Alan Moore!

Just spent the day knocking up a silly tune sampling a bit of Moore from the Stewart Lee interview:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/mdyqas

oops just posted this on the watchmen thread by mistake

Alan Moore and Pat Mills talking abt the genius of Ken Reid:

http://www.archive.org/details/PanelBordersTheArtOfKenReid

Great examples of Reid's work here:

http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Interviews/KenReid/KenReidOverview.asp

So LoEG 1910 is pretty underwhelming huh. Barely enough plot to get your teeth into, I'm just hoping it's building up to a pay-off in the second two chapters.

Re-read Halo Jones over the weekend. That's how you do it.

Looking back at Moore's body of work, I've started getting the feeling he's always been more of a concept man and the babies themselves are a little thin and spindly when they finally plop out onto the ground. I'd say From Hell and the Bojeffries stories are tied for his best.

Looking forward to the complete (with new final story) Bojeffries Saga!

What?!?! I missed this news!

Moore mentioned it in a recent interview at Forbidden Planet blog (http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/?p=12835)

Relevant bit reprinted here:

PÓM: And I think the other thing that I know is forthcoming – I believe is forthcoming – is – isn’t there a new Bojeffries Saga story?

AM: Yes, Bojeffries Saga. ... yeah, I have written a final Bojeffries – well, I don’t know if it’s a final – but I’ve written a kind of, it wouldn’t hurt if it was the last one, although maybe me and Steve will want to do some more with them. What we’re going to do is, we’re going to collect up, with Top Shelf, all of the Bojeffries material that’s appeared to date, and we’re going to cap it all off with a twenty-four page story called After They Were Famous, which is the Bojeffries in 2009, existing side-by-side with culture as it is now, as opposed to culture as it was in the eighties and the early nineties, and I think it’s the best Bojeffries thing yet, and

It’s great working with Kevin on the one hand and Steve Parkhouse on the other. They are two of the most British of all of my collaborators, you know, their influence are – I mean, this is not to mock the artists whose influences are more from the other side of the Atlantic, but there’s something very cheering about working with a couple of artists who grew up on the same Beano and Dandy illustrators that I did. You know, the Paddy Brennans and the Ken Reids and the Leo Baxendales, and who kind of worked that into their style.

So, yeah, I mean, I don’t know what the schedule is, I believe that Steve is working away, he said he found the script very challenging, but he thought it was a perfect ending, a perfect contemporary take on the Bojeffries, so that, I think people will enjoy that when it comes out, it’s very funny. It’s also got, they’ll never need to make a movie of the Bojeffries because one of the episodes in this twenty-four page story is coverage of the Bojeffries Movie, which shows a few shots, two scenes, a clip from the Bojeffries Movie, which starred, I think, Meryl Streep as Uncle Raoul, which is probably all you need to know.

It’s pretty good, it’s pretty good, and that’s just one part of this story. There’s a whole Big Brother part to it, and Ginda is a Blair’s Babe, Reth is a Booker Prize-winning author hanging out with Julie Burchill at the Groucho Club, and, yeah, what happened to Baby, and what happened to Jobremus, and what happened to Granddad. It’s pretty good. The entire family is broken up, by the way, when the story starts. They haven’t seen each other for years, which doesn’t sound like the most promising introduction, but it leads to a very, very good story, so I think that everyone’s going to enjoy that.

P; I always loved Bojeffries, I felt they were…

AM: One of my favourite strips, and fantastic to be working on it again. Writing the script it was like I’d written the last one a couple of months before. The characters were just immediately there, and I suspect that Steve is going to find some similar things when he’s drawing it.

Never heard of this Bojeffries thing. Worth picking up? I'm kind of a non-comics fan who loves Moore in general.

It's one of his best series ever, ever ever.

I'd love to read the Bojeffries Saga, but apparently it's only been reprinted once, in 1992, so it's probably impossible to find (in Finland at least).

there's always the internet... oof, not that cheap though:
http://www.alibris.co.uk/booksearch?wquery=bojeffries

Several of them have been reprinted before, eg in Dalgoda (colourised though - but so was the Tundra version. Which stopped me from buying it). Why not just wait for the new edition?

So there's gonna be a new edition?

What we’re going to do is, we’re going to collect up, with Top Shelf, all of the Bojeffries material that’s appeared to date, and we’re going to cap it all off with a twenty-four page story called After They Were Famous

Okay, cool!

Top Shelf is going to get lots and lots of my money. This year it's Eddie Campbell's Alec: The Years Have pants, Jeff Lemire's Complete Essex County and Marshal Law by Mills and O'Neill. Next year is the two volume complete Bacchus and hopefully this Bojeffries collection.

They're reprinting Marshal Law? Cool, I might want to get that.

I thought Marshal Law was owned by Marvel though?

Marshal Law was initially published through Epic, which gave Mills and O'Neill certain rights; that they were then able to take it to several other publishers - Apocalypse, Marvel again and Image all published further adventures - and that they own the copyright says much. They're probably paying a licensing fee to reprint it.

Top Shelf info here:

http://www.topshelfcomix.com/catalog.php?type=2&title=598

I only know Bojeffries from the Dalgoda reprints, always thought they were really funny.

Seriously doing a little Snoopy dance here over a Bojeffries collection.

I've never read any Bojeffries, but the level of enthusiasm here is getting me excited.

It's some funny stuff alright. Probably the funniest thing I've read from the Discliple of Glycon.

I remember thinking Bojeffries was funny enough, but there are other funnier things in the world.

Like "DR & Quinch Go To Hollywood".

PS - I saw Halo Jones at half price books the other night. Should I go back and nab it?

Do it. The only bad point is annoyance that it's only a third complete and will more than likely remain so.

Absolutely, it's one of Moore's best works. It's more of a "episode comic" than a perfectly crafted whole, like Moore's later work, but many of the episodes are brilliant in themselves, and in the end it does also provide a pretty moving story about the protagonist's growth from a naive teen girl to self-respecting adult. (The ending is left a bit open though, as there was supposed to be sequels, but they never happened.)

(x-post)

Halo Jones is brilliant, I recommend it highly. The unfinished thing people talk about is not a problem - it is like the life of someone from before they were famous. In this case, probably the more interesting bits.

The unfinished thing people talk about is not a problem

It does work perfectly well as it stands. I just want more!

Yeah, me too. If Moore is actually finishing this Bojeffries thing he started 25 years ago, then maybe there's hope for those Halo Jones sequels too. Though of course it also depends on whether Ian Gibson is up to do it.

a) Bojeffries isn't one long story, it's short pieces, and he did them as and when for ten years, so doing another new piece for another new compilation is basically standard practice

b) he's had 25 years of saying he will never ever go back to Halo Jones, and this is Alan Moore speaking: how does that translate to "hope"?

Gibson's always said he's up for it, on the other hand.

Gibson actually did do more without Moore, didn't he?

All I know of is this concept pic for book four:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/38/Halo_slave2.jpg

yeah, brainfart, I was thinking of Skizz.

Picked up LoEG 3:1910 yesterday, and really enjoyed it. Always good to see new vintage characters turning up, and Carnacki is one of my favorites.

Years ago, I saw an article by Moore in which he was enthusing about a strip by Cliff Harper in Last Gasp Comix' ANARCHY: 'The Black Freighter', based on a Brecht lyric. This was later referenced in the pirate strip in Watchmen, and the song turns up again here, interwoven with another Brecht lyric 'What Keeps Mankind Alive'. Obviously, the original strip had a big impact on Moore. Harper is still working as an illustrator, and his woodcut-styled images turn up pretty regularly in the Guardian.

. . oh, and Mac the Knife is in there too, of course!

LoEG 3:1910

just got this myself - its awesome! Loved the Threepenny Opera stuff running through it

Dodgem Logic is a bit of a throwback to the 80s fanzine scene, I must say.

The problem with Halo was a creators rights issue, wasn't it? Moore refused to carry on the series until IPC gave him back the rights to all the characters he created for them, which at that time was never going to happen. And I think he has some undisclosed beef with 2000AD's current publishers which means he probably wouldn't be doing anything for them.

I'm sure I remember hearing that Gibson has expressed an interest in carrying on the series on his own? Apparently it was very much a collaboration between the two of them in terms of plotting and story ideas, there's a few interesting tidbits in "Thrill Power Overload" about it.

This Dodgem thing any good Aldo?

And I think he has some undisclosed beef with 2000AD's current publishers which means he probably wouldn't be doing anything for them.

Alan Moore in crazy feud with publisher! Astonishing.

I don't think his feuds w/publishers have been particularly crazy... the America's Best fiasco was amazingly underhanded

We need a "favorite uncompromising bridge-burning comics creator" poll.

The more I think about that, the more I like it. Who has recommendations? Adams, Toth, Sim, Ditko, Moore, Kenneth Smith, Byrne, Macfarlane on my shortlist so far.

Sim? Certainly uncompromising, and he's pissed off a lot of his peers. But he's never had beef with a publisher for obvious reasons.

He's had tons of beef with publishers! He's just never put himself in a position where they could punish him financially for his views.

^^^OTM

Sim beefed with distributors as well

Yeah and I'm sure most prolific mainstream comic writers get jobs they really don't want but I still think today there's probably a bit more will to try and make everything good.

In the even earlier days there were more people who just saw it as a job.

also they were writing for children, who weren't expected to read every issue

https://www.marvel.com/articles/comics/miracleman-omnibus-collection-announcement

i wonder if he'll take his name off this?

anyway, contains:

* Material from Warrior (1982) 1-18, 20-21
* Miracleman (1985) 1, 3, 6-16
* Marvelman Special (1984) 1
* Material from A1 (1989) 1
* All-New Miracleman Annual (2014) 1

the floppies i have are probably 1985 series, so what's the warrior stuff? and i know some of the 1985 was reprints for various reasons, but i didn't think it was 3 whole issues.

ok, 1985 1-5 were themselves reprints of the 1982 warrior stuff, with some new bits.

he already took his name off it eight years ago

His name isn't mentioned in that promo piece!

i did notice his name wasn't on the covers, but figured they weren't final

i saw it here https://gizmodo.com/alan-moores-legendary-miracleman-run-is-getting-an-omni-1848292736 which is all about the AM connection

His name is on the privately printed omnibus I had made for myself, since I could never get this stuff any other way, so there, Alan.

It was (in this instance) specifically Marvel’s involvement that made him withhold his name and redirect any royalties, so I think you’re good.

(Marvel’s solution remains hilarious, and will presumably be retained in this edition.)

the recolouring is still the pits, though

I was quietly hoping James' bootleg was made from Warrior scans.

It is, I found high quality scans of all the original publications and used those.

https://www.bbcmaestro.com/coming_soon/alan-moore/storytelling

I got illuminations today: therein is What can we know of Thunderman, and if it is his umpteenth exercise wherein he renames characters so as to make whatever points he wishes…well, there can never be enough such exercises, for me at least.

This time, it's just prose, and this time, it's 100% a "fuck you, every one of you in this business has always sucked and shame on me for not saying so in the 80s and 90s" whereas 1963 and Supreme he was very much accessing his long ago affection for the source material. But this thing drips with disdain for the fans turned pro that he made seem so pitifully parochial 40 years ago (he is brutal in belittling every single thing about them), like the affable al columns from 1963 but coming out of 15 years in which he believes (and so do I) that super hero content has had a hideously bad effect on culture worldwide. It's almost as if he now thinks that all the naysayers, from Wertham down to the teachers saying "you should read real literature" to the bullies who laughed at nerds clutching their precious comics featuring kiddie characters, calling them stupid and immature, were right.

I'm only 30 pages in, but can only put it down to write these words. Everyone who used to frequent ILC during its most active time in 2006-2008 should pick this up post haste.

Sounds about as entertaining as jabbing yourself in the eye with a fork.

Did you like In Pictopia, 1963, or Supreme, jimbeaux?

To be perfectly honest, I haven't read any Alan Moore since about 1991. I was reacting to veronica moser's description of Moore's latest book, which sounds from that summary like a miserable exercise.

I did like Warren Ellis's reworking of "Supreme," and admired much of Ellis's work before he was revealed to be a very problematic person.

There is an omnibus collection of "Miracleman" coming soon that looks to be worth the investment.

sounds great veronica, will pick up once it hits softcover

Jerusalem was a ton of fun

I liked 1963 and Supreme, and agree with Jimbeaux.

I agree with Daniel_Rf it sounds fun

I've seen a bunch of talk about how unfair he's been to a bunch of his collaborators and speculation about how well he understood his contracts but is this prose story supposed to be taken as seriously as people seem to be taking it?

If anyone wants to watch a low-bandwidth Zoom conversation with Alan Moore from the WI book festival...
https://www.crowdcast.io/wisconsinbookfestival

just finished Thunderman today. imo its tone is at times bewildering (american characters consistently speak in british english idiom, for example), but the ending is very, very strong.

I am re-reading my checker trades of the Supreme run; I know that they are widely disliked, lousy reproduction, liefeld licensed the material to the Checker goofballs so that they could establish their company, which they did not succeed in doing, but they are fine for me, as I wasn't fuckin' with comics in the late 90s and didn't know about this shit until 2003 when the trades were published…

and yet I have a recollection seeing a Professor Night solo story, not the one with Supreme in which he and Prof (and Dax and Jack a Dandy) switch M.O.s… this would be a solo Prof Night/Twilight story, drawn by Veitch obviously in the style of Bill Finger/Dick Sprang… I cannot find any citation to this story in any references, particularly my copy of Khoury's extraordinary works of Alan moore reference…anyone know about this? did I dream this? and was there any other Supreme/Weisinger era pastiche material that was published during the Image/Maximum/Awesome run that didn't make it into the Checker trades?