Alan Moore on BBC HARDtalk

[SuperSurfer]

"Alan Moore is the man behind the mask, the mask worn by computer hackers and Occupy protestors the world over. But he's no typical insurgent, rather a graphic novelist. It was he who dreamt up the anarchist superhero with the ghostly, bearded mask, whose face has now become perhaps the symbol for subversion. Alan Moore has, in the past, championed graphic novels (book-length comics) for their effect on politics and culture. Why, in that case, is he now becoming disillusioned?"

"...a load of collected Spider-man stories is not a novel."

Film rights: "money for old rope."

Check it out!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01fq32k/HARDtalk_Alan_Moore_Writer/

[Hoagy]

Alan Moore = Aneamoorl!  He speaks like he'd like to get his teeth deep into the neck of certain authorities.

Great to see him still quite energized about his position.

Thanks for the heads up Supplesurfer.

[The Legendary Shark]

Excellent, thanks for the heads up on this.

[Professor Bear]

I don't understand - a thread about Alan Moore and no-one is calling him a prick and saying his comics aren't that good?

Is the fucking internet or isn't it?

[JOE SOAP]

He's a prick but he's my kinda prick.

[Bat King]

A work colleague is often heard saying 'I don't read comics' then he walks in carrying Green Lantern Graphic Novels...

"It's a comic!!!" I pointed out.

Alan Moore, he writes comics.

[TordelBack]

He's a prick but he's my kinda prick.

A big hairy rigid one that slants alarmingly to the left?

[Hoagy]

He's a prick but he's my kinda prick.

A big hairy rigid one that slants alarmingly to the left?

Window shopping?

I thought the the interrogator/interviewer was the perfect closet book burner for him too. Or he certainly delved into the idea of being.

[Colin YNWA]

As ever interesting to listen too, even if it was going over the ground that we nerd have heard before.

Over the years I've come more and more to agree with him about movie adoptions, particularly of comics. If however he is going to be put up by the 'mainstream' as the intelligent voice of comics (not his choice I appreciate) I do wish he'd be more careful with his use of the phrase 'comics industry' when he seems to me to be talking about the mainstream American comics industry. Even when he went some way to clarifying that point he did say something along the lines of 'that's pretty much all that's left' which is pretty short sighted and a shame.

As for the interviewer implying that by moving to prose he was 'growing up'.... sigh really shouldn't we have moved past that stuff shorty after the 1986 burst of interest in patronising the medium!

[Dunk!]

"I do like to criticise things from a position of ignorance"

I like this recent chatty Mr Moore.

Long may it continue.

[Hoagy]

All great points Colin.

What about European and Asian Comics Industry? I know he's worked plenty of European styles, so is he setting himself against the Americans from that point of view? Or does he mean solely commercial industries when he talks of American markets?

[TordelBack]

All great points Colin.

What about European and Asian Comics Industry? I know he's worked plenty of European styles, so is he setting himself against the Americans from that point of view? Or does he mean solely commercial industries when he talks of American markets?

I have loved Moore and his every scrawl and utterance from the first moment I became aware of his name in a Compu73E Credit Card, even when I'm at odds with some specific view he's as close to my ideal of a human being as it's possible to get, but I really do wish he could be clearer on this one point.  If he could just frame his anger and despair in terms of minimising the importance of the superhero mainstream, and emphasising all the good that's out there.  I know Big Two superheroes were his first love back in the 'carried as ballast anecdote' days, and he's rightly appalled at where all that has led, but sheesh, maybe 1 in 10 comics that I read even has a superhero in it, and I don't seem to be running out of material to look at. 

I know others have pointed out that he has done exactly this in the past, but if I as a groupie-slash-zealot have missed/misinterpeted this, then heaven help the heathens.

[Professor Bear]

Japanese and European comics don't count as part of the regular western industry for various reasons, mainly because they're marketed apart from regular comics - sold via bookstores - to the point that Marvel claim to have "discovered" hot new artists like David LaFuente despite him being published for years in Eurocomics.  I assume Moore is talking about Marvel and DC - and to a lesser extent the likes of IDW and Dark Horse whose biggest successes are comics based on existing properties - when he speaks of "industry."

[I, Cosh]

I don't understand - a thread about Alan Moore and no-one is calling him a prick and saying his comics aren't that good?

Is the fucking internet or isn't it?

Alan Moore is a bit of a prick but he's also quite an engaging and interesting chap. I like a lot of his comics but not League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

NB I also enjoy Lars von Trier interviews.

[Colin YNWA]

I assume Moore is talking about Marvel and DC - and to a lesser extent the likes of IDW and Dark Horse whose biggest successes are comics based on existing properties - when he speaks of "industry."

Yeah but that's the point I was trying to make, as that's a very limited veiw of what the industry is, even in America. There are numerous examples of literate, quality 'graphic novels' (I loved the way he all but told the interviewer to call them comics and get over himself, something he (the interviewer) completely failed to do!) that are never out of book stores, American and UK examples which is much more mainstream that the 'industry' I think he has a beef with...

... and this from me a DC and superhero devotee!