Often times when I see Alan Moore being talked about online it’s rarely in a positive way. Despite writing some of the greatest stories in the comic medium, recent comments and actions have altered peoples views on him from a writing genius to a 66 year old man baby.
I disagree and it annoys me to see the writer of Watchmen and Promethea be called an angry bitter old man. I don’t think anyone who thinks this about him knows that he got screwed and if they did, they never felt what it’s like to lose your own ideas to a corporation.
Watchmen was originally going to be about the Charleton Comic characters who DC acquired through their Disney-esque quest to buy their competitors. Fearing that DC might try to make this canon to the main DC universe much like they did with the Killing Joke, Moore decided to make the Watchmen pastiches of these characters. This should probably give off red flags, that Moore wasn’t in on a lot of what DC did, but maybe he didn’t worry enough or maybe he had no choice.
His deal is that if Watchmen did well DC would keep the license, and guess what Watchmen became the only comic series on Times top 100 novels list. It sold well, and will so for years and as long as it did, Moore would never own it as per contract which I feel he didn’t fully understand(I could be wrong, but we have those moments). As anyone who lost their creations would likely feel, Moore wasn’t very into the idea he’d eventually leave DC and make independent comics, much of which if you ask me surpassed Watchmen in quality.
Because of this, Moore resented the comic giant and talked ill of their attempts to market off of his ideas. I do believe he’s gotten over it but many of those comment’s still stick to people today. Most infamously his 2016 interview in Vulture we’re he got peeved at the interviewer asking about it, then going on a small rant about how comics were for children and people need to grow up, despite that Moore once said “To paint comic books as childish and illiterate is lazy. A lot of comic books are very literate — unlike most films”. So I don’t really believe he meant it the way it got pronounced.
To be honest, this bothered me once too. Because I love comics and I love Super-Heroes and Moore wrote some of the best ones including THE best Superman run ever done and THE best Superman tribute ever done (drawn by Liefeld). I always thought it was funny he said that comics aren’t made for kids anymore, because it was a trend he kind of started. Comics being mature and gritty was a topic tons of writers made references too in their books, not just Moore but Grant Morrison and Mark Waid all had things to say.
That was my only disagreement with Moore, but I think it was a heated moment. He had just got a new book out (Jerusalem) that he put so much work into but interviewers still only cared about his past drama. That said I went on a tangent, Alan Moore does not deserve to be viewed the way he is. He adores his fans (who aren’t annoying scum I imagine), he wrote back to a young Watchman fan who sent him a letter and he did so with love and admiration, and he did a rap song, Mandrillfesto.
Alan Moor LOVES comics and Super-Heroes, he wouldn’t have pushed the genre like he did if he thought it wasn’t worth it. Years of writing what he loved and what was in his Magic loving mind was all taken from him for profit, even the film industry which he did give a chance with League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and V for Vendetta abandoned many of his ideas despite him being on board as a consultant. With League leaving such a bad taste in his mouth that it became the first and last movie based off his work to bare his name in the credits. It takes real guts to not take a check from movies when most are likely end up a hit.
So yeah I think he has enough justification to be mad, I think when you screw people for their talents it’s human to fight back, he didn’t just do it for himself he did it for anyone who got screwed. Writers and Artists owning their works was the foundation for some Comics greatest Rock Stars. you own what you write.
Promethea to me is one of the best comics ever written, a spell book in narrative form and Tom Strong a call back to Pulp-Heroes, DC recently just had these characters appear in some pretty mediocre comics it’s a little disheartening. Other works like Supreme, a modern take on classic Superman whose art doesn’t do it justice and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen which is a little bitter and boomery (BUT it’s GOOD so I won’t complain) were lucky enough to stay independent. In the end I just want my Wizard Homie to stop being viewed as some asshole, because he isn’t. He’s a smart writer who lost things dear to him, so next time you see someone call Alan Moore a bitter angry old man just remember, he wrote from the heart and it got fucked for profit.
Cartoonist's Man-Cave 