Everyone Should Have an Alan Moore Moment
It was 1984, I was 16 years old, and
comics were changing, or to be exact, NOT changing.
The problem was, I was discovering girls, working a job,
paying for a car, etc. etc. Although I had been a rabid
comic reader since the age of 5, I was beginning to lose
interest in the hobby I cherished. I was growing up,
but my comics weren't. Oh sure, there were some off-beat,
small-press comics out there that dealt with mature themes,
but I was turned off by the (mostly) amateur artwork and
sex-drugs-life sucks- themes. There was some
previous excitement over Frank Miller's Daredevil, Claremont
& Byrne's X-Men, and Wolfman & Perez's Teen Titans, but they
were exceptions in a wasteland, and it seemed to me that
there would never be any mainstream comic that could keep up
with my growing, young-adult taste in literature.
I was becoming a more discriminating reader, and the old
super-hero melodrama was losing it's appeal. Even my
all-time favorite, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, couldn't keep my
interest. The Black Costume saga was in full-swing, and
although it was a neat gimmick, the endless Hobgoblin
sub-plot bored me to tears. The unthinkable had
happened; I was losing interest in the entire comics medium.
And for the first time in my life as a completeist, I
began dropping titles from my buying list. In
the course of only a few months, I stopped buying comics I
had purchased regularly for 11 years.
SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING #20
had a cover date of January, 1984, and it was written by a
new guy named Alan Moore. The comic title itself was one I
was ready to stop buying every month. The first 13 issues or
so were almost painfully boring, despite the nice artwork
from Tom Yeates. There seemed to be some improvement when
artists Steve Bissette and John Totleben came on board with
issue #16. The book had a newer vitality, even with
the same writer who had still been on board since issue one.
I decided to keep purchasing the book and give this new Alan
Moore guy a try, since Bissette and Totleben were sticking
around. Issue #20 came out, and it was a good read.
Overall, it wasn't an award-winner, but it ended with a
cliffhanger as Swamp Thing had been attacked and almost
completely destroyed by a mysterious corporation bent on
finding out his secrets. Interesting enough, and I decided
I'd buy the next issue.
Oh boy. Oh boy. Oh boy.
Issue #21 came out (on a Monday, I
think) at my local newsstand (no comic shop at that time),
and I picked it up on my way back from school. Later that
night, I sat down to read whatever comics I picked up that
day. I propped up the pillows on my bed and stretched out.
The cover on SAGA #21 was a nice Tom Yeates effort, if
unremarkable. Swamp Thing hovers menacingly in the
foreground while an old guy in a suit looks panicked in the
background. No one could guess that the story
inside would change the comic world. Swamp Thing
finds out that the one thing he lived for, to be human
again, could never happen. His old body was destroyed, and
only the consciousness of his human side remained inside the
plant body. His entire reason for being, and for the
comic, was gone.
On the surface, that doesn't
sound like a story that would change the world, but it was
the way Moore told the story. His pacing, suspenseful
dialogue, and the overall emotional impact made it an
unforgettable read. Fans immediately took notice, and Moore
took a book due for cancellation to the heights of comic
fandom. Within his few years on the book, it became a
best seller, won numerous American and UK awards, and Moore
became the favorite writer of not only comic fans, but comic
pros as well. With Moore as an influence, it just
seemed like comics got better overall. Writers were
challenged to create better stories and more
three-dimensional characters. Like any "trend", some writers
took it too far, choosing to ape Moore's style without the
originality, but I believe his positive influence on
the quality of comics can be felt to this day.
My point isn't just to lavish
praise on Alan Moore, but to ask readers if there was a
point in your life when you were ready to cast aside comics
completely, or perhaps already did, but some creator or
event kept you reading or brought you back. For me, it was
the moment in SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING #21 when an enraged
Swamp Thing kills the owner of the corporation that
uncovered his secrets. It was an Alan Moore moment
that kept me interested and excited about comics.
Needless to say, I never stopped reading, and I read more
than ever these days, thanks to other great writers like
Peter David, Geoff Johns, Garth Ennis, and Neil Gaiman
Not all of us have such a defining moment that can be
pinpointed so immediately. For some, maybe it was the return
of G.I. Joe or the Transformers a few years ago, or maybe it
was Neil Gaiman's SANDMAN comic. In any case, I'd love to
hear from fans about a defining moment in your enjoyment of
comics. What is your "Alan Moore Moment"?
Feel Free to email us
any responses! We'll look 'em over and post some of the best
replies!
David Romeo, Jr.
Owner, Comics on the Green
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