"There are the various were-cockroaches and wrigglies"

April 13, 2009 5:16 PM

Artist Stephen R. Bissette dissects the making of Saga of the Swamp Thing #20, the first American comics appearance of writer Alan Moore (um...previously), in a series of blog posts that feature much original artwork (by Bissette and others), as well as a sampling of Moore's apparently absolutely ginormous script for the issue. (Warning: Parts of Bissette's site are NSFW.) Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6.
posted by kittens for breakfast (14 comments total)

thank you! i have been a fan of his work since the Alan Moore run on ST. my uncle sent me a stack of them, and then kept sending them as they came out. i was like 12. it was AWESOME. i was regularly blown away by the quality of the artwork.
posted by radiosilents at 5:37 PM on April 13, 2009

Yes, thanks for posting this, kittens for breakfast. I never knew Bissette had his own website (been checking out Rick Veitch's for awhile) and it's great to read his insights on the beginning of one of the most legendary reinventions in comic book history.
posted by Donnie VandenBos at 5:42 PM on April 13, 2009

This is good stuff, thanks for posting it. I was buying these when they came out and those were some exciting times.
posted by marxchivist at 5:42 PM on April 13, 2009

Lovely. Last week, I read book one of The Saga of the Swamp Thing. Over the weekend, I went through Gibbons' Watching the Watchmen a second time. Now this. How do I get these men out of my life?
posted by shoesfullofdust at 5:55 PM on April 13, 2009

Oh cool. Thanks, kittens.
posted by homunculus at 6:26 PM on April 13, 2009

Wow, I'm dizzy! This is GREAT.
posted by Scoo at 7:21 PM on April 13, 2009

Due to the proliferation of Alan Moore scripts out there wannabe comicbookwriter lesson 1 is almost always this: You are not Alan Moore. Alan Moore is a genius. Do not attempt to imitate him. You should not be spending half a page describing a panel. You should not be piling layout directive after layout directive onto the artist. Cut it all way back.

Then, later, as you figure out when it is actually needed you can start putting it back in.

I should have some kind of Why You Are Not Alan Moore FAQ to link to on Google comics writing groups and the like, and save myself a bunch of typing.
posted by Artw at 7:22 PM on April 13, 2009

01. Am I Alan Moore?
You are not Alan Moore. You are probably Jerry Prosser.

02. Who?
Exactly.
posted by Donnie VandenBos at 7:32 PM on April 13, 2009

Nothing wrong with being a Prosser. Prosser does solid work.
posted by Artw at 8:13 PM on April 13, 2009

WOW. Thanks for this! Coincidentally, last week I began re-reading my stack of TABOOs. Veddy cool.
posted by Ron Thanagar at 8:37 PM on April 13, 2009

Nothing wrong with being a Prosser. Prosser does solid work.

Oh man, no. Remember the end of Animal Man? Or Skin Graft?
posted by Donnie VandenBos at 9:02 PM on April 13, 2009

Heh. Ditched those at issues 1 and 0 respectively, but his Dark ahorse stuff was solid.
posted by Artw at 8:09 AM on April 14, 2009

this is awesome. thanks so much.
posted by shmegegge at 9:54 AM on April 14, 2009

Something that's worth mentioning in this context, I think, is that Alan Moore hasn't spoken to Bissette for over a decade. (scroll down for a mention of it) I don't have a link to Bissette's original post of it--he's also written about it in a collection of tributes to Moore on the occasion of his 50th birthday--but essentially Bissette did an interview with The Comics Journal about, IIRC, some publishing venture that he and Moore were involved in with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman, and he sent a first draft of the interview to Moore to see if their recollection of the events jibed... and Moore called him back and said that, from then on, all further communication, if any, between them would be done via lawyers. Bissette still isn't sure why Moore is giving him the silent treatment.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:31 AM on April 14, 2009