Alan Moore & Alan Davis - Captain Britain [cbr]
Frame from, 1993.Excerpt from 'MAINSTREAM COMICS HAVE, AT BEST, TENUOUS VIRTUES', an interview conducted by Gary Groth and published on n. 152, August 1992.GARY GROTH: I wanted to ask you a question which you wouldn't anticipate.
Can you tell me if you think mainstream comics have any virtues?ALAN MOORE: I think that mainstream comics have, at best, tenuous virtues. I think it would be fairly dishonest of me to completely rubbish mainstream comics since I did my apprenticeship, or what I considered to be my apprenticeship, in mainstream comics. I learned most of the storytelling techniques and ways of using the media that I'm now employing in what I consider to be my serious work. I think there is something quite useful in those regular solid deadlines and formulaic structures when it comes to actually creating, and when it comes to educating new creators.
On the other hand, you have to wonder what exactly 'educating' them means. I don't know; it would seem that most creators do not build upon their knowledge of comics once they have reached a certain plateau of competence. They don't build on their knowledge of storytelling to create anything terribly worthwhile. It seems that most creators become completely hard-wired with the 'superhero' mentality which makes them only suitable to turn out superhero comics for the rest of their lives.GROTH: That the deadline meaning becomes an end in itself?MOORE: Yeah, that's about it. I mean, in my case, there were some benefits to be had from mainstream comics.
I think that could be true of a number of creators. On the other hand, when you see the creators who started outside the field of mainstream comics - people like Dan Clowes and the Hernandez brothers, who have produced work far better than anything in mainstream comics without that apprenticeship - I guess you have to wonder just how valuable it is.
I suppose what I'm saying is that in my case, there was some benefit to my years spent in mainstream comics. Uh, I'm not making a very good case for the mainstream, am I?GROTH: Very disappointing.MOORE: In my heart, I feel it has very few virtues at all.
I'm not prepared to dismiss them 100% outright because I think that I and a few other creators do owe something to mainstream comics. Also, I suppose, looking at people like Dan Clowes and the Bros, they owe something to mainstream comics, even if it's comics from a bygone era or even if it's only as a kind of negative influence.GROTH: Well, Art Spiegelman owes something to the Holocaust but that doesn't necessarily validate it.MOORE: (laughter) I wouldn't compare mainstream comics to the Holocaust. I think that with someone like the Bros., you've obviously got an influence there from people like Kirby, from Ditko, Gil Kane, Archie comics.
With Dan Clowes, you can see an awful lot of '50s comics books distilled in that vision. Sometimes these old mainstream comics can be used as an influence or they can be useful in telling you what not to do. I don't think that makes a very good case for their continued existence, but they do have some value. I think their virtues are largely unintentional. I think that you do get some very fine creators passing through mainstream comics but that alone is probably not a good enough reason for their continued survival.
If I was God, Gary, I'd have to consider this one very carefully. laughter If I did have the power to just remove any lifeforms or organisms from the face of the earth that I didn't consider to be productive, then mainstream comics would have to watch themselves. Good evening, Mr. Yes of course Curt Vile is a pseudonym, you jerk. What kind of mother would name her firstborn Curt Vile?
My real name is Elrod Sanilav. On occasion I have also posed as Alan Moore, Jill de Ray, and Translucia Baboon.
Alan Moore Jerusalem
And as a scintillating tidbit of information for all you fans of the adorable Bauhaus pop group I can reveal that the sleeve notes on the second album 'Mask' were also by me in the guise of avant garde poet Brilburn Logue. My one abiding fear is that one day I'll wake up and find that I'm really a pseudonym for John Wagner or T.B. Incidentally, is Stachelski your real name, or did you arrive at it by throwing darts at a Scrabble board? Above, a fantastic illustration by, which has been published on, December issue, which contains a special dedicated to Moore.The picture was included in the article I humbly put together - with the help of friends Koom Kankesan, George Khoury, Omar Martini, Raphael Sassaki, Antonio Solinas and DeZ Vylenz - a mash-up of some interviews with Moore that I was involved with inthe past, focusing on his most personal visions such as Eternalism,Art as Magic, Magic as Art, etc.If you can read Italian, more info regarding the Linus' issue.
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Related Subreddits:. First, Alan Moore is a comic creator whose opinions towards superhero comics have gotten ah, shall we say surlier over time.As for Marvel specifically:Moore had been in dispute with Marvel Comics in the 1980s after they had reprinted some of his Marvel UK work without his permission. Since then, he had blocked any further reprints. This led to a falling out with his collaborator on Captain Britain, artist Alan Davis, as he was denied reprint fees and exposure for his work. In 2002, Marvel Comics’ editor-in-chief, Joe Quesada, attempted to persuade Moore to contribute new work (Moore had already contributed to Marvel’s 9/11 tribute comic, Heroes), and convinced him the company had changed. Moore agreed to the publication of a reprint collection of his Captain Britain stories, on the understanding that he would receive full credit for his characters.
Unfortunately, Moore’s credit was omitted due to a printing error, and despite Quesada’s apologies and the error being corrected in subsequent printings, Moore declared he would no longer consider working for Marvel. I don't think that's the only story like that with Marvel.Darwyn Cooke had a beef with them. I guess he pitched a story that they turned down, and then a year or two later at SDCC, he heard Marvel was making an announcement for a new story that sounded exactly like what he pitched, without giving him any credit, and needless to say, there was bad blood after up til his death, may he rest in peace.EDIT: Found this from:The moderators asked why Cooke hasn’t done any work for Marvel in the last 15 years. “Do you guys remember a line of books called Marvel Adventures?
Alan Davis Attorney
The kids’ line?” Cooke asked. “Marvel solicited me to develop that line for them, and I did.
Alan Moore Quotes
I put together a business plan, the line of books, I brought in the other guys. I have so much artwork at home, you would not believe it. They took it all, they said this is fantastic, this is amazing, this is a home run, and then they never called me again.
They handed it off to a bunch of other guys. That was the end of my relationship with Marvel. As long as Marvel is who it is right now, I can’t work for them.”Bums me out.
Marvel Adventures, despite being for kids, had some of the best written stories for the Fantastic Four during an otherwise down-time for the team, pre-Hickman. Think of the good will between Marvel and Neil though, for him to just give them Angela and MiracleMan.
Two things I have to say to that:.Alan Moore is not the Moore we used to know from the 80's - hell, he's not even the Moore who wrote the Superman love letter known as Supreme from the late 90's. He is a talented but very bitter old man who prides himself on non-conformity, both in business and in art. He will stay independent because he hates big business, you won't ever see him at DC or Marvel ever again.Gaiman went with Marvel because Marvel had wanted to get Marvelman/Miracleman for a while - oddly enough, I think it was Quesada of all people who had been pushing to get the character for years.
In return, he sold them Angela (because what did he need it for) and was allowed to finish his 90's Miracleman story. Miracleman, being a copy in the literal sense of Shazam Captain Marvel, had no value to DC. He still does work for them once in a while, as he did a recent Sandman, and gave them permission to use Dream in Metal, but unless there's something to really gain, he tends to stick more indy now as he wants creator rights, ala Stardust and American Gods.What that all was, was purely a business agreement they both benefited from, and that's fine. And both companies have up and down years, hopefully Marvel is finally on the up, because they haven't had much I've wanted to buy from them since All New Wolverine.TL;DR: Moore will never work corporate again; Gaiman and Marvel benefited from their agreement; and we're just a couple guys shooting the shit about a very complicated and confusing industry that's become incredibly commercialized.