No More Moore?

It seems fitting that Alan Moore announced his retirement from comic books in July; the news came on the heels of DC Comics closing down their Vertigo imprint and the dissolution of Mad Magazine. Moore inspired Vertigo; Mad inspired Moore. They all went out together.

Mind you, this may not be a full retirement for Moore - there's every chance that he may come back for a story here or there; heck, Steve Ditko 'retired' in 2000 but was still self-publishing at the time of his death in 2018.

Moore occupies a very odd position in the comics industry - he's absolutely one of the most-read creators who has ever written, Watchmen alone ensures that. He's one of the most influential creators on super hero comics, yet he's always been an outsider. He's considered both over-hyped and under-appreciated.

I came late to Moore -- being a Marvel Comics reader and his Captain Britain so hard to find -- and when I finally did read his work, I found it held up. I'm afraid I haven't read much of his 21st-century output (I didn't care for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen), but I've read his Watchmen, Miracleman, From Hell, Captain Britain, Swamp Thing, 1963, Supreme, Youngblood, Superman, Batman: The Killing Joke, Judgement Day, Top Ten and V for Vendetta.

It was just a couple of years ago that I audited a course on graphic novels where, in addition to Watchmen as one of the textbooks, we looked at two Alan Moore stories which I hadn't read before - his 9/11 piece "This Is Information" and one of his Greyshirt stories from Tomorrow Stories. I enjoyed the storytelling on Greyshirt so much that it led me to read all of his Tomorrow Stories, which was quite a bit of fun - he's best known for his grim super hero deconstructions, but his humourous super hero deconstructions are also well worth experiencing.

Part of what impresses me about Moore is the amount of effort he places into his storytelling. After all the years I spent reading scripts from Marvel writers who gave so little thought to what they wanted their artists to communicate and how they wanted it communicated (they were primarily concerned with their dialogue), I admire that Moore cares about storytelling, and it's evident from the books he wrote that he was always seeking to produce a certain effect on every comics page - sometimes through panels packed with dense information, sometimes by delivering information through simple imagery. The man cares about his art and wasn't content just to rush out pages to meet his deadlines. Enjoy your retirement, Mr. Moore.