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[bkthomson]

He had a lot of valid points, but man he comes off like an utterly twisted, bitter washed up has-been a lot of times. Which he is.

He does sounds bitter and maybe he has, to a degree, the right to be so. I know it does not help that most if not all interviews brings up the subject of DC or Watchmen, but really Alan needs to stop taking the question. As it was said before, 'sorry I've talked all that I can on that subject.'

[LobsterJ]

He had a lot of valid points, but man he comes off like an utterly twisted, bitter washed up has-been a lot of times. Which he is.

washed up has-been? as has been noted in this thread already, you are fooling yourself if you don't think he could call marvel, dc, or any other company and get assigned to any book he asked immediately.

[fieldy snuts]

washed up has-been? as has been noted in this thread already, you are fooling yourself if you don't think he could call marvel, dc, or any other company and get assigned to any book he asked immediately.

Having read his recent garbage like The Black Dossier and the one where the girl jerks off the fish demon that had previously raped her so hard she fell in love with him enough to give him a handjob I don't think I'd want to. He's a cautionary tale for when writers go batshit crazy like Frank Miller is these days.

Be an apologist for him all you like, but the guy burned out a long time ago.

[leechjudd]

I'm in the middle on this. I like Alan Moore, love his works til Lost Girls, but i'm getting tired of all these interviews about what he thinks about DC and Watchmen.
He has excellent point about leaving watchmen alone, it's the same as somebody else writing a continuation of Jack Knight Starman other than Robinson, I'm sure DC can because they own the character but it is nice to see a great finite story once in a while (I'm looking at you Star Wars and Barry Allen)
It's nice to imagine a reality where DC didn't screw over Moore, and he continued writing for them.
I'd like to know how he's going to fix continuity though, is it the same solution he had on Twilight of the Super Heroes or something else entirely?

[avengingtitan]

I'm tired all of all the arguing over a mediocre book.

DC is a business and will do whatever they have to to make money, including pissing off the fans.

Alan Moore is a bitter old man that just needs to go away. Retire gracefully Alan.

[mrorangesoda]

Any validity to his claims are overwhelmed by his dickishness to Gibbons. This will be the last article I read about Alan Moore's views on anything.

[bkthomson]

Cbr, robot 6 blog has a quote from Alan and it may be the same interview we are looking at but he says that people who buy before watchman should stop buying his books.

I'm on my phone so I can't post the quote.

[achilles]

Cbr, robot 6 blog has a quote from Alan and it may be the same interview we are looking at but he says that people who buy before watchman should stop buying his books.

I'm on my phone so I can't post the quote.

Yeah, he's a dick to his fans too. Honestly, I get the feeling that even if DC hadn't "screwed him over", he would have found something else to bitch and moan about, and he still would be going on about how he's the best comic book writer ever, and the new guys all suck. The old guys too. Guy's problem is that he's nuts. Paranoid at the least, and delusional as well.

At this point, I think Jim Shooter, John Bryne, and Frank Miller would all win the popularity contest among people in the industry over this guy. The things he said about Len Wein's stuff were uncalled for. Even if he believes that, he should keep it to himself. He wonders why everyone in the business hates him; it's that sort of thing. Guy goes out of his way to be nice to him and give him work, and that's how he repays him?

[Doc Jon]

Yeah, he's a dick to his fans too. Honestly, I get the feeling that even if DC hadn't "screwed him over", he would have found something else to bitch and moan about, and he still would be going on about how he's the best comic book writer ever, and the new guys all suck. The old guys too. Guy's problem is that he's nuts. Paranoid at the least, and delusional as well.

At this point, I think Jim Shooter, John Bryne, and Frank Miller would all win the popularity contest among people in the industry over this guy. The things he said about Len Wein's stuff were uncalled for. Even if he believes that, he should keep it to himself. He wonders why everyone in the business hates him; it's that sort of thing. Guy goes out of his way to be nice to him and give him work, and that's how he repays him?

I love this "all the industry hates him" stuff. Where exactly do you get that?

People hang their careers on work they did with Moore. That's a fact. And if he called the majority of the industry today and wanted to do a Superman book, people would trip over themselves to work with him.

[LobsterJ]

Yeah, he's a dick to his fans too.

I have a huge respect for my audience. On the occasions when I meet them, they seem, I like to think, to be intelligent and scrupulous people. [...] When I think of my audience, I like to have good thoughts and think about how lucky I am to have one that is as intelligent as mine and as moral as mine.

[bkthomson]

I have a huge respect for my audience. On the occasions when I meet them, they seem, I like to think, to be intelligent and scrupulous people. [...] When I think of my audience, I like to have good thoughts and think about how lucky I am to have one that is as intelligent as mine and as moral as mine.

Now give the rest of that quote about how he does not want certain people to buy his books.

[achilles]

Moore has created many characters, and defined many more.

And any company would put him on a title immediately if he simply said he wanted to work with them.

This is a very silly rant.

Yes, I've enjoyed reading the Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Spiderman, Green Lantern, Hulk, Captain America and others he's created. What's that? He didn't create them? He didn't actually create all that many who even come close to those characters?

Stunning! Well, at least his Watchmen characters are entirely original, not based on any other characters or anything.

And of course he created all those characters in his other most famous work these days, LOEG. It's not like he ripped them off and then justified it by saying essentially that he's a genius, so it's allowed with him, and anyone who rips of the characters he ripped off in the first place isn't, so they're bad people.

Okay, turning off the /sarc tag, sure, he created some characters, but like I said, none of them come close to having the staying power and iconic status of so many others whose creators he dismisses because they aren't Alan Moore. Sure, he's written some nice stories, but let's face it, so have others. I'd put Gaiman's stuff against the best Moore ever did in a heartbeat for example. And I'd also say that in absolute terms, DKR was a better overall story than Watchmen. More engaging characters, and it holds up better, even though like Watchmen, it's a period piece.

Sure, he revamped some characters like Swampy, what does he want, a statue? It isn't like no other writer has ever taken a character and brought a fresh take to it that revived the character.

Strangely, I do agree with him that DC shouldn't revisit Watchmen, but not only because it was a complete story and didn't need to have anything more told about it, but also because I just don't think it was a great as it's been made out to be. And I actually have the trade and have read it a few times. It's always a nice story, not terrible inventive, but well done. Never the be all and end all of comics though. I would for example put Gaiman's Sandman over it, and Maus, and others as well.

I also do agree with him that Johns' taking his throwaway GL stories and using them wasn't a great idea. But not because I thought they were untouchable like he seems to, or that using them reflects a lack of creativity, (after all, he does the very same thing all the time by filching other people's characters----and I don't see anything wrong with that either, so long as he or anyone else does it legally), but because Johns fucked it up with his silly reducing an epic story, (The Empire of Tears for example), to debased crap. But that's Johns for you. He's not really a guy who brings the sense of awe and wonder that others can, (including Moore at his best).

Bottom line is Moore was a very good writer of comics. He wasn't the best ever. He wasn't Jules Verne or the like, as he seemed to want to imply. He was simply one of the better comic book writers, a guy who helped elevate comics as a medium beyond kid's reading. He should be happy with that, stop badmouthing everyone else, and get beyond whatever he imagines DC did to him. If he never wants to work for DC again, that's fine, I can understand that. But for his own sake, he should stop wallowing in bitterness and move on.

[LobsterJ]

Now give the rest of that quote about how he does not want certain people to buy his books.

Why? It is irrelevant to the point I was making, that Moore is not a dick to his fans.

[Timbales]

I wonder if the critters that live in his beard speak to him, telling him the world is out to get him.

[achilles]

I love this "all the industry hates him" stuff. Where exactly do you get that?

People hang their careers on work they did with Moore. That's a fact. And if he called the majority of the industry today and wanted to do a Superman book, people would trip over themselves to work with him.

You might want to read the interview. It's from him. He said he doesn't have many friends in the industry. I wonder why?

As for whether or not certain companies would work with him in a heartbeat, and hand over their most prized characters, I can't say. And neither can you. But it's a moot point. nor does that reflect any personal feeling toward him on their part. Honestly, you seemed to miss the point I was making with that statement, which as I pointed out was from his own words. It isn't that he is not professionally respected for his abilities as a writer, but that he is personally disliked, or at least he thinks so, probably because of his own personal qualities.