Why should Alan Moore get to have all the fun?
Previously: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: 1988
TagLeague of Extraordinary Gentlemen
In a lengthy interview at Wired, Alan Moore talks about the latest installment of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the 60s, The Prisoner, his novel Jerusalem and more:
So my perspective upon that era has changed. You can find that in bits of the dialogue, such as when Mina Murray tries a bit too hard to embrace the ’60s. As she, Allan Quatermain and Orlando make their way to the Hyde Park festival, she says that they are all looking to the future and being incredibly progressive. And Orlando, who’s been around a lot longer than Mina, points out that no, they’re not. They’re just nostalgic for their own childhoods. Which, looking back, was a big part of the ’60s. It was reflected in a lot of the haunted nursery rhymes of that period, especially in the music of Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett.
So my actual feelings about the ’60s are that, yes, of course we had limitations. We talked a lot of shit, and we didn’t have the muscle to back it up. For the most part, we had good intentions. However, we were not able to implement those intentions. And when the state started to take us seriously and initiated countermeasures, the majority of us folded like bitches. Not all of us, but a good number. We weren’t up for the struggle that had sounded so great in our manifestos.
Moore mentioned again his multimedia project, which is indeed the project with Mitch Jenkins:
It’s getting out of hand in the best possible way, and might be expressed in any number of media, and across platforms. So we’re going to start shooting that in August, so expect a release date before the end of the year at which point I’ll be able to tell you much more about it.
Wired: Alan Moore Takes League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to the ’60s
Also: Moore’s magazine Dodgem Logic is going to be an online-only publication moving forward.
Wired: The League is interesting because of its dependence on that vast canon. Everything from pulp up through every novel that’s been written gets hologrammed.
Moore: In the first two volumes we were dealing mainly with characters from literature, because characters from literature were all that were around up until roughly the end of the 19th century. With this one, the first one set in 1910, we’re using characters from the stage as well as literature. We’re using the whole Threepenny Opera storyline. With the second one, set in 1969, we’ve got access to all of the films and television that were around then. The third part, set in the present day – 2008, 2009 – we have characters from all of the new media that have evolved over the past 30 years.
It is interesting – it is an expanding cast of characters, and I suppose we’re attempting to come up with a kind of unified field theory of culture that actually links up all of these various works, whether they’re high culture or low culture or no culture.
From: Wired interview with Alan Moore.
Interesting to me because of my theory that LOST is “every story.”
Also remember that Watchmen, written by Moore, was a huge influence on LOST.
I suppose harder core comic book and Alan Moore fans than I already know this: but Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s newest LOEG book came out this week.
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.
© 2024 Technoccult
Theme by Anders Norén — Up ↑