Best Alan Moore Runs

[Zonker]

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen vs. Miracleman vs. Watchmen thread got me thinking: What is the collective wisdom on the best Alan Moore runs? I have a pretty good idea of the top 3 (but then again I could be surprised).

 

Guidelines/Explanations:

- I've made no attempt to limit this by genre-- so yes, I'm asking you to take on the impossible task of comparing From Hell with Jack B. Quick!

- Consider the complete package: concept/-script/art-- so you're not necessarily limited to Alan Moore's words alone

- I've intentionally not included 1 or 2 shots, so you'll not find Killing Joke, or the Last Superman Story or What Do You Give the Man Who Has Everything? (sorry Donut).

- We'll start on a consensus top 3, then I'll repeat for the next series of runners-up.

 

So here's the first attempt to build a top n list based on responses from forum members:

 

 

 

 

 

Have Fun!

Z.

 

[Zonker]

And here is the poll for the first runner up:

 

 

 

 

 

[Zonker]

And finally (for now), the poll for 2nd runner up

 

 

 

 

[Zonker]

Dadgummit! Can't edit a poll.

 

Just understand I meant V for Vendetta as the first poll option!

[Kevin Boyd]

Why have three polls? Wouldn't the second and third place ones on the original one be considered the first and second runners up?

 

Kev

[Zonker]

Just wanted to give people the opportunity to vote more than once. The standard poll function didn't support that, but maybe it would have been better to ask people to post their top 3 and why. We'll see if there's enough interest for additional rounds-- I suspected we'd find some consensus on the first few, but was really interested in how people feel about-- for instance-- Captain Britain vs. Supreme. (Seems to me lots of Moore's Supreme ideas were first tested out in Cap B).

 

And the letters pages / faux Bullpen Bulletins pages in 1963 were worth the price of admission by themselves. Even better than the fake ads and editorials in LOEG.

 

Cheers,

Z.

[Aman619]

pssst---its V for Vendetta!!!

 

d'oh!

[Zonker]

Indeed it is. My bad.

 

A fairly steady stream of votes. My plan is to check back in and when there are no more votes within a 24 hour period, I'll tabulate the top 3 vote getters (1 point for each 3rd place vote, 2 for 2nd place votes, 3 for first place votes). It'll be interesting to see a rank ordering, but I'd really like to run an additional poll or two once the top 3 are taken out, so we'll get a sense for the 2nd tier Alan Moore stories, where I suspect there will be much less consensus.

 

Cheers,

Z.

[chrisco37]

I voted for "V", although choosing between it and "Watchmen" is a near impossible task. In the end, I guess it came down to which book had me hooked quicker, and that was "V". I was instantly caught up in the story, whereas "Watchmen" took a little longer to get into.

 

"From Hell" was equally as good, but the abundance of information was overwhelming at times. It was easily the most complex and difficult "comic book" I've ever read.

 

Chris

[Zonker]

Okay! The voting has subsided, so here's a tally. As mentioned we'll assign 3 points for a first place vote, 2 for a 2nd place vote and 1 for a 3rd. For the record, at the time of counting there were 28 voters for first place, and 19 voters for each of the runners up.

 

1. Watchmen (38 points) no surprise

2. Swamp Thing (31 points)

3. V for Vendetta (18 points) big surprise!

4. Miracleman (17 points) I'd have thought this would be #2, certainly top 3

5. League (10 points)

6. Promethea (6 points)

7. From Hell / Top Ten (5 points each)

9. Tom Strong / Supreme / 1963 (3 points each)

12. Captain Britain (2 points)

 

Since we only got to vote 3 times in the first go round, I'd propose another round so we can all weigh in on the 2nd tier. There is a large drop-off after #2, and then another large drop-off after #4. I'd propose eliminating the top 4 slots, and then run another round of voting for slots 5 through n. (Yeah, sorry for those of you who voted for League or Top Ten or From Hell the first time around-- you'll need to vote again in the second round for it to stick!)

 

Cheers,

Z.

[chrisco37]

3. V for Vendetta (18 points) big surprise!

 

Why such a surprise, Z? I voted this as #1. I thought it was an amazing book. The main character was extremely compelling; the "cultured vigilante". It played on very real fears, at the time it was written. The dialouge was outstanding. Moore's vison of the future was, indeed, very bleak, but also very perceptive. The government watching your every move? I'm not trying to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but the technology certainly exists for something like that.

 

Chris

[Zonker]

Why such a surprise, Z?

 

Hmmm, Chris, that's a question I don't have a very good answer for. I was pretty sure the top 3 would be Watchmen, Miracleman, Swamp Thing in some order. Why? Dunno, it's always hard to understand one's biases. I respect Moore's V, kind of like I respect From Hell-- but I don't get the same kick I do from some of his other stuff.

 

But hey! Now I'm motivated to re-read V For Vendetta based on your recommendation! I don't believe I ever did so in one sitting before, so I'm sure I missed a lot. Part of the reason for doing the poll was to re-examine some of Moore's less familiar work, so mission accomplished!

 

Thanks,

Zonker

[chrisco37]

I figured that "Watchmen" would rank at the top. It's probably the best "super-hero" comic ever done. And, it is a very close second for me. "V" pulled me in more quickly, and that's why I gave it the nod. I'm actually about to start re-reading some of my trades. Like you said, trying to pick up on things I may have missed (which I'm sure happened in Watchmen!).

 

There are still a few Moore books I have yet to pick up.....Still need to read Top 10 and Tom Strong.

 

Chris

[Zonker]

Ok, we established above what I'm taking as the board consensus on the Top 4 Alan Moore runs:

 

1. Watchmen (38 points)

2. Swamp Thing (31 points)

3. V for Vendetta (18 points)

4. Miracleman (17 points)

 

So here's an opportunity to establish the next positions in the list. As before, you get to vote 3 times. Please see above for other "rules" (such as they are!) and scoring. We'll leave this running until no new votes arrive in a 24 hour period. Here goes:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Zonker]

 

 

 

 

[Zonker]

 

 

[Zonker]

Here's the final scoring-- I've repeated the previously-posted top 4 and filled out the top 12 list based on the most recent round of voting (sorry, no carryover votes from round 1). Again 3 points were awarded in this round for 5th place votes, 2 points for 6th place votes, and 1 for 7th place votes.

 

1. Watchmen

2. Swamp Thing

3. V for Vendetta

4. Miracleman

5. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (17 points in 2nd round voting)

6. From Hell (11 points in 2nd round voting)

7. Tom Strong (10 points in 2nd round voting)

8. Supreme (6 points)

9. Captain Britain (4 points)

10. Promethea / 1963 (3 points each)

12. Top Ten (2 points)

 

Kind of surprising that Promethea fared more poorly in the 2nd round than the initial. Rather than try to fix that, I'll just mention in the current Comic Book Artist interview with Alan Moore, he identifies Promethea as one of his most important works ever.

 

With that, I'm done!

Thanks to all who voted!

 

Cheers,

Z.

[Zonker]

for Lazyboy.

 

Interesting that even 3&1/2 years ago V for Vendetta was a forum favorite.

[Lazyboy]

Thanks, Zonker!

It's very interesting to see the results of this. The biggest problem with "favorite" polls like this is the fact that most people who vote likely haven't read everything on the list (as you can see from the results of my poll), which can have a large impact on the results.

[rjpb]

Well, I'm three and 1/2 years late in voting, but surprisingly I was still able to.

 

I feel I cheated a bit not having read a few series, including the highly regarded Swamp Thing and Miracle Man runs.

 

My picks

 

1) League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

 

2) 1963

 

3) Watchmen