More Moore from Awesome! (Circa 1998-1999)
These articles detail many of the exchanges between Rob Liefeld, Alan Moore, AAO and others in the months of the Awesome Collapse. They provide some insight into the dynamics behind the creation and repurposing of stories and ideas created by Alan Moore.
Newsarama: More Moore from Awesome
by Michael Doran
November 13, 1998
In March, AWESOME Entertainment in kicking off what they're calling "The
Awesome Age of ALAN MOORE", with the release of a series of projects all
written by Moore before he began work on his new AMERICA'S BEST COMICS line,
featuring his vision of the revamped and restyled Awesome Universe that
readers have seen glimpses of in Moore's SUPREME and his short-lived
YOUNGBLOOD series. "Alan Moore's impact on the industry is too great to
measure," said Awesome's ROB LIEFELD. "He's changed the way we write, read,
and view the medium. His contributions to Awesome were a primary reason for
our early success and in my many discussions with retailers and fans, the
hunger for Alan's work is never-ending. We believe we have some of Alan's most
brilliant work to date and look forward to delivering it to the marketplace."
The publisher's "celebration" kicks off in March with the release of ALAN
MOORE'S AWESOME UNIVERSE HANDBOOK, and GLORY #0.
ALAN MOORE'S AWESOME UNIVERSE HANDBOOK is a one-shot taking a behind-the-
scenes look the creative process Moore took in revamping the Awesome Universe.
Featuring the writer's original detail-packed overviews and plot synopsis for
SUPREME, GLORY, YOUNGBLOOD, THE ALLIES, and the NEW MEN, the handbook will
feature illustrations by a variety of artists, including over 35 by ALEX ROSS
dramatically redesigning the SUPREME universe. Included in the designs is
Ross' renditions of Supreme, Suprema, and Radar.
Written by Moore and drawn by soon-to-be new X-MEN penciler BRANDON PETERSON,
GLORY #0 serves as a jumping-on point that sets the stage for the writer's
vision for the character and her continuing adventures in the April-debuting
ALAN MOORE'S AWESOME ADVENTURES.
AWESOME ADVENTURES is the long-promised anthology title that will feature
newly illustrated stories by various artists of the over 30 stories Moore
previously wrote for the scheduled relaunch of Awesome Universe earlier this
year before the publisher's financial problems stalled those plans. Each issue
will feature a new story starring a rotating line-up of YOUNGBLOOD, GLORY,
SUPREME, or WARCHILD, with Youngblood getting the nod for issue #1.
April also sees the release of THE ALLIES OF JUSTICE, a new ongoing series
featuring the Awesome Universe's all-star superhero team in the tradition of
Marvel's Avengers and DC's JLA. The title stars Supreme, Fighting American,
Glory, Spellcaster, Die Hard, Badrock, Thor, and Roman, teamed-up for the
first time in stories written by ERIC STEPHENSON based - at least initially -
on 12 Alan Moore-written plot synopsis. Liefeld will pencil the series' first
four issues.
"While the majority of titles that Awesome has published have catered to the
fantasy/sci-fi audience we want to get back into the super-hero business in a
big way and THE ALLIES is our ticket," said Liefeld. "Alan has created a great
batch of new super-villains in Dr. Drang, The Killer Mist, The Basilisk, and
Florax The Dominator! This team boasts what I believe to be the most powerful
line up in comics history. It's not often you get the Thunder God of Myth
standing next to the most powerful man in the universe. The stories will be on
a grand scale with epic confrontations, but we know that the characterization
is what will bring the readers back. Eric and I collaborated on what many
agree to be the best work of my career in YOUNGBLOOD #6-10 and a few TEAM
YOUNGBLOODs, and this work will easily top those efforts. I'll be doing the
first four issues of THE ALLIES and then I'll begin work on the RE:GEX movie
and begin working on a new RE:GEX mini-series. THE ALLIES will be a big book
for Awesome and will open up a whole new field of opportunities for us."
Finally, Liefeld urged fans of SUPREME to "fear not", the publisher plans to
make another announcement soon.
-----
03-01-1999
www.anotheruniverse.com
http://www.anotheruniverse.com/comics/interview/alanmoore030199.html
Alan Moore fans will soon be feeling nostalgia for 1997 when Moore was writing
and re-crafting the Awesome Universe in his image, creating a world of
superheroes that gave many fans the impression that this was the way DC and
Marvel should've done it years before.
Awesome recently solicited more of Moore's Awesome work based on unpublished
scripts and outlines including the Rob Liefeld-penciled, The Allies, a series
that collects Awesome's heroes together in a team reminiscent of the Silver
Age JLA.
In an exclusive Mania/Newsarama interview, Moore revealed that The Allies #1
that hits shelves will be different from the solicited The Allies #1 in two
ways. "Allies comes from a bunch of very, very short, very brief synopses that
I did for Awesome a couple of years ago," Moore says. "The ad that ran in
Previews is actually completely out of date and has noting to do with the
comic that is going to be coming out. As Rob explained it to me that was the
art they had, on hand. The team I wrote was made up of completely different
characters."
Also, the creator credit will be slightly different than originally reported.
"I've got no objection to Rob using any stuff of mine that he paid for," Moore
says. "However, I told him that I'd prefer if he downplayed the "stories by
Alan Moore" aspect because my input if anything was very skeletal outlines.
But Rob assures me that nevertheless, they are bigger, stronger outlines than
anyone else in the business, but by my standards, these are three or four
line, vague ideas for possible stories. As far as I am concerned, The Allies
is a Rob Liefeld/Eric Stephenson production, and any resemblance to my stories
will probably be coincidental. There wasn't much there to begin with."
Rob Liefeld however, politely disagrees with Moore. "As you can imagine with
the stories that have circulated about how detailed Alan's scripts are (We
have his scripts for a four-issue Warchild miniseries that he wrote for us,
and literally, Alan wrote four pages describing the first page of the issue.
The first panel is an entire page!), his synopses and outlines much more than
the standard length and content."
"Alan wrote very thorough synopses for The Allies that have true beginnings,
middles and ends," Liefeld says. "What he calls 'synopses' are more complete
than what some creators call 'scripts.' But in accordance with Alan's wishes,
The Allies will now read, "from stories by Alan Moore." But everything else
that will be coming from Awesome is fully written by him, and I think people
are going to be very excited to see it."
So how much Alan Moore material does Awesome have in its archives? "There was
about 400 pages of my work that Awesome had that hadn't been published by the
time when they ceased publishing the first time," Moore says. "As I recall,
I'd written up to issue #7 of Youngblood, and there 7 or 8 issues of Supreme,
and there were some various issues of Glory, Warchild and a few others." While
400 pages may seem like an incredible amount of work for mere mortals,
apparently it's nothing when you're Alan Moore. "If you haven't worked with
Alan, you have no understanding of how fast he is," Liefeld says. "He
essentially wrote a year's worth of everything he was doing for us. By the
ever solicited Glory #1, he had written seven issues. By the time we put out
the last issue of Supreme, we had another year's worth of scripts ready for
art. Alan can basically write a script a week, and that's what he was
basically doing when he was working for us."
"When Awesome went on hiatus, I put all of Alan's work away, and figured that
we'd eventually work through all the financial issues, and develop a timeline
to release all his stuff. Originally, I was going to hold onto Alan's material
because I had been told that America's Best Comics was going to launch in
November of '98 through February of '99. Then, they told me that they were
going to postpone it indefinitely as the deal with DC came to light."
"Through all of this I was talking with Alex Ross who is my conscience of
sorts on Supreme. He's been very helpful in guiding creative decisions in
marketing what we have, because he is really passionate about the character
and has been very generous about helping us garner more attention for the
series. Alex told me that we should get Alan's material out before the ABC
books hit. Originally, I wanted to wait until after the ABC debut and follow
his newer stuff, but with the majority of these books done, it didn't make
sense to sit on them any longer."
"Now, as the solicitations come out, we're getting most of the Awesome
material started up before the bulk of the ABC line starts, but I don't think
they'll compete against each other at all. The Alan Moore fan would love a new
Alan Moore book every day of the week, so we're betting they're going to drink
all this stuff up."
Awesome's shipping schedule of Moore's work looks like this through early May:
· Glory #0, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Brandon Peterson, ships
on March 9.
· Alan Moore's Awesome Universe Handbook #1, written by Alan Moore and
illustrated by Alex Ross, Pat Lee, Liefeld, Ed McGuiness, ships on March 30.
· Alan Moore's Awesome Adventures #1, written by Moore and illustrated by
Steve Skroce, ships on April 20.
· Allies #1, written by Eric Stephenson inspired by stories from Moore,
illustrated by Liefeld, ships on April 27.
· Supreme: The Return #1, written by Moore, illustrated by Chris Sprouse,
ships on May 4.
An Alan Moore/Alex Ross Production?
It's been a pipe dream for many fans, and now it may become a reality. Rob
Liefeld gave Mania the exclusive buzz about a project that may join two of
today's comic book legends.
"Alan and I are talking about a project that would team him with Alex Ross,"
Liefeld says. "It originally stemmed from me calling Alex and Alan in October
and telling them that if I only had a limited amount of dollars left to
publish comics in this business, I would give it to Alex and Alan and ask them
to do a book together. They both thought that was funny, and said they'd think
about it. It turns out that Alex really took to it and has talked to Alan
about it. Through their discussions, Alan really got interested, so it's
something that's in the development stages at the moment. Can't say if it will
happen for sure, but the possibility of it coming together gets better with
each day."
Liefeld says that the project, starring Supreme, one of Ross and Moore's
favorite characters, could be out as early as December of this year, depending
on the creator's schedules. The working title for the project is Supreme: WW
Infinity.
------
Rob Liefeld Apologizes to AAO (Awesome Army Online)
circa 1998-1999
I will weigh in here for a minute to address a situation that I believe
has spiralled out of control. The AAO (Awesome Army Online) people are
extremley appreciated by everyone who works for Awesome. Your support
has been very uplifting throughout what has been a miserable past year.
I feel terrible that some of you have felt slighted in your association
with us and hope that over time everything will become more relaxed and
less volatile.
Let me explain why I am unable to interact as much with this board
and it's
members.The long and the short of it, simply, is a lack of time, not
caring. For better or worse, I am the entire staff of Awesome
Entertainment and have been for quite some time. I am not the artists or
writers or colorist or letterers, but I am the Editor, Traficc
Coordinator, Accountant, Courier, Promotions Director and Distribution
Chief. I knew that if any of these books were going to get out that I
would have to roll up my sleeves and get down and dirty. Matt Hawkins
had been assisting me in keeping the company going but more and more of
his time was being devoted to the launch of Lady Pendragon and it was
inevitable that in time he would have to devote all of his time to that
venture and we have supported him at every turn. I jumped in headfirst
and have not looked back. The past month has been soley devoted to Coven
which has been a humongous undertaking in that it involves some 36 pages
as opposed to the average 22 + cover that goes into a normal book. The
deed is almost finished and from there I am going into FA:DOW #3 and
Avengelyne and gearing up for the upcoming convention season. On top of
all this I am trying to write draw and be a good husband and friend. Now
if it sounds as if I am complaining, I am not at all, in fact I DIG all
the work I've been doing because I have become re-aquainted with several
aspects of the business that I had left to others over the years. It has
created a unique sense of pride and ownership that I have not
experienced in quite some time. To state the record straight, I have
not been alone in all my endeavors,
working from behind the scenes has been both Eric Stephenson and Jeph
Loeb . These two gentlemen put together the return of Supreme, I was
there to give the nods on talent and contracts but the negotiating was
all done by them. Imagine my relief at having them to fall back on in
regards to this and many of the other deal making processes.
As we move forward, we are staffing up and getting ready for a great
year.
Eric is going to expand his duties at Awesome and we will all be the
better for it. We will be hiring new promotions people as well. This
will create less liklihood of things slipping through the cracks as it
appears many of you feel has happened of late. I cannot begin to express
my gratitude to you for your support and to Jeph Loeb who continues to
make a priority out of communicating with all of you on behalf of
Awesome no matter how hectic his workload gets. I feel that my time with
you could be better spent by getting the Awesome books to the printer
and to the stores. As far as the Alan Moore projects go, So much of the
work on those books has been completed for some time now that it really
is just a matter of recieving the orders and sending them out. These
books are guaranteed to be the most timely of our titles. In regards to
Youngblood#3 I made the decision to reroute it into Awesome Adventures
after I recieved the Abysmal numbers on the book. As many of you know, I
am self financing this venture and cannot afford to lose money on these
titles, so I am forced to pursue whatever means necessary to make these
books work. I apologize for the delay.
No one understands your frustrations more than I do. This past year was
as difficult as I have experienced and I knew that hanging in the re was
going to be rough on everyone, but fading out for even a brief window
would have been the death blow. Thank you for voicing your concerns and
if our situation has left you frustrated and you need take a break then
I hope we can meet again under better circumstances.
Best.
Rob
To join AAO (Awesome Army Online) send blank message to
aao-subscribe@egroups.com
Julius Pham
Awesome Alliance Group
http://www.comicbookresources.com/links/jump.cgi?ID=324
-----
aao@egroups.com 10/29-30/99
In a message dated 10/30/99 2:37:09 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
john.door@... writes:
<< This is as good a place as any to ask what exactly is going on with
Liefield. Does anybody here know? >>
Jimmy Jay, Awesome's marketing director, stated in a post the other day on
the AAO (Awesome Army Online) list that they've hired a regular artist to
illustrate the remaining Moore scripts and get the book onto a regular
schedule. He also addresses a few other points that may be of interest to
Moore fans, including use of the Judgement Day characters, and the Jim
Kruger/Alex Ross Supreme project.
Here's what Jimmy posted on the AAO:
Subj: [aao] Long winded responses to AAO issues
Date: 10/29/99 3:41:52 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Jimawesome@...
Reply-to: aao@egroups.com
To: aao@egroups.com
To Mick, Malcolm and the AAO-
If I'm getting the laundry list of postings correct, you guys are calling
for/requesting the following:
*Awesome needs at least one title to ship on a regular, predictable basis.
Fans have caled for Supreme, Coven, and Kaboom specifically.
*The powers that be at Awesome- namely Rob- needs to focus on a sigle project
rather than being involved in a number of different ones, from different
companies.
*The Awesome Universe is fine as is, and doesn't need any completely new
reboot, special projects or universe enhancing events.
Let me respond to some of these...
*a regular title-
I believe I responded to this issue in an earlier post, and I whole heartedly
agree with you all on this issue. We always belioeved that the Alan Moore
material is a great resource for us to draw upon and we want it to be a
cornerstone in our publishing plans. Awesome has just signed a really cool
artist to fill in the gaps for the Supreme series. We have some future
completed issues in the can, and these issues can possibly be stand alone
Supreme stories. We could have run these out of order in the past months.
Instead, our goal is to acchieve the full impact of the greater story and run
them as originally intended, in the sequence they were intended. This new
artist should put the title back in track. Look for #3 hitting the store
shelves in the next few weeks, and #4 before the first of the year.
As for Coven- again as I explained in an earlier post- we are giving out the
fix for Ian Churchill's supernatural corner of the universe with LIONHEART.
Scratch, SPellcaster, BlackMass, Phenomenon, and Fantom all play pivotal
roles in the mini series. Issue #2 is near completion and should be ready to
go out to the printers and #3 will shortly follow. And for those that are
sticklers for the series to keep running in monthly numbering, you will see
As for KABOOM-
We always intended Kaboom to be a 3 issue mini series. The characters of
Geoff and Krya have been popular amoung the fans, so we will definately see
them in action throughout the year 2000. For fans that need their close to
As for fans of KERON GRANT- we believe that he is hands down the best young
penciler to come out in recent years. We plan to keep Keron busy, with him
attached to our premiere projects in 2000.
________________________
*The focus of Rob and Awesome in general.
This has been a concern for the diehard fans and supporters of Rob through
much of 1999. Rob has shown some of the most brilliant work of his career in
the RE:GEX, stepped in to Marvel to save his first major creation CABLE from
cancellation, and has suffered through a major family tragedy when his father
went ill to the hospital in early June, and his death in the the last days of
September. Add to all of this another major family situation, and you get an
idea where he has been the past year.
Rob has slugged through all of this, and completed his Marvel commitments,
and is back full time and full steam with AWESOME. Rob has slated the
CENTURY mini series and spearheading the EXTREME FORCES series, in addition
to overseeing everything Awesome. Fans will also see more of his creations
in the spotlight with the Re:GEX- as the PRIME issue will hit, as well as
more material for the characters in the new stories with Avengelyne and
more...