing I find most impressive about Moore is how prolific he is. He just keeps producing work.
 
 
doctorbeck
14:27 / 21.04.06
forgive my boorishness, i am a big fan of alan moore, certainly my fav comic writer, but i just read a couple of trades of tomorrow stories and felt, well very underwhelmed ,just genre pastiche as far as i can see, or am i missing something?
 
 
Deculture Aquatripper
(prev. Dcdnt Dytrppr n Lv)
05:14 / 02.07.07
I notice it's got a few mentions in-thread already, but I was entertained enough by Top 10 to look up the thread and write most of this before rereading the thread. Went through Moore's Top 10 fairly quick, of late, and while I'm pretty sure I read all of it when it came out, it was not in order and it was sporadic anyhow. It was alright, in the end, and had some cute moments and interesting in a bird-watching sort of way, but, well.... Closely contiguous and in proper order, I really really liked it. I think it may be the looser Moore I've always been looking for; that marvelous leftfield Beethoven-perfume reveal!

While I can't say whether it was Moore or the artist(s) who were responsible for loading it up ferociously with injokes and allusions, the extrapolation from supertights to cop-show tropes was really well handled, and Moore handled his own tendencies with more efficacy than usual, or at least, downplayed and limited them to my taste. I actually really like the one-a/two/one-b moments, where in a three panel progression, Moore has moved us from moment/scene to something more immediate, and back to a mirror-scene. The playing with morals and morale in the second half of the series was really tight, too. Slow progression of a few unlikeable traits in characters exploded to making-a-point status by the end, which, really, if it were on air, weekly, it would have to do towards the end of the season.

If I fade off the 'lith, I'm glad I discovered some love for Moore's work in myself before splitting, since I'm usually more 'It's alright, but there's this...' or don't like it. My response to Moore is often as though LoEG was a mutant kissing cousin or something, not standing with the rest of his work, but I'm wondering if I go back through, say, Promethea I'd enjoy it more in my current mood. Instead of trying that, though, I'm content at the moment to assume that Top 10 was just that good. It was fun, and packed tightly while remaining loosely and calmly told. Procedural comics, in terms of presentation and narrative as well as the in-story stuff. You can see the procedure right there on the page, practically, and yet, it's elegant enough you aren't attending that procedure, and it knows how to break form and just run with the interesting bits.
 
 
Our Lady in Her Haus
(prev. Our Lady Drinks Your Milkshake)
17:23 / 02.07.07
It's been a while since I read them but my impression of Moore's Top 10 stuff was that it wasn't filled with in-jokes and allusions, it was the inferior 'Tales from the Farthest Precinct' that fell into that trap.

I suppose Moore might have been using really obscure stuff I didn't know (very likely), but the only in-joke was when Peacock Fella went to the trasmet station and you saw SG-1, Star Wars characters and the like.
 
 
matthew.
18:03 / 02.07.07
I think there's like somebody in practically every street scene. Here are some annotations to the first issue. Very allusion heavy was the series, I thought, but it never distracted. Top Ten is consistently one of my fav Moore things.
 
 
Our Lady in Her Haus
(prev. Our Lady Drinks Your Milkshake)
21:55 / 24.07.07
Alan Moore Simpsons episode air date.
 
 
Quantum
(prev. Quantum - terribly nonplussed)
02:16 / 25.07.07
wheeee!
 
 
garyancheta
04:55 / 25.07.07
One of the things that I think are underappreciated with Alan Moore are 1) his detective writing and 2) his humor writing.

I picked up D.R. and Quinch and I can't believe how funny Alan Moore can be. His work is biting satire, but he pulls it off with such humor and such grace. I think I'm one of the few people that liked his humor stuff from Tomorrow Stories.

I also thought his Top 10 worked well as both a procedural story and as a detective story. There were some really neat bits of detection and clue planting throughout the story that works well overall as a mystery. I remember thinking of this as a smarter version of CSI or a really weird superhero-cloaked Hill Street Blues.

I think the biggest and most charming part of Moore's writing is his idea of extrapolating and explaining. This is why movie adaptations of Alan Moore's work always fails: because it is very hard to explain things in movies without it coming off as just exposition. Alan Moore's work still has a good deal of exposition or explanation (from Miracleman...where he explains why Miracleman is super powered...to Promethea...where he explains why armageddon is a good thing).

The charming part is Moore's words in his explanations. This is the precise reason why you read an Alan Moore work. He tells you such interesting things that fit together like a map that you must interpret signs, symbols, and words in a way that, if you interpret it correctly, you can understand how the world works.
 
 
yichihyon
06:55 / 25.07.07
My Favorite Alan Moore works are Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Miracleman aka Marvelman, 1963, From Hell, Maxwell the Cat, Promethea, Swamp Thing and his short stories that appeared in RAW and 911 benefit book. The Killing Joke was also pretty good as well as Big Numbers. I'm going to miss his writings if he finished his career in writing for Graphic Novels or comics. My absolute favorite is Watchmen and there is so many to choose from...........
 
 
FinderWolf
15:56 / 25.07.07
The one major Moore story I have never read is A SMALL KILLING... someday I gotta check that out. Anyone here read it?

(it would also be fun to read BROUGHT TO LIGHT someday, the out-of-print history of the CIA by Moore & Bill Sienkiewcz...) The US gov't gave them some flack about that particular volume...
 
 
yichihyon
05:11 / 26.07.07
The Small Killing reads like a realistic short story about an advertising man trying to kill his younger self. I think its about how people change and lose their idealistic younger self and how they would kill themselves to get ahead. It was an interesting read.

Brought to Light was an uncovering of covert Cia workings researched by the Christic Institute? I don't remember since I don't have the book with me. It reminded me of Oliver Stone's JFK before JFK that is.....It was told in the first person of a CIA operative........ Both are excellent reads I thought.
 
  

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