People only refers to Alan Moore throught his "Master pieces" like V for Vendetta, Watchmen and The Killing Joke. But to me, his late 90s work is as good, or in some instances richer and far more daring like Tom Strong for instance. Maybe my favorite work of his.
Yes, definitely ! Miracle Man is far more memorable and subversive than Watchmen in my opinion. I don't spit on it, it's still an tremendous tour de force. His weakest, probably most overrated and boring book is The Killing Joke. I don't understand the love for that story. The only real interest lies in the artwork, which is phenomenal and ahead of its time. It's stylish, simple, a subtle cross between time period and it mashes perfectly. The art will still look dashing and relevant in decades (unlike Watchmen or V). Beautifully timeless.
Peter Stellenberg I love the art in watchmen personally, but yeah the art in killing joke is better than V, of you read the 2014 rerints of Alan Moore's miracleman the art is a lot more polished than it was originally, they definitely touched it up so hard to compare it to watchmen or V personally, all in all though him and Gaiman were lucky to have some great artists
I'd venture to guess he gets the whole thing on multiple levels. That's kinda his bag, understanding things from multiple different points of view. But I think what dismays him is how few other people do, and so he's out there trying to remind people the other side of it, a side that Hellboy, Incredibles, Invincible, even Watchmen, are not exceptions to.
Late to this comment, but for what it's worth Alan has at least read Hellboy, he wrote the foreword to the collected edition of Wake the Devil and was very complimentary
No matter how much distain he’s developed for The Killing Joke over the years whenever he talks about it he always takes a moment to complement Brian Bolland’s artwork. That’s an insane level of loyalty. I mean I know it doesn’t sound like much but when you think about how much he hates that book, how much he’s pretty much always hated it him righting it in the first place was like that episode of Everybody Loves Raymond where Frank pet the bunny. And how much mental distress it’s caused him having to constantly answer questions about it in interviews even though he wants nothing to do with it. The fact that even after decades of that he still refuses to hold it over Bolland, who he only wrote the comic in the first place because he asked him too’s head is pretty unbelievable. I mean could you imagine being that good a friend?
@@svensvenkill if you look at what Kirby did with the forth world in DC, as a writer and artist, and if you look at what Stan Lee did without jack, it really makes you think just how much input Stan really had in all the characters they co created. Jack is probably the main reason for most of the marvel characters. An unsung hero
@@TheCelticTiger32 An unsung hero? The man is a legend and everyone knows how much he contributed to Marvel and DC. Again, he's a legend among many legends.
Swordsman and Mantis, Battalion and Synergy in StormWatch, Forge and Storm, Archangel and Charlotte Jones, Val Cooper and Edmund Atkinson, Nate Grey and Threnody, Wally West and Linda Park, Grunge and Freefall in Gen13, Oliver Queen and Sandra Hawke in Green Arrow, Batman and Talia, Wolverine and Mariko, Yukio and Yuriko, there was actually quite the precedent for interracial relationships prior to Moores Tom Strong hitting the market. I can't even knock him all that much for this given his open disdain for the industry norms, he's just not paying attention while having a confirmation bias fed by others
Don McCregor created the first long-term black-white couple with M'Shulla and Carmilla in Killraven 20+ years before Tom Strong -- and the last we saw, Carmilla was pregnant.
Moore's exact words were Tom Strong's was "the first mixed-race marriage and almost first mixed-race relationship" and nothing you said disproves that.
Calling “For the Man Who Has Everything” sweet is condescending as fuck if you’re a comic book fan but it’s the closest he’s ever come to completing one of his DC works.
Sadly not Captain Marvel as it should be however, for characters they both own more or less. On the DC side of things its "Shazam" and it shouldn't be that way at all.
Been thinking about getting The Tom Strong compendium and came across this. Thanks Alan for clearing things up : It's Watch Men - PLURAL like Firemen not Fireman. Don't understand why lot's of smart comic creators pronounce it wrong.
Sorry but when I think of interracial relationships in mainstream comics my first thought is Iron Fist and Misty Knight, correct me if I'm wrong but their relationship began in the late 70's, they may not have been married back then but they showed interracial relationships 20/30 years before Tom Strong. I love Alan but like a lot of people have said he does talk out of his ass a little.
Alan Moore says that The Killing Joke--thought by many to be one of the best superhero graphic novels ever written--is his worst work. That's interesting.
+Alex Cross It's one of my favorite stories, and my favorite Batman story by far. Moore has said that it has no human element. I disagree. I think the story -- and all Batman stories -- are about how we deal with trauma. Whether or not we try to deal with it in a way that healthy and constructive or unhealthy and bruising. Also, I think the moment at the end, where the Joker considers Batman's offer of help -- for two panels the Joker stops being a murderous psychopath and instead becomes a man filled with pain and regret -- is just beautiful. Take a look at those two panels sometime. Some of my favorite in all of comics.
Batman, and in fact mist of the characters created in the late 30's and early 40's were written for adults, primarily allied servicemen in WW2. They were not written for 8 year olds as Mr Moore stated. It was the comics code and it's ilk that created the sterile silver age of comics. The new grim stories are just a continuation of the 40's stories
I like how all the dorks are hyped up on the "omg comics didn't have mixed marriages." Newsflash. That's because most comic characters don't age and most don't get married.
When Superman was created in 38, he helped struggling americans, corrupt laws and politicians, and make ppl think first about what there actions do to others. What white supremacy??
I'm not sure what you mean by "without white supremacy," given that Superman has fought racist bigots since almost the day he was created. Siegel and Shuster made a story where he captured Hitler and Stalin, and the old Superman radio show had him battle a stand in for the KKK in a story that was created using notes from a man who had infiltrated the real life KKK. Did you just mean with less racism or potentially racist elements?
It's tragic how some broken souls can only see everything through the prism of race. Tom Strong is great. Superman is great. Their whiteness has nothing to do with their greatness.
How exactly was batman never meant to be a grim story? It's essentially a story of a boy, who witnesses his parent's murders, at the age of 8 and he's so traumatically scarred by the event, that he goes on an endless crusade against criminals, as some kind of twisted self therapy, while also forever being haunted by his own parent's death's. That is horrifying. I think Alan is talking out of his hat. He seems to have deluded himself as some kind of comic god, whose best work he likes to make out like he just scribbled on a napkin. On the contrary, originally batman was actually was never meant as a child friendly comic. It was only after the comics code authority that they changed him to be more kid friendly. The character just so happens to be malleable into both serious and campy. I like Alan, but here I do believe he's talking out of his ass. I think he should show more respect, for characters that made him famous in the first place.
Alvaro Muñoz Ruiz detective comics 27 and any issue before robin appeared and even then there were still dark stories like when Batman found his parents murderer
I think he's talking more about the later Batman series of the 1960's, when things were lighthearted before turning dark in the 1980's. But people don't remember how dark Batman was when he began. Like Moore said here, superheroes came from pulp, which were the grimmest of the grim. Batman was so dark that he used guns and killed people, for crying out loud! Even Superman was a total jerk in the earliest stories, bullying people and causing destruction just as much as he saved folks. Because, again, these were pulp characters. I mean, H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Philip K. Dick wrote pulp! If anything, Moore was just continuing the neglected lineage.
@@LordJagd Batman was becoming dark again all the way back in 1969, neither Moore or Miller made Batman significantly darker they just gave the story a direction.
Alan’s talking about the absurdity of it - yeah Batman’s a grim avenger, but at the end of the day it’s about a guy who dresses up in a silly Halloween costume who tries to scare even wackier costumed criminals - you can’t take that idea too seriously.
I am someone who has only read a few Batman comic books, and I thought Killing Joke was quite good. I suppose it's for non-Batman regulars? Anyway, Tom Strong is ace. I don't particularly find Swamp Thing to be a superhero comic book, it's more of a horror book to me, it's probably one of the best comic book runs of all time. But yeah Moore's work is mostly non-superhero and it's the best stuff: V, League, From Hell, Lost Girls, Promethea etc
![Oscar Maydon x Junior H - Volver Al Futuro [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/sa52xabMSB8/mqdefault.jpg)
Whatever else people say about Alan, no one can deny he's truly a man of principle.
People only refers to Alan Moore throught his "Master pieces" like V for Vendetta, Watchmen and The Killing Joke. But to me, his late 90s work is as good, or in some instances richer and far more daring like Tom Strong for instance. Maybe my favorite work of his.
Peter Stellenberg his 80s miracleman and swamp thing are better than killing joke... By a large margin
Yes, definitely ! Miracle Man is far more memorable and subversive than Watchmen in my opinion. I don't spit on it, it's still an tremendous tour de force. His weakest, probably most overrated and boring book is The Killing Joke. I don't understand the love for that story. The only real interest lies in the artwork, which is phenomenal and ahead of its time. It's stylish, simple, a subtle cross between time period and it mashes perfectly. The art will still look dashing and relevant in decades (unlike Watchmen or V). Beautifully timeless.
Peter Stellenberg I love the art in watchmen personally, but yeah the art in killing joke is better than V, of you read the 2014 rerints of Alan Moore's miracleman the art is a lot more polished than it was originally, they definitely touched it up so hard to compare it to watchmen or V personally, all in all though him and Gaiman were lucky to have some great artists
have to agree with you on that,i love his earlier works most noteably DR and Quinch,but its Promethea that shines for me
Actually, I find Neonomicon and Providence to be the most thought-provoking
He's summed up the absurdity of comics perfectly.
It would be nice if Alan Moore could see the good that his stories inspired as well: Hellboy, the Incredibles, Invincible, Astro City, etc.
I'd venture to guess he gets the whole thing on multiple levels. That's kinda his bag, understanding things from multiple different points of view. But I think what dismays him is how few other people do, and so he's out there trying to remind people the other side of it, a side that Hellboy, Incredibles, Invincible, even Watchmen, are not exceptions to.
@@rottensquid I mean I prefer DC after the Watchmen and DKR than before it (to a certain extent)
Late to this comment, but for what it's worth Alan has at least read Hellboy, he wrote the foreword to the collected edition of Wake the Devil and was very complimentary
You could tell just by his answers that he is an intelligent individual.
hes one of the best and smartest living writers!
he speaks in sentences we'd be lucky to write with time given
A master of comics... and fantastic to listen to as well!
I thought his Promethea was absolutely amazing.
Don't forget about League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, really under appreciated.
No matter how much distain he’s developed for The Killing Joke over the years whenever he talks about it he always takes a moment to complement Brian Bolland’s artwork. That’s an insane level of loyalty. I mean I know it doesn’t sound like much but when you think about how much he hates that book, how much he’s pretty much always hated it him righting it in the first place was like that episode of Everybody Loves Raymond where Frank pet the bunny. And how much mental distress it’s caused him having to constantly answer questions about it in interviews even though he wants nothing to do with it. The fact that even after decades of that he still refuses to hold it over Bolland, who he only wrote the comic in the first place because he asked him too’s head is pretty unbelievable. I mean could you imagine being that good a friend?
Moore has met maturity with surprising grace here
alan moore is the greatest talent ever in comics!!!!
AriesJ16 Jack Kirby is
@@TheCelticTiger32 and @Danielle A , there is no single greatest, but many greats. And we're bloody lucky for all of them.
@@svensvenkill if you look at what Kirby did with the forth world in DC, as a writer and artist, and if you look at what Stan Lee did without jack, it really makes you think just how much input Stan really had in all the characters they co created. Jack is probably the main reason for most of the marvel characters. An unsung hero
@@TheCelticTiger32 An unsung hero? The man is a legend and everyone knows how much he contributed to Marvel and DC. Again, he's a legend among many legends.
Tarzan was really the first super hero. 1912.
Swordsman and Mantis, Battalion and Synergy in StormWatch, Forge and Storm, Archangel and Charlotte Jones, Val Cooper and Edmund Atkinson, Nate Grey and Threnody, Wally West and Linda Park, Grunge and Freefall in Gen13, Oliver Queen and Sandra Hawke in Green Arrow, Batman and Talia, Wolverine and Mariko, Yukio and Yuriko, there was actually quite the precedent for interracial relationships prior to Moores Tom Strong hitting the market.
I can't even knock him all that much for this given his open disdain for the industry norms, he's just not paying attention while having a confirmation bias fed by others
He said MARRIAGE. Not relationships. Most of those characters aren't married or almost get married and then one of them dies or something.
Comic characters generally don’t get married. Not when Mephisto’s around.
And by Mephisto I mean lazy writers.
Don McCregor created the first long-term black-white couple with M'Shulla and Carmilla in Killraven 20+ years before Tom Strong -- and the last we saw, Carmilla was pregnant.
Moore's exact words were Tom Strong's was "the first mixed-race marriage and almost first mixed-race relationship" and nothing you said disproves that.
@@dansweeney2789 True. Carmilla and M'shulla were not married.
Calling “For the Man Who Has Everything” sweet is condescending as fuck if you’re a comic book fan but it’s the closest he’s ever come to completing one of his DC works.
I hope marvel don't sue you for using the word Superhero
hahah
It's my understanding that DC and Marvel co-own the rights to the word "superhero".
Sadly not Captain Marvel as it should be however, for characters they both own more or less. On the DC side of things its "Shazam" and it shouldn't be that way at all.
I BELIEVE HIM
Been thinking about getting The Tom Strong compendium and came across this. Thanks Alan for clearing things up :
It's Watch Men - PLURAL like Firemen not Fireman. Don't understand why lot's of smart comic creators pronounce it wrong.
Sorry but when I think of interracial relationships in mainstream comics my first thought is Iron Fist and Misty Knight, correct me if I'm wrong but their relationship began in the late 70's, they may not have been married back then but they showed interracial relationships 20/30 years before Tom Strong. I love Alan but like a lot of people have said he does talk out of his ass a little.
He said first marriage and almost first relationship, so it still checks out
Well I can’t blame him for forgetting about them. They are pretty forgettable. It’s not like he knows every single comic book character ever
Well who knew there was a challenge? Alan should have followed up with a light work
KentAllard he did tom strong
Alan Moore says that The Killing Joke--thought by many to be one of the best superhero graphic novels ever written--is his worst work. That's interesting.
+Alex Cross It's badly overwritten.
+flaggerify Would you elaborate on this?
+Alex Cross It's one of my favorite stories, and my favorite Batman story by far. Moore has said that it has no human element. I disagree. I think the story -- and all Batman stories -- are about how we deal with trauma. Whether or not we try to deal with it in a way that healthy and constructive or unhealthy and bruising.
Also, I think the moment at the end, where the Joker considers Batman's offer of help -- for two panels the Joker stops being a murderous psychopath and instead becomes a man filled with pain and regret -- is just beautiful. Take a look at those two panels sometime. Some of my favorite in all of comics.
He's correct. It's the least of his comic work and not very interesting.
blackfyre storm Look at the dialogue between Batman and the Joker in Arkham.
Batman, and in fact mist of the characters created in the late 30's and early 40's were written for adults, primarily allied servicemen in WW2. They were not written for 8 year olds as Mr Moore stated. It was the comics code and it's ilk that created the sterile silver age of comics. The new grim stories are just a continuation of the 40's stories
I like how all the dorks are hyped up on the "omg comics didn't have mixed marriages." Newsflash. That's because most comic characters don't age and most don't get married.
Tom Strong was a Superman story without white supremacy and it was more believable, yet still sensational.
Tom Strong is a "Capt. Marvel" or "Marvel Family" book.
When Superman was created in 38, he helped struggling americans, corrupt laws and politicians, and make ppl think first about what there actions do to others. What white supremacy??
How the fuck is Superman a White supremacy story though? Stop talking out of your ass.
I'm not sure what you mean by "without white supremacy," given that Superman has fought racist bigots since almost the day he was created. Siegel and Shuster made a story where he captured Hitler and Stalin, and the old Superman radio show had him battle a stand in for the KKK in a story that was created using notes from a man who had infiltrated the real life KKK. Did you just mean with less racism or potentially racist elements?
It's tragic how some broken souls can only see everything through the prism of race.
Tom Strong is great. Superman is great. Their whiteness has nothing to do with their greatness.
How exactly was batman never meant to be a grim story? It's essentially a story of a boy, who witnesses his parent's murders, at the age of 8 and he's so traumatically scarred by the event, that he goes on an endless crusade against criminals, as some kind of twisted self therapy, while also forever being haunted by his own parent's death's. That is horrifying. I think Alan is talking out of his hat. He seems to have deluded himself as some kind of comic god, whose best work he likes to make out like he just scribbled on a napkin. On the contrary, originally batman was actually was never meant as a child friendly comic. It was only after the comics code authority that they changed him to be more kid friendly. The character just so happens to be malleable into both serious and campy. I like Alan, but here I do believe he's talking out of his ass. I think he should show more respect, for characters that made him famous in the first place.
Alvaro Muñoz Ruiz detective comics 27 and any issue before robin appeared and even then there were still dark stories like when Batman found his parents murderer
Alvaro Muñoz Ruiz Edmond Dantès is neither empty nor miserable at the end of The Count of Monte Cristo.
I think he's talking more about the later Batman series of the 1960's, when things were lighthearted before turning dark in the 1980's. But people don't remember how dark Batman was when he began. Like Moore said here, superheroes came from pulp, which were the grimmest of the grim. Batman was so dark that he used guns and killed people, for crying out loud! Even Superman was a total jerk in the earliest stories, bullying people and causing destruction just as much as he saved folks. Because, again, these were pulp characters. I mean, H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Philip K. Dick wrote pulp! If anything, Moore was just continuing the neglected lineage.
@@LordJagd Batman was becoming dark again all the way back in 1969, neither Moore or Miller made Batman significantly darker they just gave the story a direction.
Alan’s talking about the absurdity of it - yeah Batman’s a grim avenger, but at the end of the day it’s about a guy who dresses up in a silly Halloween costume who tries to scare even wackier costumed criminals - you can’t take that idea too seriously.
I am someone who has only read a few Batman comic books, and I thought Killing Joke was quite good.
I suppose it's for non-Batman regulars?
Anyway, Tom Strong is ace. I don't particularly find Swamp Thing to be a superhero comic book, it's more of a horror book to me, it's probably one of the best comic book runs of all time.
But yeah Moore's work is mostly non-superhero and it's the best stuff: V, League, From Hell, Lost Girls, Promethea etc