Alan Moore thinks you're a prick!

[Montynero]

Ha! The first draft isn't really "finished", more a basis to start the real work. Most writing is rewriting, so they say. With a million words in the draft, I'm not holding my breath.

[TordelBack]

Still, it's great news that he's reached that milestone. Can't wait to read it - may have to dust off VotF in patient anticipation.

[JOE SOAP]

So Alan Moore has finally "built Jerusalem".

Ha! The first draft isn't really "finished", more a basis to start the real work. Most writing is rewriting, so they say. With a million words in the draft, I'm not holding my breath.

Watchmen was a 'first draft', apparently.

[Frank]

Alan Moore has finally "built Jerusalem".

In England's green and pleasant land. Well ... in Northampton, at any rate.

[Frank]

Apparently since my post on Sept 9th, there have been reports that Jerusalem doesn't have a publisher yet.
Actually it will be published by Knockabout who co-publish all of The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen Books.
They are also dealing with foreign publishers too, for the foreign publishing rights. Please direct all inquiries to their contact page here:

http://www.knockabout.com/contact-us/

[Professor Bear]

They've got a book to shill, admittedly, but here's Garth Ennis on Moore:

He’s the most talented individual the medium’s ever seen

http://www.crossedcomic.com/2014/09/15/crossed100-a-new-monthly-series-from-alan-moore-and-gabriel-andrade/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Be interesting to see what Moore does with the utterly tired zombiepocalypse genre and the equally tired "told over XX years" narrative device - and he couldn't have picked a more apt book to work on, as the Crossed titles are marmite to comics readers with few opinions nestling in the middle ground, much like fanboy opinion of Moore himself.

[Frank]

that he’s writing Crossed  means everything to me.

I don't know, was Moore's Violator mini-series an endorsement of Todd MacFarlane and/or Spawn, or was that a result of his money troubles as his publishing company went under? As a point of principle I never bother checking what I say for factual accuracy, but didn't Moore claim he was finished with comics (possibly in the interview linked to in the first post of this thread)?

Taking off my cynic bunnet, I love Ennis and Moore equally but for very different reasons, so I'll get this. I never bothered tracking down the earlier Crossed stories - are they worth a look?

[Montynero]

You never know, Alan's a genius, there may still be the fire in his loins to create another innovative masterpiece. Doing amazing things in established genres is what he's best at. Never write him off.

I'll certainly be there day one.

[TordelBack]

What is he building?  What the hell is he building in there?  I'll tell you one thing: he's not building a playhouse for the children.

Stick Moore's name on the cover of a work in any medium, and you have my money. I want to know.

Mind you, you could say the same about Ennis - his hit ratio is high enough to override my dislike of some of his stuff.

Crossed has loads of potential, a fact only emphasised when you see how bad some of its incarnations have been, compared to the Ennis and Spurious ones.

[Colin YNWA]

What is he building?  What the hell is he building in there?  I'll tell you one thing: he's not building a playhouse for the children.

Every post should start with a Tom Waits quote. Well done that man.

Anyway I've never read any Crossed and not read much of anything of Alan Moore's work from my Wilderness years (I keep meaning to get Promethea and Tom Strong but haven't got a round to it) so maybe this will be a good place to start.

Is the early Crossed stuff any good. While I'm a big fan of Garth Ennis Crossed always looked a bit silly to me, don't know why and its not based on anything other than an instinctive reaction.

[BPP]

Is the early Crossed stuff any good. While I'm a big fan of Garth Ennis Crossed always looked a bit silly to me, don't know why and its not based on anything other than an instinctive reaction.

The first Ennis 6 parter is 'okay' (Ennis running on average, art not the best in that Avatar tradition) and has a reasonable conclusion. The second 'Family Values' is not great shakes (incest in mid-western farm, preacher-bully father figure etc) and by the third (the usually excellent David lapham doing a 'the horror is us 'friendly cannibal rapist' story) I'd had enough. Never read the main comic but it's gone from negative reviews to polite disinterest at it's respect for making 50 then 100 issues.

The main thing to read is the free online Spurrier comic which has it's weaknesses (art, over indulgent writer-on-writer bits) but which rapidly stops being a crossed comic, has good central and ancillary characters and throws in enough curveballs along the way.

[Jim_Campbell]

The main thing to read is the free online Spurrier comic which has it's weaknesses (art, over indulgent writer-on-writer bits) but which rapidly stops being a crossed comic, has good central and ancillary characters and throws in enough curveballs along the way.

I'll confess, the older I get the lower my tolerance seems to get for anything looking to shock for the sake of shocking, and my limited exposure to the main title seemed to suggest that it was looking to do this in spades.

BPP is correct about 'Wish You Were Here', though — Spurrier has a lot of writing tics that seem to annoy me, but I've found this eminently readable, in places really quite compelling. Art is always competent, sometimes excellent. Check it out here but be aware that it is most definitely NSFW.

Cheers

Jim

[Link Prime]

I've never read any Crossed

Me neither.

That will definitely change come December. Like Tordelback, if Moore's name is on the cover (hell, if 'The Original Writer' is on the cover) I'm instantly standing to attention.

I'm planning on picking up the first Crossed trade at the weekend, but will unlikely collect the lot.
I do plan to cherry-pick recommended arcs based on the general wisdom of this very forum.

As an aside, I really enjoyed Moore's tale in the recent Avatar 'God is Dead' bookend release.
And unusually (in my experience with Avatar comics) the artwork was excellent throughout.

[TordelBack]

The first Ennis 6 parter is 'okay'

Come now.  It has a character whose name and catchphrase is 'Horsecock', and whose signature weapon is, well, just take a wild guess.  Gerry Finley Day himself couldn't have done better.

I wouldn't want anyone to be under illusions regarding 95% of Crossed: it literally is gross-out shock for shock's sake, going as far as possible for the hell of it - which can be an art in itself.  Sometimes this works for me, often it doesn't - and as noted elsewhere I can't read any of Lapham's contributions, they're woeful.  In the other 5%, there's something interesting being said about humanity in extremis and the balance of pragmatism and compassion, and I like those bits a lot.  Generally these are by Ennis and Spurrier.

But I bet Moore can stand the whole thing on its head.

[Montynero]

The first Ennis 6 parter is 'okay'

Come now.  It has a character whose name and catchphrase is 'Horsecock', and whose signature weapon is, well, just take a wild guess.  Gerry Finley Day himself couldn't have done better.

Woah! Which episodes of Rogue Trooper did I miss?