Top 10 returns

[Tordelbach]

Hmm, appears to tell the *secret* secret origin of Wulf Sternhammer, a Precinct 10 cop lost in time...  

"Ja, Johnny Veird Eyes, but I vas not *born* der Viking - how else vere you thinking Wulf fought in three galactic vars?"

Can't wait for the '49ers. 'Top Ten' is an underrated masterpiece, and it's pretty obvious from Moore's interviews that he's genuinely chuffed with how it turned out.

It does lack the quasi-philisophical edge of Promethea, Swampie or From Hell, and the gritty visual games of Watchmen, Big Numbers or V, but it's deeply plotted, endlessly clever and very moving in places.  

The amazing achievement of creating utterly believable characters in such a bizarre world, frequently only defined as background figures or in a snatch of dialogue, is one of Moore's finest hours.  

[IndigoPrime]

:: I can't for the life of me remember who was down as writer

Steve Moore, wasn't it?

[DavidXBrunt]

Nunzio DeFillipis wsa the name I'd heard bandied around in connection to it, now that I think about it.

[Trout]

Hooray for Quimby Mouse!

[Steamboy]

Urk, hope its not DeFillips. His New Xmen Acadamy X for Marvel is one of the poorest X books I've ever read, so childish. still might do alright, looks like a hard one to f#@k up. Steve Moore now that would be interesting hasn't he worked on some of Alans prev creations?

CU Krestel

[Jared Katooie]

Damn, I still havent got book 2. I'm willing to kill for it of course, but who should I kill? Noone has the bleedin' thing.

[Quirkafleeg]

I 'spose there's no chance of them including the one-off story set in Top Ten's 'horror' district that was in a compilation that I've been too lazy to track down.

[Trout]

I continue to be touched by Alan's support of Steve, who was - as is regularly mentioned in interviews - the man who originally helped and encouraged Alan (no relation) Moore into comics.

It's a sad fact that Steve Moore's work is never quite up to Alan's standards, but he continues to pop up in Moore-influenced books, like Tom Strong's Terrific Tales.

I would certainly have a glance at Top Ten by Steve Moore, but without too much hope. Sorry if that seems to be prejudging it a little.

On the other hand, Alan Moore protege Peter Hogan has done some nice things with the great man's characters. See The Many World of Tesla Strong for a bit of half-decent evidence.

Just IMO.

- Trout

[Tordelbach]

Totally agree with his Satanic Fishiness on this one.

Hogan's 'Terra Obscura' is also great fun, arguably the best post-Moore run on ANY of A. Moore's characters/creations (this may be partly to do with the co-plotted credit, but hey).  Steve, however, despite clearly being a dear friend of Alan's with a decent back catalogue, and having a fair bit of inventive genius of his own, just isn't up to scratch when compared with the Affable One (well, who is?).    

Alan appears to be an almost unimaginably deeply loyal friend and colleague.  In the excellent "Extraordinary Works of..." book, he describes how he set up ABC mainly to create work for his artist friends after his previous line folded. He seems to have left DC partly over their treatment of Bissette/Totelben/Alcala as artists on Swamp Thing.  He seems to be intent on making his many collaborators as rich as Croesus from Movie options (Eddie C., Dave G., David L., Kevin O'N.) at his own considerable expense, and seems more than happy to hand over his strips to his artists and/or mates once he's done with them (Swamp Thing, Greyshirt, DR & Quinch, Skizz [although the latter two may not have been his choice, he never expresses annoyance]).

Unfortunately, this is a risky business.  Veitch's 'Greyshirt' mini-series was as good as if not better than the originals, but his Swampie suffered by comparsion.  Alan Davis' Dr & Quinch Problem Page and Jim Baikie's Skizz were more than a bit embarassing.  Steve's Tom Strong stuff is aimless and repetitive (sound familiar, Telguuth fans?), and is actually souring the brand,

I dread to think what post-Moore 'Top 10' would be like, but I know I won't be risking reading it.  They're Alan's mates, not mine.

 

[therev]

Oooooooooooooooh I'm getting this.

[Trout]

I'd forgotten Terra Obscura. How could I? It's great.

(Sorry to be pedantic, but the DR and Quinch problem page was by Jamie Delano.)

- Trout

[Oddboy]

It was by Delano - but it was re-written by Alan Davis.

[Tordelbach]

It was?  Shite, how did that get into my 'brain'. And what's this you say Oddboy?  Please explain.

[Oddboy]

As I recall the story (probably from Bishop's TPO) - Delano wrote Agony Aunt letters & DR&Q's replies, and Alan Davis was supposed to do a couple of spot illustations for the page.

Alan, receiving the script, took it upon himself to scrap most of what Delano had written & turned it into a strip page based on the best bits.

[Dan Kelly]

Thought this was worth a Necro Post.

Tucked away in the back pages of this weeks Ex-Machina is a trail for the afore-mentioned 49ers.

What's makes this worth the thread-revival, is that, ladies and gentlemen, we have a date.

The Hardcover should be reaching the shops on the 25th May this year.

Should be good.

Dan