Horizon

I've read better interviews with Moore, I have to admit. Though any conversation that involves V For Vendetta is okay in my books.

Small irritation: Okay, I know that American spelling and British spelling differ, but the Labour Party is a proper noun, and so calling it the "Labor Party" is just plain wrong.

I made the mistake of reading the interview from the beginning. Please tell me that he doesn't come of as as big a jackass in his writing as he does in this interview.

Ludicrous assertions about Bush being some sort of evangelical Pope aside, this really stood out:

All of us have an astounding amount of information in our heads. Hence the rise of the trivia quiz, where we've actually got a brief opportunity to download some of this useless junk our craniums are crammed with!

Download? This is the sort of chic-but-wholly-incorrect use of tech jargon I thought had died around 2000. You know, where the author tries so hard to show how hip he was to be "on internet" that he reveals himself as a pretentious idiot.

Ben, I agree. I find Alan Moore to be an extremely annoying person in person. However, there is no doubt that some of his comic work is among the best there is.

I find this line especially characteristic:

"This is what wars are; it's not Hollywood," Moore cautions.

Thanks Alan. Let me write that down.

On that note I have to disagree with Graeme on V for Vendetta, which I think showcases all that is rather annoying about Moore (his sermonizing tendencies in particular). I have never understood why people like that one so much.

I just read V for Vendetta for the first time and I thought it was pretty good, although the middle book seemed to lose its way a bit. Perhaps I just find cod-Orwellian dystopias a bit passe now.

Perhaps I just find cod-Orwellian dystopias a bit passe now

It wasn't in 1982, when V was first written. And I would argue it wasn't really in '88 when it was finished.

I disagree with both Alans it seems. I think V is Moore's best work-- a deeply stirring work that looks initially like Zorro in 1984 and then turns out to be neither. I think much of my own politicization, as it were, comes from this, particularly the middle book, which I think is the heart and soul of it-- "Valerie" is deeply touching, and Evey's journey is the most fascinating thing about V.

And I think he's pretty damn entertaining to listen to even if I disagree. I'll even cut him slack about the downloading remark and not owning a computer.

I do think his conclusions about his own social role in this interview, while being a bit vague and grandiose at the same time, is as good a description of the social function of the artist as I've seen in some time.

So how is it that you've dealt with him in person?

Sorry, bad choice of words. I meant "he himself" not "in person". I.e., in interviews and so forth.

(Expected fusillade) Alan Moore!Can't stand it! Whenever you heard of an english comic person getting involved with American comics, you bloody knew the upshot would be sentiousness and pretension. There was another one like Moore, whose name escapes me, but he was a pretentious sod as well. Every few years people start banging on about graphic novels (I thin k it's just the same journalist flogging the same feature). The only graphic novel I've ever enjoyed was Maus I and 2