Alan Moore Book Club

I have read The League book 1, book 2, Tom Strong, V For Vendetta,Wildcats 2.0.

V For Vendetta, The League book 2 being the most impressive works so far. I havent had time to read him as much i like. An obsession with Garth Ennis works got in the way ;)

I plan to read more of his comics in trades soon. Swamp Thing and co.
 
Did Alan Moore do anything for 2000AD?

For some reason, i think that he did a couple of strips called "Alan Moore's Twisted Times" and "Alan Moore's Shocking Futures". Both of which, were brilliant.
 
Moore, Alan, and Kevin O'Neill. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume One. La Jolla: America's Best Comics, 2002.


2: “Ghosts & Miracles”


Writer: Alan Moore
Illustrator: Kevin O'Neill
Colourer: Benedict Dimagmaliw
Letterer: William Oakley










**THIS ENTRY CONTAINS SPOILERS, CONTINUE READING WITH CAUTION**


#2. Ghosts & Miracles.


Plot: At the end of issue #1 Empire Dreams, the reader found him or herself at a real cliffhanger: Quartermain has just shoved a bottle of laudanum down Mr Hyde's throat which more or less caused the ape-like creature to fall through a window upon the street. After the creature has been transported safely into The Nautilus and kept in quarantine for a night, it has changed back into Dr Jekyll complaining about his missing ear.
The menagerie gets send to an all-girls school in Edmonton where curious events are happening: “visitations from the Holy Spirit.” It leaves miracles behind in the school and many girls have been getting pregnant. The spirit strikes while the trio stays a night at the school and with a great struggle they capture it. It turns out to be a man named Hawley Griffin, who made himself invisible!
The league is complete now (after promising Griffin a clean sheet, money and a cure for his self-inflicted condition), right in time for the next issue that will get them “into conflict with the sly Chinese.”


The last character added to the “Empire's Finest” comes obviously from H.G. Wells' novel The Invisible Man. Minor characters also come from literary sources, but are more obscure and therefore easily missed. The school's headteacher apparently is a character from the mind of William Dugdale; the girl being seized by the “Holy Spirit” is Polly Whittier, known as Pollyanna Whittier in the novels by Eleanor H. Porter.


The first two issues really make the reader familiar with the agents that will dash off into the adventures to protect the empire – therefore there isn't much room left for real development in the story. That will surely come in the following instalments.
 
Only some of their best then.

D. R. and Quinch was genuinely very funny. I Loved them.
 
knivesout said:
I'll stop here for now. More later, and thanks to Marky Lazer for his initiative in setting up this discussion and his detailed, informative notes above (although of course anyone who discusses LOEG must always be indebted ultimately to Jess Nevin's fantastic annotations.)
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You're allowed to continue now for a few more pages... :p
 
This seems like the best place to ask this. To date, I have read but 3 of Mr Moore's works (V for Vendetta, Watchmen and Lost Girls) and love them greatly and wish to read more, however, I really have no idea where to start on the rest of his work.

I was wondering what people's general consensus is on his best works outside of the 3 I mentioned?
 
Well, where to go next, I don't know. But if you're patient enough, keep up with this spot here. After League I will go on with Watchmen and V and then, we can even put it to a vote. Though I heard From Hell is worth anyone's time as well.
 
Well for my part I can also recommend From Hell, League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Swamp Thing (omnibus edns. )
 
Duchessprozac said:
This seems like the best place to ask this. To date, I have read but 3 of Mr Moore's works (V for Vendetta, Watchmen and Lost Girls) and love them greatly and wish to read more, however, I really have no idea where to start on the rest of his work.

I was wondering what people's general consensus is on his best works outside of the 3 I mentioned?
Click to expand...

Do you dislike superhero fiction ? I know he is respected also for his mature take on superhero like Supreme,Batman The Killing Joke,Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tommorow.

People tend to recommend The Ballad of Halo Jones,Top Ten,Tom Strong,Promethea.

Really i dont think you can go wrong with most of his stories. It depends what kind of comics are you looking for ? Weird genre comics like Swamp Thing or more like mainstream superhero.
 
Moore, Alan, and Kevin O'Neill. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume One. La Jolla: America's Best Comics, 2002.


3: “Mysteries of the East”


Writer: Alan Moore
Illustrator: Kevin O'Neill
Colourer: Benedict Dimagmaliw
Letterer: William Oakley










**THIS ENTRY CONTAINS SPOILERS, CONTINUE READING WITH CAUTION**


#3. Mysteries of the East.


Plot: Now that the League finally has been established it is time for a real op: the Devil Doctor has stolen some material called cavorite and whoever possesses the cavorite possesses the sky. The Gentlemen believe the mysterious criminal is preparing an aerial bombardment so half of London will perish.
In pair of two the league starts to investigate: Miss Murray and Mr Griffin get a riddle from an informant while Quartermain and Dr Jekyll witness a man being tortured by “an oriental demon.” This is evidence that “the Doctor” exists and the parable steers the League to Rotherhithe Bridge. Back in Nemo's submarine, they decide to investigate matters further and find out what it is that Johnny Chinamen wants to do with the cavorite. An enormous airship is being prepared and it doesn't look like it's going to be send on a friendly mission...


I think it is time to make some points about Kevin O'Neill's illustrations by now, for they are marvellous. Incredible detailed for such small panels and some of them appear to be a Where's Wally illustration. The final page of issue three for example is quite a piece of artwork and I think that certainly strengthens Moore's script.


I haven't found literary characters besides Quong Lee from Thomas Burke's stories.

The series now really starts to get under way and has sucked me into the Victorian fictional world. If I had bought these issues instead of the collected edition, I might have decided to stop buying them after two “slow” issues of recruitment, but this issue (we're halfway now) really sets things in motion.
 
Oh, and a question. Is the red shawl of Miss Murray a reference to Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" maybe?
 
Connavar said:
People tend to recommend The Ballad of Halo Jones,Top Ten,Tom Strong,Promethea.

Really i dont think you can go wrong with most of his stories. It depends what kind of comics are you looking for ? Weird genre comics like Swamp Thing or more like mainstream superhero.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't say Promethea to anyone as a general recommendation for getting into Moore. It certainly has it's merits but for the most part it's a lecture, rather than a story, on an odd topic and at times is almost incomprehensible. The America's Best Comics works are all toying with the genre and medium of comic books in one way or another, but Promethea in the most extreme.

Having read the three the poster mentions my recommendations would be:
The Ballad Of Halo Jones - Moore's 2000AD feminist space epic. It tells a brilliant overall story but also the serialised nature of it means that is is packed with brilliant ideas and concepts. Gets more serious as it goes on, it will stay with you.
The League Of Extroadinary Gentlmen - See thread. The first two collections are particularly good.
From Hell - For me this is Moore's masterpiece. Obstensibly a Jack The Ripper story, it does provide an incredibly detailed, deeply researched account of the crimes - but Moore's speculative culprit and his motives are about so much more that I can't even begin to summarise.

Near enough everything he's done is worth reading - but you should read these first (having read V and Watchmen).
 
Am a fairly erratic reader of comics & graphic novels in that I don't follow a series. I tend to prefer standalones but will sometimes buy a series if it's a character I like, for instance Swamp Thing or Batman. Hence I have batman graphic novels by several people with my favourite probably being Arkham Asylum.

I do like what Nei Gaiman is doing for reasons that have already been stated above. He's been pushing boundaries and adding myth and folklore into his work giving them a lot more depth and richness. The same goes for Alan Moore. He's always got a different story to tell and it's many-layered and pulls in many threads. League is a good example. There's literature and history and legends all rolled into a few volumes that give me at least something new most every time I look at them.

I think a lot also depends on why you are reading a comic book or graphic novel. I have several that I have bought for the art and simply because of the art. Some of them have the worst storylines ever but they are beautiful. Others are based on novels I have already read but again, great effort has gone into making beautiful graphic novels out of them and that I appreciate.

Some i read simply because they ask nothing of me. They make me laugh and smile when I thought I was too tired to do anything but sit down and cry. They don't tell the most splendid stories and are really quite mundane but at that time, in that place, they work.

As for Alan Moore, I love pretty much all I have read of his. Some more than others admittedly but there's probably nothing I gravely dislike.

From Alan Moore I've read
All the League of Extraordinary Gentleman Volumes,
Hypothetical Lizard (possibly the oddest thing I have),
V For Vendetta,
Batman: The Killing Joke,
Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?,
Saga of the Swamp Thing,
Swamp Thing: Love and Death,
Swamp Thing: The Curse,
Swamp Thing: A Murder of Crows,
Swamp Thing: Earth to Earth,
Swamp Thing: Reunion
Watchmen
Alan Moore's Complete WildC.A.T.S
Alan Moore's Yuggoth Cultures and Other Growths
From Hell
The Courtyard (in The Starry Wisdom: A Tribute to H. P. Lovecraft)

 
Rufio said:
I wouldn't say Promethea to anyone as a general recommendation for getting into Moore. It certainly has it's merits but for the most part it's a lecture, rather than a story, on an odd topic and at times is almost incomprehensible. The America's Best Comics works are all toying with the genre and medium of comic books in one way or another, but Promethea in the most extreme.

Having read the three the poster mentions my recommendations would be:
The Ballad Of Halo Jones - Moore's 2000AD feminist space epic. It tells a brilliant overall story but also the serialised nature of it means that is is packed with brilliant ideas and concepts. Gets more serious as it goes on, it will stay with you.
The League Of Extroadinary Gentlmen - See thread. The first two collections are particularly good.
From Hell - For me this is Moore's masterpiece. Obstensibly a Jack The Ripper story, it does provide an incredibly detailed, deeply researched account of the crimes - but Moore's speculative culprit and his motives are about so much more that I can't even begin to summarise.

Near enough everything he's done is worth reading - but you should read these first (having read V and Watchmen).
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I have read Promethea not extreme at all if you are use to reading comic books. If you have read writers that like to experment.

Anyway i was mentioning what his fans usually recommend. Outside Watchmen,V thats pretty mainstream cause of vertigo label, Watchmen being a classic book for what it tried doing.

I read by interest, what i feel for next. Not which comic of his are most highly rated.

Halo Jones looked pretty good for an old 2000AD comic and its rare to have a female hero.
 
Promethea does rather lose its story and become more a textbook on the Tree or Life and the Tarot (with some other mysticism thrown in). If you're not interested in that, you find find it annoying, though the first couple of books would probably still be worth reading. (Personally I loved it all, but that kind of tning fascinates me).
 
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