longer than the Bible and with a better afterlife scenario
October 31, 2014 4:32 PM Subscribe
Alan Moore's Jerusalem - "The frequently confusing cross-currents of Moore's late work make much more sense, in fact, when one sees them not just as entertainment products but as attempts at building a better reality."
Love Moore as I do I have a feeling that in the event of Jeusalem seeing publication I will buy the thing immediately but then take a good long time before working my way up to reading it.
posted by Artw at 4:44 PM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Artw at 4:44 PM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]
OH MY GOD CAN I JUST SAY I didn't know about Crossed+100 and few things in comics could make me happier. My love of Crossed has been a lonely one -- most of my comics peeps think it's too gross, and I think most of my horror peeps don't read comics -- but I feel vindicated just knowing that Alan Moore digs it as well. Not to mention any time Moore does horror thrills me. I am so insanely jazzed for this.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 4:49 PM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by kittens for breakfast at 4:49 PM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]
I'm planning to spend my declining years gazing balefully at Jerusalem's copious virgin spine mocking me across the room.
posted by Grangousier at 4:50 PM on October 31, 2014 [5 favorites]
posted by Grangousier at 4:50 PM on October 31, 2014 [5 favorites]
The first draft was finished a month or so ago, but when the editing will be done is, I suspect, anyone's guess.
posted by howfar at 5:03 PM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by howfar at 5:03 PM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]
“Lucia Joyce chapter, which is completely incomprehensible … all written in a completely invented sub-Joycean text” Yay!
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 5:05 PM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 5:05 PM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]
I kinda liked the Bastard Clown in his kickstarter thing... but casting yourself as God is a bit, well, you know.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 5:07 PM on October 31, 2014
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 5:07 PM on October 31, 2014
Voice of the Fire Ug-Speak Chapter, nevah forget.
posted by Artw at 5:10 PM on October 31, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Artw at 5:10 PM on October 31, 2014 [2 favorites]
In Cloud Atlas, Timothy Cavendish refers to Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire as his "perpetual lavatory read". I think Jerusalem will make a fine perpetual lavatory read.
posted by Ndwright at 5:24 PM on October 31, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Ndwright at 5:24 PM on October 31, 2014 [2 favorites]
Fire mountain of Voice
Etch stones with laser letters
Crackling shall not
posted by Mblue at 5:31 PM on October 31, 2014
Etch stones with laser letters
Crackling shall not
posted by Mblue at 5:31 PM on October 31, 2014
I've met people that make complete sense when they talk and you have great conversations with them and when they're done you're like "Wow, I don't know if that's the smartest person I've ever met or they're so completely out of their goddamned mind they're getting reception from another dimension". Alan Moore is like that times ten.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 6:12 PM on October 31, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 6:12 PM on October 31, 2014 [3 favorites]
I'm glad that Alan Moore is writing but did he have to do all the writing at once?
posted by turbid dahlia at 7:17 PM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by turbid dahlia at 7:17 PM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]
I read Voice of the Fire, and it's very impressive without being accessible. I remember his mastery of prose and his incredible knowledge of Northampton, but I couldn't really tell you what he was trying to do in that book. Whereas he's a top-of-the-line genius in comics.
posted by zompist at 7:41 PM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by zompist at 7:41 PM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]
You know the Guild Navigator in Fune that lives in a giant fishtank full of weird gas? Alan Moore's house is basically that except it is dope smoke.
posted by Artw at 8:06 PM on October 31, 2014 [10 favorites]
posted by Artw at 8:06 PM on October 31, 2014 [10 favorites]
Bring me my bow of burning gold.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:12 PM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:12 PM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]
Fune is, as we all know, the story of Paul Mercedes, messiah of the nomadic Gordon Freemen, antagonist of the Bene Jazzercise, and ascendant Emperor of the known Whedonverse.
posted by cortex at 8:18 PM on October 31, 2014 [29 favorites]
posted by cortex at 8:18 PM on October 31, 2014 [29 favorites]
Alan Moore has become awfully cranky over the past few years, and I worry that his having spent this much effort on a single piece of work will make it inevitable that he crawl up his own ass and disappear entirely. I'm really in no position to judge how good this book is likely to be, because I've got "Voice of the Fire" sitting on a nearby shelf, unfinished. I successfully got through the first chapter a couple of years ago. Having done that, I never picked it up to start chapter 2.
All that said...I will, at a minimum, be buying a copy of "Jerusalem". But what I'm really excited for is the "Bumper Book of Magic".
posted by Ipsifendus at 8:32 PM on October 31, 2014 [4 favorites]
All that said...I will, at a minimum, be buying a copy of "Jerusalem". But what I'm really excited for is the "Bumper Book of Magic".
posted by Ipsifendus at 8:32 PM on October 31, 2014 [4 favorites]
Fune is, as we all know, the story of Paul Mercedes, messiah of the nomadic Gordon Freemen, antagonist of the Bene Jazzercise, and ascendant Emperor of the known Whedonverse.
Color me slain, you humorous bastard.
posted by Purposeful Grimace at 8:40 PM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]
Color me slain, you humorous bastard.
posted by Purposeful Grimace at 8:40 PM on October 31, 2014 [1 favorite]
Fune is, as we all know, the story of Paul Mercedes, messiah of the nomadic Gordon Freemen, antagonist of the Bene Jazzercise, and ascendant Emperor of the known Whedonverse
FROGGER! THE SWEEPER HAS SOME BACON!
posted by KingEdRa at 11:12 PM on October 31, 2014 [5 favorites]
Oh come on, it was a simple typo, that's hardly fair. And fair...well, fair is the mike cola.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 11:32 PM on October 31, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by Jon Mitchell at 11:32 PM on October 31, 2014 [3 favorites]
You know the Guild Navigator in Fune that lives in a giant fishtank full of weird gas? Alan Moore's house is basically that except it is dope smoke.
Ain't that the truth! A friend of mine, who used to be an acquaintance of Moore, told me that Moore bought a farm near Builth Wells, years ago, used by friends of his, on which rent was paid exclusively in regular and enormous deliveries of homegrown weed. I've no idea whether this is still the case, but he's definitely getting a lot of it from somewhere.
posted by howfar at 2:03 AM on November 1, 2014 [2 favorites]
Ain't that the truth! A friend of mine, who used to be an acquaintance of Moore, told me that Moore bought a farm near Builth Wells, years ago, used by friends of his, on which rent was paid exclusively in regular and enormous deliveries of homegrown weed. I've no idea whether this is still the case, but he's definitely getting a lot of it from somewhere.
posted by howfar at 2:03 AM on November 1, 2014 [2 favorites]
‘What it’s saying is, everything is eternal,’ he tells me. ‘Every person, every dog turd, every flattened beer can – there’s usually some hypodermics and condoms and a couple of ripped-open handbags along here as well – nothing is lost. No person, no speck or molecule is lost. No event. It’s all there for ever. And if everywhere is eternal, then even the most benighted slum neighbourhood is the eternal city, isn’t it? William Blake’s eternal fourfold city. All of these damned and deprived areas, they are Jerusalem, and everybody in them is an eternal being, worthy of respect.’
He's been saying this in one way or another at least since Watchmen but I like the way he puts it there.
posted by Trinity-Gehenna at 2:39 AM on November 1, 2014 [5 favorites]
He's been saying this in one way or another at least since Watchmen but I like the way he puts it there.
posted by Trinity-Gehenna at 2:39 AM on November 1, 2014 [5 favorites]
My love of Crossed has been a lonely one
All I know of Crossed is the covers, which I avoid like Darth Plagius.
And Si Spurrier is somehow involved (and despite his 2000AD connections I have hated his Marvel work).
Should I investigate Crossed, and if so where?
I'm prepared to give Moore's series a spin, because DR and Quinch absolved him for a lot of sins.
posted by Mezentian at 3:18 AM on November 1, 2014
All I know of Crossed is the covers, which I avoid like Darth Plagius.
And Si Spurrier is somehow involved (and despite his 2000AD connections I have hated his Marvel work).
Should I investigate Crossed, and if so where?
I'm prepared to give Moore's series a spin, because DR and Quinch absolved him for a lot of sins.
posted by Mezentian at 3:18 AM on November 1, 2014
Yeah, the Crossed variant covers...well, yeah. That said, the digital editions of Crossed just run the standard covers, which tend to be horror-ish but not terribly extreme. More to the point, the variant covers are usually not reflective of the content of the actual comic, so.
There's a lot of Crossed, and at this point it's a bit of a financial commitment to try to read the whole thing. Fortunately, almost every arc is self-contained, so you don't need to read the whole thing to understand what's going on. Highlights IMO:
*The original Crossed mini/graphic novel by series creator Garth Ennis and artist Jacen Burrows establishes the ground rules, so it's kind of essential. Luckily, it's also very good. This is, fittingly enough, sold as Volume 1 of Crossed (on Comixology, it's Crossed #0-#9).
*David Lapham has probably written more Crossed than anybody, including Ennis. I love all of Lapham's Crossed stuff, but some people find it a bit much vis a vis its grotesquerie. Lapham's first arc is Family Values (Volume 2 in print; on Comixology, it's Crossed: Family Values #1-#7), and you can probably gauge from it whether this is something you really want to pursue. If so, most of his later work forms a long-ish mega-arc that you'll want to follow: Psychopath (Volume 3 in print; Crossed: Psychopath #1-#7), The Livers (Volume 6; Crossed: Badlands #21-#24), and Breakdown (Volume 7; Crossed: Badlands #33-#36). Note that most of the print collections include stories by other creators as well.
Ennis and Lapham have both written other Crossed stories, too, and there's plenty of good work from other people, but this is pretty much what I would consider a Best Of.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:52 AM on November 1, 2014 [1 favorite]
There's a lot of Crossed, and at this point it's a bit of a financial commitment to try to read the whole thing. Fortunately, almost every arc is self-contained, so you don't need to read the whole thing to understand what's going on. Highlights IMO:
*The original Crossed mini/graphic novel by series creator Garth Ennis and artist Jacen Burrows establishes the ground rules, so it's kind of essential. Luckily, it's also very good. This is, fittingly enough, sold as Volume 1 of Crossed (on Comixology, it's Crossed #0-#9).
*David Lapham has probably written more Crossed than anybody, including Ennis. I love all of Lapham's Crossed stuff, but some people find it a bit much vis a vis its grotesquerie. Lapham's first arc is Family Values (Volume 2 in print; on Comixology, it's Crossed: Family Values #1-#7), and you can probably gauge from it whether this is something you really want to pursue. If so, most of his later work forms a long-ish mega-arc that you'll want to follow: Psychopath (Volume 3 in print; Crossed: Psychopath #1-#7), The Livers (Volume 6; Crossed: Badlands #21-#24), and Breakdown (Volume 7; Crossed: Badlands #33-#36). Note that most of the print collections include stories by other creators as well.
Ennis and Lapham have both written other Crossed stories, too, and there's plenty of good work from other people, but this is pretty much what I would consider a Best Of.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:52 AM on November 1, 2014 [1 favorite]
I've tended to assume that Crossed amounts to little more than the pornography of violence, but maybe I'm wrong. I loved Ennis' run on Hellblazer and I'll certainly give Moore's Crossed issues a go.
posted by Paul Slade at 9:03 AM on November 1, 2014
posted by Paul Slade at 9:03 AM on November 1, 2014
Crossed for me is like eating a really really hot curry... it's not always pleasant, and it's not something I want to do all the time and unlike less hotter fare can be a bit samey, but at it's best is an adrenaline rush of an experience that's for sure
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:59 AM on November 1, 2014
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:59 AM on November 1, 2014
Ugh, I'm starting to regret that I ever mentioned it. Let's talk about The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic, instead! It's something that's been in the works for quite some time (and that I'm a little worried about because of the death of Steve "No Relation" Moore, the co-author), and that promises to deal with magic a bit more forthrightly, without being filtered through superheroics (like Promethea, which I nonetheless adored) or existing characters and/or franchises (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, ditto). Like the latter's The Black Dossier or Dodgem Logic (Moore's periodical, seemingly on hiatus), TMASBBOM looks like it will incorporate a number of different formats, including a pop-up section, a fold-out board game, and Tarot cards. Let's all focus our workings on making that happen, pretty please?
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:47 PM on November 1, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:47 PM on November 1, 2014 [1 favorite]
I say this every time there's an Alan Moore thread, but you really should check out his spoken-word-with-music CDs. Two of the best - The Highbury Working and Snakes & Ladders are available on CD from Amazon US. So, for that matter, is my other favourite of the set, Angel Passage.
The closest equivalents to this audio work would be From Hell's psychogeographic London tour (for Highbury Working and Angel Passage) or the issues of Promethea laying out Moore's whole theory of magic (for Snakes & Ladders). There are moments there (particularly in Highbury Working) where the music joins with Moore's performance of his intoxicating text to produce something very like an altered state from listening to the audio alone. They deserve to be far better known than they are and, even though you may have to part with some cash to acquire them, I doubt you'd regret the investment. For my money, they're among his very best work.
[Angel Passage is all about William Blake's life in London and his spiritual beliefs regarding the afterlife. I think it was Tim Perkins who suggested Blake's Heaven as a working title for this project, a pun which will be better appreciated by anyone familiar with a certain 1970s science fiction series on British TV.]
posted by Paul Slade at 4:25 PM on November 1, 2014 [2 favorites]
The closest equivalents to this audio work would be From Hell's psychogeographic London tour (for Highbury Working and Angel Passage) or the issues of Promethea laying out Moore's whole theory of magic (for Snakes & Ladders). There are moments there (particularly in Highbury Working) where the music joins with Moore's performance of his intoxicating text to produce something very like an altered state from listening to the audio alone. They deserve to be far better known than they are and, even though you may have to part with some cash to acquire them, I doubt you'd regret the investment. For my money, they're among his very best work.
[Angel Passage is all about William Blake's life in London and his spiritual beliefs regarding the afterlife. I think it was Tim Perkins who suggested Blake's Heaven as a working title for this project, a pun which will be better appreciated by anyone familiar with a certain 1970s science fiction series on British TV.]
posted by Paul Slade at 4:25 PM on November 1, 2014 [2 favorites]
Let's talk about The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic, instead!
I think you pretty much covered all the talking points, except: "have wanted it for years; fear this state of affairs will continue for years to come."
posted by Zed at 6:35 PM on November 1, 2014 [2 favorites]
I think you pretty much covered all the talking points, except: "have wanted it for years; fear this state of affairs will continue for years to come."
posted by Zed at 6:35 PM on November 1, 2014 [2 favorites]
I really want Supreme to be reprinted. And Tom Strong.
posted by turbid dahlia at 7:41 PM on November 6, 2014
posted by turbid dahlia at 7:41 PM on November 6, 2014
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posted by Halloween Jack at 4:36 PM on October 31, 2014 [4 favorites]