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Alan Moore's Future Shocks

Started by Montynero, 10 October, 2016, 11:42:31 AM

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Spikes

As I haven't read everything Moore has done since moving on from 2000ad, maybe I shouldn't say this, but on balance, I much prefer the stuff he did for Tharg.

And this thread has made me hungry to dig out those Future Shocks.

Montynero

Quote from: Lobo Baggins on 10 October, 2016, 03:49:43 PM
Quote from: Montynero on 10 October, 2016, 03:01:13 PM
Thanks a lot. Were they specifically presented as Future Shocks i.e. with the FS header?

I figure the simplest thing is to just go with what 2000ad itself deems a Future Shock.

A Holiday in Hell is (it's even got Tharg in it), Southern Comfort isn't.  I get the impression it had been hanging around in a drawer for quite a while before it saw print, too.

Thanks. Good info.

Just listened to the Mega City Book Club podcast chatting about some of Alan Moore's short stories too:

http://megacitybookclub.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/mega-city-book-club-13-alan-moore.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+MegaCityBookClub+(Mega+City+Book+Club)

Leigh S

Wasnt RE Wright  a Pat Mills pseudonym, or  a generic one?  Did love that story though! 

Remember the Ro-Jaws Robo-Tales - there is the first Abelard Snazz tale at least ("Return of the double decker brain" is the sequel to one IIRC)

Arkwright99

Quote from: pauljholden on 10 October, 2016, 03:38:03 PMThe more I see of it the more it looks like Alan filed off the serial numbers and added some sci fi elements...
This early on his in comics writing career Moore wasn't above using existing SF stories/plots for his Future Shocks/Time Twisters probably on the not unreasonable grounds that his 10-12 year-old audience probably weren't going to be familiar with the originals. See Heinlein's "By His Bootstraps" (aka 'The Disturbed Digestions of Doctor Dibworthy') and Ballard's "Mr F. is Mr F." (aka 'The Reversible Man') but there are probably others. (For example, Moore's original Warpsmith story in Warrior #4 & 5 is partly based on/'inspired' by Larry Niven's novel, "Oath of Fealty".)
'Life isn't divided into genres. It's a horrifying, romantic, tragic, comical, science-fiction cowboy detective novel ... with a bit of pornography if you're lucky.' - Alan Moore

glassstanley

Quote from: Lobo Baggins on 10 October, 2016, 03:49:43 PM
A Holiday in Hell is (it's even got Tharg in it), Southern Comfort isn't.  I get the impression it had been hanging around in a drawer for quite a while before it saw print, too.

Southern Comfort was disowned by Moore quite early on in his career. It was originally meant to be a silent piece, but the editor felt it needed dialogue & re-wrote the script.

TordelBack

Moore ruminates on the nature of his 'inspiration' for the first Abelard Snazz (an R.A. Lafferty story he had completely forgotten) in the rambling interview that is George Khoury's Extraordinary Works of Alan Moore (2003). I find it a bit unconvincing, but only because he mentions the creative process behind several other 'inspired' Future Shocks in the same section but fails to make any similar 'confession'. He does however say surprisingly nice things about the value of the Future Shock process in learning his craft, and of course about Alan Grant.

Montynero

Great info, thanks.

If anyone knows of any other similarities or references between Alan's future shocks and sci-fi of the time, do post. The hivemind is a wonderful thing.

I listened to the Stuart Lee/Moore interview last night, which was great, and picked up a couple more books about Alan's comic work from the library which I'm working through.

I don't think the Snazz stories ran as Future Shocks, though they're certainly interesting.

Cheers

Monty

sheridan

Quote from: Montynero on 11 October, 2016, 03:17:42 PM
I don't think the Snazz stories ran as Future Shocks, though they're certainly interesting.

Monty

They didn't - the first one was a Ro-Jaws' Robo-Tale, the rest were all Abelard Snazz's (and most were collected in Shocking Futures from Titan Books).

Lobo Baggins

Quote from: sheridan on 11 October, 2016, 05:35:14 PM
Quote from: Montynero on 11 October, 2016, 03:17:42 PM
I don't think the Snazz stories ran as Future Shocks, though they're certainly interesting.

Monty

They didn't - the first one was a Ro-Jaws' Robo-Tale, the rest were all Abelard Snazz's (and most were collected in Shocking Futures from Titan Books).

The second one - The Return of the Two-Storey Brain - ran as a Future Shock (even though it's more of a Time Twister, but they hadn't been invented yet), The Double Decker Done Strikes Back is 'An Abelard Snazz Story', the rest of them are 'An Abelard Snazz Misadventure'.
The wages of sin are death, but the hours are good and the perks are fantastic.

Lobo Baggins

Quote from: Montynero on 11 October, 2016, 03:17:42 PM

If anyone knows of any other similarities or references between Alan's future shocks and sci-fi of the time, do post. The hivemind is a wonderful thing.


One of the hunters in 'The Bounty Hunters' mentions that he once read a story where 'these guys looking for an alien, not realising that the alien is really the planet they're standing on' might be a reference to 'Mogo Doesn't Socialise' from Green Lantern, by some bloke called Alan Moore...
The wages of sin are death, but the hours are good and the perks are fantastic.

Montynero

Then I'll include The Return of the Two-Storey Brain in the grand Alan Moore's Future Shock analysis, but not the others. A Future Shock is a Future Shock, after all. Though whether the decision to run it as such was largely arbitrary I don't know. Maybe I'll discern a reason.

I think the first Time Twister, thus named, was Alan Grant and Eric Bradbury's 'William the Conkerer' in prog 294 11th December, 1982? (If I've read that, I've forgotten it.) Whereas the Return of the Two-Storey Brain ran in prog 204, over a year and a half earlier (prog 209, 25th April 1981).

sheridan

Quote from: Montynero on 12 October, 2016, 09:49:08 AM
Then I'll include The Return of the Two-Storey Brain in the grand Alan Moore's Future Shock analysis, but not the others. A Future Shock is a Future Shock, after all.
Rough synopsis, if I remember correctly - a teenage playground bully smashes other children's conkers, which attracts the attention, predator-style, of a fully armoured, morningstar-wielding alien/time-traveller/whatever.

Lobo Baggins

Quote from: sheridan on 13 October, 2016, 01:38:16 AM
Rough synopsis, if I remember correctly - a teenage playground bully smashes other children's conkers, which attracts the attention, predator-style, of a fully armoured, morningstar-wielding alien/time-traveller/whatever.

Uh, giant freaky brains on spindly legs with the actual William the Conqueror, wasn't it?  Nice artwork - Bradley always drew grotesque looking faces and aliens that are rivalled only by Belardinelli for their freakyness - but otherwise pretty forgettable. 
The wages of sin are death, but the hours are good and the perks are fantastic.

Dandontdare

Quote from: Lobo Baggins on 11 October, 2016, 07:40:05 PM
Quote from: Montynero on 11 October, 2016, 03:17:42 PM

If anyone knows of any other similarities or references between Alan's future shocks and sci-fi of the time, do post. The hivemind is a wonderful thing.


One of the hunters in 'The Bounty Hunters' mentions that he once read a story where 'these guys looking for an alien, not realising that the alien is really the planet they're standing on' might be a reference to 'Mogo Doesn't Socialise' from Green Lantern, by some bloke called Alan Moore...

If you read "The DC Stories of Alan Moore", it's amazing how much of DC continuity for the next 30 years is based on ideas in just one or two of his short stories - pretty much all of Blackest Night/Brightest Day comes from one of his.

Judge Nutmeg

Quote from: Dandontdare on 13 October, 2016, 04:28:05 PM
Quote from: Lobo Baggins on 11 October, 2016, 07:40:05 PM
Quote from: Montynero on 11 October, 2016, 03:17:42 PM

If anyone knows of any other similarities or references between Alan's future shocks and sci-fi of the time, do post. The hivemind is a wonderful thing.


One of the hunters in 'The Bounty Hunters' mentions that he once read a story where 'these guys looking for an alien, not realising that the alien is really the planet they're standing on' might be a reference to 'Mogo Doesn't Socialise' from Green Lantern, by some bloke called Alan Moore...

If you read "The DC Stories of Alan Moore", it's amazing how much of DC continuity for the next 30 years is based on ideas in just one or two of his short stories - pretty much all of Blackest Night/Brightest Day comes from one of his.

What never seems to get a mention about that green lantern story by Moore and O'neill is that the creatures banging the blue skinned drums are blatantly warlocks from nemesis