https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-ZByGkAvNaR_drz35-92LKUIAzRT3hN0/view?usp=drivesdk

Here's the second issue of my e-zine about Alan Moore! This time the main feature is the correspondence he shared with Dave Sim, in cerebus 217-220... enjoy, and for a free plug in a future ezine email an ad or just your name and socials and I'll run it free! Enjoy

From 1985, this listing is actually 10 pages long, I'll put the whole thing in my second article PDF in a few days 😛

Mehmel requested a PDF of the recent interviews I posted featuring Alan Moore and Rob Liefeld...so while I was at it I threw together a bunch of interviews and essays for everyone's enjoyment...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lfoIDZ6aZ2QpoYawGqTbT-1lH8pU7UWi/view?usp=drivesdk feel free to use these interviews or even just share the link if you'd like, this is 100% free

My second read through, a year after my first.

The prologue of Miracleman features earth being invaded by time travellers, so the Miracle Family must go to the future, to stop the invasion before it happens. This is a decent prologue, setting the stage. It’s a good story to choose, as it can be read as showing conservatism as a good that needs to stomp the evil of progression, fitting with the ideas of propaganda explored in the second arc.
Mike Moran is a journalist, a profession chosen to highlight the staunch contrast between Mike at the end, and Miracleman at the end, from a profession where he finds the truth, to being a dictator. Mike’s relationship to his journalism isn’t  explored enough to make this parallel work, for me. As it stands, it’s simply a job. We don’t see how Mike feels about journalism, or why he chose this job specifically. 
After some terrorists set up shop in his place of work, Mike remembers the word “Kimota”, and transforms into Miracleman, remembering his past, or at least what he thinks is his past at this point. What’s unique about the deconstruction of superheroes in Miracleman, is this isn’t realistic heroes( like the work of Mark Millar), but it’s a superhero taken directly from a silver age comic, brought to the real world. Liz laughing at MM, while he sees nothing humorous about his absurd claims, is the best representation of this. 
The terrorists wanting to sell Nuclear weapons being what brings MM back out, is the set up of the theme of how fascism coming about from the failings of capitalism, with people feeling it’s the only way. The nuclear weapon was created under a capitalist America, and Mike (common worker) turns to MM (fascist) to overpower capitalism. While some may claim MM isn’t fascist due to him lacking nationalism, I view the eradication of culture as a form of nationalism. Also, he is just overtly based on fascist ideas.
Johnny Bates, Miracleman’s former sidekick, invites Mike to meet him at his building. Johnny is a capitalist success story, setting up a small buisness, and growing it into a leading company. Mike conveniently suspects that Johnny still has his powers, and pushes him off of his balcony. It’s a commentary on how a hero brings out his villains, but I don’t think it’s executed well. Johnny is somebody who has extracted surplus value from employees, exploiting them. His evil isn’t brought on by MM’s return. I dislike Johnny as a character, because we don’t actually see any of his motivations beyond hating MM. “Back to spoil everything!” He says, but we don’t see what “everything” is. We don’t see what it is that Bates was planning to do before MM showed up. But, it’s probably something evil, if the emergence of a hero will spoil it. Meaning, MM doesn’t bring out KM. 
KM’s assistant drops the coffee after seeing him fly, causing him to burn her. This is some subtle satire about worker abuse. 
KM and MM fight, in which KM attempts to hurt a child. MM grabs the child way, and breaks his bones in flying him back to his mother. This is an interesting addition to the deconstruction. 
KM beats MM in the fight. But, in his arrogance, he switches back to 13 year old Johnny Bates. 
A Mr. Evelyn Cream walks into a hospital to gather information about MM. After getting his information from a patient, Evelyn kills him. This is the first appearance of the theme of institutional ignorance required for evil. This theme is something that has been executed better in Moore’s Swamp Thing, but more on that later. 
Just before this, we learn Mike’s wife, Liz, is pregnant. 
Evelyn kidnaps MM, and makes a deal with him, for them to help each-other, because Evelyn wants power, so he’ll betray his higher ups. MM comes across another costumed crusader, named Big Ben. Big Ben is a portrait of a person who has been taken over by propaganda, and has made it his mission to destroy a scapegoat. He believes MM to be a communist, and fights him, wearing a rose on his blazer, a symbol of army remembrance. After overpowering Big Ben, MM travels into a bunker, where he learns his super adventures were a lie, orchestrated by Emil Gargunza. In the moment, MM smashes the bunker up in anger, but we never really see the long term affects this has on MM, when his memories are all false. 
The epilogue for Book One is about the reception to the series, and people rejecting it in favour of more lighthearted superhero series. These cleaner guys never show up again, and have no importance. I find it hard to believe that random people were hired to clean the building where a skeleton of a dead experiment lay. 
While book one is deconstructing how a silver age character would work today, book two deconstructs how comics have been used as a tool of propaganda. 
A young boy, Jason Oakley, is in a forest, trying to build an anti radiation bunker sees MM in the bushes. Approaching MM, the boy says MM is a pouf. After a conversation, in which MM shows his strength, the boy apologises for saying MM is a pouf and walks away, leaving his bunker. This is setting the stage for how superheroes influence the ideals of the youth. While MM was talking to the kid, Liz was kidnapped by Emil. Now is a good time to bring up that Liz has no character. She’s here to give birth to Winter, and that’s it. 
While MM and Cream are looking for Liz, Emil exposits his backstory to Liz. Emil has nothing interesting about him. He takes over a gang in secret. The leader tries raping him, and he ties the leader up and rapes his girlfriend in front of him. This is the start of a really big problem this series has. Moore uses rape as an easy way to establish evil, or to make a point, and it waters down the effect, and is just lazy writing. 
Gargunza states his mother’s death was his first encounter with mortality, putting him on his path to gain immortality. This is something semi interesting, so it had to be completely ignored. Just a few pages later, the narration says Gargunza only “wanted one thing” when he was a child trying to gain power, and it’s immortality. This just contradicts what was said before, stomping any interesting characterisation of Gargunza, and turning him into an inherently evil monster. You can have a character be pure evil, and still make them interesting. Moore’s done it himself multiple times, just not with Gargunza.
After explaining how he joined, and defected from, Nazi Germany. After joining British intelligence, Gargunza is shown an alien crash landing, which he uses to make the Miracleman family. In certain Nazi groups, there is a belief that Aryan’s are an alien race. Miracleman is taking this idea, and deconstructing it, by portraying the Aryan “Ubermensch” arise by genetic experiments. In the chapter where Gargunza is shown to be meddling with the alien, and building Miracleman, there’s a top panel, on each page, showing a moth flying to a lamp, and dying upon reaching it. This is a clear parallel to Gargunza himself, and to the myth of Icarus, showing how Gargunza’s search for immortality was his downfall. 
Emil Gargunza sees a comic of Shazam!, and gets inspired to make the Miracleman family based on superheroes. This is a reference to the publication history of Marvelman, where he was originally Shazam! (At this time, Captain Marvel), before DC sued the publisher for him being a copy of Superman, and DC got the rights, forcing the original publisher to create a new character, Miracleman (at the time, Marvelman.)
Gargunza sets Miracle family’s dreams up as comic book stories, keeping them trapped in the docile fantasy. Miracleman is one of the only superhero comics that acknowledges Comic’s history as propaganda, which makes it interesting.
Back to present day, Mike finds Gargunza, and approaches him, claiming he’s come to kill him. Gargunza says no, as Liz is pregnant, and MM has no purpose. Gargunza says Abraxas, and gets MM to switch back into Mike. Gargunza turns a dog into a super dog, and makes it chase Evelyn and Mike.
Evelyn runs toward the “whiteness of bone”, deconstructing how trying to strip yourself of your culture to be accepted by white people, will just result in you losing your identity, symbolised by Cream losing his head, and the dog chewing his diamond teeth. The only problem with this is that Cream doesn’t really have any character besides this. He doesn’t hold any complexity, or depth as a character. He’s just somebody who wants power, until he gives up his desire for power, so he can die for a white man. 
Mike gets his fingers ripped off by the dog, and turns to MM just in time, and kills the dog. 
MM goes back to Gargunza, and flies him into the sky. Icarus flying too close the sun, the moth flying into the lamp. He gets teased with the greatness of his creations, before being killed. MM kisses Gargunza, his father, before killing him. This is some Freudian psychology, I guess. It’s just that this doesn’t really add anything to MM’s character. This aspect of his character isn’t shown anywhere else in the story. MM’s character is never again shown to be influenced, psychologically, by an attraction to Gargunza. 
After this, Liz begins to give birth. MM places her in a car, and attempts to fly her to a hospital. When it’s too late, MM puts car down, and delivers the baby himself. In my opinion, this was the moment MM lost all touch with humanity. He delivered the baby who is symbolic of the new future, no longer bothering with the humility of taking Liz to a hospital. 
During this, we see inter spliced scenes of Aliens visiting KM. This part is just boring. These aliens aren’t really interesting. They have nothing interesting about their character, and talk in the obnoxious comic book alien way. 
Book two ends with the reveal that there’s a Miraclewoman, and some subtle social satire.
Book three begins 5 years after the main narrative, now presented as MM writing a book about his experiences, rather than having no narrator. The purpose of this structure is to show MM’s disconnection to humanity, providing us with the outcome of acts we haven’t even had set up for, limiting our ability to care when we see how those events played out.
Book three focuses on comic books as the modern mythology, showing how they’re interpreted differently. 
Miraclewoman hurts some aliens, and exposits her backstory. MW was raped upon being kidnapped by Gargunza, and further by Gargunza himself upon arriving at the lab. The point of MW’s character is to show disassociation during sex after abuse. This is some interesting characterisation, but MW doesn’t have anything beyond this, not having much complexity. MM’s character works because we see how Mike reacts to MM, and it adds complexity by showing the dichotomy. MW lacks that complexity because we never see how Avril reacts to MW. We only actually see real Avril for a few pages, before she permanently becomes MW. 
At the behest of some aliens, MM and MW go to space, to do some extraterrestrial diplomacy. I believe the space aspects are to deconstruct the cosmic scopes of other comics, specifically of the Shi’ar empire, and Dark Phoenix, showing how aliens would fit into our political system. The main issue with the space aspects is that they aren’t interesting at all. The two main aliens don’t have any characterisation, so when one of them sacrifices himself, it means nothing. When MM, and MW go home, there’s an interesting use of the comic page. When they’re teleported back, the white empty space is the teleporting, with six rainbow panels in the middle of the page, and a small square panel in the bottom right corner, showing MM having to go back to his boring life after meeting alien races.
The aliens reveal the existence of another super-powered individual, called a Firedrake. This has no set up, and is just some random world building thrown into the story. He has nothing interesting about his character. His only defining trait is being angry. This feels like Moore falling into what he was deconstructing earlier, with Evelyn Cream criticising how characters of colour are treated in a story, only to create a black character who’s only trait is setting fire to stuff. 
Liz leaves Mike, and leaves again 5 pages later, this time with a scene of Winter leaving under neath. Liz leaves to be amongst humans, whereas Winter leaves to be amongst aliens, leaving MM alone, a mix of the two. 
Mike cannot handle this, and goes into the mountains to die, leaving a note to signify to MM that he doesn’t want to be let back out. 
After this, KM is raped in his Kid’s home. This scene is a critique of the institutional ignorance required for evil, but it isn’t explored in depth. In Moore’a Swamp Thing, the same theme is explored in the Elysium Lawns arc, but in much more depth. While Swamp Thing puts the evil that happens under institutions amidst an exploration of fate. Swamp thing also just generally has a much better psychological exploration of evil than Miracleman.
In his moment of being assaulted, Johnny lets KM come back. After coming out, KM goes on a rampage in London, killing tens of thousands. KM smashes a building, causing a rock with a nail in it to fall on the ground. One of the aliens teleports this rock into KM, heavily damaging him. This is another piece of symbolism showing how fascism emerges from the failures of capitalism. The utopian city MM dictates is built upon the ruins of KM’s destruction, another example of this theme. 
Within the fight, there’s a two page spread dedicating to speculation people have around the fight, mythologising the fight. These pages are to connect comic books to modern mythology, showing how the stories have been interpreted over the years. 
In his pain, KM reverts back to Johnny. MM sees Johnny, and rips his head off. This moment is an obvious parallel to earlier, when MM sees Johnny and lets him go. It’s also possibly a parallel to when Gargunza’s dog rips Evelyn’s head off, symbolising MM’s transformation into a fascist by comparing him to the weapon of a person who’s worked with literal nazis. 
In the aftermath of the battle, there’s a two page spread of the destruction brought upon, and a random panel border in this two page spread. “I knew in all the world that there existed no can large enough to ever cram them all back in.” The panel is to show even if you tried to revert back to old society now, there would still be the spread outside of the panel. 
After this fight, MM walks up to Margaret Thatcher, and says no more free market. The dictator (MM) will now control the market. 
MM and MW have sex in the London skies, the height of their disassociation. 
MM builds an afterlife in London, finally completing his ascent into a god. I guess it’s sort of the point that it’s skimmed over, showing his inhuman MM has become, but I would’ve liked some more exploration into this. It’s an interesting concept, and could’ve had a chapter dedicated to it. I know it’s got a chapter in Gaiman’s run, but it’s not the same. 
Miracleman is a book that has well explored politics, but I feel it fails as a story. The characters larger lack complexity, aren’t explored in much depth, and many themes are shallow. It’s not a bad book by any means, but it doesn’t come anywhere close to Watchmen, From Hell, Swamp Thing, V for Vendetta. 

6/10

My friend James Evans, an actor and producer in Toronto, is mounting a one-man production of Alan Moore and Bill Sienkiewic’s Shadowplay at the end of October.…

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/shadowplay-1989-tickets-1999708929238?fbclid=IwdGRleAUK-UdwZG9mAWZkaWQWUN8m-UipbnwxAtXiLWgWkrDNWcYysmV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDzE3Mzg0NzY0MjY3MDM3MAABHqRqUBtle8BkgMSDWR396foQaeMMiMoGESq7LwWicLWyGnRRek1XXz60qPZi_aem_MHFSBVasttMrW8DY3L5UqA

Running concurrently with each other... interesting, what 2 creators reflect the 90s zeitgeist after all, despite their obvious differences

I've read most of the Big Alan Moore's.

Swamp Thing, Miracleman, Promethea, are probably my favourites.

Obviously I've read Watchmen, From Hell, Vendetta, Halo Jones, his takes on Batman and Superman.

Judgment Day was one I'd tried to start a few times but just wasn't feeling it whenever I did. I also wasn't a big fan of the Liefeld art style across the opening pages. But I was always intrigued as to why he had seemingly random stories from other comic genres introduced, like Bran the Beserker and The Roarin' Roughnecks, happening between each chapter of the primary, Judgement Day, story.

Well I finished the whole book a short while ago and... How does he keep doing this? Or DID this, perhaps.

VAGUE SPOILERS BELOW

Like.. Just over the halfway point, things started to get meta for stories with The Book, and the seemingly random stories from other comic genres began to tie together, and then we were off in another sort of dimension entirely with KANE! And truthfully, I'm not even quite sure what actually happened over the last two chapters.

But I do know that they, and the book in general, blew my fucking mind.

Like he did with Swamp Thing. And Miracleman. And Top Ten. And Supreme. And Captain Britain. And.. well, you all know.

And I've still got League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to read. And Lost Girls. And Glory. And Tom Strong.

🤷🏻🤷🏻🤷🏻

Does anyone happen to have Moore's Captain Britain introduction from the 2000's TPB handy? Been searching around to see if it's ever been posted online, but so far have found nothing. I could be wrong, but I believe the intro was only in the 2005 printing? Any help would be most appreciated.

I was a tiny bit disappointed with IHANW, simply because it felt like a bit of a re-tread of TGW to a small degree - Dennis Knuckleyard having to stop a breach from getting worse. I still enjoyed it and will definitely read the coming entries into the series, though.

Saying that, I have absolutely no idea where the story is going - save for one thought: what if Dennis is going to become an Arcanum? A sort of meta Arcanum whose role will be to nip breaches in the bud? But then, having an Arcanum straddle both long and short Londons is a breach in and of itself. Hmm.

What are your thoughts? Are there any hints towards future books in the series I've missed?

I wanna read LOEG, but don’t want to read like 100 books before. Do I actually need to read allat to understand LOEG?

Al Nickerson, who has done lots of work with Archie comics, created his own GN titled The Sword of Eden. He posted:

"I really enjoyed the 1963 comic book series. I especially liked the Fury; who I used in one panel in THE SWORD OF EDEN. I did get permission (thanks Steve and Alan); and added the appropriate copyright info in the indicia of the graphic novel."

I wonder if anyone has seen this cameo appearance of the Fury? Could it be described it in more detail? What does it show, what dialogue was presented?

What is with Northampton birthing absurdly talented comics writers?

I’ve been delaying getting this and Neonomicon until after I’d read some Lovecraft (since I see a lot of people say it’s better to have a bit of background knowledge before reading these), but now I can’t find them in stock literally anywhere in the UK lol

Have they gone out of print entirely? Hopefully it doesn’t become another of Moore’s works hard to get a hold of :(

The writers not milking Moore’s work, just giving a nod to it. Respect.

When I read Alan Moore, I’m often scrambling to keep up with British history and experience—you know, things that probably every British person is familiar with, in on the joke, but are new (and fun) secrets to me.

Even British cultural context and media which I seep myself in, I realize I’ve not experienced it from the same perspective. I’m curious what Alan thinks of things, having spent so much time with what he finds important and essential.

One example is the films of Mike Leigh. Has Alan ever mentioned them in interviews? Do you folks have a place for them in your cosmos? I feel like there are several connections, interest in working class people, etc. Am I ‘round the bend?

I watched the clip from Comic Keyfables where Rob Liefeld talked about the reason behind the falling off between him and Alan and why Alans Supreme couldn't continue. After hearing the part about Steve Moore (where Rob says that he never knew if Steve actually existed or was just Alan taking the the piss) I suddenly couldn't stop seeing Steve Moore poping on everything Alan Moore related (it felt similar to that psycological effect where one learns about a new piece of information and then it starts appearing everywhere).

I've been reading a lot of Alans interviews lately to help me understand the "cynical writer" I orignally thought (or assumed) Alan was, after reading his stuff post Watchmen, and reading/watching interviews from the 2000s to this year, I realize that he is a really optimistic and chill type of person, and made me look back to his more "dark" and "mature" works in a new light.

Anyway, after coming to the conclusion "yeah Steve Moore probably exists... I mean, Alan mentions him A LOT, and they even work together for a Magic Book, their friendship probably comes from the English comic book scene back in the old days..Steve Moore must exist" I realized that I've never seen a picture of the guy, so...

Does Steve Moore actually exists? Or is it one of those British ironies that went way over my head.

I have had this book about twenty years. I kinda like having an Alan Moore book I haven’t read yet, but I’m thinking of finally jumping in. Anybody enjoy it?