Alan Moore’s publishing schedule and Ask Alan?

Pádraig, he of the great interviews (Alan Moore; part 1, part 2, Todd Klein, Neil Gaiman) has put up a very useful list of Alan Moore’s forthcoming work on his Glycon Live Journal. Sadly, the thing I’m most looking forward to is pushed back to possibly 2011 now:

(2011 maybe? But it will be well worth the wait. See here for more details.)

Finally; a reminder that Pádraig is after questions to put to Alan Moore when he meets up with him for another interview in March. Just put your questions in as comments on this post and Pádraig will get them.

Propaganda Reviews: Top 10 Season 2 #1

Top 10 – Season Two # 1

by Zander Cannon and Gene Ha

There are very few examples of the fools errand that Zander Cannon finds himself embarking upon in this first issue of Top 10 volume 2. He joins Alan Davis (Captain Britain), Rick Veitch (Rick Veitch) and Neil Gaiman (Marvelman) in a small club of writers taking over a title after a hugely successful storyline by Alan Moore. Moore created Top 10 based on the throw-away idea of “what would it take to police a city where everyone has super-powers?”. And typically, being Alan Moore, he took this throw-away idea and creating a multi-layered, complex and throroughly enjoyable series from it. There are two excellent volumes of his work available, as well as the prequel volume The 49ers

To say that it’s a difficult job to take over from Moore as a writer on the series is a supreme understatement. And it should come as no surprise that Zander Cannon starts his run on Top Ten sticking very closely to the Alan Moore template. Season Two starts with a new commissioner and a new recruit to the precinct. But everything else is similar, as the police procedural rolls on, cases are started, cases are closed and we get a glimpse into the private lives of the cast.

(Volumes 1 & 2 of Top 10 Season One, written by Alan Moore.)

Top 10 was always Alan Moore’s Hill Street Blues with capes. And now it’s Zander Cannon’s version of Alan Moore’s Hill Street Blues with capes. The effect is disconcerting; and I’m just not sure whether it’s a good comic because of Zander Cannon’s impersonation of Alan Moore’s writing or in spite of it. What makes it even more disconcerting is that it looks just like it did before, as Gene Ha has illustrated the main series from the start. So it looks just as great as it always did, with Ha’s delicate pencil and inks over Cannon’s layouts.

It’s a good comic, it’s possibly a very good comic and if it were any comic but Top 10, I’d more than likely be lavishing praise on it, but I just can’t shake the feeling that no matter what storylines Cannon comes up with in Season Two they’ll only serve to remind me just how good Alan Moore’s Top 10 stories were. Not fair on Cannon perhaps, but I bet that’s what you’ll be thinking as well.

Do you want to ask Alan Moore a question for an interview?

(Alan Moore and Pádraig Ó Méalóid on a recent jaunt out, pic from Pádraig’s Flickr)

Joe at the FPI blog has some great news:

Pádraig Ó Méalóid is planning a follow up to his in-depth interview with Alan from last year (part one here, part two can be read here) ahead of the first part of Century, the third volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, being published by Knockabout and Top Shelf. There will be three books for Century covering three different periods, starting with 1910 and including gentleman thief Raffles and the eternal Orlando. And even better, readers have a chance to take part:

“In March, before the publication of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 1910, I’ll be doing another interview with Alan Moore, once again to appear on the FPI Blog. As well as talking to him about Century 1910 and other forthcoming work, he has agreed to a suggestion I made, which is that I should ask for questions from the general public.”

So, if you do fancy asking Alan Moore anything (within reason – I’d steer clear of films if I were you) , either comment at the FPI blog post here, or send them to Padraig directly at pomealoid[at]yahoo[dot]com.

Spirit The New Adventures Archive – finally!

Eddie Campbell brings us news of The Spirit: New Adventures finally being re- printed.

It’s currently only on Amazon but I’m sure Dark Horse will have details up at some point. This is great news, although seeing as all of the really great works happened in the first 3 issues I’m not entirely sure it’s going to be worth the £30+ price tag.

But that Alan Moore story is still one of my faves: it’s available to read here.

Captain Britain Omnibus – another one for the Christmas list

Well this is good news. Maybe if I’m a very good boy, Santa will give me lots of money and I shall be able to buy this next March?

It’s finally collecting the complete Captain Britain work: Dave Thorpe, Alan Moore, Alan Davis and more. Fantastic.

And if you doubt how much I want this: see this.

Alan Moore at New Con 2008

Pádraig Ó Méalóid has been posting on his blog about a little trip he took over the weekend to New-Con 2008.

First indication that something was up was this blog post:

We’re running out the door in a few minutes to go to the airport to fly to Birmingham, and thence to Northampton, where we’ll be attending NewCon 4 for the weekend. Before that, though, we’re to have dinner this evening with Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie, who we get to introduce to Paul Cornell and his wife Caroline, who will also be joining us.

Do you see what he did there, just sneaking that bit of gossip in halfway through? Just off to Northampton for some dinner with the Moores and the Cornells. Nothing exciting at all then.

Although he has done us proud with the photography. Possibly the strangest Alan Moore photo you will see for a long time:

And a brilliant one, courtesy Gary Lloyd of Gary, Alan and Iain Banks:

And finally; Alan & Paul Cornell, who documents the meeting on his blog:

All photos from Pádraig Ó Méalóid and his Flickr page.

Propaganda @ the FPI blog: Top 10 Season 2.

Latest review online at the FPI blog right now:

Top 10 Season 2, issue 1.

In which Zander Cannon attempts to do that most difficult thing in comic; follow Alan Moore onto writing a series.

Alan Moore in the Guardian again …..

I know, it happens so often nowadays that it’s almost getting boring seeing another comics story in the Guardian, especially if it’s about Alan Moore. It’s almost weekly now. But Jonathan Jones’ art blog in yesterday’s online version does find a slightly different way to play up the great man’s credentials – a comparison to Damien Hirst:

I’ve found a British artist who is serious, complex, and shocking – whose work is utterly sensational yet repays looking at again and again. There are just two problems. One is that you won’t find Alan Moore’s work in an art gallery. The other is that he doesn’t create his images himself but works, like a film director and screenwriter, with visual artists who realise his extraordinary visions. But wait a minute… if Damien Hirst doesn’t need to make his own artworks to be their author I suppose Moore doesn’t either.

But I wouldn’t want to make him sound respectable. Moore’s comics are utterly mad. He believes in the occult and is a practising Magus. In Black Dossier his characters end up in a mystic alternate reality which he seems to be claiming is a real place, not a fiction. In fact he appears to believe that fictional personae have their own existence in some spiritual realm he can access through magic. Now you’re disturbed. Well, we’re always being told art should disturb. Moore makes artists like the Chapmans look like the middle-class entertainers they are. He’s a real force of imagination in a world that is full of fakes. If there was any justice this man would get the Turner Prize.

That last paragraph is a bit off though. Alan Moore’s comics described as utterly mad? That’s just lazy journalism. But Alan Moore for the Turner Prize? Now that is an idea…….

And I can tell you that I will also be spitting venom all over it for months to come

So says Alan Moore when asked the inevitable questions about the Watchmen movie by the LA Times. At some point interviewers are going to stop asking him about movies. I don’t think he’s going to change his mind at this point.

I’m assuming we all know the reasons why Alan Moore’s name is not on the movie posters of his work?

Short version: Moore disliked the movie business and kept himself away from it, essentially selling rights and washing his hands of it, preferring to consider the movies of his work as something completely separate. But first there was the court case over League of Extraordinary Gentlemen where a movie writer accused Warners of stealing his movie idea and getting Moore to write the comic as a cover. Then the V For Vendetta farce with Moore being quoted in support of a film he wanted nothing to do with.

And now we have Watchmen. Personally I’m surprised to see him even comment, but I suppose people keep asking him the questions so comment he has. The latest is in the LA Times:

“Will the film even be coming out? There are these legal problems now, which I find wonderfully ironic,” Moore said. “Perhaps it’s been cursed from afar, from England. And I can tell you that I will also be spitting venom all over it for months to come.”

The interviewer does point out that this is said more mischievously than maliciously and later on Moore comes out with the following quote, a great example of the real reasons he wants nothing to do with the movies:

“I got into comics because I thought it was a good and useful medium that had not been explored to it fullest potential,”

“If you approach comics as a poor relation to film, you are left with a movie that does not move, has no soundtrack and lacks the benefit of having a recognizable movie star in the lead role.”

Uncollected: Comics crying out for a reprint…..

Over the years I’ve seen many comics and owned a lot. And thanks to my decidedly obsessive nature with space I’ve gotten rid of a lot of comics. I’ve sold them, given them away, passed them on, cut them up for displays and even used a few as wallpaper (I was young, give me a break).

But now that I am old and I can look back with wonder at my youth I can also lament some of those comics that I had or remember reading. We’re all very fortunate right now to be living in an era where so much of the material published will be collected for posterity. But there are some notable exceptions. I was thinking rather obsessively about this the other day and started, as we aging men do, to make a list …….

But of course, a list is only as good as the listmaker’s memory. So it would be much better, thinks I, to open it up to various friends of the blog and see what we can all come up with. Of course, you can get involved as well – that’s what the comments box is for!

The only rules I set for it were:

The work had to have been published completely in the past. So take Big Numbers by Alan Moore off the list straight away.
Previously collected material is allowed as long as it’s almost impossible to get hold of now. (I’m thinking Brenden McCarthy’s Swimini Porpoise or Alan Moore’s Bojeffries Saga here).

Before I get started I must point out that this is pretty much identical to the Reprint This idea done by Hipster Dad. I only realised this when I tripped over his name and the idea on this FPI post when googling about Zenith. I hope nobody minds the duplication of ideas etc etc. Obviously you should all head over to his site for a little look-see as well.

That’s about it…. now on with the first, most obvious couple:

Marvelman / Miracleman. by Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman et alPossibly the most requested uncollected on the list. One of the biggest pieces of Alan Moore’s work that’s completely unavailable, this exploration of the Supehero mythology is sadly missing from too many shelves.

The four volumes by Alan Moore et al (Volumes 1-3) & Neil Gaiman & Mark Buckingham (Volume 4) have long been out of print. At some point in the future all of the various copyright and ownership problems are going to be resolved and we’ll finally see the reissuing of all 4 Miracleman books. (Although some notice would be nice and then I can get my copies onto Ebay). After that of course it would also be nice to let that lovely Mr Gaiman chap finish the story off like he planned to do all those years ago.

Marvelman links:
Wiki, The Super Miracle of Captain Marvelman, Sequart article, Cover Browser, Fictions, Hipster Dad’s Reprint This.

Zenith by Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell

Zenith’s back? Oh, how we wish it were so. Possibly the second most requested one on the list. This story of the Thatcherite superhero and more multiple Earths than even DC would no what to do with is much missed.

A few years ago the possibility of this getting back into print were quite high, and copies of volume 1 were sitting in a warehouse waiting for final go ahead. Unfortunately copyright disagreements between Morrisonand Fleetway/Rebellion have led to those copies, together with the plans for all of Zenith (including the as yet uncollected Phase V) being put into limbo. Maybe sometime, but no signs of it being sorted soon.

Zenith Links:

Wiki, Zenith History, CBR article, Hipster Dad’s Reprint This.

And that’s it for now, just a tease at the idea which continues here at the FPI blog: The Uncollecteds. Lots and lots of great comics, many you’ll remember, but I guarantee that you’ll find at least one to surprise you.