On Tim Burton, Gotham and two pints of lager

Excerpt from an interview published in Uncut n. 40, September 2000.

Much as he tried to ignore it, Hollywood kept plucking at Moore's coat sleeves. When DC sold the film rights to Watchmen, Terry Gilliam was hired to direct - until, after a meeting with Moore, he rightly concluded that it couldn't be done. Not quite getting the message, when DC sold the rights to
Batman they came to Moore for advice on that, too.
"I was introduced to Tim Burton," recalls Moore. "He bought me one of those big two-pint schooners of lager. I liked it because of the size, it gave me a kind of Norse god sensation. He asked me how I would handle the filming of Batman. I told him the most important thing to get right was the city, to make it a strange collage of different architectural styles. He listened very attentively; he went away and made Batman and I got my two pints of lager."

 Extra source: here.

Barry Windsor-Smith on Moore's perspicacity

Marvelman by Barry Windsor-Smith

In 2000 legendary artist Barry Windsor-Smith sent me a short text contribution for the Alan Moore special that I was running on my Ultrazine.org site (not online any more).

The intelligence and perspicacity of Alan Moore's MARVELMAN was responsible for bringing me back into the field of comics. For that, I'm torn between loving and hating him. I've admired all of Alan's work from the 1970s to the present, with the ABC line. 

Barry Windsor-Smith

 I highly recommend BWS' new book Monsters, a masterpiece 35 years in the making. 

 

 

Alan Moore on Planetary

Excerpts from Planetary Consciousness, introduction to "Planetary: All Over The World And Other Stories", March 2000, WildStorm Productions.

[...] Warren Ellis and John Cassaday have manufactured an ingenious device by means of which they can exploit the possibilities of our contemporary situation, as described above. The heroes of their tale are neither crime-fighters nor global guardians, but, by some perfect stroke of inspiration, archaeologists. People digging down beneath the surface of the world to learn its past, its secrets and its marvels. In this instance, though, the world that's under excavation is not our immediate sphere, despite the fact that it is almost as familiar. Instead, we dig into a planet that is nothing less than the accumulated landscape of almost a hundred years of fantasy, of comic books. 

[...]

This is an exemplary turn-of-the-century mainstream comic book. During a period when many comics seem to have lapsed into an exhausted mire or else go blundering on ahead without the merest shred of a coherent plan, the work in Planetary has a glow and freshness that is all its own, a signature eruption of the neurons into novel, interesting patterns at the turn of each new page. It is at once concerned with everything that comics were and everything that comics could be, all condensed into a perfect jewelled and fractal snowflake. Read on and enjoy the remarkable comic book product of a remarkable comic book moment. And think Planetary.

    - Alan Moore
    Northampton
    Dec. 14, 1999

On journalism and Hawkwind

Excerpt from "Ripping Yarns", an interview by Simon Lewis from Uncut n. 40, September 2000.

I did a little hit of rock journalism myself. I did a strip in Sounds called 'Roscoe Moscow', and occasionally I'd supplement my income by interviewing people like Hawkwind. Unfortunately if Nik Turner made me a cup of tea while I was interviewing them I couldn't write anything nasty about them. So I figured journalism wasn't for me. 

--- Alan Moore

Alan Moore writes an article about Hawkwind published on Sounds issue dated Nov 6, 1982 and titled Wind Power – Alan Moore joins the congregation at the church of Hawkwind.

DAILY MOORE [16]

Art by Dave Gibbons.
From: Tom Strong n. 6.
First edition: 2000, America's Best Comics.

Eddie Campbell on The Birth Caul

Excerpt from an interview I did in 2000 published on my Ultrazine.org (not online anymore).

EDDIE CAMPBELL: The Birth Caul is the best thing that Alan has ever written. He wrote it as a theatrical performance monologue which he performed in the old county court house in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne on his 40th birthday. It was recorded and released as a CD and subsequently we adapted it into a comic. 
It is a dark and profound piece of poetry which made extraordinary demands upon me as an artist, particularly the chapters on childhood where he has re-created perfectly more than anything else I have ever read the feelings of growing up.
I had to come up with many unusual solutions to the problems of matching images to such an elusive text. In one instance I smashed up an alarm clock and glued parts of it to the page. In another I stitched together a miniature pair of child's pajamas and glued them to the page.

Jay Stephens: ABC and Alan Moore

Art by Jay Stephens.

Above an illustration by Canadian cartoonist JAY STEPHENS featuring several characters from Alan Moore's America's Best Comics; also below a short homage text by Stephens.
The pieces were both published in May 2001 on Ultrazine.org special dedicated to Moore. 

       I was fifteen years old when WATCHMEN hit comics like an ice age. Now there would always be a before and an after. By that time, my friends and I had graduated to reading Love and Rockets, Mr.X, and Yummy Fur, but we still managed to find time for our old favourites, the superheroes. Suddenly, we were struck by a single comic that gave it to us all at once. The comic that blew up the genre. WATCHMEN.
    
In hindsight it's no longer my favourite work of Alan Moore's (though it still holds up very well). Anybody with a sharp knife can cut something to pieces. Elegantly, meticulously, it doesn't ultimately make a difference. Diced is diced. A good surgeon, however, learns to use a sharp knife with great skill to repair and heal. To build instead of destroy. It is the fantastic surgical skill that Mr. Moore has displayed recently that so impresses me.
       
FROM HELL is a stitched together work of art the likes of which comics had yet to behold, and the incredible ABC books... who among us had NOT uttered the phrase " It's all been done.", in connection to superheroes? Proven wrong again by one of the medium true masters.
He's no longer tinkering with the bowels of corpses, but constructing strange, new Prometheans that walk and breathe with life of their own. And it is a thing of wonder to behold.
       
Thank you Alan Moore.

Jay Stephens
[December 2000]

Barry Windsor-Smith, Alan Moore and Miracleman

Barry Windsor-Smith cover art for Miracleman N. 24 (Eclipse Comics).

Excerpt from The Comics Journal N. 190 (September 1996).
"[...] Within my parameters, my overview, say, when I was in my mid-20s, I honestly believed the comic books I was creating had value to them … not all of ’em mind you, Avengers #100 didn’t really rise above street level, y’know, but I had pride in something about those books like Conan, Doc Strange, and stuff I forget now. My drawing wasn’t always the greatest but I believe my storytelling had integrity because I had a background in books and plays and other literary endeavors that wasn’t just comic-books: Hell, I read Steinbeck when I was 14.1 don’t see intensity in modern Marvel and Image and what have you, no matter how abstracted it might be for the sake of the superhero genre, I can’t see it. 

But when I read the entirety of Alan Moore’s Miracleman I was thrilled by his diverse experience and knowledge — you don’t find that depth in Youngblood." [Barry Windsor-Smith; the complete interview can be read here]

Excerpt from George Khoury's Kimota! book.

"[...] The fact is that Moore made me a fan again. He was one of the reasons that I returned to the field. He rekindled my spirit, my sense of wonder, and my foundering faith that the medium can be an artform." [Barry Windsor-Smith]

Amazing Top 10 page by Gene Ha

Page 2 from Top 10 N. 8 by Gene Ha.

From the blog of Top 10's artist Gene Ha: here.

"This was the hardest single page I ever drew. Alan Moore was too sick to write much Top 10 for me, so he wrote one page of script of Peregrine getting ready for work while listening to the news. The second page was a top down shot of Peregrine leaving her flying mansion, looking directly down on all of Neopolis. Every inch of the page had to be covered with cityscape. It took me four days working all out to get this finished. By then he’d recovered and had to figure out the rest of the story.
It’s widely considered the finest issue of Top 10. Including by me." [Gene Ha]

Unpublished Marvelman by Ashley Wood

Art by Ashley Wood.

From Comic Art Fans site. In the following, excerpt from the item description.

Ashley Wood - Marvelman/Miracleman Pin Up, Unpublished, 2000, Pen and Ink / WhiteOut / Pencil, 11 x 17, Signed.

Done for Miracleman's return to comics!

Miracleman re-appeared as alter ego Mike Moran in Todd McFarlane's Hellspawn #7. Due to a legal battle between Neil Gaiman and Todd McFarlane over the ownership of the character rights, he never appeared in costume as intended. Miracleman and Hellspawn were to join forces in an armageddon-like finale which would have taken place in issue(s) #12 and/or #13. The storyline was meant to climax with Mike Moran regaining his memory and appearing in full costume as Miracleman! Sadly, this was never realized... unfortunately, Miracleman finally made his re-appearence in the poorly realized and oft-delayed Image 10th Anniversary Hardcover Special where he was renamed "The Man of Miracles" to avoid further litigation with Gaiman.

There are only four pieces of Ashley Wood art known to exist featuring Miracleman in full regalia! This particular pin up is the only one to feature both Mike Moran and Marvelman/Miracleman! 

More details at Comic Art Fans site: here. 

Alan Moore loves Jack "THE KING" Kirby

Cover of Supreme The Return N. 6, titled "New Jack City".

Probably one of the more positive things that happened to you when you came to the States was that you were able to meet Jack Kirby in person. What type of an impression did you get? What did he say to you?

ALAN: It was very brief. It was a bit of a tense time because it was during that panel where we were talking about getting Kirby's artwork back from Marvel. So I met Jack very briefly before or after that panel, but all I remember was that aura he had around him. This sort of walnut colored little guy with a shackle of white hair and these craggy Kirby drawn features. This sort of stockiness. I just remember him chatting with me and Frank Miller and he was saying in this kind of raspy voice, "You kids, I think you're great. You kids, what you've done is terrific. I really want to thank you." It was almost embarrassing to have Jack Kirby thanking me. I just assured him that it was me who should be thanking him, sort of because he had done so much to contribute to my career. He had a glow around him, Jack Kirby. He was somebody very, very special.

Excerpt from an inteview conduced by George Khoury published in 2000 on The Jack Kirby Collector #30. The interview can be read on TwoMorrows' website HERE.

Moore and Kirby. Photo by Jackie Estrada.