Alan Moore : A Man of Tomorrow

One of the most revered figures in the comics industry, Alan Moore is renowned internationally for writing intelligent, articulate stories which elevate the medium of comic books well above common public perception. Moore’s witty and often controversial style has won him legions of fans, many of whom don’t generally read comics.

From grand farce to grim political satire on Thatcher’s Britain, Moore’s narratives seem unbound by genre. Each story is wildly different from the last with no sense of obvious progression. A dark tale of barbaric murder inflicted by one social class on another can be swiftly followed by the upbeat tale of a family of ‘Science heroes’ albeit with the taboo of male rape at its centre. Lost Girls, an erotic comic (or pornography as Moore succinctly puts it) sees The Wizard of Oz‘s Dorothy, Peter Pan’s Wendy and Lewis Carroll’s Alice meeting in a hotel room in Europe in 1913 and discovering their sexuality.

Moore simply tells the stories he wants to tell and moves on, unaffected by commercial demands. It is perhaps for this reason that Hollywood ‘s attempts to film his work have, so far, been steeped in failure and almost certainly explains why many of his early titles often changed publishers mid run as he slowly found his audience.

Born fifty one years ago in Northampton, Alan Moore began his writing career selling some short stories to the British comic 2000AD and the Doctor Who Weekly. One of his earliest and funniest pieces was Skizz, a parody of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial relocated to Birmingham.

His talent was soon noticed by the big American publishers (DC and Marvel Comics) and he was enlisted onto Marvelman, kitsch 1950’s based hero. Moore’s approach was to place the straight laced hero into a contemporary context. While this proved a sizable hit, it was Moore’s next venture that cemented his reputation.

Watchmen tells the story of a group of embittered former superheroes much like the X-Men, facing a nuclear threat in a futuristic society. Moore ‘s spin on a well worn tale was to humanise the various members of the team, so the narrative was less about the larger global threats and more about focussing on the human side of the struggle. As Moore himself has admitted, science fiction is rarely about the future as much as it is about the time in which it was written and Watchmen captures the 1980’s perfectly and is still, to this day, depressingly relevant.

A biting satire on Thatcherism set in the (then distant) 1997, V For Vendetta sees Britain under fascist control following a nuclear war. Everybody considered subversive has been eliminated by the governing order leaving the population bland and docile. Into this environment comes V, a mysterious figure wearing a cartoon Guy Fawkes mask. After destroying the Houses of Parliament he kidnaps a young girl who slowly begins to get involved in his anarchic schemes to depose the New World Order.

It’s easy to see how V For Vendetta became a cult triumph. Music, drama and comedy all comment on contemporary issues, so why not comics? Although a few superhero titles had touched upon social issues, they had often been constrained by the demands of the format. While groundbreaking at the time, a late 1960’s Captain America storyline which saw his sidekick turn to drugs did not have the necessary time or inclination to raise the narrative to incorporate any deep form of social comment. Moore himself scripted a child abuse storyline into Vigilante, a D.C. Comics title which had a small cult following.. As Moore himself later commented it was “probably not the best place for it.”

Although he is at his best when writing for his own characters, Moore has written powerful material for the iconic American heroes Batman and Superman. The Killing Joke, which saw Batman take on his arch nemesis, The Joker formed a loose basis for Tim Burton’s Batman (1989). Moore did badly out of his involvement in the project commenting ‘Jack Nicholson got $60 million for doing Batman. I got a club sandwich and a schooner of lager.’ He later dismissed the comic as saying nothing about the human condition which can’t have impressed the illustrator, Brian Bolland who had taken two years to draw Moore ‘s script.

Moore’s output has not been solely restricted to comics however. Recordings of his performance prose convey all the thought and wit of his written work. Highbury Working, a beat Séance covering the history of the area, takes in elements of folklore and mysticism read in Moore ‘s distinctive brogue.

His first novel, Voices of The Fire takes various time points in Northamptonshire’s history and deals with themes of magic over the course of its broad historical span. Each story in the anthology benefits from the verisimilitude of being written in the correct dialect of the period.

As a direct reaction to Government policy in the 1980s, Moore published AARGH! (Artists Against Rampant Government Homophobia). This came from the fact that at the time Moore and his wife lived with a mutual partner in what he termed as an ‘experimental relationship.’ Disturbed by the introduction of Clause 28, a bill intended to ban the promotion of homosexuality by local councils, Moore used the money he had earned from Watchmen in order to fund the project. His artistic contribution to the piece was entitled Mirror Of Love, a history of same sex relationships told in verse. The book successfully raised nearly £17,000 for the Organisation For Gay And Lesbian Action.

The successful translation of Moore’s work to the big screen has been problematic at best. Based on his epic and meticulously researched tale of the infamous Jack The Ripper murders, From Hell ignores much of the original text in favour of a silly plot twist, making Inspector Abberline (Johnny Depp) a somewhat ineffective psychic who predicts the Whitechapel murders after they have been committed! The films main problem as an adaptation of the comic is that it is far too short to incorporate even half the elements that made the book so compelling. A sequence featuring The Elephant Man is the only real of indication of the cross referencing that the book features.

The second film to be based on a Moore comic, The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen shows all the hallmarks of excessive studio tinkering and production difficulties. The inclusion of Tom Sawyer in a blatant attempt to pander to the American market is as unforgivable as the promotion of star and producer Sean Connery (Allan Quatermain) to the leader of the team. The original text saw Mina Harker leading the team after rescuing the emaciated Quatermain from drug addled torment in the prelude.

Moore’s attitude to the alterations that Hollywood has made to his work is to quote Raymond Chandler, stating. “People said: ‘Raymond, don’t you feel devastated by how Hollywood has destroyed your books?’ And he would take them into his study, point to the bookshelf and say, ‘There they are. Look, they’re fine.’ The film has got nothing to do with my work, it has a coincidental title to a book I’ve done and they’ve given me a huge wedge of money. No problem with that.”

Although Terry Gilliam has consistently stated a desire to direct the big screen adaptation of Watchmen, this has proved too prohibitively expensive. Given his reputation, studios have been reluctant to bankroll what would, if true to the comics original themes, have no ingredients to ensure mainstream box office success. As Gilliam himself eventually conceded ‘Watchmen felt like a movie. Why does it have to be a movie?’

With Keanu Reeves appearing in the title role in the forthcoming Constantine (a character Moore created for Swamp Thing and now no longer owns) and Darren Aronofsky recently announced as the director of the Watchmen, it will be fascinating to see whether Moore’s work can convincingly be reinterpreted for the cinematic medium. Sadly after his apathy about Hollywood ‘s treatment of his work, Moore has admitted that he has instructed his agents to say no to any further bids for rights to his scripts. Whether Constantine or Watchmen’s success at the box office give him a sense of renewed hope, only time will tell.

Jonathan Wilkins