(via Arthur)

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It’s like when you’ve got people like Angela Carter who, in her book The Sadeian Women, she admitted that there was the possibility she could imagine a form of pornography that was benign, that was imaginative, was beautiful, and which didn’t have the problems that she saw in a lot of other pornography. I think even Andrea Dworkin said the same thing. She said it a bit more grudgingly, but she said that conceivably there was, there could be, a benign form of pornography but she didn’t personally believe that it would ever happen. So that’s what we’ve tried to do. We’ve tried to say, yes, good pornography can exist, and I think that possibly the fact that we called it pornography wrong-footed a lot of the people who, if we’d have come out and said, “well, this is a work of art,” they would have probably all said, “no it’s not, it’s pornography.” So because we’re saying, “this is pornography,” they’re saying, “no it’s not, it’s art,” and people don’t realise quite what they’ve said.

Interview Part 1 Interview Part 2 (Probably not safe for work)

(via Tomorrow Museum)

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More Info: Watchmen YouTube channel

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“As Zack Snyder states on the official blog - here we are, one year from the theatrical release of Watchmen on March 6th, 2009. To ease the pain of waiting another 12 months to finally see the film, Snyder has released complete costumed photos of five of the main characters: The Comedian, Nite Owl, Ozymandias, Rorschach, and Silk Spectre. These may be the most downright incredible photos I’ve seen in the last six months from any comic book movie. It’s time to begin the 12 month process of showing you how amazing Zack Snyder’s Watchmen is actually going to be!”

(via First Showing)

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“We’re thrilled to have interviewed Alan Moore – creator of benchmark comics Watchmen and V For Vendetta and longtime WORD hero – in FACE TIME this month. Alan is one of the planet’s great conversationalists and we could fit only a part of our 90 minute discussion in the magazine. So, in the spirit of the Extended Deluxe Double CD edition, here’s some more of Mr Moore discussing his new work of “literary pornography” Lost Girls, his century-spanning supersaga The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen… and why Heroes is rubbish.”

(via The Word)

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Full Strip: Something Positive.

(via Grimnir).

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“20th Century Fox has initiated a legal battle against Warner Bros. over the rights to develop, produce and distribute a film based on the graphic novel “Watchmen.” On Friday, the studio sued Warners, claiming it holds the exclusive copyrights and contract rights to “Watchmen.” Warners plans to release next year a big-screen version of the popular comic book written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. The cast includes Jackie Earle Haley, Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson, Carla Gugino and Malin Akerman. It is the studio’s policy to not comment on pending litigation.

But Fox seeks to enjoin Warners from going forward with the project, saying in the lawsuit that it seeks to “restrain (Warner Bros. Pictures) from taking actions that violate Fox’s copyrights and which stand to forever impair Fox’s rights to control the distribution and development of this unique work.” Fox claims that between 1986 and 1990, it acquired all movie rights to the 12-issue DC Comics series and screenplays by Charles McKeown and Sam Hamm. In 1991, Fox assigned some rights via a quitclaim to Largo International with the understanding that the studio held exclusive rights to distribute the first motion picture based on “Watchmen,” according to the lawsuit.”

(via The Hollywood Reporter)

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As part of DC’s “free first issues” promotion, they’re offering a free PDF download of the first issue of Swamp Thing written by Alan Moore.

Download from DC.

(via Boing Boing).

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If you like this, please purchase the DVD from Shadowsnake.

(Late update: as pointed out here, this link came via Phase II).

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Geeknerd compares recently released Watchmen movie still with panels from the comic.

(via Shatter).

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Alan Moore’s grimoire due in 2009 (or with the anticipated delays, 2010). Only 2 or 3 years to go…

“Splendid news for boys and girls, and guaranteed salvation for humanity! Messrs. Steve and Alan Moore, current proprietors of the celebrated Moon & Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels (sorcery by appointment since circa 150 AD) are presently engaged in producing a clear and practical grimoire of the occult sciences that offers endless necromantic fun for all the family. Exquisitely illuminated by a host of adepts including Kevin O’Neill, Melinda Gebbie, John Coulthart, José Villarrubia and other stellar talents (to be named shortly), this marvelous and unprecedented tome promises to provide all that the reader could conceivably need in order to commence a fulfilling new career as a diabolist.”

via Top Shelf Productions

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I suppose harder core comic book and Alan Moore fans than I already know this: but Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s newest LOEG book came out this week.

Free preview here.

Buy Black Dossier at Amazon.

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Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, March 2007

(via Only Maybe Blog).

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London: City of Disappearances is a 655 page anthology with over 50 contributors, including: Ann Baer; J.G Ballard; Paul Buck; Brian Catling; Driffield; Bill Drummond; Tibor Fischer; Allen Fisher; Bill Griffiths; Lee Harwood; Stewart Home; Tony Lambrianou; Rachel Lichenstein; Michael Moorcock; Alan Moore; Jeff Nuttall; James Sallis; Anna Sinclair; Stephen Smith; Marina Warner; Sarah Wise.

Citizens disappear constantly, along with their homes, artifacts, buildings and spaces. As your time-flow accelerates, old friends email the latest obituaries and the function of the writer becomes increasingly clear. You’re there to count the dead; and re-count the missing landmarks. Scribe of mutability and mutation, you’re only a memory-shaman, chronicler of the crumbling scrolls - destined yourself to become a mere neural trace in the world-brain, as the towers tumble around you.

Full Story: Culture Court.

Buy London: City of Disappearances.

Also, if you’re in London: Alan Moore, Michael Moorcock, and Iain Sinclair will be reading from the book on October 26th. Details here.

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Video interview with Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie on Lost Girls.

NSFW

Video at Sex Television.

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Wes Unruh explores Timothy Leary’s Neurocomics (torrent here) and Alan Moore’s Promethea (torrent here):

As I was reading this work, I was struck by how similar the work is to that of Alan Moore, specifically Promethea. Not simply the psychedelic nature of the work, but the way in which both of these works were about the underlying philosophical and metaphysical beliefs of the authors, and both presented in the most holistic way possible. They’re more like modern alchemical texts, grimoires for the psychonaut, without the layers of metaphor that Mike Carey might throw in or the allegories Chris Claremont developed to spread occultic ideas through more mainstream comics. (Granted, Grant Morrison does this in his own way as well, but not everyone is fully armed to read The Filth and his politics have raised more than a few eyebrows… )

Full Story: Alterati.

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Arthur: Of course the other aspect of magic that separates it from most religions is that it’s not based on faith, is it?

Oh, no. No. Faith is for sissies who daren’t go and look for themselves. That’s my basic position. Magic is based upon gnosis. Direct knowledge. It’s a kind of “I’m from Missouri. Show me” approach, if you like. [laughter] I think that gnosis it’s probably the original form of spirituality in mankind. If you look back at the old Gnostic religions that proceeded Christianity, what they depended on was direct knowledge of the Mysteries, or the ideas being talked about. If you look at the early Christians, the people that were allegedly around Jesus, then you can’t get much gnostic than St. Thomas. [chuckles] He has to stick his hand in the wound before he was convinced! Or you’ve got the Essenes, with John the Baptist–they were certainly gnostics. Back then, everybody formed their own relationship to the godhead, which was seen as being inside them, as much as anything.

This is true of the old shamanic religions, that were the forebears of all kind of spiritual and religious thinking. The shaman didn’t so much act as a middleman between people and the gods; he showed them how to get there. He told them how to make their own journeys into the Underworld. I get the impression that the shaman in an ancient tribe would have had the same sort of position as a plumber or an electrician. [chuckles] A plumber is a guy who just knows about plumbing and doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty when he’s unblocking your S-bend or whatever. A shaman is a guy who knows about traveling to the spirit world and doesn’t mind vomiting because he’s taking poisonous drugs, or getting the horrors of going to hell. It’s a community thing.

The later idea of magic, which probably sprung up when people started burning witches and magicians, when it became dangerous to be a magician. Which would probably have been around the ooo, what, the 3rd century, 4th century? When Christian mobs started putting Gnostics in hermetic scholars to death, Around that time there were Christian mobs that were putting to death hermetic scholars like Hypatea. We mention her in the first issue of Promethea. She was real. She was, I think, skinned alive by Christians. And so at that point, this is where you start to get the thing of secrecy and magic, which carries on from that point up to the present day. “If you’re a magician, don’t tell anybody. Don’t tell them and don’t tell them any of the visions you’ve had or give them any of the information that you struggled so long to accrue. Keep it to yourself.’ And that seems very elitist to me. I’d rather disseminate any information I’m getting by one of the means that are open to me. And I’m lucky in that I have several quite excellent means [chuckles] to disseminate information that are open to me. Comic books, CDs, things like that.

Full Story: Arthur.

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Vertigo is offering free downloads of the first issues of various series, including Exterminators (one of my current favorite comics), Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol, and Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing.

Here’s the full list. Books with a “#1″ icon next to them include free downloads.

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The sexual symbolism of Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan and Wendy, and the Wizard of Oz de-coded.

Several preview images.

(not safe for work).

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Most of the interview is just Alan Moore complaining about DC (justifiably, but it’s still boring). But there’s some good stuff, like this from the end:

Well�that was the bit where, I could get behind what he does to Evey � this is probably telling far too much about me � I could get behind that far more than I could get behind killing people. Because it seemed to me that even though, yes, he was actually torturing Evey, this was in his own mad way, an attempt to heal her. An attempt to push her to a point where she has to wake up to herself as an individual with its own will and own wants and destiny that is not just part of the carpeting of the world, but is a person, is a fully human being. And yes, he does use rather extreme methods. I suppose what I was doing was if I were to actually go-around and imprison all the people that I wanted to mentally and spiritually set free, and subject them to torture for a couple of months, I’d probably get locked up, wouldn’t I? Nobody would understand that one. Whereas, if I put it in a comic then I can to some degree take the reader vicariously through the same experiences and give them the same revelations without risking a jail sentence which is one of the delights of fiction.

Part 1 .

Part 2 .

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Grant Morrison to write Batman.

And Authority and WildCATS.

More info on upcoming Morrison projects.

Alan Moore takes v3 of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to Top Shelf.

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Yes, that Alan Moore. And David J. from Bauhaus and Love and Rockets. A nice song for Halloween.

March of the Sinister Ducks.

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Entertainment Weekly is running an oral history of Watchmen. Newsarama has scans and an interview with the journalist who wrote it.

Newsarama.

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Just something else I want to spend my money on… ah well, maybe someday:

Each page of art has been restored and recolored by WildStorm FX and original series colorist John Higgins and approved by Gibbons to appear as originally intended.

Additionally, this grand tome will include 48 pages of supplemental material produced exclusively for the Graphitti Designs WATCHMEN hardcover edition and not seen since their original publication. Included therein is a cornucopia of rare and historically valuable treasures, including samples of Moore’s WATCHMEN scripts, the original WATCHMEN proposal, Gibbons’s conceptual art, cover roughs, and much, much more!

DC page.

Buy it at Amazon.

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An Alan Moore documentary was shown at the Comica event in London this month.

Headspace: Inside the Mindscape of Alan Moore

Trailer here at Alan Moore fansite

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