Alan Moore!

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

Who has recommendations

Kirby duh

kirby compromised, willingly or otherwise, plenty of times in his career

my nominations - r. crumb (no compromise), wally wood (all bridges incinerated)

Dodgem Logic is endearingly crap btw - feels like it could've come hot off the presses of the Birmingham Arts Lab

oh sorry I misread the poll request as being specifically about artist v. publisher feuds... nevermind!

frank miller, robert williams, john byrne?

Cosign on Dodgem Logic. Has next to nothing to praise it for other than feeling like you should/could have bought it 25 years ago, although the CD is OK and the feature on the Northampton music scene was all right.

I finally read LOEG: 1910, and was a bit underwhelmed by it. Like Chap said upthread, it barely has a plot. The new characters in it seemed interesting enough, but it felt like they'd just been introduced when the story was already over. And if the next volume is gonna take place in 1969, it looks like we ain't gonna see most of them again, except for Mina, Allan, Orlando, and possibly Janni. Speaking of her, while I thought she was cool, the plot device used to make her turn against the world was kinda too obvious and unimaginative. I thought it was sad that the whole book worked better as an introduction of characters we aren't gonna see again than as a proper story with a beginning and an end. I would've wanted to know what happens to Janni after she became the pirate queen; I guess it's still possible we find out in the next book.

Speaking of the characters, I think the original two series benefitted from using characters that are universally recognizable. The characters used here, especially Carnacki and the burglar fellow, were much more obscure, so while Moore did put them to good use, their metafictional resonance was lost on me. Also, while the idea of Orlando is intriguing, I think Moore overdid it. I guess when you're writing an immortal character who's been around for millennia, it's tempting to have him/her been there for every important event in history, but when you think about it, it's a bit ridiculous. It's kinda like those people who "find out" about their previous lives in hypnosis or something, and turns out their previous lives were always princes and princesses and adventurers and so on, never some regular chap who did boring things. So Orlando was mostly just a cipher for superhistorical "been there, done that" attitude, not as interesting as a character as s/he could've been (or as she was in the novel and the movie). But since s/he is quite likely to be around for the following chapters, maybe Moore can build on what we've seen here.

Btw, It was weird to see Moore introduce a conspiracy called "the Invisible College" which will summon a "moonchild" to usher a new aeon. I know these ideas long predate The Invisibles, but it still felt like there was some metafictional commentary towards Morrison in it. Morrison has often referred to Moore's work, but as far as I know Moore has pretty much ignored Morrison, might this be the first time he's acknowledged him?

Orlando's history is pretty explictly laid out in the Black Dossier, dunno what yr complaining about there

he's complaining about how Orlando has to make a LOUD WINKING REFERENCE to hir history on every second page of 1910, and how this constitutes 93% of hir dialogue in the issue

Exactly. I haven't read the Black Dossier, so maybe s/he is better fleshed out there, but in 1910 hir character is pretty much "the guy/girl who has been there at every important historical event", and not much else. And I think that's kind of a lazy way to write an immortal character. Compare that to the immortal dude in The Sandman, and you see what I mean: he'd done a few important things too, but you know, mostly just regular, mundane stuff. Of course it's possible Orlando is merely bragging, and s/he hasn't actually done everything s/he claims to have done, but so far the story hasn't given much proof for such an interpretation.

yr otm abt 1910, sadly :(

Kinda wishing Moore'd just show us the stories he's hinted at in the Dossier, etc; the fight against the German League'd be a fantastic comic, prob better than the orig vol 2, and we're not going to see more of it than a fairly plain textual description. And tbh Moore's prose isn't all that great, esp when run down the borders of a comic book.

I think the point Moore is making with Orlando's dialogue is that he/she's an obnoxious self-absorbed braggart. which is a reasonable outgrowth of he/she having been around longer than anyone else - Orlando's got a carefully cultivated sense of superiority and boredome ("yawn, seen it all before"). Kinda like an annoying music hipster who's always talking about how things were so much cooler way back when and all these new bands are just ripping off old bands, etc. Orlando clearly annoys the other Team members, you can see this social dynamic in action.

anyway I don't disagree that this largely felt like a "set-up" story, but it didn't bother me at all.

"Invisible College" is Aleister Crowley and co, yo.

I'm happy to give Moore the benefit of the doubt for the next issue, but this was pretty unmemorable and indulgent.

Morrison didn't make up the term Invisible College ya know

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_College

Orlando annoys them so much they fuck hir

Guys, did you read what I actually wrote:

I know these ideas long predate The Invisibles, but it still felt like there was some metafictional commentary towards Morrison in it.

I'm aware that "Invisible College", "Moonchild", and "a New Aeon" are not concepts Morrison came up with, but since they all are very important in The Invisibles, I felt that Moore mentioning them all within a couple of panels on the first page of 1910 could be a metafictional wink towards Morrison. (Just like Morrison has made metafictional winks towards Moore, even if he's never actually used his name or the names of Moore's works/characters.) Of course it's kinda hard to tell for sure before we find out what kind of a Moonchild the Invisible College in LOEG is summoning, and what kind of a New Aeon they want to bring forth.

I think the point Moore is making with Orlando's dialogue is that he/she's an obnoxious self-absorbed braggart. which is a reasonable outgrowth of he/she having been around longer than anyone else - Orlando's got a carefully cultivated sense of superiority and boredome ("yawn, seen it all before").

This is the impression I got too, but that still doesn't change the fact that,
A) apparently Orlando still has done all those awesome things, i.e. he's not making this shit up, and
B) bragging about his extraordinary adventures is pretty much all s/he does in 1910.

I simply felt this is a kinda too obvious and lazy way to write an immortal character. If you compare Orlando to Hob Gadling in The Sandman, I think Gaiman had a more interesting approach to what being an immortal might be like.

think moore wld be giving morrison a hostile finger rather than a friendly wink (ie they don't really 'get on')

Yeah, that's why I thought it might be interesting to see what kind of a reference to Morrison Moore might make. Morrison has obviously referred Moore's work several times (and not all of those references have been that friendly, see Zatanna #1 for example), but as far as I know this might be the first time Moore acknowledges Morrison.

I really don't think it is even a sideways glance at Morrison. More likely, it is really all about Crowley; the Fall of 1910 was the Rites of Eleusis performances in London.

^^^yes

I simply felt this is a kinda too obvious and lazy way to write an immortal character. If you compare Orlando to Hob Gadling in The Sandman

have you even read Orlando? Moore didn't make up this character.

the biggest problem is that it's BORING, we get the character trait and how it affects the group dynamic from one or two instances, Orlando could have said something else witty or self-obsessed or plot-developing or annoying on the other 61 pages

(I mean, it didn't shit me as much as it does T-dogg, but I totally get where he's coming from)

Anyone have any opinion on Unearthing? (Or know where to purchase the non-multimedia version? Like just the essay or him reading it)

I know it not.

Anyone reading Neonomicon, the sequel to The Courtyard, his Lovecraftian-themed title of some years back? I wuvved the Courtyward, and #1 of the new one seems good too.

The Courtyard was pretty good. I was tempted to get the companion piece - is that any good? I wish I could be bothered to read enough Lovecraft to understand all the references - is there some significance to why he's dismembering the bodies in this way? It's reminiscent of From Hell.

I just finished the Promethea series. Some of the artwork in that is nigh-inconceivable. I just can't fathom some of it. My only gripe is that while it was very pretty, I preferred the Malkuth stuff with the painted doll and Sonny Baskerville etc to the journey through the Immateria.