Mythic Proportions - A Chat with Alan Moore

(Circa 1998 Published in Previews Magazine)

Somewhere in England, Alan Moore - writer, musician, magician - is thinking about the future again. For the award-winning writer, as for most of us, what's past is prologue, the foundation from which all tomorrows are conceived. And, as for what tomorrow will bring, readers are in for a rare treat when: Avatar Press releases Moore's untold tale, Glory, in a four-issue mini-series; Top Shelf Publishing begins collecting his and Melinda Gebbie's (Tomorrow Stories) three-volume Lost Girls; and America's Best Comics continues to release his newest comic book conjurations. Previews had an opportunity to briefly discuss these various projects - diverse works that, although produced during different periods of Moore's creative evolution, collectively offer readers a glimpse of a creator whose career and works an only be measured in mythic proportions.

Some readers have seen similarities between the way you structured Supreme and the ongoing story you're telling with Tom Strong - especially in terms of the framing sequences and your examinations of comics history and pop culture. Are there any such similarities between what you were planning for Glory and what you are now doing within the pages of Promethea?

As far as I know, the only similarities between Tom Strong and Supreme are that it's me and Chris Sprouse doing them. With Supreme, when I was handed the character, he was pretty much a straightforward Superman knock-off. I was trying to make into a good Superman knock-off. Similarly, Glory was sort of a Wonder Woman knock-off I tried to make into something with a bit of depth. With Glory, I was mixing in some of the magical ideas I've expounded upon more fully in Promethea, and there are touches of Kahbalah in there, sure, but at the end of the day, it's a very different story.

Glory was more or less a straight super-hero comic with magical elements in the background. I didn't finish it by any means, but it was basically a love story, amongst other things. It was about a waitress with what she perceives as some sort of mental problems, which are in fact strongly related to her being a demigoddess. The thrust of the story was how she - through the maneuverings of Hell - is brought low, and more or less dragged down into the world of matter.

It certainly wasn't the exploration of magic that Promethea is, but I did put real magic into the story, only expressed in comic book form. I always bring in elements of real magic, and my own experience with magic, just to make the story feel more credible. With Promethea, the magic is the main point of the title. Whereas in Glory, I got a semi-mythical character handed to me, so in the background, I tried to use elements of mythology and magic to give it a genuine depth.

What's your involvement with Glory - now that it is going to be published?

There's no chance for me to be an [editor] of the mini-series, because I've got far too much work going on with other stuff. Still, I agreed that if Avatar sent me some of the completed pages, I could have a look. I'll cast an eye over the series and tell them if there are any pages missing, but I don't know if that really counts as editorial input.

Taking a quick look back at your work on Glory and the other titles you wrote for Awesome Entertainment, did you find you had to change the way you wrote your scripts to help the artists illustrate the stories you wanted to tell?

I wrote the scripts the way I always do: I try to write them to be as artist-proof as possible. Even if an artist is not very inspired, there should be enough information in the scripts to allow them to tell the story. That said, when I got the chance to work with artists like Chris Sprouse or Steve Skroce or Brandon Peterson, it was great. But most of the time, with the stuff at Awesome, I simply had no idea who was going to be drawing it. I had to write for a generic artist, rather than write for an artist's strengths - which is what I can do when I know who the artist is going to be.

Looking forward, what are you doing at America's Best Comics? Are you still having fun with the line?

Yeah, that's still fun. I'm really pleased with the amount of energy that everybody is putting into the ABC books - from the artists to the colorists to the letterers to the inkers. Everybody is giving 100 percent.

I don't feel America's Best Comics could significantly alter the overall state of the comic industry; it's probably a little bit naive and optimistic to ever think it could. But, as for the works themselves, I'm still every bit as committed to them and I think we are doing some wonderful stuff. People can tell when they read the ABC books that those of us writing and drawing them are having a lot of fun. I think that communicates...if nothing else, that alone communicates. And that's a good thing.

Talking about "fun," comics fans are still talking about how you brought back the Golden Age Nedor Heroes in Tom Strong...

I did have fun with that. I thought they were great characters, and I could see a way that they could he brought back...and also, [Nedor] originally published the comic book, America's Best Comics, in the '40s, and Doc Strange looks very much like Tom Strong.

Was that a contributing factor when you created the character of Tom Strong and the rest of the America's Best Comics line, or was it a complete coincidence?

It was a complete coincidence. I also didn't know there was The Book of Promethea by Helene Cixous, or things like that. I didn't know John Kendrick Bangs had written a bunch of stories about a place very much like the Immateria when I made Sophie Bangs the secret identity of Promethea. All of these things are delicious coincidences. I even found a character created from about 1910 in a series of novels published by the Boy Scouts of America about this ultimate boy scout named Tom Strong. It's just great! If you're hitting the right kind of vein of arche-typal stuff then things like this will just happen. I'm just tapping into something.

What can fans expect from the America's Best Comics line in the foreseeable future?

In the foreseeable future, there are big changes in Tomorrow Stories; we might change the format, and there will certainly be a lot of new strips in there. John Totleben will do "Pearl of the Deep" about an underwater super-heroine that should be both peculiar and beautiful. Shane Oakley will be doing a strip called "Limbo" about a supernatural hero that is reminiscent of the Charlton ghost books of the '70s or the ACG supernatural characters. You shouldn't expect this to be grim like The Spectre; this is the lighter side of the afterlife. And there's John Coulthart, who will be doing a decadent, partly computer-gener-ated occult strip called "The Soul." The Soul is an occult investigatress who operates in or around 1910 - but it's a very strange 1910, a very beautiful, art nouveaux world.

What else? The Top 10: The 49ers graphic novel with Gene Ha, that's underway. The Smax mini-series with Xander Cannon, that's underway. There's Promethea, which carries on with the Kabbalah story. Tom Strong will carry on. There’s Tom Strong's Terrific Tales, featuring Tom Strong, Young Tom Strong, Tesla Strong, and Jonni Future. There will also be an America's Best Comic Sketchbook that I believe Scott [Dunbierl was talking about, which will show some of the fine art that hasn't been published. The second book of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is also well underway. We're two issues into it, and I've seen about one and-a-half issues of Kevin O'Neill's artwork. I looks tremendous...absolutely brilliant stuff.

There's probably some other stuff as well, but I've just forgotten it. There tends to be such a lo going on that it's difficult to keep it all in me heat at one time.

I know you've brought on Steve Moore to belt you with the writing, but the sheer number projects that you have planned sounds daunting How are you keeping all of the projects organized?

Well, “not very" is the answer. Still, I don't think that I'm holding up any of the artists for work. I think, generally, it's quite merciful, because most of them are perhaps, slightly slower than I am - which makes me look good, even if I'm taking far too much time over the scripts.

Another project that is just on the horizon is Lost Girls. What can you tell us about that?

Chris Staros is bringing it out through Top Shelf Publishing. It's looking great, and were all very happy with how it's coming along. It's taking awhile, because of the kind of coloring that Melinda is doing - it's not quite as quick as com-puter coloring. Nonetheless, better for that. We've got about three or four chapters left to do, which is about 32 pages.

[The story revolves] around Alice from Alice in Wonderland, Wendy from Peter Pan, and Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz all meeting up as women in a hotel that lies on the borders of Austria, Switzerland, and Germany - in the Bodensee area. They are recounting their stories to each other; the erotic adventures that echo the books from which they are from. This is all against the backdrop of Europe of 1913, the tensions that are leading to the First World War is building up ominously in the background. It's a pornographic novel that has all the things that a real novel should have: like a plot and a meaning and three-dimensional characters and some of the most beautiful erotic art that I have very seen. I think it's going to be worth waiting for. It has taken us about 10 years, but at the end of the day, the readers might find that they have quite a pleasant treat in store for them.

Looking at all these varied projects - and your previous works like From Hell and Swamp Thing and all the others - as a collective whole, what would you consider as an overall connecting theme?

I suppose the only theme that covers my entire work is me. Things that are in my universe, that I find important - like magic or sexuality or any of the other issues that I deal with - these all probably find their way out, one way or another, in the various projects I'm doing. All I'm trying to do with my work is what any of us can do, which is give the people out there some idea of the view from in here.