Tuesday 12 March 2013

Current Alan Moore-Related Comics

Fashion Beast is not a comic written by Alan Moore. It is a comic written by Alan Johnston based on a film script written by Alan Moore. It does not read like an Alan Moore comic although, when the character Celestine identifies glamour with magic, we hear the voice of the Magician.

I think that there are too many silent panels. I am sure that, if Alan Moore had written the original script for a comic or had even just adapted his own film script as a comic, then it would have been different. Also, the range of things that Alan Moore can write or write about is immense - in different works, superheroes, science fiction, fantasy, advertising, political propaganda, comedy, horror, contemporary fiction, pornography; in this case, fashion. Thus, while loyal readers support whatever he does, they are not always equally interested in the subject matter.

On a first reading, Nemo: Heart Of Ice, a spin-off from The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, has not done a lot for me yet. The main obvious sources are Verne, Haggard and Lovecraft and there is a reference to Charlie Chaplin's parody of Hitler, Hynkel, who, we already know, exists instead of Hitler in the Extraordinary Gentlemen version of history. Why is Ayesha not veiled? We can learn about other characters, Reade, the Steam Man etc by googling. A glance at google informs me that Frank Reade's Steam Man was based on an earlier fictitious steam-powered robot which explains why Reade Jr here acknowledges that his father had adapted the original design.

The main Extraordinary Gentlemen series seems to be building towards a climax involving obscure superheroes and 2001 monoliths so I will continue to read it with interest.

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