Happy Birthday Alan Moore!

Happy Birthday Alan Moore!  He started out as an underground comics artist and writer.   Moore stands to me as a true artist who understands and pushes the boundaries of the comic book medium.  He started dealing with superheroes with the British Marvel Super Heroes that featured Captain Britain and the artwork of Alan Davis.  The work was in the trade paperback, Captain Britain (2002).  In the comics magazine, Warrior, Moore revived the British hero, Marvelman, with a dark, modern twist.  It was reprinted by Eclipse Comics as Miracleman and later acquired by Marvel Comics to be reprinted there along with a trade paperback, Miracleman Book 1: A Dream of Flying (2014).  Moore co-created with David Lloyd V for Vendetta for Warrior.  It was completed and printed in color by DC Comics in 1988 to 1989.  There are numerous printings of the collection including V for Vendetta 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (2018).  It was adapted into film in 2005 and the Guy Fawkes mask from the series has appeared in almost every protest.  

Alan Moore started across the Pond working at DC Comics on Swamp Thing starting with issue #20 (1984).  It was an unmatched masterwork that set Swamp Thing from horror character into a lyrical and literary protagonist.  Moore collaborated with Stephen Bissette, John Totleben, and Rick Veitch among the many fine artists.  There was a 1982 film written and directed by Wes Craven that adapted the early horror work and also a 1989 movie.  This led to a television series that ran from 1990 to 1993.  Recently, there is a television series that is on the CW.  Then in 1986, Moore closed the classic Superman stories with “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” In Superman #423 and Action Comics #583  with art by the iconic Curt Swan.  Moore worked again with Dave Gibbons in one of the best comic book works on superheroes in Watchmen (1986).  It was adapted for film in 2009 and became an award winning television series in 2019.  

In 1988, Moore also made his mark with one of the most well known Batman stories, The Killing Joke, with art by Brian Bolland.  It was adapted into an animated film, Batman: The Killing Joke (2016).  He completed V for Vendetta and then worked with Eddie Campbell on a graphic novel, From Hell, from 1989 to 1998.  A film loosely adapted it in 2001.  Moore also produced a prose novel, Voice of the Fire, in 1996.  Another graphic novel, Lost Girls, was a collaboration with Melinda Gebbie that was begun in 1991 and completed in 2006.  He worked at Image Comics, but another long form work was League of Extraordinary Gentlemen with Kevin O’Neill, which started in 1999 with Wildstorm Comics and finally completed in 2019.  There was a disappointing movie in 2003 that took some concepts from the comic book.  An incredible work for America’s Best Comics was Promethea, it is a bold and personal work for Moore.  Another work was Providence (2015-2017) illustrated by Jacen Burrows that brought Moore’s sensibility to H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulu Mythos.  Moore published another novel, Jerusalem, in 2016.  There was a documentary, The Mindscape of Alan Moore (2003), that brings his worlds into focus.  An excellent exploration of Moore’s work is in Magic Words: The Extraordinary Life of Alan Moore (2013).  Happy Birthday Alan Moore! 

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