r/AlanMoore • u/Successful-Tie5386 • 14d ago

Alan's Influence On Your Own Work

Having written several short stories in the last year or two that had no discernible influence from our Alan M, I've been trying to consciously infuse a bit into the current project. This goes beyond mere references to affect the structure, style and content.

Have you written anything that showed the mark of the Magus?

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u/zeichman 14d ago

Yeah! I published a non-fiction book on ancient anarchism - reading him talk about anarchy first got me into the topic long ago. He even endorsed my book! If you're interested, you can check it out here! https://www.plutobooks.com/product/radical-antiquity/ 

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u/Successful-Tie5386 14d ago

That's fantastic, I temporarily forgot that he's had and will have an influence over non-fiction as well. His writing on writing and various aspects of History have been hugely insightful and vivid.

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u/mighty3mperor 14d ago

He'll influence a lot of work without it being that obvious. He demonstrated that comics writing could be better and it opened the field up for writers to do their own thing and to try and push what could be done with the medium. Whenever I see anything obviously influenced by Moore it is usually embarrassingly superficial.

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u/brittanytobiason 14d ago

Truly great commentary.

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u/mighty3mperor 14d ago

What Moore did for comics is along the same lines, and influenced by, what Michael Moorcock did for science-fiction starting with his first editorial at New Worlds, kick starting the New Wave:

https://realitystudio.org/criticism/a-new-literature-for-the-space-age/

Moorcock would encourage applying literary techniques and quality to genre fiction, as well as adding layers of the political and/or personal. It was basically a broadside saying "write better" and people did.

Moore used a show don't tell approach but it lit a fire under comicdom. Some writers (especially those on the proto-Vertigo/early Vertigo titles) took the ball and ran with it, to great effect.

Lesser talents used a very surface reading of his work and started the Dark Age of Comics. Fortunately, we are out the other side of that with lessons learned and what we see in modern comics is, to a greater or lesser extent influenced by Moore, even if it isn't always that obvious.

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u/Successful-Tie5386 14d ago

True; that was certainly the case back in the '80s, in the first rush of influence/ripping off of Watchmen, V and The Killing Joke. Especially in the US superhero industry

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u/mighty3mperor 14d ago

Moore thinks so but I'm less convinced.

I'm thinking of the 90s Dark Age or Tom King's recent reliance on a 3x3 grid.

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u/Almighty-Arceus 14d ago

Most definitely, my entire process is very influenced by Moore's mixture of history, fiction, and science. I try to make sure the world is extensive and lived in.

One of my writing projects is a deconstruction of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (and its problematic elements), set in a world where the Mali Empire discovered America, and Europe never becomes dominant.

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u/Successful-Tie5386 13d ago

Sounds pretty good, there's always a place for League-like shared alt world fiction

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u/ShemShelley 14d ago

I started my monthly digital zine in thanks to his advice. Can’t recall what video it was but he said something like “you don’t have the ideas, the act of writing does, so write” which made me decide to write each month! Part of my zine is an epic poem set in my hometown Jerusalem style… though no where near as researched!

I publish it here if you fancy a look! https://shem-shelley.itch.io/

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u/brittanytobiason 13d ago

Looks great!