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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Mar 3, 2016 13:51:34 GMT -5
But not in most of his works. Only a small handful. It's not the worst thing in the world. He's still a great writer. Other good writers haven't created anything new either. I'm looking at you Geoff Johns... Indeed, but it's not even a thing, since it's not true  |
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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Mar 3, 2016 13:57:08 GMT -5
While those are the two works I love the most, whenever I find time to reflect on comics that might be a contender for the best comic of all time (whatever that means), I find myself thinking about several works of Alan Moore. Promethea, Lost Girls, From Hell. They are all hard to argue with. Just beautiful works he seemed to put his all into. Promethea in particular seemed to be the work where he really wanted to convey something to the audience. Like with increasing desperation. That he seemed to be shouting at us from some of the most amazing illustrations I've ever seen in comics. Lost Girls also seemed a deeply personal work, and From Hell is this seamless blend of fact and theory and fiction, so that you can't tell where one ends and the other begins. To lay out all the known facts in order and flesh out the details with plausible scenes that form such a compelling narrative is a feat I don't think most people know how to do. Any one of those represents the height of what comics have accomplished. Strongly agrees with that. Might I add that in regard to "you can't tell "where one ends and the other begins, Promethea is the only comic known to me to feature a visual narrative ouroboros.  |
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Post by coke & comics on Mar 3, 2016 13:58:31 GMT -5
While those are the two works I love the most, whenever I find time to reflect on comics that might be a contender for the best comic of all time (whatever that means), I find myself thinking about several works of Alan Moore. Promethea, Lost Girls, From Hell. They are all hard to argue with. Just beautiful works he seemed to put his all into. Promethea in particular seemed to be the work where he really wanted to convey something to the audience. Like with increasing desperation. That he seemed to be shouting at us from some of the most amazing illustrations I've ever seen in comics. Lost Girls also seemed a deeply personal work, and From Hell is this seamless blend of fact and theory and fiction, so that you can't tell where one ends and the other begins. To lay out all the known facts in order and flesh out the details with plausible scenes that form such a compelling narrative is a feat I don't think most people know how to do. Any one of those represents the height of what comics have accomplished. Strongly agrees with that. Might I add that in regard to "you can't tell "where one ends and the other begins, Promethea is the only comic known to me to feature a visual narrative ouroboros. A picture I've taken scans of into class to explain topology. |
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Post by coke & comics on Mar 3, 2016 13:59:26 GMT -5
Whoa... and Promethea is like an original creation.
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Post by coke & comics on Mar 3, 2016 14:02:54 GMT -5
I've read only Watchmen, Promethea, 1963 and Lost Girls, and liked them all. I intend to read more Moore, but am not voting because I'm unfamiliar with so many of his major works. Any two of those would be quite sensible choices. Those might be his 4 best works. Or they might not crack his top 10. It's really hard to tell. |
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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Mar 3, 2016 14:14:03 GMT -5
Whoa... and Promethea is like an original creation. Are you implying that the reference to the male titan god - creator of mankind - makes it less of an original creation? I guess Shakespeare would appreciate one would put Macbeth in the biography section  Alan Moore's creation is about Sophie Bangs, a student who somewhat embodies an powerfull character known as Promethea and previously thought to have been fiction and whose task is to bring the Apocalypse. |
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
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Post by Confessor on Mar 3, 2016 14:16:53 GMT -5
This is a really tough one. I love soooo much of what Alan Moore has written. But after much agonising over it, I voted for V for Vendetta and From Hell.
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 3, 2016 14:23:10 GMT -5
This is a really tough one. I love soooo much of what Alan Moore has written. But after much agonising over it, I voted for V for Vendetta and From Hell. Somewhere in the farthest reaches of an alien cosmos, Wutzek is crying...  |
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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Mar 3, 2016 14:27:12 GMT -5
I left out Judgment Day because I thought it was terrible. I almost put Neonomicon. I haven't actually read it. My understanding is that Big Numbers was never finished. Am I incorrect? Or is the partial story just that good? The other two I have not read and will zealously track down. I'd be happy to get more short stories. I think that's my glaring lack in terms of Moore reading. I only read Pictopia recently because it was in some "Best comics of the 1980s" collection I got. Oops, sorry, I missed Boejeffries I find Judgment Day to be spectacularly good if read in its entirety, including epilogues. It sure feature some dreadfull artwork, but Moore manages to make that part of the story itself. It's a great murder mistery that also tells a lot about the history of the comic book industry. It forecasts almos everything that the ABC line would be. Big Numbers indeed only had two issues published (plus scans of issue #3 published in a magazine), but those mere two issues are spectacular and are well worth inclusion, probably one of the top unfinished stories ever. It is a very eerie drama, and I believe quite in tone with what we know of his upcoming Jerusalem novel. It also features Bill Sienkiewicz in top form (think his Moby Dick adaptation!) and great design. Both featured 40 pages laid out in a rigid twelve-panel grid, a pattern with which Moore adresses concepts such as fractal geometry & chaos theory, showing "that patterns existing at the large scale (the effect of the town) would have existed at a micro scale (the effect on individual characters' lives)" |
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Post by coke & comics on Mar 3, 2016 14:39:22 GMT -5
I left out Judgment Day because I thought it was terrible. I almost put Neonomicon. I haven't actually read it. My understanding is that Big Numbers was never finished. Am I incorrect? Or is the partial story just that good? The other two I have not read and will zealously track down. I'd be happy to get more short stories. I think that's my glaring lack in terms of Moore reading. I only read Pictopia recently because it was in some "Best comics of the 1980s" collection I got. Oops, sorry, I missed Boejeffries :) I find Judgment Day to be spectacularly good if read in its entirety, including epilogues. It sure feature some dreadfull artwork, but Moore manages to make that part of the story itself. It's a great murder mistery that also tells a lot about the history of the comic book industry. It forecasts almos everything that the ABC line would be. Big Numbers indeed only had two issues published (plus scans of issue #3 published in a magazine), but those mere two issues are spectacular and are well worth inclusion, probably one of the top unfinished stories ever. It is a very eerie drama, and I believe quite in tone with what we know of his upcoming Jerusalem novel. It also features Bill Sienkiewicz in top form (think his Moby Dick adaptation!) and great design. Both featured 40 pages laid out in a rigid twelve-panel grid, a pattern with which Moore adresses concepts such as fractal geometry & chaos theory, showing "that patterns existing at the large scale (the effect of the town) would have existed at a micro scale (the effect on individual characters' lives)"Fair enough. I would love it to be finished one day. But perhaps I should read what there is. |
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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Mar 3, 2016 14:53:07 GMT -5
Big Numbers indeed only had two issues published (plus scans of issue #3 published in a magazine), but those mere two issues are spectacular and are well worth inclusion, probably one of the top unfinished stories ever. It is a very eerie drama, and I believe quite in tone with what we know of his upcoming Jerusalem novel. It also features Bill Sienkiewicz in top form (think his Moby Dick adaptation!) and great design. Both featured 40 pages laid out in a rigid twelve-panel grid, a pattern with which Moore adresses concepts such as fractal geometry & chaos theory, showing "that patterns existing at the large scale (the effect of the town) would have existed at a micro scale (the effect on individual characters' lives)"Fair enough. I would love it to be finished one day. But perhaps I should read what there is. Moore stated some 10 years ago he would not finish it as a comic but had written a treatment for television he was quite happy with. He had finished the plotting of the comic book, but when the artist who took over Sienkiewicz (the great but then-upcomming Al Columbia) crashed over the pressure and no suitable artist was found quick enough, Moore lost interest as he invested himself in new projects. Moore is really good at not dwelling in his past, that's one thing his dtractors must give him |
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,220
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Post by Confessor on Mar 3, 2016 14:56:33 GMT -5
This is a really tough one. I love soooo much of what Alan Moore has written. But after much agonising over it, I voted for V for Vendetta and From Hell. Somewhere in the farthest reaches of an alien cosmos, Wutzek is crying... The fact that the five stories Moore wrote for Marvel's Star Wars series weren't included as a named choice (rather than "Other British work") is a disgrace. I shall be writing a strongly worded letter of complaint to Coke & Comics about the matter. May Brother Fivelines and the god of Ronyards rust his soul! |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Mar 3, 2016 14:56:47 GMT -5
Fair enough. I would love it to be finished one day. But perhaps I should read what there is. Moore is really good at not dwelling in his past, that's one thing his dtractors must give him They probably blame him for it!!! |
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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Mar 3, 2016 15:00:49 GMT -5
Somewhere in the farthest reaches of an alien cosmos, Wutzek is crying... The fact that the five stories Moore wrote for Marvel's Star Wars series weren't included as a named choice (rather than "Other British work") is a disgrace. I shall be writing a strongly worded letter of complaint to Coke & Comics about the matter. May Brother Fivelines and the god of Ronyards rust his soul! You can only be mad at yourself : you should have given better grades to those stories in your Star Wars thread. How can you expect us to value those if the expert on Star wars rates those 5/10 or 6/10 ? |
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Post by tingramretro on Mar 3, 2016 16:16:54 GMT -5
Somewhere in the farthest reaches of an alien cosmos, Wutzek is crying... The fact that the five stories Moore wrote for Marvel's Star Wars series weren't included as a named choice (rather than "Other British work") is a disgrace. I shall be writing a strongly worded letter of complaint to Coke & Comics about the matter. May Brother Fivelines and the god of Ronyards rust his soul! I feel the same about the shameful omission of the Doctor Who backups. Much as I like Rorschach and Halo Jones, it is an indisputable fact that Wardog is the greatest character Alan Moore ever created. |
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