Rick Veitch on Alan's brain

Excerpts from the introduction that the great RICK VEITCH wrote for  the Italian edition of Alan Moore's Writing For Comics, published by ProGlo Edizioni (Prospettiva Globale) in 2007. 

Veitch posted the complete text in 2018, on his Facebook page (here).

The Secrets Of Alan’s Brain
by Rick Veitch

[...]

I’m convinced that, after many more creative and productive decades, when Alan finally gives up the flesh and joins the transmigration of souls into idea space, a careful study of his remains will reveal that certain areas of the Moore brain, especially those parts associated with imagination, intuition, memory and language, to be far larger than one might expect in the normal human. Perhaps scientists will discover extra arteries pumping an enhanced blood flow to those cranial regions or some enzyme that promotes rich neuron growth. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if they come upon some sort of new and bizarre mutation in the formation of the lobes.
This isn’t as flip as it sounds; at least when talking of a highly developed creative mind like Alan’s. Mozart, thought to have musical and mathematical brain functions that bordered on autism, provided the world with some of the most sublime music ever created. And, after death, Albert Einstein’s brain was doled out in slices to scientists seeking a link between those analytical and intuitive centers that gave us the theory of relativity.

I include Alan in this august group with some degree of certainty based on a couple decades worth of phone conversations.

[...]

Now I’m a writer, too, so I’m familiar with the process most creative people struggle through to get their initial inspirations to a finished state. It usually (often) takes a fair amount of drafting and editing before a good idea is crafted into a solid piece of writing.

Not with Alan. His mind is capable of plucking ideas from the imagination fully formed and realized. Countless times, while kicking around possibilities for a story, he has startled me by saying “I got it” and proceeded to unspool complete scenes, including panel descriptions and finished dialogue. He calls them his “bits” and he appears to use them as the foundation blocks for his scripts. I believe he expects them to be waiting for him, ripening on the tree of knowledge, whenever he is on the creative hunt. Like every other comic book writer in the world, I could only sigh when Alan mentioned in a recent interview that pretty much every comic book script he has written has been a first and only draft.

 

[...]

Rick Veitch
September 2007

Julius Schwartz, HPL and Alan Moore

Julius "Julie" Schwartz 

Below, excerpt from The story behind the stories, an interview by William Christensen, edited by Antony Johnston, investigating Moore's lost project Yuggoth Cultures which was inspired by Lovecraft's Fungi from Yuggoth. Originally published in Alan Moore's Yuggoth Cultures and Other Growths n. 3 (Avatar Press, 2003) and reprinted in the collected volume (Avatar, 2007).

Alan Moore: [...] The first poem in Lovecraft‘s cycle is called The Book, and as an example of the way I was thinking at the time, my first piece for Yuggoth Cultures was also called The Book. But in my case it was a couple of pages long, and was an account of me, on one of the first occasions where I’d met Julius Schwartz. Julie had been showing me this huge book of autographs and memorabilia that he keeps in his office to dazzle impressionable young Limeys with. I was looking through this book, which was full of pictures of Julie as a younger man in a long dark coat, with a dark homburg hat, standing on a wintery New York street corner and talking with some fresh-faced newsboy that actually turned out to be Ray Bradbury, and all of these other giants of science fiction and fantasy...

So Julie was showing me this, and l got to this small piece of paper that was fixed into the book where it just said, in this very spidery pen and ink handwriting, “I remain, Sir, your obedient servant— Howard Phillips Lovecraft."

l was stunned, and asked, “So this is from Lovecraft‘? You knew Lovecraft'?” And he said, “Yeah, sure, I agented a story for him.” I foolishly asked, “What was he like?” To which Julie replied, "Well, it’s funny you should say that, because I remember at the time thinking, “I'd better remember what this guy’s like 'cos in fifty years Alan Moore's going to ask me about it..."

So I basically expanded that anecdote as my version of The Book. And there were subsequent chapters of Yuggoth Cultures, also based on Lovecraft's titles, or the feeling of the individual pieces. But most of these were subsequently lost in a taxi cab in London—the only copies. [...]

More info about Lovecraft and Schwartz HERE. 

A for Alan by Juan Navarro

Art by Juan Navarro

Above, a strong Moore portrait by American artist JUAN NAVARRO.

 

More info about him HERE.

Lost CD game with Dave Gibbons

Art by DAVE GIBBONS.

Excerpt from an interview with DAVE GIBBONS that I did in collaboration with my friend Antonio Solinas in 2007. Originally printed in Italy on Lezioni di Fumetto: Dave Gibbons (October 2008, Coniglio Editore). The complete interview is available HERE.

Some years ago, maybe it was Bristol Con 2002, you told me about a huge project you were developing with Alan Moore. Any chances that it could materialize, or would you say it is a lost project?
Dave Gibbons: Alan and I have always enjoyed collaborating and I think we both have done some of our best works when we have collaborated. The thing we did talk about for a little while, and this was a while ago, this was in the late 90’s, was the idea of doing something on a kind of a CD game, a computer game… to use their abilities to weave complex worlds and try new kind of storytelling techniques, where there were alternate storylines. We kicked the idea around for a while and put some thought into it but I think what we eventually realized was that we were getting into something that would probably be as fraught with problems as, say, doing a movie, and also into something that we didn’t completely understand or hadn’t completely grown up with.
Computer games nowadays are as big business as movies and therefore there are huge amounts of money involved, which means that the are huge amounts of people that want protect investments and want to maximise profits, so I think we would actually find ourselves in a situation of really just doing some kind of treatment or outline for a movie and then having it taken completely out of our hands. Also, as I said, there was a certain lack of experience in the medium. I mean, I know people in the game industry, and they have the same kind of passion and encyclopaedic knowledge of computer games that us comics fans have of comics. Certainly, I watched my son play computer games, I have dabbled myself, but I am not an expert: I would not know what a state-of-the-art computer game is.
So that faded away, and obviously Alan has got projects that he is working on and he is very enthusiastic about. As you might know, he is writing a novel called Jerusalem at the moment, which sounds fantastic, and I wouldn’t want to take him away from that, even if he wanted to be taken away from it [laughs].
So, we have no plans to do anything in the future but, who knows, when the stars are in the right position, something could happen.

The complete interview is available HERE.

Alan Moore by Joseph Michael Linsner

Art by Joseph Michael Linsner.

Above a stunning portrait of Alan Moore by comic book artist and illustrator Joseph Michael Linsner. The piece is contained in Our Gods Wear Spandex: The Secret History of Comic Book Heroes written by Christopher Knowles and illustrated by Linsner.

In the illustration you can also notice Glycon and... a sinister duck, too!

For more about Linsner: blog - Twitter.

Comic Book Legends: Alan Moore and Dez Skinn

The naked artist.

Excerpt from page 96 of The Naked Artist...And Other Comic Book Legends, a fantastic and hilarious book written by Bryan Talbot and illustrated by Hunt Emerson, published in 2007 by Moonstone (an expanded edition has been released in 2014). 

[...] During a Forbidden Planet party one night at UKCAC I was propping up the bar after several pints when Dez [Skinn] ambled over, equally sozzled, and the talk turned to Alan.
"Listen Dez," I ventured, "the British comic industry isn't big enough for this falling out. It needs Alan working in Warrior. You must sort out your differences."
He was nodding sagely at this as Alan arrived in the pub in the company of Karen Berger, who'd just taken him out for dinner, having headhunted him for DC.
"Look," I said to Dez, "there's Alan. Now's your chance! Go over and make it up with him!"
He looked at me, determined.
"By God! You're right! I'll do!" he said and strode over to Alan, who stopped stock still and stared stonily down at him from his great hairy height.
"Alan," Dez began, "I'm sorry if I've done anything to offend you. We need to continue our work together. Let's put aside our differences. Let's be friends."
Alan regarded him gravely.
"Dez," he rumbled.
"Yes?"
"Fuck off."

Robo-dick

Art by Johnny Ryan.

Above, a funny commission drawn by American alternative comics creator Johnny Ryan, from Bryan G.'s CAF gallery.

Tom Strong by Mike Wieringo

Art by Mike Weiringo.

Above a great Tom Strong sketch by the amazing Mike Weiringo.We miss you, Ringo!

Moore and... Frank Miller!

Moore from The Simpsons' episode Husbands and Knives.

In the past days Frank Miller generated a huge "controversy" with his opinion about the Occupy movement. So, it's not strictly related but it could be of some interest to read what Alan Moore said about Miller's 300 in an interview published in 2007 on Tripwire magazine (page 17, Tripwire Annual 2007, Tripwire Publishing Ltd.).

TRIPWIRE: Zack Snyder's directing Watchmen - he did Frank Miller's 300...

ALAN: "Jesus Christ..."

TRIPWIRE: Um, he did the remake of Romero's Dawn Of The Dead as well.
Actually, I didn't think it was bad at all...

ALAN: "Well, I am not interested in either of those films. I was invited to the premiere of 300 but I didn't even like the comics so... I think it's far from the best thing that Frank Miller has ever done. I got as far as the line where one of the Spartans is talking about the Anesthesias and says, "Huh, those boy lovers." I mean, Jesus Christ, the Spartans were famous for things other than being a bunch of tough guys. Possibly Frank should have read a book before he commenced that work... or, you know, more than one. I also don't understand why you want to make a film look like a graphic novel - what is the point of that? It's not a graphic novel, it's a film."

TRIPWIRE: Miller seems to have worked out how to handle Hollywood, though - be as hands-on as humanly possible...

ALAN: "... Or have material that is fairly simple. Sin City is based upon Mickey Spillane and noir films that Frank Miller has seen, so of course you can do something like that as a film. And something like 300 - this is not a complex plot. Three-hundred men defending a bridge against an invading empire - it goes back to the Dark Knight ethos of 'One good man can turn it all around' which I think is simplistic. But it's simplicity that works pretty well with contemporary Hollywood. Most of the stuff I do is intentionally complex - I'm not saying that complex is better than simple but complex you can't make into films very easily."