Alan Moore!

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.

The acting one was the only one I didn't know.

Simpsons one was really a Simpsons question rather than an Alan Moore one.

just checked against the 2010 round on youtube, got one wrong

Just came across a great trivia question, maybe some of you might get the correct answer: when has Alan Moore written an X-Men comic?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroes_for_Hope

Correct!

Probably also the only time Stephen King and George R. R. Martin have written X-Men?

in one book? yeah that sounds likely.

I can't bear to look at that photo in the first post, his beard just looks so unhygienic :(

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-09/29/electricomics-alan-moore-interview

electricomics kinda sucks by the way. adds a new and totally unnecessary complication to reading a book.

i am interested in the comics and open source aspects of this (although i'm unsure as to what it actually is...). but then they go and make it ipad-only which seems at odds with the second bit.

It's pretty ropey, looks like the web circa 1998. Thrillbent (which I subscribed to for a while, then got bored) doing a much better job. But it's kind of a "be number one in a field of none" opportunity.

Coleen

McKay

in fairness to wired, those appear to be consistent errors on Moore's part
though maybe you should edit the email responses you get prior to publishing? just a thought.

As Moore doesn't use email, it's unlikely to be his error, and Coleen is not consistent even in the same paragraph.

in the questions it's listed as Colleen and McCay. Anyway, somebody fucked up.

He just joined Goodreads last month and he has answered 75 questions and set his goodreads challenge to finish one book.

So, 'Jerusalem' - anyone up for it?

Half-tempted, but I already have several huuuuge novels I bought and have not yet tackled, so it might have to wait.

Yeah, I'm in the same boat, kind of overwhelmed at the moment. Grr, I pre-ordered it, but doesn't look like it's coming today - Amazon say they're 'still trying to obtain' it (I had some vouchers to use).

Oh! It's out today. I haven't read anything massive this year and I like a good reading challenge, so quite possibly. Could pick it up at lunch.

dowd, it looks like Amazon have made the first few chapters available to compensate for delays

I've heard its really brilliant from one reader.

dowd, it looks like Amazon have made the first few chapters available to compensate for delays

Thanks for the tip! I'm really more of a physical reader, though.

Dont kindle previews equal 10% of the book? So thats at least 100+pages

Eesh, based on the first couple pages, the writing is... not good.

Or, let's say, not my thing.

But...crosswords!

I loved Voice of the Fire, so I should be more psyched for this than I am. but then I really loved the comics work he was doing then, and have not LOVED a comic of his in a while, so there is that.

Reminds me a bit of the Morrissey book - i.e. unedited and a little incoherent

Obviously anyone reading a 1000+ page book by Late Period Alan Moore will expect to have some *work* cut out for them (in fact, I'm sure that's part of the appeal) but the sentences read very un-special - there's a lot of overdescription like he's still writing for an artist, and a lot of unedited pluperfects

This is based on a single ten minute squiz on Amazon, though, so do ignore me.

Almost twice as long War and Peace. Holy fucking shit

Moore is great but I expect most of this to be typing and not writing

Yeah I will never get round to reading this, if someone could summarise it on this thread that would be great.

I was in Gosh Comics on Friday and the staff were packaging up copies of the book into what looked like* custom cardboard sleeves and writing addresses for EG Portugal on them.

*but I can well believe you can get them in all sizes.

The staff did not look, at that point, like Alan Moore fans.

I loved Voice of the Fire, so I should be more psyched for this than I am. but then I really loved the comics work he was doing then, and have not LOVED a comic of his in a while, so there is that.

this is pretty much where i'm at - huge moore fan up until the early-mid 2000s, thought voice of the fire was really great, but i've long since stopped paying close attention to his work. i'd like to give jerusalem a try but i dunno if i've got the enthusiasm and/or stamina required to make it through a thousand pages from a writer who i suspect may have passed his peak, or at least sharpened his talents/obsessions to so fine a point that it'll only cut it with a very specific group of readers.

maybe once the reviews are in i'll rethink...