Comments on: Happy Birthday, Alan Moore

Happy Birthday, Alan Moore

Alvy Ampersand — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 10:21:55 -0800

"Alan Moore is a writer and magician from Northhampton. He's a stranger to hairdressers and worships his very own god in his very own way, blurring the lines between religious belief, magic, and the power of the creative imagination. If you film him from strange angles, you can make him look very sinister." It is his fifty-eighth birthday. The beard is pushing 40.

You can celebrate Alan Moore's birthday by watching a 1987 profile from the program England, Their England. Or you may enjoy browsing a collection of occasionally NSFW strips Moore created under the pseudonym Curt Vile, or, as Jill de Ray, some Maxwell the Magic Cat. Or you might want to curl up with your favorite Moore-penned comic book and read along with some annotations. Perhaps you would enjoy Neil Gaiman's spot-on impression of Moore, or Moore's MAD-inspired parody of Frank Miller's Daredevil ^Previously. Maybe you would like to read a classic Moore yarn from 2000AD or a bleakly prescient collaboration with Don Simpson, , an amusing one-page with the late Harvey Pekar, or Moore's remembrance of Pekar, or whatever the hell this is, with Mark Beyer. More Mooreana can be found at glycon and fourcolorheroes.

By: Artw

Artw — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 10:23:05 -0800

Happy brithday cranky snake genius weirdo!

By: Joe Beese

Joe Beese — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 10:26:09 -0800

Moore's MAD-inspired parody of Frank Miller's Daredevil "I betcha think all the houses are made of gingerbread and it rains pistachio ice cream, right? ... What are you, some sorta retard?" Life imitates art.

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 10:31:00 -0800

Oh shit oh shit oh shit I forgot It was today oh shit I have get the pyre and virgins ready oh please don't eat me.

By: griphus

griphus — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 10:31:46 -0800

There's a lot of detractors, and I don't even follow his current stuff, but I will always think Alan Moore is one of the few individuals responsible for comics being what they are today (in the good way.) He's well on par with the Lees and Ditkos and Kirbys. One of my favorite photographs ever is this shot of Alan Moore and Jack Kirby. I even wrote a blog post about how much I love it and respect the two of them. Happy birthday you old bastard! May you live to see many more.

By: dng

dng — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 10:32:10 -0800

About ten years ago Alan Moore presented a lovely half hour documentary about Northampton on Channel 4's The Other Side series, where he talked about a lot of the events that different chapters of Voice Of The Fire relate to, but I can't find it at all on the internet. His recent Astro Dick (NSFW) comic is stupid and brilliant, too. I think you can still get that in the second issue of Dodgem Logic.

By: griphus

griphus — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 10:32:57 -0800

Oh, and if anyone has an attribution for the photographer or a better-quality version, for the love of god hook me up. I want that fucker framed on my wall.

By: Askiba

Askiba — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 10:34:29 -0800

You know, I love Alan Moore, but I could never finish V for Vendetta or From Hell. I'm guessing for V it was the art style, and From Hell it was the super, super drawn out exposition. Am I a heathen?

By: Artw

Artw — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 10:42:05 -0800

I don't even follow his current stuff Well, he's pretty much retired-ish* appart from LoEG and Neonomicon. LoEG continues to be it's own excellent self, though I suspect it peaked with Vol. 2. I would, on one hand, say that I suspect that Neonomicon is going to be a late classic of his. On the other hand, it's a bit dar and intense and I have a little trepidation recommending it. ...NEVER go with a cultist to a second location... Anyhowm, if you've only read his 80s stuff you're doing yourself a bit of a disservice. * Alan Moore has been in the process of retiring from comics for 8 years as of this birthday, and yet comics still pop up from time to time, so when he says something is his last comic it's easy to think that there may be another.

By: griphus

griphus — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 10:46:09 -0800

Heh, I keep forgetting the fact that I absolutely devoured LoEG and Supreme. The latter is one of my favorite comics that I keep forgetting to re-read. The stuff I'm thinking of is the ABC imprint, which I almost completely ignored save for LoEG -- Tom Strong, Promethea, etc.

By: Zed

Zed — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 10:52:56 -0800

I didn't know about the glycon livejournal. Thanks for the pointer! Happy Birthday, Mage of Northampton. If you keep makin' 'em, I'll keep readin' 'em. One of the happiest occurrences of my trip to London of a few years ago was buying Time Out and seeing that Moore and Gebbie were doing an event for Lost Girls that night. So I got to thank him in person for his work.

By: shakespeherian

shakespeherian — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 10:53:15 -0800

You know, I love Alan Moore, but I could never finish V for Vendetta or From Hell. I'm guessing for V it was the art style, and From Hell it was the super, super drawn out exposition. Just watch the movies!

By: Sidhedevil

Sidhedevil — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 10:54:12 -0800

Am I a heathen? We're all ~~mad~~ heathens here. But only some of us have a magical talking snake. Happy birthday, Mr. Moore!

By: COBRA!

COBRA! — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 10:59:20 -0800

Damn, I just finished a reread of The Black Dossier. If I'd known his birthday was coming up, I would have timed it so that I read the 3D section with Masonic 3D glasses on the bus, publicly geeking out in his honor.

By: Artw

Artw — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 11:04:46 -0800

Just watch the movies! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! /pod person pointing.

By: Elmore

Elmore — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 11:06:48 -0800

Moore is like a gateway drug to comics, except you starting with heroin and then move on to bad grass.

By: Elmore

Elmore — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 11:07:47 -0800

bollix! "You are".... fuck I'm so strung out...

By: Elmore

Elmore — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 11:10:12 -0800

Just watch the movies! If you really want to understand Moore you have to start with League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. It's astounding.

By: infinitywaltz

infinitywaltz — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 11:10:47 -0800

Will you sign my Watchmen Babies DVD?

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 11:14:34 -0800

Just watch the movies! You are going to hell for that you know. You are literally going to hell.

By: Halloween Jack

Halloween Jack — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 11:45:22 -0800

Man, there's some great stuff here, folks. Even as a Moore fan of some nearly three decades (the first comic of his that I bought was an import of his and Alan Davis' Captain Britain, near the end of their run), there's some things here that I haven't seen, including that picture of him and Kirby.

By: fearfulsymmetry

fearfulsymmetry — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 11:48:37 -0800

Only this past weekend I was urging people to read Voice Of The Fire - "If you can get past the first 80 pages of ugg language. It gets.... well it's still pretty oblique but you've got to read it!" I tried to find a picture of the beared-one in a party hat. This will have to do.

By: Artw

Artw — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 11:50:32 -0800

Some day I will beat the ugg-speak chapter. Someday...

By: Artw

Artw — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 11:58:14 -0800

PWEI time!

By: Katemonkey

Katemonkey — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 12:02:47 -0800

This is a perfect time to point out a friend of mine's Alan Moore Halloween costume. I should also point out that this is my female friend's Alan Moore Halloween costume. Of awesomeness.

By: Artw

Artw — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 12:05:19 -0800

I am in awe of your friends awesomeness! I particularly like that the first picture looks a lot like the jacket photo on the old Swamp Thing TPBs.

By: buzzman

buzzman — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 12:11:33 -0800

Tomorrows British Lit classics today. Happy B-day Mr. Moore.

By: Oktober

Oktober — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 12:13:51 -0800

If anyone here has only read Watchmen and LoEG, you really owe it to yourself to track down Top 10.

By: Steve Lieber

Steve Lieber — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 12:17:18 -0800

My favorite Alan Moore photo.

By: Artw

Artw — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 12:27:40 -0800

As far as early works go, I'd really call The Ballad of Halo Jones an essential.

By: Zed

Zed — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 13:00:33 -0800

Oh my dear lord. Moore did four pages in... wait for it... the Dukes of Hazzard Annual 1983.

By: immlass

immlass — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 15:06:54 -0800

Most interesting thing in this post to me: I now know about someone cool who shares my birthday.

By: Zack_Replica

Zack_Replica — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 15:24:38 -0800

Not sure if this has been posted here before, but this is the Alan Moore Interview Index, which has interviews going back to 1984, so it's chock full of reading. The site says that the last update was Feb. 2010, so I hope it's not on its way out.

By: limeonaire

limeonaire — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 19:44:02 -0800

You know, I love Alan Moore, but I could never finish V for Vendetta or From Hell. I'm guessing for V it was the art style, and From Hell it was the super, super drawn out exposition. Yeah, I couldn't get past the first page of From Hell. I know it's supposed to be a masterwork, but Eddie Campbell's cramped scrawl is headache-inducing; even Campbell's autobiographical stuff isn't that illegible. V for Vendetta I never tried. Though I enjoyed the film. Also, I wonder if Kurt Vile knows about his would-be namesake. And Moore's Dodgem Logic showcases some real brilliance—even the stuff not personally done by him in there is good. I'm still turning around in my head all of the anticivilization writings I read in the first two issues. And damned if Moore isn't one of those comics creators who still make me look over my shoulder as I'm reading—his works are still genuinely subversive, in a time when most things even remotely deserving of that label have been co-opted in some way. Oh, and "The Sinister Ducks"—I'd thought that was a Neil Gaiman original. Wrong! Ignore the awful animation on that one; it's the audio that's by Moore. And re: the current AskMe thread about dreams, try reading Voice of the Fire before bed. Yikes. I got it from a former coworker as a holiday present one year, didn't get to it for about a year after that, and then wow. It's a tough slog just to get through the first chapters, but the effort is so worth it, albeit perhaps damaging to the psyche. And I can't wait for the grimoire. !

By: limeonaire

limeonaire — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 19:45:19 -0800

Only this past weekend I was urging people to read Voice Of The Fire - "If you can get past the first 80 pages of ugg language. It gets.... well it's still pretty oblique but you've got to read it!" Exactly!

By: pywacket

pywacket — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 20:38:03 -0800

Somewhere along the way I ended up with a Maxwell the Magic Cat book. Not sure how, but I have loved it for years. It's funny when books find you. That one led me around his other writings--which seems somehow fittingly weird.

By: sebastienbailard

sebastienbailard — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 21:53:22 -0800

His recent Astro Dick (NSFW) comic is stupid and brilliant, too. Ahhhh ... (I'm just basking in the warm glow of imagining this as the next cheesy-film-adaptation-of-reasonably-good-comic-book.)

By: kinnakeet

kinnakeet — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 06:15:57 -0800

I knew very little about Moore until I got Lost Girls for Christmas a few years ago (pornography recommended by American Heritage magazine, which is amazing in itself). Lost Girls is wonderful on many levels--changed my attitude towards several genres at once. Zed, you were fortunate to be able to thank Moore in person.

By: lumpenprole

lumpenprole — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 15:17:11 -0800

Two of my favorite people in one room! *swoon....*