Alan Moore!

agree that the initial spate of ABC stuff is all great (I am also fond of a bunch of stuff in the Tomorrow Stories, Jack B. Quick etc.). It is refreshing how simple and straightforward Tom Tomorrow is, there's really not a ton of dialogue or exposition, everything is very compact.

http://electricomics.net/

Electricomics will be a 32-page showcase with four very different original titles:

Big Nemo – set in the 1930s, Alan Moore revisits Winsor McCay’s most popular hero

Cabaret Amygdala – modernist horror from writer Peter Hogan (Terra Obscura)

Red Horse – on the anniversary of the beginning of World War One, Garth Ennis (Preacher, The Boys) and Danish artist Peter Snejbjerg (World War X) take us back to the trenches

Sway – a slick new time travel science fiction story from Leah Moore and John Reppion (Sherlock Holmes – The Liverpool Demon, 2000 AD)

hate ennis but the rest sound at least intriguing

More playing with other people's toys. Oh joy.

With no artist attached. To three out of four titles. This is... not a good way to launch?

More playing with other people's toys. Oh joy.

haha yeah I thought this too. Is the character of Little Nemo public domain yet?

xp the "big nemo" thing especially feels particularly well minded in moore's work already... and how do you improve on Veitch's take quite frankly?

nemo's been public domain for a long time:
https://archive.org/details/LittleNemo1905-1914ByWinsorMccay

u+k link there btw as that contains hi-res scans of ten years of the strip for free download

whoah! I have some of the big Fantagraphics reprints just love 'em - wish I could read them to my daughter but I'm a little hesitant to explain the Imp.

those nemo reprints were among the first written words i ever read (which led to me saying "oh!" a lot in kindergarten). it took me until high school to realize that flip or the imp were human at all. all the "jungle imp" stuff felt like an imaginary race of nonhumans, which of course they were... the imp doesn't code as 'black' to me in the slightest... it was ebony from the spirit that left me genuinely confused. You're the parent but I don't know that you need to unpack the historicity of everything in a comic strip for a kid up front, just be prepared to have the conversation.

haha yeah the Spirit is another one I've avoided cuz of Ebony, who, obviously as a talking character codes way more obviously as black. The Imp is a greyer area until you sit him next to other images of blackface etc.

OBVIOUSLY

moore can play with other peoples' toys all he wants if it turns out as good as the original leagues

does he still have the right to get mad at other people for playing with his toys tho

But it's been 15 years since the original League, and it's been downhill ever since.

does he still have the right to get mad at other people for playing with his toys tho

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, May 28, 2014 5:23 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

dont care

how are the miracleman reprints?

i've been reading my old copies and the art is great but the colouring is dreadful. often out of register, sometimes entire panels are just a single colour.

http://miraclemen.info/2013/12/10/recoloring-comparison/

I'm against colourising and computer re-lettering, but the Marvel reprints are hideous rip-offs on almost every level, being something like $5 for 16 pages

i got the first collection from the library. the color is decent but it's years since i read the originals so i have no comparison. i didn't see anything wrong with that aspect if the book. the lettering was also redone (by computer) and doesn't always look so good though it remains consistant throughout (iirc there may have been multiple letters originally?). ultimately i would not be happy paying money for this because the production/design of the book is ugly and padded out with not-very-interesting original art scans and sketches. maybe i'm spoiled by the quality of fantagraphics/d&q books - the only marvels i normally ever bother with are essentials reprints - but for an archival project of such a prestigious series this is very poor to my eyes.

yeah, the original lettering varied in quality a lot. i heard they're gonna do a complete collection in oversized hardcover later anyway?

xp multiple *letterers* originally.

I'd say overall everything in this book - art/lettering/coloring - varied really widely over Moore's run, ranging from the horribly shitty to the stunningly awesome. Really it's only the latter Bissette/Totleben stuff that looked really great in the original print run. Not bothering with any reprints, still have my old issues, which are fine.

it was totleben alone on that stuff.

ah right

the lettering in the old versions is kinda patchy, not least where they scratch out marvelman and squeeze miracleman in it's place.

so is everybody SUPEREXCITED about even more Lovecraft nonsense? no? yeah me neither.

referring to: http://www.avatarpress.com/2015/02/alan-moores-providence-revealed/

Really it's only the latter Bissette/Totleben stuff that looked really great in the original print run.

Wrong: the Leach looked great and the Davis looked v good in the original print run; both of them looked kinda shitty in the Eclipse versions

sorry I wasn't clear, I was referring to the Eclipse versions (I don't have any issues of Warrior, my brother took those)

Eh, I'll give Providence a try.

Only read the first issue of Neonomicon and it kind of freaked me out, so I guess as horror it was kind of working.

It certainly had an effectively oppressive atmosphere, still not sure I'd call it 'good'.

his most carefully considered work in decades

Invoking a comparison it to a prior literary masterpiece is not something to be handled lightly, but in scope, importance and execution: Providence is the Watchmen of horror.

Moore has designed every cover, every single page, and every nuance of this work to create his most fully-realized vision to date.

kinda feel like they're setting me up for disappointment here tbh

After having to suffer through the horribly indulgent, needlessly long and graphic rape scene in Neonomicon, I don't think I want to read any Moore/Burrows collaboration ever again.

Feel like the QI Klaxon should be going off and RAPE flashing on the screen behind Tuomas' head right now.

Moore really needs to get over his Lovecraft fixation. I get it already.

Happy to wait and see on this one. If anything I'm curious to see Moore back on monthly comics for the first time since, what, the end of Promethea?

I do pretty much hate the Avatar/Burrows aesthetic, though, from colouring to subject matter to draftmanship... the depressing focus on brutalised female bodies (with porn star tits, natch). Even the glossy printing paper they use is kind of icky to touch.

Yeah, non of the Avatar art ever works for me, which is a shame because some of their slightly older titles had promising elements.

Why did Moore say he would refuse the Angouleme award?

http://www.avatarpress.com/2012/04/alan-moore-accepts-first-ever-gn-bram-stoker-award-for-neonomicon/

All I could find was his funny Bram Stoker award speech but it doesn't really clear much up.

Starting to think the problem is that Moore thinks he's William Blake, when he's really just ("just") a really good comics writer

I read half of A Small Killing and I just couldn't be bothered any further, the main character was so dull and irritating, which I'm sure was intentional but I just couldn't. Zarate's art is interesting because it looks similar to a lot of old art depicting city night life, like Lautrec, Edward Hopper, George Grosz, Otto Dix and others I've forgot. It's not quite at that level though but there are interesting effects in there.

I remember liking ASK a lot when I read it, but that was like 20 years ago, so I'm not sure if I'd have the same opinion anymore. In any case, it's definitely a case of great art elevating the script; after all these years I still have a vivid memory of the scene where the protagonist opens the [SPOILER], it's quite unforgettable.

http://www.mustardweb.org/alanmoore/

Why did Moore say he would refuse the Angouleme award?

I believe it's because when you win, you're obligated to 'run' the next one, so he'd be ... doing con-related things

So Otomo is going to take care of the next convention? I can't see him being expected to do much.

Specialist round on tonight's Mastermind. Only one question wasn't incredibly easy.

I missed four? The cat one, the Simpsons one, the acting (?!) one, something about the CIA.