Last Alan Moore Interview?
 

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Alan Moore addresses his use of the Galley-Wag/Golliwog character in LOEG, and sexual violence towards women in his comics. He also talks about Grant Morrison in a very unflattering way.

Re: Last Alan Moore Interview?
 

The idea it's his last interview sounds like so much hyperbole but Moore says some very interesting things as usual.:lol: It's worth the long read if one doesn't get bogged down in the discussion over sexual violence and racism.

The subject of comic-related-films (or film-related-comics) had understandably arisen and, when asked, I had ventured my honest opinion that I found something worrying about the fact that the superhero film audience was now almost entirely composed of adults, men and women in their thirties, forties and fifties who were eagerly lining up to watch characters and situations that had been expressly created to entertain the twelve year-old boys of fifty years ago. I not only feel this is a valid point, I also believe it to be fairly self-evident to any disinterested observer. To my mind, this embracing of what were unambiguously children’s characters at their mid-20th century inception seems to indicate a retreat from the admittedly overwhelming complexities of modern existence. It looks to me very much like a significant section of the public, having given up on attempting to understand the reality they are actually living in, have instead reasoned that they might at least be able to comprehend the sprawling, meaningless, but at-least-still-finite ‘universes’ presented by DC or Marvel Comics. I would also observe that it is, potentially, culturally catastrophic to have the ephemera of a previous century squatting possessively on the cultural stage and refusing to allow this surely unprecedented era to develop a culture of its own, relevant and sufficient to its times.

This, I think, leaves us only with the herpes-like persistence of Grant Morrison himself.

Shortly after this, as I was no longer really engaged with the British fanzine scene (as I recall there’d been a couple of letters attacking me as an individual by over-entitled superhero fans, which at the time I found to be a compelling reason to sever my connections with that milieu), I had called to my attention a number of unpleasant comments and insinuations regarding me and my work which Grant Morrison was making in the promotional platform/fanzine column that he was selflessly providing for one of these publications.

Re: Last Alan Moore Interview?
 

Is it that much different than the audience for Superman in the late 1970s?



Was Miracleman, The Killing Joke, and Watchmen written for children?

If superheroes were the only successful films coming out I MIGHT agree with him.

Which is strange considering one of the few creations he actually owns that he continues to write is made up of other writer's characters taken from other writers going back to the mid-1800s.

I can see why he got made about Morrison bringing up the Superfolks comparison but it seems like he got a lot of his ideas for Miracleman and Watchmen from that book.

Re: Last Alan Moore Interview?
 

I think his reasoning about the renewed popularity of superhero films is fairly close to the truth. The interview covers so much ground that my excerpts really don't do it justice.

Re: Last Alan Moore Interview?
 

He mentions that the superhero audience is comprised "almost entirely" of the 30-50 crowd.

Yet a film like the Avengers, according to studio exit polls 50% of the audience is under 25.

I think his issues with Marvel and DC is making him a little biased and bitter towards the superhero genre. He criticizes writers like Geoff Johns for taking elements of a Green Lantern story written by Alan Moore, but sees no problem with himself doing the same thing.

As eloquent and intelligent as he is I'm not too impressed with his defense of the Galley-wag character or the issue of sexual violence in his work but he does bring up some good points about the lack of criticism for using Fu-Manchu and why people aren't more concerned with the overall violence in superhero comics.

Re: Last Alan Moore Interview?
 

I don't quite understand his argument about escapism and superhero movies. Aren't a lot of movies escapist fantasy stuff, things that wouldn't happen in real life, even before the most recent superhero movie phase?

Yeah, almost all produced films are designed as escapism.

I'll have to give this a read, I've always been a little uncomfortable with how much rape his stories seem to constantly have.

Re: Last Alan Moore Interview?
 

To be fair the majority of his work features some disturbing themes. I don't know why he complains about his contributions to the grim and gritty era of superhero comics when it's a recurring them throughout most of his work. I agree that the subject of sexual violence shouldn't be off limits in fiction, however The Killing Joke is an example of an immature and problematic use of it. Batgirl is shot, paralyzed and stripped naked while The Joker photographs her naked and in agony. So Batgirl reduced to a plot device just to show how evil the Joker is and to show the hero avenging her.

Re: Last Alan Moore Interview?
 

Alan is thought provoking as always... Thanks for this!