The Extraordinary Works Of Alan Moore: Indispensable Edition
Category: Books,Literature & Fiction,History & Criticism
The Extraordinary Works Of Alan Moore: Indispensable Edition Details
Review "The name of Alan Moore immediately sparks to mind some of the greatest comics of the modern era. The Extraordinary Works by George Khoury covers Moore's career from his early works up through the success of America's Best Comics." Cliff Biggers, Comic Shop News"Extraordinary Works is a labor of love. It's a biography, a panegyric, a birthday card, and a retrospective. This is the end of Moore's career (he's retiring on his fiftieth birthday, though we haven't seen the last of him yet), and the beginning of a new period in his life. He's been writing for comics for twenty-five years. It's a pretty good way to mark the occasion." Rebecca Scott, The Green Man Review"For anyone who has ever read and enjoyed any of Alan Moore's amazing comic books, I cannot recommend this publication highly enough. I thought that the early chapters, dealing with Moore's youth and childhood, would be boring -- but Mr. Moore's wit brought great humor to those stories of his 'early days.' And once the story moves to his break-though stint writing Swamp Thing, the narrative really kicks into high gear. The book is filled with behind-the-scenes stories of Moore's time working on all of his seminal works. I've read a good deal over the years, for example, about his run on Swamp Thing and the making of Watchmen, V For Vendetta, etc., but the stories found here quickly move beyond the familiar "legends" connected with those projects. It's endlessly fascinating to hear Moore's thoughts on the development of those works, as well as his opinions about them now, looking back. (I was quite interested to read about the reasons for his dislike, for example, of The Killing Joke, which -- despite his feelings -- I continue to regard as one of the definitive Batman stories.) I was also pleased that the book spends a significant amount of time discussing some of Moore's less well-known works, from the tantalizingly unfinished Big Numbers, to his time writing for Jim Lee's Wildstorm and Rob Liefeld's Awesome Comics universes, to his well-regarded but all-too-brief (to me, at least) development of his very own comic book "universe,"America's Best Comics." - Josh Edelglass, Motion Picture Comics"You don't need me to extol the virtues of Alan Moore. I've done it countless times in far too many reviews in the past. Besides, there are better people than I who are qualified to do it. I can think of none fitting that description better than George Khoury, whose Moore fandom has led to a series of writings that define the man better than anyone else has." - Augie De Blieck Jr., Comic Book Resources"George Khoury compiled The Extraordinary Works of Alan Moore, interweaving an extensive interview with rarities like unused scripts and short but revealing strips about the writer from the likes of Gibbons, Bolland and Gaiman and Buckingham." - Paul Gravett, Comics International Read more About the Author George Khoury wrote and edited the Eisner-nominated Kimota and The Extraordinary Works of Alan Moore. He was a senior editor for the award-winning magazine Comic Book Artist; he was also a regular contributor to the popular Modern Masters series. He contributed many articles to a variety of magazines, newspapers, and websites. He was born and raised in New Jersey. His latest book is called Comic Book Fever. Read more
Reviews
The Extraordinary Works of Alan Moore: Indispensable Edition is George Khoury's revamp of a book published years before called, simply, The Extraordinary Works of Alan Moore. For those of you who are new to the book itself, I'll taLk about it first. For those who want to know exactly what is different between the two publications, skip the first half of this review. TEWAM and TEWAMI are the absolutely definitive books (the Indispensable edition includes more of everything with a few excisions; details below) on Alan Moore. Known as a recluse, Khoury somehow earned his trust enough to complete a biography (with lots of wonderful photos) of him - through a series of lengthy, detailed, revealing interviews (so it might actually be called an "assisted autobiography," perhaps) - that range from his childhood, to his adolescence (selling LSD and getting kicked out of school and black-spotted in his hometown from then on), his painfully on-a-budget early adulthood (he went by pen names so he wouldn't lose his government assistance money), his role as parent (raising two daughters in an unconventional household and his being a very unconventional father), to his big break through with DC, to the big breakups (with DC; with his wives; um, yes, I said "wives" as in plural; with Bill Sienkiewicz who literally ran away from Moore's never-finished magnum opus called Big Numbers!), the loss of Mad Love publications (his idea of what a great, smartly run comic company could be), his newly found love and marriage of recent years with Melinda Gebbie, on and on. You get his astounding ideas on more abstract things, also, such as art, magic, writing, politics, mythology, history, etc. Everything definitive is included here: a perfectly thorough bibliography (that was changed thanks to smart Moore fans posting at 4colorheroes forums; now we know A Day in the Life was NOT written by Moore) from comic strips to comics to films to scripts to, well, everything; you also get some very rare things printed here that you're not going to find anywhere else unless you're in a serious big money collector's market and can even find them. You get lots and lots of voluminous pages of Moore comics and paraphernalia. If you want to know all you can know about Moore in one stop, this is the book to buy. It may lead on to other books you'll want to buy, but, so far, no publication on Moore comes close to this level of expertise or insight about this highly-touted author. THE DIFFERENCES IN EDITIONS: p. 128 in the original has "In Pictopia" and a few pages of art work done by other artists; the new version replaces these with a newly coloured "Mr. Monster" story. // p. 145 The full page drawing of Miracleman is replaced by "True Comic Book Stories" by Chirs Sprouse. // p. 170 The "True Comic Stories" by Chris Sprouse is replaced in the new version by a photo of Moore. // p. 171 Dunbier's and Keith's comic is replaced by the beginning of Chapter VII. // p. 198 begins an all-new chapter IX, "Alan Moore Today." // p. 206 vs. 223 in the Bibliography. The "Contact II Publishing _Day in the Life_ is excised" (in accord with the fact that it is now known NOT to be written by Moore). // p. 214 the pictures of Sinister Duck, Godzilla Pin-Up, and Heroes for Hope is gone in the new version (replaced by nothing). // And, of course, there are changes in the Twomorrows advertisements in the back of the book. // The original has 224 pages. The Indispensable has 240 pages. The paper seems of lesser quality, also. ADVICE: As these tpbs at one point were selling for $65-100, I'd highly recommend that you buy an Indispensable edition or an older one (now not so collectible) before this goes out of print. They will both skyrocket in price once the publishing run has run out. Just realize that if you buy an older version, you're losing an entire chapter as well as an updated bibliography. COLLECTOR'S NOTE: There is also a very limited Twomorrows publishing run of this that was printed in hardback; it includes a signed lithograph Moore photo. Mine cost $50 and I've seen it selling for well four times that already.