Alan Moore is undeniably a superb writer, but over the last five years or so he’s mostly been notable for being the Grumpy Cat of comicdom. Now the other beloved, kind-of-insane, British comics writer is calling him out on his bad attitude.
Grant Morrison was recently invited to weigh in on an article about Moore, who you might be aware thinks Morrison is ripping him off left right and center. After, let’s see here, almost two decades or so of abuse, Morrison finally had enough, and watching him let it rip is really something to behold.
Morrison is polite, but he’s also blunt. While he’s not out to tear down Moore’s work, and in fact has nothing but praise for it, he’s clearly pretty sick of the man himself. Probably the best takedown in the entire piece is this:
Moore constantly reiterates the idea that all modern comics are copied from stuff he did in the ’80s – and they’re all rubbish!
Is he genuinely saying that his influence has been entirely malignant?
Morrison is a nice guy, possibly one of the nicest in comics, but it’s fairly clear he’s fed up and it’s hard to blame him. Unlike a lot of guys from the ’80s, Moore is still putting out work worth reading, but it’s getting a little exhausting hearing about how all comics that aren’t written by some guy in a beard who worships a snake god are just pale imitations, or griping about money and creative control from a guy who commands more of both than literally anyone else in comics.
So, really, let’s just skip ahead to the Moore/Frank Miller cage match we all want, huh?
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*Orders a custom shirt that says “Team Morrison”*
Please forward the buy link. I didn’t see it on grumpybritishguys.com
I love Morrison and his short creator owned series are always awesome but whenever he does a superhero run it always seems to start out great but then devolves into a convoluted indecipherable mess by the end of it.
I agree he’s at his best when he’s got a definite ending in mind.
His run on Action has been a steaming pile. Really not sure where he’s taking Batman Inc either.
You know what, an annoying character gets shot. That’s all I want.
Morrison is hit or miss for me. Some of his stuff is overly enamored of concepts at the expense of character making it dense and inaccessible. But when he’s on he crushes it. His Batman run and All-Star Superman being my favorite superhero examples.
Awesome inside-baseball-type stuff to read. Grant Morrison is by and far my favorite writer, but Alan Moore is also among my top list, and both share a very hit/miss record as far as their works go. Both seem like ego-maniacal yahoos, but unlike Moore, Morrison seems to be able to return to the shared reality the public consciousness inhabits and has a highly perceptive self-awareness.
You can really taste how bitterly ignorant Alan Moore can be when he talks about he and Michael Moorcock (why does everyone involved in this article have ‘More’ in their name?) and how their only squabble has been over which one Morrison has ripped off more. He’s like a high school girl just bitching about petty shit and then going, “Pfft, not like I CARE though…..”
Morrison nails the entire argument when he brings up the fact that all hired writers on comics are just trying to add/further these immense legacies of our modern Mythologies. Under Moore’s own logic, his work on “Lost Girls” and “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” is nothing but ripped-off rubbish.
All that said I am reading his “Swamp Thing” run right now and “Top 10″ is what got me back into comics harder than ever a couple years ago.
Steve Bissette was the guy who ran the local video store where I spent most of my teenage years. He’s a pretty awesome guy.
“Unlike a lot of guys from the ’80s, Moore is still putting out work worth reading”
Eh, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century was *pretty rough*. Lost Girls was, well, kind of repulsive.
Anyways, for all the wackiness in his comics, Morrison always comes off as eminently reasonable and insightful in his interviews — one of the reasons I’m still a big fan despite some recent disappointments from him.
I liked Century, honestly, although if I’m being honest, it felt more like an Invisibles book to me.
Dont forget about Neonomicon, there was plenty of weird cross species raping going on in that bad boy.
Didn’t read Neonomicon — but rape? In and Alan Moore book? Get outta town.
I’m all Morrison>Moore from a recent perspective. Bat Inc and the underrated Joe the Barbarian>the latest Extraordinary Gentlemen
I think we should just quit giving Moore his soapbox. Who cares what he thinks anymore? He used to be a legend. Now he’s a crazy old asshole.
Because it’s fun to tease him?
Fair enough.
Don’t forget this mostly gets furthered because interviewers just will not stop asking the same damn questions.
guy is fucking crazy. always sounds like we have to credit the continuing existence of the medium to him. sure he may have inspired most of today’s writers, but for fucks sake, they are their own people.
I think writers of that caliber have the right to be grumpy….i mean imagine being a great painter like Van Gogh and you got to live in a world where people feed off of finger paintings…. Great writting is pretty few and far between lately and Moore is still up there on top with Miller…above Snyder, Ennis, Kirkman, and Fox….
^ All writers i personally think are awesome.
I don’t know that I’d rate Moore’s recent work over Snyder’s Batman run. And there are guys like Si Spurrier, Nathan Edmundson, Brandon Graham, Mike Johnston, and so on. Moore’s put out a lot of classics, but he’s not bulletproof.
As far as Miller goes… just… don’t get me started.
I’m deff not as current as i should be so bare with me…. but the guys i named have a certain “Grit” to their writing that just stands out to me personally. . . guys like Edmundson just dont click with me…
Current top dog in my comic reading world has been Garth Ennis…for quite some time now come to think of it…like….a decade…lol
With Miller, I personally would rather ignore him as an individual, and the works that he made that are “critically acclaimed” lose a little bit of their luster because the media is so saturated with this shit nowadays. Plus, anyone that makes Alan Moore seem eminently reasonable by comparison is a person to avoid.
i think you guys didnt catch my Van Gogh reference lol….
Crazy = Masterpieces
Everything after “The Dark Knight Strikes Again” is honestly a wash to me. The man’s greatest contribution to recent comics is “I’m the goddamn Batman!”
I feel like Holy Terror says it all. That book is AMAZINGLY awful.
I love Ennis but man, when he gets into his juvenile humor he just loses me.
Okay, actual work aside, I’m going to take Frank Miller over Moore in a fight cause Miller is a certified crazy person who probably sleeps with a gun under his pillow and moreover Moore’s pagan witchcraft can’t protect him IN THE CAGE! WEDNESDAY WEDNESDAY WEDNESDAY SEE TWO OF COMICS LEGEND FIGHT TO THE DEATH PAY-PER-VIEW AND ALSO GRAAAAAVEDIGGER AND TRUCKASAURUS REX AND WCW SUPERSTARS OF PAST!
they’re just sharpening their blades anybody else attacks em, they team up and cut them off! heh! that’s the way it should be, but seriously, Alan needs to smile upon his fans tributes to him, (I’m sure his snake would agree). So much love for him converted into hate, now there’s something wrong. Alan do your majicks and find out who’s messing with your mind making you HATE your LOVED ones, I dare ya! no majicks, just deed thinking will suffice, love you adorable bastach!
I mean: “just DEEP thinking will suffice”
Moore seems to buy into the bullshit narrative that comics sucked after Seduction of the Innocent (except for the totally awesome Marvel characters creation) until Moore and Miller revolutionized comics in the 80′s (sometimes Claremont’s X-Men run gets mentioned).
Moore just comes off so self-important that I can’t help but roll my eyes. Plus, for as dark as Morrison can get he seems like an optimist and I find his books way more enjoyable to read.