Mooregasm

May 3, 2009 3:45 PM

Newsarama posts a massive six part interview with Alan Moore looking at The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Century: 1910 - part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6.
posted by Artw (22 comments total)

I peeked into The Black Dossier a while ago. I was at first thrilled, and then dismayed, to discover the Lovecraftian Jeeves & Wooster story. It just didn't seem to work to me. I think the Lovecraft overpowered the Wodehouse, which was a shame.

Anyone else see that?
posted by JHarris at 3:55 PM on May 3, 2009

Really? I thought it was one of the more cute and fun parts of the Dossier, which all in all was a mix of awesome bits, average bits, and bits that just seem like missed oportunities for really awesome comics (the LoEG vs Les Hommes Mysterieux reading like an outline for a really awesome six parter)
posted by Artw at 3:59 PM on May 3, 2009 [2 favorites]

I loved the Jeeves & Wooster vs. Cthulhu piece, as well as the 1984 Tijuana bible thingie.

The Kerouac thing gave me a headache though.
posted by hifiparasol at 4:06 PM on May 3, 2009

Technicality - I think somwhere along the line Elder Things and Mi-Go got a bit mixed up. Of course, that could just be Moore keeping it authentic, since it always more HPLs followers rather than HPL that were so big on fixing down strict definitions of things.
posted by Artw at 4:16 PM on May 3, 2009

Can you digg it?
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:21 PM on May 3, 2009 [1 favorite]

Thanks, Artw.

Before I dive into this interview: are there any spoilers in it? Should I avoid it until I've read 1910, or is it pretty much safe?
posted by painquale at 4:22 PM on May 3, 2009

I got to meet Moore and Kevin O'Neill at Gosh! yesterday. Both of them were really charming and super-friendly to everyone. Moore especially, none more so than when talking about the 'greek pie' (sic) haircut from Charlie Brooker's Nathan Barley TV show or explaining to a ten-year-old kid just why his hair is so long.

I've not read 1910 yet, since I'm currently dying of a cold/probablyswineflu. I'll save the interview till after, as it might take me a while to get through. Things like this I want to savour.
posted by permafrost at 4:23 PM on May 3, 2009

Awesome. Thanks Artw. I'll be in so much trouble tomorrow morning for staying up too late "reading the internet" (my wordage), but hey it'll be worth it and it is a bank holiday. Long live the May Day workers! Woo! See yez later.
posted by Elmore at 5:25 PM on May 3, 2009

I've not read 1910 yet

Has anybody? Last I checked that date had slipped to later this month. VERY EXCITED.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 5:47 PM on May 3, 2009

You know, LoEG is the only Alan Moore series I've really enjoyed reading - and re-reading. I mean, I've read Watchmen and V and at the end I thought, "Yeah, that's good stuff." But they weren't fascinating and fun in the same way. It might be all the reference puzzles, I don't know. But I'm very much looking forward to 1910.
posted by AdamCSnider at 8:01 PM on May 3, 2009

blah blah Lost Girls blah blah Lost Girls...

Moore's own interest in his work is inversely proportional to everyone else's.
posted by GuyZero at 10:50 PM on May 3, 2009

Well, there is the phenomena of things "going a bit Promethea"... STill, i like d this bit:

NRAMA: Austin writes – again, as a joke – “Are you aware that for all the formal and symbolic play and historical and literary reference, the number-one reason I finish your work is still to find who kicks whose ass, and who sleeps with whom?”

AM: That is quite understandable! And on that level, that’s what the plots are about! I mean, for all the stuff in the League, we try to write them so the action plot is fairly simple. It doesn’t really matter whether you catch even a fraction of the references.
posted by Artw at 8:58 AM on May 4, 2009

I thought the Lovecraft / Wodehouse combo was delightfully funny, and yeah, the Kerouac left me cold despite its technical accuracy. Still, I enjoyed THE BLACK DOSSIER and am very much looking forward to 1910. I would like to think there will be something in there that will delight me as much as Mr. Hyde vs. the Martians. Hyde was a brilliant characterization.
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 9:03 AM on May 4, 2009

Hyde vs Martians was fantastic, neatly topping what happened with Hyde before that, which seemed untoppable.
posted by Artw at 9:22 AM on May 4, 2009

Can you digg it?

Alan Moore does, in fact, know the score.
posted by FatherDagon at 10:15 AM on May 4, 2009

I'm just glad that it's been taken out of DC Comics' filthy hands. I'm still pissed that they withheld the vinyl record from the original edition of the Black Dossier because they wanted it as a selling point for the "Absolute" edition--and then didn't put it in that edition, either. And then people wonder why Moore won't work with the big superhero publishers any more...
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:57 PM on May 4, 2009

Can you get it over the counter in the UK yet?
posted by Artw at 1:03 PM on May 4, 2009

Thanks for the links, Artw! I haven't read that interview yet, but I sure will now. Moore is always worth taking the time.
posted by Kevin Street at 8:08 PM on May 4, 2009

1910 is on North America shelves today!
posted by Artw at 1:28 PM on May 6, 2009

YOU CAN’T MAKE ME LITERATE, ALAN MOORE! STOP TRYING!
posted by Artw at 8:54 AM on May 8, 2009

Annotations to League Volume III Chapter One, a.k.a. Century 1910, by Jess Nevins
posted by Artw at 4:03 PM on May 9, 2009

Hmm... I wonder what he'd make of his 2000ad stuff being repurposed onto the iPhone.
posted by Artw at 10:56 PM on May 19, 2009