Alan Moore Knows The Score

Most of my readers (up to four now, I believe!) are not as geeky as I am, and probably have no knowledge of who Alan Moore is. With Watchmen coming to cinemas next year, it's probably time I educated my readers on who this gentlemen is, although I have no doubt they know some of his work.

Alan Moore is a comics writer with a huge output of comics and graphic novels, many of which have been turned into films. A huge amount, as it happens. But before the films, Pop Will Eat Itself featured Alan Moore and some of his comics in a modest hit called Can U Dig It. Don't remember it? Well here it is:

Wel, I liked it anyway (but then I am a geek).

So what about Alan Moore himself? Well, here's a pic:

Yes, he does look like a freak. And in a lot of respects he probably is. Examples:

1. Expelled from school for dealing LSD, he has always alledgelly been a user of drugs, like most great artistic people in fact.

2. He married, like most people, but him and his wife had a female lover for threesome fun, and eventually the wife run of with the other woman. That has to be hard.

3. He is a witch, and woships a Roman snake god. At least it's probably more fun than Catholicism.

4. He is an anarchist. Actually, judging by the way the country is going, this could be the most non-freaky thing about Alan Moore.

5. He lives in Northampton, which while not the oddest thing in the world is pretty strange.

HIs comic output is huge, and while not all successful, most is amazing. I myself was pretty much drawn into comics at a young age reading his Captain Britain run. His more successful work has now been filmed, including:

FROM HELL - the Jack The Ripper film starring Johnny Depp.

V FOR VENDETTA - the film most notable for Natalie Portman shaving her head, as well as having a terrorist as the hero in a post 9/11 world.

THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN - the high concept story of "what if fictional 19th Century stories and characters were real?" starring Sean Connery as an elderly Alan Quartermain.

And THE DARK KNIGHT was more than heavily infuenced by Moore's The Killing Joke.

However, for whatever reason, he hates his work being turned into film, and pretty much has his name taken off the work and accepts no royalties! Not accepting money from these films? See, a bit freakish. He didn't own the copyright on the above works, so they were made quite legally without his consent.

Next up in 2009 is Watchmen, the graphic novel that deconstructs comics. I'm not entirely sure what that means, but a quick Google shows that it basically means that the story turns all assumptions and genre conventions on their head. It's a great graphic novel, the trailer looks fantastic (but probably only if you already know the story).

Oh, and he got to appear as himself in the Simpsons!

HIs latest graphic novels were a series of boks called The Lost Girls, featuring Alice (In Wonderland), Dorothy (Oz) Gale and Wendy (Peter Pan's girlfriend) in a pornographic coming of age story. He takes each story and rewrite it as a sexual awakening of each girl. Never read them, as it sounds a bit too naughty for a comic.

So, that's the background for the genius that is Alan Moore. Now get ready for Watchmen next year, and if you want to read the graphic novel, just ask and I might lend.