Favorite Alan Moore series or story arc

[jimjum12]

I get your point, but then again it would be something along the lines of tearing him apart, not screwing him to death.

 

Actually, Hyde DID tear him apart. That he did so by screwing him to death is apparently what is causing the objection here.

 

Love it or hate it (I happened to get a good laugh out of that sequence), it was certainly memorable. I'm not a big LOEG fan, but I'd love to get the OA to that page. It would hang nicely in the guest room.

 

Perfect choice,

 

You don't want guests staying too long or getting too comfortable.

 

The Invisible Man's demise is almost archetypal poetic justice. He was a rapist of young girls, it's just desserts that he met his end the same way.

 

 

 

 

So Hyde felt he had a bit of forced "retrospection" coming ? GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

[Nexus]

Fantastic video interview with Moore:

 

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2009/11/01/the-smile-of-alan-moore/

 

From 1985. He was a lot more fun back then, that's for sure! Fascinating to hear his views on comics, movies, etc. from that time. A lot of his concerns about comics and readership (in the third video) were prophetic. The last vid is for WM fans. Enjoy!

[Bosco685]

Fantastic video interview with Moore:

 

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2009/11/01/the-smile-of-alan-moore/

 

From 1985. He was a lot more fun back then, that's for sure! Fascinating to hear his views on comics, movies, etc. from that time. A lot of his concerns about comics and readership (in the third video) were prophetic. The last vid is for WM fans. Enjoy!

 

Thank you!

[Ogami]

Love all his 80's stuff, but 20 years later, V FOR VENDETTA has emerged as my favorite. It's Moore in "angry young man" mode and thus, his most passionate work. Everything else he's known for from that time (WATCHMEN, ST, MIRACLEMAN, KJ) is work-for-hire and, in the end, riffs on other people's creations. V is wholly his own (well, his along with David Lloyd). It's early, it's rough, it's not nearly as polished as his later work like WATCHMEN...but it is his most personal statement. That's why I'm going with V.

 

I like this analysis.

 

 

V has always been, and will always be my favorite. The only major Moore work I have not yet read is Miracleman, but find it hard to believe it will unseat V.

 

Swamp Thing is a shaman working out his craft.

Watchmen is deconstructionist vision.

From Hell is postmodern nihlism.

Promethea is holy writ.

League is him playing with form, ownership, cultural perceptions.

Top Ten is mundanely brilliant. More Faulkner than Hill Street Blues.

 

 

I have loved all of Moore's works. All of them for different reasons,

 

But the man from room five taught me that it was alright to seek revenge, that goodness requires a strong hand (Tolkein taught me the same thing), and that life is art, beauty, freedom, fire, passion, roses, notes left by lover's hands, bollocks, and less cameras.

 

I just deleted the next paragraph because it sounded even more hagiographic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

"V,V,V,V,V."

 

"Evey, Evey, Evey, Evey, Evey."

 

[Ogami]

I do want to add, (and this was in the paragraph I deleted in which I really raved) that V borrows heavily from 1984, but that I still agree with Nexus, that it is "wholly his own".

 

He actually makes me take seriously, this idea of, "The Land of Do As You Please", a philosophical ideal that is the most sophmoric of premises, (Anarchy).

[Nexus]

(thumbs u

 

I used to feel like I was in a tiny minority about this (WATCHMEN seems to always be the consensus pick), but lately, it seems I am finding more fellow fans who appreciate V as much as I do. For example, Scott Dunbier (who edited Moore during his Wildstorm days) also picks V as his fave. We're in pretty good company!

[RockMyAmadeus]

Of course, you all realize that this thread is like picking which Monet or Picasso you like best, right....?

 

(thumbs u

[kdoginohio]

Hey, I've got this gem. does it count. :cloud9:Wildcats.

[seanfingh]

 

His Supreme run was awesome.

[EastEnd]

I've got to go with Swamp Thing.....it was probably the series that I most eagerly anticipated from month to month...out of all time. It established a market and layed the groundwork for DC's entire Vertigo line. I recently got a really good deal on the collected hardback of the first story arc and had planned to sell it...but I just couldn't. I still love those stories and at the time they were being published I had shared them with several friends who didn't read comics and they LOVED them also. GOD BLESS ...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

 

I went with Swamp Thing as well... of all Moore's series, it's the one I most remember looking forward to each month. To my recollection, Moore's Swamp Thing was the first time I actually witnessed a comic increase in value because of the writer (as opposed to the artist).

[ComicConnoisseur]

Swampthing 20 and 21, I can`t remember the last time I read a comic book that made me want to read everything by a comicbook writer.

[Ogami]

Of course, you all realize that this thread is like picking which Monet or Picasso you like best, right....?

 

(thumbs u

 

Even within a Master, there are considerations for greater and lesser works.

 

 

Picasso Blue versus early realism.

 

DaVinci oils over his anatomy work.

 

 

(plus you started it).

 

[Ogami]

I would like to add Promethea, issue 12 (the last chapter in volume 2 of the trades).

 

This is such an elegantly composed, brilliantly lyrical bit of wordplay. It is truly a master of the form at work.

 

The entire issue is Moore using characters to explain Tarot to Promethea. Each page is devoted to an individual card. Using history, a narrative joke, puns, dualing teachers, and examples, he weaves the story of humanity as it relates to understanding the Tarot. Whether you read the individual parts straight thru, page by page, or sink deep into each page, relishing each overlapping narrative, the reader is rewarded by the complexity of the theme. I really do enjoy this issue/chapter, and would reccomend it as a standalone for someone wanting to appreciate Moore.

[Nexus]

I enjoyed this critique of MIRACLEMAN very much:

 

http://polculture.blogspot.com/2008/10/comics-sunday-alan-moore-et-al.html

 

This blogger also posts about other Moore comics like THE KILLING JOKE and SWAMP THING-- links at the bottom. Solid reading!

[nocutename]

I've got to go with Swamp Thing.....it was probably the series that I most eagerly anticipated from month to month...out of all time. It established a market and layed the groundwork for DC's entire Vertigo line. I recently got a really good deal on the collected hardback of the first story arc and had planned to sell it...but I just couldn't. I still love those stories and at the time they were being published I had shared them with several friends who didn't read comics and they LOVED them also. GOD BLESS ...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

 

They did a great job on the HB. I just finished vol 1 & 2 which were re-reads but the series is so good it handle multiple reads. I waiting to read the rest of his series as it comes out in hardcover.

[Ogami]

I have enjoyed this thread immensely, and even with Rocky complaining that there is no disucssion in Copper, and no one doing anything to add to rich discussion of a master, I will carry on, even if it means talking to myself. (I am good company)

 

From the pages of Promethea, Trade, book five, tarrot card # 28, Moore gives as close to a philosophy of writing as I've ever seen, and I can extrapolate it backwards thru his best works and see it clearly:

 

"Magic, a science of everything, was how we understood the universe. Examining details, we reduced everything to categories: science, art, religion, fragmenting our worldview. Gradually, however, mankind's reconnecting things into one perspective. Into magic! Rejoice!

 

One principle of Alchemy is that of 'Solve et Coagula', to disolve and recombine. 'Solve' is reductionism, taking things apart for study (or 'analysis'). 'Coagula' is holism, reconnecting everything into a better and more accurate picture (or 'synthesis')."

 

 

No one here would argue that any other comic writer does deconstruction better than Moore, (would they? really?) but I would go further, and say that in the same way hacks of the late eighties and early nineties missed the point of Frank Miller's dark and gritty canvas, other hack's missed the point of Moore's deconstruction, and once they pulled apart their own little literary humpty dumpties, they were unable to put back together a better, more real egg afterwards.

 

Moore is so much more than reductionism or post-modern deconstructionism. He is, like all great alchemists, playing with form, seeking a third, new thing, from two old elements.

 

 

 

My thoughts are a bit muddy at the moment. This may or may not be cogent.

 

 

 

 

Also, I was pleased to reread a great line in Promethea. I've stated often that one of my favorite lines of all of Moore's work is, "V,V,V,V,V." from V for Vendetta, spoken by Evey. (to which V replies, "Evey, Evey, Evey, Evey, Evey." Evey is reading a quote out loud. V is havuing fun at her expense. The original Latin is about overcoming great odds; I can't find a reference in looking quickly, and I'm not going to look it up at the moment) In book four or five of Promethea, as Sophie is going through the Immateria, Moore has her overhear someone saying, "V,V,V,V,V" and says something to the effect of, "I rather liked that line".

 

So, two thoughts:

 

1. Alan Moore and I have great taste. He and I seem to enjoy one of his lines equally. A bit vain on his part, but made my day.

 

2. He has succeeded in tying in two of his works, written over twenty years apart. Well done. And it was in no way forced. Quite whimiscal, actually.

 

 

 

[Ogami]

Found it.

 

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

 

"By the power of Truth, I while living, have overcome the Universe." from, Faust. Natch.

 

and what do you know, this is actually a worthwhile wiki page. Actually learned something.

 

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

 

 

[RockMyAmadeus]

I have enjoyed this thread immensely, and even with Rocky complaining that there is no disucssion in Copper, and no one doing anything to add to rich discussion of a master, I will carry on, even if it means talking to myself. (I am good company)

 

 

Complaining...?

 

Call it rather...."inspiring"...

[Ogami]

I have enjoyed this thread immensely, and even with Rocky complaining that there is no disucssion in Copper, and no one doing anything to add to rich discussion of a master, I will carry on, even if it means talking to myself. (I am good company)

 

 

Complaining...?

 

Call it rather...."inspiring"...

 

yeah...no.

[RockMyAmadeus]

I have enjoyed this thread immensely, and even with Rocky complaining that there is no disucssion in Copper, and no one doing anything to add to rich discussion of a master, I will carry on, even if it means talking to myself. (I am good company)

 

 

Complaining...?

 

Call it rather...."inspiring"...

 

yeah...no.

 

Pffft.

 

See if I try to engage you in conversation, Orgasm....