The sexual symbolism of Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan and Wendy, and the Wizard of Oz de-coded.
(not safe for work).
TagAlan Moore
Most of the interview is just Alan Moore complaining about DC (justifiably, but it’s still boring). But there’s some good stuff, like this from the end:
Well… that was the bit where, I could get behind what he does to Evey – this is probably telling far too much about me – I could get behind that far more than I could get behind killing people. Because it seemed to me that even though, yes, he was actually torturing Evey, this was in his own mad way, an attempt to heal her. An attempt to push her to a point where she has to wake up to herself as an individual with its own will and own wants and destiny that is not just part of the carpeting of the world, but is a person, is a fully human being. And yes, he does use rather extreme methods. I suppose what I was doing was if I were to actually go-around and imprison all the people that I wanted to mentally and spiritually set free, and subject them to torture for a couple of months, I’d probably get locked up, wouldn’t I? Nobody would understand that one. Whereas, if I put it in a comic then I can to some degree take the reader vicariously through the same experiences and give them the same revelations without risking a jail sentence which is one of the delights of fiction.
Part 1 .
Part 2 .
From CHUD:
If you’re an idiot or a fascist, that is. Remember that when people begin complaining about this film, and try to figure out which of the two categories they fit in. Or maybe they’ll fit in both! […]
It’s shocking that a film like V For Vendetta, in which the hero can be described in no other terms but terrorist, has been made by a major movie studio, which is itself a part of a major, world-dominating corporation. Either the folks at Warner Bros and Time-Warner weren’t paying a lot of attention or they just don’t think that a movie will make any bit of difference at this point. I couldn’t disagree more, and I have to tell you that if I was still actively working as a political organizer I would be standing outside theaters showing V and handing out anti-Bush and anti-Iraq War pamphlets to exiting moviegoers. Sure, this film is about a fictional fascist state that denies its people basic liberties and makes them live in fear, and sure it’s set in the London of the future, but there’s no hiding the fact that the film’s timeline is one that begins today.
CHUD: V for Vendetta is the most dangerous film of the year
(via Post Atomic).
Fanboy Rampage is a comics satire column I stumbled across today while searching for a reference to Grant Morrison’s comments about Dr. Octagon for this Key 23 thread.
(fake) Grant Morrison interview:
Grant Morrison: Oh, yes. I find with New X-Men, the more quickly I write them, the better they turn out. I had gotten to the point where I was writing an issue a day, but that really wasn’t turning out satisfactorily. Now, I’m producing an issue every forty-five minutes or so.
Paul Gravett: An entire issue. How can you do such a thing?
Grant Morrison: Magic. Literally.
Paul Gravett: Yes, well, I’ve been meaning to ask about that, since you’ve made your stance on magic well-known. What sort of magic are you talking about, exactly?
Grant Morrison: Well, the term “magic” encompasses many different specialties and disciplines, and –
Paul Gravett: No, I mean, when you say “I’m producing an issue of New X-Men every forty-five minutes because of magic,” what do you mean by magic, in that exact context?
Grant Morrison: In that context?
Paul Gravett: Yes.
Pause.
Grant Morrison: Red Bull and crystal meth.
It gets better.
Upcoming exploitative Alan Moore items:
Alan Moore’s Letters to Penthouse Forum, Vols. I-IV: Don’t be fooled. These four volumes from Blood Money Press, enclosed in a lovely slipcase, actually detail only one letter, despite the title. Running a total of two hundred pages per volume, this letter comprises a sexual encounter between Alan Moore, two women, and a coatrack in West End. Volume I, for example, is a complete psycho-geographical and mythico-historical study of West End where the encounter happened, and apparently the digression on the evolution of coatracks (in Volume III) is a red-hot page-turner. There’s also an extensive endnotes section by the editors, contrasting, say, the original opening to the letter (“Dear Penthouse Forum: I recently ejaculated upon the face of History, allowing the orgasmic unfettering of shackled feminine mystery, and in many ways not only is Superman to blame, but Beano and a lecherously inclined coatrack as well.”) with one revised with an eye to publication (“Dear Penthouse Forum: I’ve always been a big fan of your letters but thought they were more than likely made up. However, something just happened to me that I just had to write to you about, and besides what is all of human history but a mutually agreed fictional construct, anyway? If it gets me and a very naughty coatrack a bit of action, who’s to say the world’s worse for it?”). No illustrations, but unless you’re as much a furniture fancier as Mr. Moore, that may be for the best. Four books in slipcase, five hundred dollars for all. Yikes.
I’ve got comics on the brain right now, obviously. Looks like Alan Moore’s not taking such a long vacation from comics after all. Wildstorm has acquired the rights to the IPC characters (a bunch of 60s British super heroes):
“To British comic creators, this really is the equivalent of DC’s silver Age characters – their versions of Green Lantern, the Flash, Hawkman and all of that,” Dunbier said. “If you talk about the original artist on Steel Claw, Jesus Blasco, he’s spoken about in hushed tones – everyone talks about whether or not his art was better on Steel Claw or on Return of the Claw.
To be honest, I don’t have much clue about most of what he’s talking about in this letter since I haven’t read KAOS 14 (found elsewhere on the site). But this part is funny:
When I told you that I definitely remembered seeing a copy of an earlier, more sexually provocative book in the series called Harry Potter and the Choronzon Working, it turns out this was only in a dream. Sorry.
Joel Biroco: Alan Moore’s response to KAOS 14
(via Dehiscence)
Fair enough:
Moore is comics’ Orson Welles: a genius formalist with a natural collaborative impulse and a habit of taking on overambitious projects. His work is alternately groundbreaking and painfully lazy; he often coasts on his cleverness for a quick paycheck. The question of whether he’s a fountain of imagination or just bats has never arisen: He’s both, and his ability to see familiar ideas from an alien perspective is one of his best tricks.
Full Story: Slate: Please, Sir, I Want Some Moore
Speaking of Alan Moore, it looks like he took home a bunch of Harveys. He won for best writer of Promethea. I have mixed feelings about that because I don’t think much of the occult and a lot of those issues were thinly disguised explorations of his own mystic philosophy, something that he’s already explored in some of those performance art comics of his. Still, there were some wondrous moments. I’ve gone back to enjoying the series again now that Promethea has returned to Earth so to speak…The latest issue features a guest appearance by the Tom Strong crew, or an alt universe Tom Strong considering how they jump around realities so much.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen also won two awards: one for best single issue (the first issue of Volume II with that incredible Martian Warrior cover) and for best continuing series. Certainly, these are well deserved. I still can’t believe one guy can do this many quality comics. I’ve always thought Steve Gerber could hang with him–like Moore he knows a lot about the Dark Arts as well as physics–but he couldn’t produce such a quantity of ambitious stuff. I suppose Gerber gets his revenge with Howard the Duck, where he makes fun of both Moore and a thinly disguised Warren Ellis.
Alan Moore is the author of such acclaimed works as The Watchmen, V for Vendetta, From Hell, and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and is a magician to boot.
Initially Moore worked as both a writer and an artist on a detective strip called “Roscoe Moscow,” but he decided he was a poor artist and decided to focus on writing. From there he went on to work for 2000 AD and Dr. Who Weekly (as many British comic authors did…) and eventually began working on the anthology Warrior.
It was here that Moore created two of his most seminal works: Marvelman (later called Mircleman) and V for Vendetta. The former would be reprinted and continued by Eclipse, the latter would be reprinted by DC (it is now part of the Vertigo imprint).
Moore was then hired by DC to write Saga of Swamp Thing beginning with issue 20. Moore continued working for DC and produced Batman: Killing Joke and most notably, The Watchmen.
The Watchmen was a politically savvy and realistic portrayal of a super hero universe. Along with Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns, Moore and artist Dave Gibbons revolutionized comicsand paved the way for future mature readers series (such as The Sandman, The Crow, Preacher and many more).
However, disputes over the royalties of the Watchmen caused Moore to leave DC and vow never to work for them again. He then began his own company, Mad Love Publishing. Under this imprint he published two issues of Big Numbers. Around this time he also began two series for Tundra’s anthology Taboo: “From Hell” and “Lost Girls.” From Hell continued as a graphic novel series published by Eddie Cambell Comics.
Moore began working with rogue publishers Image Comics in 1993 and where he created 1963 which was cancelled due to low sales. Moore also wrote Wild CATs and a large amount of Spawn related material, including WildCATs/Spawn
Moore then began his relationship with Rob Liefeld and his Image off-shoot company Maximum Press (later Awesome Comics) where he worked on Supreme, Warchild, Judgement Day and other titles before Awesome comics went bankrupt.
After Awesome went under, Jim Lee’s Image off-shoot company, Wildstorm Productions (now an imprint of, ironiccally, DC Comics) offered Moore his own imprint. Moore accepted and America’s Best Comics was born. Moore has continued to write a number of books under his own imprint as well as other titles under the Wildstorm banner.
Alan Moore Fan site good starting point.
Twilight of the Super Heroes a rejected series proposal to DC by Moore
D.R. and Quinch scan page tribute to Moore and Alan Davis’ 2000 AD stories. Includes scans of an entire segment.
Alan Moore @ comicon.com lots of info and a small collection of works. Includes some performance art stuff.
Italian page a page dedicated to Alan Moore’s music, in Italian
Salon Books: From Hell an excellent article on Moore’s From Hell
V for Vendetta Shrine V for Vendetta fan site
Alan Moore interview an interview from Another Universe
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen review
Watching the Detectives illustrated annotations.
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen annotations
Ralf Hildebrandt home page Watchmen annotations
The Annotated Watchmen more Watchmen annotations.
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