Silent Pictures by Kevin O’Neill

From Gosh! site: 

“One of the finest and most original talents ever to emerge from the comic industry.” – Alan Moore, from his introduction.

Silent Pictures by Kevin O’Neill is the capstone to an extraordinary career in comics – two ferocious new books that flicker through the very dreams of art and imagination. Without words, O’Neill conjures an astonishing pair of feverish stories, brimming with detail on every page, packed with some of the most exciting, twisted artwork ever put to paper. Gorgeously painted in luminous colour, no fan of his work can afford to miss out.

In Feartreland we tag along as the son of Dick Whittington flits through a series of pantomime tableaus, splash pages and tortuous punning images. Crocodiles gambol with giant apes, and genies promise adventures on the high seas. An explosive entertainment, bright and bold as the stage that it draws its inspiration from. Meanwhile, The Balaclava Kid invites us into the dreams of the artist’s youth, as his imagination gives him escape from the bullies of a bombed-out London into a dreamscape built of Wild West iconography and Tex Avery action. Demonic cowboys and infernal machines populate shimmering mesas and haunted mines. An adventure like no other!

Presented as a slipcased set of two luxurious hardback volumes, each with a new introduction by frequent collaborator and friend Alan Moore, a total of 800 copies of this stunning duo of books are available from both Knockabout’s retail website, and Gosh! Comics of London, online and in store, kicking off a year of celebrations for the shop’s 40th anniversary.

This is a fantastic must-have work and a final gift from a legendary creator whose incredible Art will remain forever in the hearts of readers. 

 

More info at DownTheTubes.net, here.

Review at The Comics Journal, here.  

 

Italian Sussidiario di Magia

Above and below, some pics I took of my Italian copy of the Bumper Book of Magic that I bought few days ago. The book has just been published by Panini Comics. 

It seems they did a good job on it. Viva la Magia!

Comics in Magic Land

Magic is here!

Below, excerpt from an interview posted on PW some days ago, on the occasion of the upcoming The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic release. 

In this excerpt Moore talks about the comics contained in the book and his final comics work. With a bit of surprise revelation, too. 

Read the complete piece HERE.

Alan Moore: "Ben Wickey’s amazing ‘Great Enchanters’ pages could have come from one of those improving boys’ weekly papers like Look & Learn, while the late, great Kevin O’Neill’s scurrilous “Adventures of Alexander” is from the more working-class tradition of weekly comics like the Beano or Dandy. I should point out, though, that the Bumper Book isn’t and was never intended to be my final work in comics.

My final work in comics, completed in 2018, was the fourth and last volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen with Kevin O’Neill. I’d finished writing all of the Bumper Book’s comic strip material by the spring of 2014, and the whole book by 2015—it’s just taken us ten years to find all the artists and for them to complete the work to such a spectacularly high standard.

There may also be other comic book work out there, as yet unpublished, but volume four of The League was my last comic strip work, and was also, I think, a fond and comprehensive farewell to the medium. The Bumper Book, commenced around 2007, was always seen as a beautiful and accessible grimoire that happened to contain some comic strip material. It was intended purely as a statement about magic, rather than as a statement about comics."

The interview is available HERE.

The Autumn is Magic!

Cover art by John Coulthart

It's about time! Finally this Autumn (October 15th, to be precise!) we will learn all the secrets of Magic thanks to Messrs. Steve and Alan Moore & friends (and publishers Top Shelf & Knockabout). 

 

From the Top Shelf site:

The most acclaimed writer in comics history, Alan Moore, joins his late mentor Steve Moore (no relation) for one last graphic grimoire: a sprawling and stunning introduction to magic in all its timeless forms, brought to life by five wondrous and whimsical artists.

Splendid news for enquiring minds, and guaranteed salvation for humanity! Messrs. Steve and Alan Moore, current proprietors of the celebrated Moon & Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels (sorcery by appointment since circa 150 AD) are presently engaged in producing a clear and practical grimoire of the occult sciences that offers endless necromantic fun for all the family. Exquisitely illuminated by a host of adepts including Kevin O’Neill, John Coulthart, Steve Parkhouse, Rick Veitch and Ben Wickey, this marvellous and unprecedented tome promises to provide all that the reader could conceivably need in order to commence a fulfilling new career as a diabolist.

Its contents include profusely illustrated instructional essays upon this ancient sect’s theories of magic, notably the key dissertation “Adventures in Thinking,” which gives reliable advice as to how entry into the world of magic may be readily achieved. Further to this, a number of “Rainy Day” activity pages present lively and entertaining things-to-do once the magical state has been attained, including such popular pastimes as divination, etheric travel and the conjuring of a colourful multitude of sprits, deities, dead people and infernal entities from the pit, all of whom are sure to become your new best friends.

Also contained within this extravagant compendium of thaumaturgic lore is a history of magic from the last ice age to the present day, told in a series of easy-to-absorb pictorial biographies of fifty great enchanters and complemented by a variety of picture stories depicting events ranging from the Palaeolithic origins of art, magic, language and consciousness to the rib-tickling comedy exploits of Moon & Serpent founder Alexander the False Prophet (“He’s fun, he’s fake, he’s got a talking snake!”).

Art by Kevin O'Neill

In addition to these manifold delights, the adventurous reader will also discover a series of helpful travel guides to mind-wrenching alien dimensions that are within comfortable walking distance, as well as profiles of the many quaint local inhabitants that one might bump into at these exotic resorts. A full range of entertainments will be provided, encompassing such diverse novelties and pursuits as a lavishly decorated decadent pulp tale of occult adventure recounted in the serial form. Completing this almost-unimaginable treasure trove is a lengthy thesis revealing the ultimate meaning of both the Moon and the Serpent in a manner that makes transparent the much-obscured secret of magic, happiness, sex, creativity and the known Universe, while at the same time explaining why these lunar and ophidian symbols feature so prominently in the order’s peculiar name. (Manufacturer’s disclaimer: this edition does not, however, reveal why the titular cabal of magicians consider themselves to be either grand or Egyptian. Let the buyer beware.)

Art by Rick Veitch

A colossal and audacious publishing triumph of three hundred and fifty-two pages, beautifully produced in the finest tradition of educational literature for young people, The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic will transform your lives, your reality, and any spare lead that you happen to have lying around into the purest and most radiant gold. -- a 9" x 12" hardcover

Book design by John Coulthart. Co-published by Top Shelf Productions & Knockabout LTD (UK).

COMING OCTOBER 15TH, 2024!

From John Coulthart site: 

[...] A couple of things are worth noting now that the book is about to enter the world. The first is that the contents are a little different to the press release from 2007 which announced a book of 320 pages, with 78 of those pages being brand new Tarot card designs. The authors subsequently realised that creating an entirely new Tarot deck is a huge task in itself, especially if, as was the intention, you wanted it to be as wide-ranging and authoritative as the Crowley/Harris Thoth deck. [...]

Art by Ben Wickey

The other thing to note is that this book is as much Steve Moore’s as Alan Moore’s, something which I’m sure Alan will want to emphasise but which news reports and reviews are inevitably going to overlook. [...]

The Bumper Book may superficially resemble a children’s annual but this isn’t a book for children. The essays include discussion of the use of drugs and sex in magic, and there’s a lot of nudity (also a fair amount of sex) in the illustrations. The book is a serious study, but not, I hope, a boring one. [...]

I could say more about the contents but I’m not going to spoil things. I’ve been immensely grateful to Alan, Tony and Chris at Top Shelf for not pressuring me to get this one finished. I’m often complaining that publishers don’t give you enough time to work on things but that wasn’t the case with this book. I just wish Steve Moore was still here to see it (and Kevin O’Neill, an artist whose work I always admired but I never got to meet). October this year is going to be lunar and serpentine. We’ll see you in the Theatre of Marvels.

Read the complete post HERE.

Art by John Coulthart

Eulogy for Kevin O'Neill

Art by Kevin O'Neill

Above excerpts from a moving eulogy that Moore wrote in memory of Kevin O'Neill. 

It was shared by Scott Dunbier on his Facebook page. 

[...] What made him unique amongst his generation of comic creators was the breadth of his influences and experience. While most of his contemporaries were modelling their styles solely upon the incoming wave of great American talent, Kevin was assimilating the angular transatlantic elegance of, say, Spiderman creator Steve Ditko, without abandoning his love for the manic cartoon grotesquery of England’s Ken Reid. The result was an astonishingly flexible ability to shift from the bold designs of the Edwardian illustrators he had a passion for, to the deranged absurdities of the British children’s fare that he’d been absorbed in since infancy.

Nobody drew like Kevin O’Neill. As a result of one of our more innocuous collaborations, Kevin received the supreme compliment of having his entire artistic style – whether he was drawing a table-leg or a baby carriage – ruled unacceptable by the American industry’s then-extant Comics Code Authority. [...]

Working with him was an honour, a pleasure, and an education. His knowledge of the culture we were mining was easily as extensive as my own, and in most instances was marvellously complementary. [...]

Not only a working relationship, the connection with Kevin was one of the most important friendships of my life. As well as being one of the medium’s most individual and exciting draftsmen, he was also exceptional in being one of the very few working-class creators working in a trashy, gutter art-form that was originally intended only for the poor and supposedly illiterate, since become a gentrified middle-class district with graphic novels in the stead of studio loft-apartments. Of all my mainstream collaborators, Kevin was the only one who stood solidly beside me in our difficulties with the comic-book publishing industry, and whose commitment was always to the work, like my own, rather than to the financial inducements and bullying of the companies; the manufacturers.

He was also one of the warmest, funniest, most erudite and most courageous people that I’ve ever met. [...] I am going to miss him like I’d miss sunsets.

In the words of English music-hall legend Max Miller, ‘Take a good look, missus. You’ll never see another one.’

Alan Moore,

Northampton,

November 9th, 2022

Read also HERE and here.

Kevin O'Neill Forever!

Source: Alan Moore Official FB page

Humble artisans

Excerpt from the letter column in The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen n. 3, June 1999.

[...] The humble artisans who craft our tale each month could scarcely be considered gentlemen. Mr. Moore hails from a family of the lower orders that are monstrously inbred, amongst whom he is chiefly famed for his unique possession of a seventh nipple. Mr. O'Neill, to my certain knowledge, has been more than once convicted as a pickpocket and cosh-boy. To the other sometime inmates of Marshalsea prison, he is known and feared as "Red Kev". Alas, as is so often the case with periodicals of this type, only lower sorts of person are contented with a niche as artist or mere writer, and it is only in the editorial ranks that one is likely to find traces of both breeding and nobility. I'm sure, however, that if our creative team could talk intelligibly without those appalling and impenetrable accents, they would thank you for your generosity; however misplaced it may be.

DAILY MOORE [19]

Art by Kevin O'Neill.
From: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol.1 n. 1.
First edition: 1999, America's Best Comics.

The Tempest: Gosh Exclusive 3-D Bookplate

Art by Kevin O'Neill. Colours: by Ben Dimagmaliw.

This October Gosh will release an A5 exclusive bookplate to celebrate the conclusion of The LoEG: The Tempest and its release in hardcover volume format.

The A5 plate features an original piece of work by Kevin O'Neill, coloured by Ben Dimagmaliw, and processed for 3-D by Charles Barnard & Christian LeBlanc.

Limited to  500 numbered copies signed by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill. Final plate will have 3-D elements!

More info HERE! Pre-order HERE!

The Tempest hardcover

Art by Kevin O'Neill.

Above, Kevin O'Neill's cover for the hardcover edition of The Tempest, the final adventure of the LoEG. The volume is scheduled for October release.

More info HERE.

Tempestuous covers

Cover for issue n.6. Art by Kev O'Neill.

Above and below, in reverse order, the six covers drawn by Kevin O'Neill, for The Tempest, the final story of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series, co-published by Top Shelf Productions (US) and Knockabout (UK).

The conclusive sixth issue is scheduled for May 2019 release.

Cover for issue n.5. Art by Kev O'Neill.

Cover for issue n.4. Art by Kev O'Neill.

Cover for issue n.3. Art by Kev O'Neill.

Cover for issue n.2. Art by Kev O'Neill.

Cover for issue n.1. Art by Kev O'Neill.

Cthulu rules

Art by Kevin O'Neill.

Above, an Alan Moore "Cthulu" sketch portrait by Kevin O'Neill. From Central Comics Paris' Instagram page.

The Tempest is coming!

The final Tempest.

From the Top Shelf Panel at San Diego Comicon 2017. 
Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill will be teaming up for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol 4 called The Tempest, a six issue series in full color, and drawn from pop culture throughout time and space. This will be their “retirement project”, their last in comics, according to Top Shelf.

More at Top Shelf site: "[...] Opening simultaneously in the panic-stricken headquarters of British Military Intelligence, the fabled Ayesha’s lost African city of Kor and the domed citadel of ‘We’ on the devastated Earth of the year 2996, the dense and yet furiously-paced narrative hurtles like an express locomotive across the fictional globe from Lincoln Island to modern America to the Blazing World; from the Jacobean antiquity of Prospero’s Men to the superhero-inundated pastures of the present to the unimaginable reaches of a shimmering science-fiction future. With a cast-list that includes many of the most iconic figures from literature and pop culture, and a tempo that conveys the terrible momentum of inevitable events, this is literally and literarily the story to end all stories. [...]"

The Tempest miniseries will be published by Top Shelf and Knockabout, each issue 32 pages, with first issue to be released in June 2018.

Lobo and... Alan Moore!

Art by Kevin O'Neill.

Above, the first panel from page 11 of Lobo Convention Special, a Lobo one-shot published in 1993 by DC Comics with plot by Keith Giffen, dialogues  by Alan Grant, art by Kevin O'Neill, lettering by Todd Klein, coloring by Digital Chameleon.

The League of Lost Projects by Kevin O'Neill

Art by Kevin O'Neill.

From the sold-out Alan Moore: Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman book (2003, Abiogenesis Press, page 259), above you can admire the contribution drawn by extraordinary artist and Moore's regular collaborator KEVIN O'NEILL to celebrate the 50th birthday of the Northampton writer.

Cinema Purgatorio

Art by Kevin O'Neill.

CINEMA PURGATORIO, is an horror anthology comic book - published by Avatar Press - including new work by Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill and others such as Garth Ennis, Max Brooks, Christos Gage and more.

The anthology is currently being funded on Kickstarter (the campaign will end the 17th of February): here. 

In his introduction Moore writes: "[...] CINEMA PURGATORIO is an unholy resurrection of the backstreet bug-hutches and fleapits practicing their eerie silver mesmerism on our post-war predecessors, drenched in atmosphere and other less identifiable decoctions. The threadbare arenas to a generation’s adolescent fumblings and upholstery-slashing rage alike, these peeling Deco temples were the haunted, flickering spaces where were bred the dreads and the desires of those Macmillan days; Eisenhower nights. Varnished with blood and Brylcreem, in our razor-collared cutting edge collection we restore the broken-bulb emporiums where, in the creaking backseats, modern terror and monstrosity were shamelessly conceived. In our worn aisles and glossy pages the most individual and inventive talents in contemporary comics are delivering a landmark midnight matinee in monochrome, intent on pushing both the genre and the medium beyond their stagnant formulas and into shapes that suit the unique shadows and disquiets of our present moment. [...]"

Moore is also the main actor in the fantastic video that promotes the project!

Fund the project on Kickstarter: here!!!

Alan Moore, Sax Rohmer and Dr Fu Manchu

Lord of Strange Deaths published by Strange Attractor Press.

Strange Attractor Press is publishing Lord of Strange Deaths, a book dedicated to English novelist Sax Rohmer, creator of the master criminal Dr Fu Manchu (who played a key role in the first adventure of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen).   

"This is the first extended attempt to do justice to Rohmer, and it ranges across the spectrum of his output from music-hall writing to Theosophy. Contributors focus on subjects including Egyptology, 1890s decadence, Edwardian super-villains, graphic novels, cinema, the French Situationists, Chinese dragon ladies, and the Arabian Nights. The result is a testimony to the enduring fascination and relevance of Rohmer’s absurd, sinister and immensely atmospheric world." 

 The book, printed 500 copies, is only via Strange Attractor Press from 21 September: here.

Alan Moore contribution is titled Limehouse Variations and details the thinking behind the inclusion of Dr Fu Manchu in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. 

Also a colour plate from League drawn by Kevin O'Neill is included in the volume.

More info: here.

Art by Kevin O'Neill.

River of Ghosts Screenprint

Art by Kevin O'Neill.

A brand new A3 four colour screenprint to celebrate the release of Nemo: River of Ghosts! Limited edition of 250. Signed by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill. Exclusive to Gosh! Comics. Buy here.

Nemo: River of Ghosts is here!

Art by Kevin O'Neill from Nemo: River of Ghosts.

The concluding part of Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Nemo trilogy, River of Ghosts is... out, this March.

Preview here.

Art by Kevin O'Neill from Nemo: River of Ghosts.

Nemo news

Art by Kevin O'Neill.

Topshelf site reports details about the final book in Nemo trilogy scheduled to be released in Spring 2015, co-published by Top Shelf and Knockabout:

"In a world where all the fictions ever written coalesce into a rich mosaic, it’s 1975. Janni Dakkar, pirate queen of Lincoln Island and head of the fabled Nemo family, is eighty years old and beginning to display a tenuous grasp on reality. Pursuing shadows from her past—or her imagination—she embarks on what may be a final voyage down the vastness of the Amazon, a last attempt to put to rest the blood-drenched spectres of old.

With allies and adversaries old and new, we accompany an ageing predator on her obsessive trek into the cultural landscape of a strange new continent, from the ruined city of Yu-Atlanchi to the fabulous plateau of Maple White Land. As the dark threads in her narrative are drawn into an inescapable web, Captain Nemo leads her hearse-black Nautilus in a desperate raid on horrors believed dead for decades."[from Top Shelf site]

In the meantime, Gosh! is releasing a new exclusive screen print, limited to 250 copies and signed by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill, featuring Janni Nemo and chief baddies from the book. More details here. 

Previously they produced this and this. 

Nemo exclusive screen print. Art by Kevin O'Neill.