Me Me Magnificent Me

There's probably little that is as narcissistic as choosing to write, draw and publish your own material and expect people to buy it, and being asked to participate in interviews to talk about yourself and your work will only massage your ego even further.
So, you'll understand if I fail to excuse myself and to take this narcissism to a new level by posting links here on my blog that lead to a number of couple new interviews with me, and all about myself.

It's really weird when you stop and think about it. Anyway.

I am the latest victim to be grilled  by Julinda Morrow of the sleek Sequential Highway website with fifteen questions which actually took me over six months to answer. They were that hard. But I eventually answered all of them and you can find them here:
Gary Spencer Millidge Answers 15 Questions With Julinda Morrow
And if you scroll down to the bottom past all those irritating word things there's a pretty cool image gallery.

A few weeks ago, a mysterious creature calling themselves Caro is Spicy paid tribute to my genius on their blog with a series overview of Strangehaven and then followed it up with a candid interview.
So if you haven't already, go read them here and pray at the altar of Millidge:
A kind of comic book life: Strangehaven
A kind of comic book life: Interview with Gary Spencer Millidge

Right, I'm off to put on my dinner suit and admire myself in a full-length mirror.

A Christmas Message

Now that the Mayan Prophecy has turned out to be another false alarm, I have reluctantly accepted that there is little chance of avoiding the onset of Christmas 2012.
Therefore I can now wish all my fans, readers, clients, friends and random blog browsers the most enjoyable of festive celebrations, regardless of religious affiliation. Any time of year that encourages people to be kinder to their fellow human beings, enjoy time with their friends and family, and look forward to the new year with renewed optimism can only be a good thing.
And in that sense at least, I concur with my fellow countryman Roy Wood and wish that it could be Christmas every day.

I'll remember 2012 as being a somewhat miserable year, following on from several other miserable years, with occasional glimpses of future promise which as yet remain unfulfilled. Personal and professional circumstances have again limited my time to pursue my dream of resurrecting Strangehaven to virtually nil. Some mysterious minor health ailments have dogged me throughout the year but most of these have been diagnosed and treated with some success. But the biggest blow was losing my darling Bulldog Babs to cancer on September 11th. My whippet Billy has also been struggling with a treatable but incurable degenerative disease since the year began, but he remains alive enough to eat, poop and sleep (but mostly sleep).
My Christmas card design this year therefore, is a small tribute to my devoted companions.

Blogging remain some way down my list of priorities, but I remain somewhat active on facebook and twitter, friend and follow if you will. I have paved my road to hell (and back) with all the blog entries I have intended to write, including pieces on Before Watchmen and Le Droit Moral, Thought Bubble 2012 and the New Wave of British Comics, and Recreating Sgt, Pepper, to name a few. You'll have to wait to read those, possibly forever.

I also intend to write a short blog post on the status of Strangehaven, which remains a top priority, if a highly elusive one. Keep the faith, brothers and sisters.
Wishing you all an enjoyable and peaceful Christmas, and an outrageously happy, healthy and successful new year.

Storyteller Nominated

Award nominations are always gratifying to receive, especially if the nominations are collated from a poll of fellow comic book professionals, as indeed the Harvey Awards are. What made it even sweeter was that I discovered this fact on my birthday, and after suffering two and a half days with a migraine.

My book, Alan Moore: Storyteller has been nominated in the category for for Best Biographical, Historical, or Journalistic Presentation along with four other fine publications, and I am correspondingly humbled by this great honour. I’ve received a number of nominations for Strangehaven and other works over the years, but this is the first time I've had anything recognised by the Harvey Awards (named after the great Harvey Kurtzman), which is very satisfying.

Voting is open for all until Friday 17 August 2012, but only those working in a creative aspect of the comics industry are eligible to cast their vote. You can read the entire list of nominations here.

Quitely's cover for the French Storyteller

Courtesy of my kind publishers Ilex Press I some while ago received the gorgeous French language edition of the book, with a rather splendid cover by Frank Quitely. I also understand that there are several other translated editions in the works, all of which is very pleasing.

In addition, I was alerted to another favourable review of the book by my good friend smoky man. The very kind Jason Sacks wrote for the Comics Bulletin website, “This book is a really overwhelming experience for any Moore fan. It's like Christmas in a book.” Which is sort of what I was going for. You can read the review in full here.

This follows very positive web reviews of the book by (among others) Forbidden Planet International, Boing Boing, GlassMagazine, LerBD, The Generalist, ActuaBD, the Indian Express, Exmouth Journal, Deconstructing Comics and Bleeding Cool, as well as print publication reviews in The Fortean Times, Time Out, The Independent and the Hertfordshire Times.

Lucky, Lucky Chelsea

So ‘the enemies of football’ have finally won club football’s greatest prize. Frank Lampard and John Terry lifted the Champions League trophy after their dramatic win over Bayern Munich, capping a traumatic rollercoaster of a season for Chelsea.

A club in utter disarray just ten weeks ago, on the brink of a Champions League last sixteen exit, in virtual freefall in the Premier League, and subject of persistent rumours of player revolt against former manager Andre Villas Boas was turned around in dramatic fashion by ex-player Roberto Di Matteo.
Fear of not qualifying for next year’s Champions League was the apparent motivation for Villas Boas’ sudden removal after just eight months in the Stamford Bridge hotseat. Assistant coach Di Matteo was hastily installed as ‘interim manager’ and almost instantly things began to change.
Vastly improved results (if not necessarily performances) gave hope that fourth spot in the Premier League might still be attained, and perhaps even a continuation of Chelsea’s historic success in the FA Cup might be achieved.
Beating Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur in the quarter and semi-finals of that competition, and a dramatic turnaround in the Champions League second leg against Napoli followed by success against both Benfica against Barcelona resulted in Chelsea reaching the two biggest club cup competitions in the world.

The media has claimed that Chelsea in have ‘ridden their luck’ in this season’s two cup competitions, and even former player-manager Ruud Gullit in his role as TV pundit developed a theory about a ‘little blue angel’ protecting Chelsea’s goal.
Certainly, on balance of play, throughout many of the knockout stages of the European cup, Chelsea’s opponents have often racked up more shots on and off target, more passes, more possession and more corners. But as seasoned football observers recognise, matches are not decided by those particular statistics; they’re decided by goals, and in European knock-out matches, also by the away goals rule and when necessary, penalties.

Hitting the post or bar can be interpreted as bad luck, but technically speaking, it means that the attempt on goal was inaccurate. The same goes for a striker missing a relatively easy chance; that’s not bad luck, that’s due to a lack of skill on the part of the attacking player.
Likewise, a goal line clearance, a blocking tackle from a defender, or a save by the goalkeeper is due to skill, experience and reflexes of the defending players, not luck.
If this is luck, then Chelsea has experienced much bad luck in past European competitions, crucially in the 2008 final versus Manchester United where if memory serves the woodwork was struck by shots from both Lampard and Drogba, as well as the decisive spot kick in the penalty shoot-out when John Terry famously slipped on the waterlogged Moscow pitch.

What has really grated with Chelsea fans in the past has been the generally poor and ostensibly biased refereeing decisions against the team, like Luis Garcia's 'ghost goal' for Liverpool in 2005 and even more famously in the 2009 semi-final against Barcelona; the name Tom Henning Ovrebo is forever etched in the memory of Chelsea fans, a Norwegian official way out of his depth.
Ovrebo neglected to favour Chelsea’s claims for a hatful of clear-cut penalty decisions and Barcelona progressed to the final with a last-minute away goal by Inesta. UEFA conspiracy theories abound, even though it’s more likely that internationally inexperienced referees are simply star-struck by Barcelona’s array of talent. Ovrebo has since admitted that he made errors.
Even in this year’s semi-final second leg at the Camp Nou, Messi was deserving of three yellow cards in my opinion (he received one), while Fabregas blatantly dived after Drogba’s admittedly ill-advised challenge for Barca’s ultimately squandered penalty. A yellow card for ‘simulation’ and another for a tussle with Lampard could have left Barca down to nine men.
Instead, the Turkish referee booked Ramires and Ivanovich for protesting decisions and a fairly innocuous challenge by Mereiles, ruling them all out of the final. (I must say that Terry’s unsubtle off-the-ball assault on Sanchez rightly deserved a red card, and sadly the ultimate punishment of depriving him of taking part in the greatest night of his career.)
Despite all of this, ten man Chelsea, coming back from 2-0 down in the Camp Nou to draw 2-2, progressed to the final with an immense, rear-guard performance which rocked the world of football.  Those watching on Sky will not forget Gary Neville’s girly orgasmic scream of delight as Torres rounded Valdes and rolled the ball into an empty net in the 90th minute.
Many ingredients contributed to that astonishing night, but luck wasn’t one of them.

I will concede that luck played its part in gifting Chelsea’s crucial second goal against Spurs in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley when Juan Mata’s shot was seemingly a long way from crossing the line, a poor decision from the referee that he had no right to give. But the final score line of 5-1 was emphatic, and few could argue Chelsea were lucky to win that match.
In the FA Cup final itself, after dominating much of the game, King Kenny’s last meaningful act as Liverpool manager was to substitute Jay Spearing for Andy Carroll, a decision which almost turned the match.
Carroll grabbed one goal and almost scored another but for an astonishing point-blank save by Cech. The ball was perilously close to crossing the line, but numerous TV replays and freeze frames couldn’t prove it did. In real time, the officials certainly couldn’t be sure, and were therefore correct in not awarding a goal. So it goes down not as a lucky escape, but as a world-class save.

So, to the Champions League final.  A Chelsea team that had four first team regulars – Ramirez, Meireles, Ivanovic and the inspirational captain Terry – all out suspended. It included 23-year-old Ryan Bertrand on his Champions League debut, the often vulnerable Bosingwa, a virtually untested centre-back pairing of the £8m Cahill and the sometimes unpredictable David Luiz, both patched up from recent hamstring injuries.
A team that had rarely played well during the entire preceding season, and had hardly had a day to train together throughout the tenure of the interim manager due to their congested fixture list.

Defeat by Bayern would have been more than disappointing because Chelsea’s players were unable to express themselves in an attacking sense during the first eighty-odd minutes of the match. Torres after the game spoke of Chelsea playing ‘with the handbrake on.’ The tactical plan was presumably to sit deep and defend for their lives as they had in Barcelona.
Bayern are no Barcelona, but the suspensions and players carrying injuries meant that Chelsea was much weakened, and as fate would have it, effectively playing the final as an away fixture. Di Matteo's tactics resulted in Bayern attacking and Chelsea simply defending, a pattern which remained unaltered until Muller scored in the 83rd minute.
Then Bayern’s coach, the vastly experienced Jupp Heynckes made the error of substituting Muller for the defensive Van Buyten immediately after the goal in an attempt to kill the game, but only succeeded in handing the initiative to Chelsea. The only option open to Chelsea now was to attack; the lively Torres came on for Kalou and Drogba’s stunning headed equaliser came just five minutes after Bayern’s goal and two minutes before full time.
The match immediately became a much more even contest, Drogba's goal taking the match into extra time. Drogba though, had failed to learn his lesson from the Nou Camp and tripped Ribery to give ex-Chelsea winger Arjen Robben the chance to convert from the penalty spot. Cech made the first of his three dramatic penalty saves that night, the other two coming in the dreaded penalty shoot-out after extra time.

I have every sympathy for Bayern. They outplayed Chelsea in many respects, but at the crucial moment, their players snatched at their opportunities. You could even argue that their goal had an element of luck about it, as the unmarked Muller’s header – surely mistimed and misdirected - bounced into the ground before somehow squeezing between Cech’s hands and the crossbar.
Compare that to Drogba’s sublime, powerful, perfectly timed equalising header from Mata’s corner. A classic strike that would grace any game, let alone this great stage.

Drogba, signed at the start of the Mourinho reign, was initially described as both ‘a dog chasing a balloon’ and Chelsea’s answer to Emile Heskey. Flashes of brilliance alternated with play acting, and an apparent exceedingly low threshold of pain. While playing in systems which he didn’t enjoy under former managers Filipe Scolari and Andre Villas Boas, Drogba strolled around the pitch with an appalling lack of effort and desire.
But for all his antics, he has scored over 150 goals for Chelsea and has proved himself to be the biggest of big game players, coming up with goals in the most important games of all – nine goals in nine cup finals, and cementing his place as a true club legend.

As has Frank Lampard, contributing another massive performance in a long career full of them, the pivot which the team revolved around, the added responsibility of captain borne so well, and in my opinion a man quite likely to become Chelsea’s greatest ever player. And to those who may say he’s more workmanlike than skilful, look at the defence-splitting ball he played to Ramirez for Chelsea’s first goal in the Camp Nou, or the free-kick in the FA Cup semi-final against Spurs.
The world-class saves of Petr Cech in each of the big games games and his heroic penalty stops in the final should not be overshadowed; consider the blocks, goal line clearances and attacking impetus that Ashley Cole has produced at the end of a long, hard, sometimes indifferent season; I could go on.  John Obi Mikel finally reaching his potential. Fernando Torres’ energy giving Chelsea impetus in those final crucial minutes of regulation time. An unbelievably polished performance on his Champions League debut for Bertrand. Heroes to a man.

As for the interim manager, Robbie Di Matteo, he has produced a modern football miracle. He rejuvenated and instilled belief into a team who just a few weeks ago were directionless and demoralised. A team that had been virtually dismantled by the over-zealous Andre Villas Boas was immediately reunited and reinvigorated.
Although Chelsea were still in two cup competitions when Di Matteo took the reigns, surely the priority was to make fourth spot in the Premier League and retain the club’s Champions League qualification for next season.
Instead, he opted for the risky strategy of playing the best players for the two cup competitions and playing weaker teams in the league in order to preserve the team’s fitness in the ludicrously hectic season run-in. Defeats at home to Newcastle, away at Liverpool and the draw away to Fulham all contributed to Chelsea missing out on fourth place by six points (although the goalless draw at home against Spurs was also crucial) and with it the automatic Champions League qualification spot for next season.
As it turned out, it was a calculated gamble, which against all odds, paid off in spectacular fashion.  Victory against Bayern Munich gives Chelsea automatic entry into the group stages of next year’s competition, and the added incentive of Europe’s top competition to persuade any potential summer signings.

Obviously, this is not a long-term strategy. It’s unlikely that Chelsea’s tactics against Barcelona or Bayern Munich would work on any regular basis against the biggest sides. The team requires rebuilding, and as much as it hurts to think it, Chelsea heroes like Lampard, Drogba, Cole and Terry are entering the end part of their careers. Owner Roman Abramovich whose millions made all this possible reputedly craves not only success, but critically popular, attractive attacking football.
Is Di Matteo the man to be entrusted to usher in a new generation, to develop a more entertaining, more positive footballing style while maintaining results and keeping the current crop of players contented? Something which Villas Boas spectacularly failed to do?
The heart of every Chelsea fan would say Di Matteo more than deserves a chance; but I fear that Abramovich may choose to look elsewhere.

Football ‘purists’ may suggest that Chelsea winning trophies in this way is somehow bad for football. That Barcelona is the greatest team that have ever played the game, and therefore they have some right to win every match, unless their opposition beats them by playing them at their own game, as Arsenal has tried and failed to do in recent years .
Sometimes it makes me wonder if we should actually just let UEFA decide who win trophies by committee, or maybe as voted by a select panel of judges like they do in ice skating or high board diving. That way Barcelona could win everything every year and the purists would be happy.

Actually, no, football is about playing to your team’s specific strengths, neutralising your opponents’ strengths and capitalising on their weaknesses. It’s about moments of inspirational skill and stupid mistakes. Football is not just about attacking play, but defensive play, blocking, tackling, tactical awareness, physical strength, clinical finishing, and confidence.
Above all, it’s about a winning mentality; you can call it belief, mental toughness, resilience, or discipline. Whatever it is, Chelsea have it in droves. As Drogba said after the game, he learned it from the likes of Terry and Lampard when he first arrived, and now he’s passing it on to the younger members of the squad: A winning mentality that quite frankly I thought had gone.
But now suddenly you witness Cahill and Luiz desperately throwing themselves to block goal attempts in the fashion that we’ve seen Terry do so many times in years gone by.

Chelsea won the UEFA Champions League according to the laws of the game, with no histrionics or play acting, without the benefit of poor refereeing decisions, against the odds, at the home ground of their opponents. They won it with a tactical gameplan, carried out to the letter, with heart and soul and team spirit, with heroic performances, with belief and discipline and no little skill. Luck didn’t play a part.

If critics insist that Chelsea have been lucky in the latter part of this season, then they have to concede that ‘luck’ in those terms has been firmly stacked against Chelsea in many preceding seasons, particularly in the Champions League. And if they believe that luck somehow ‘evens out,’ then these past ten weeks or so have seen Chelsea cashing in their chips so carefully saved up and finally getting their just reward.

I am particularly delighted for the so-called ‘old guard’ of Lampard, Terry, Cole, Cech and Drogba who truly deserve their winner’s medals, if not for this campaign, then for their dedication to the cause over the past eight seasons or so. When Villas Boas sidelined so many of the players in the middle of the season, I thought that the prospect of ever seeing them win the ‘Cup with the Big Ears’ with Chelsea was gone forever.

As a Chelsea fan since the days of black-and-white television, watching highlights of Osgood and Tambling on Match of the Day in the late 1960s, revelling in the 1970 FA Cup win over dirty Leeds, running round the back garden in my ‘replica’ Chelsea jersey to the sound of ‘Blue Is the Colour’ in 1972, Saturday night was the ultimate in dreams coming true.

Winning the Champions League and FA Cup from the state Chelsea was in three months ago is, no doubt about it, a footballing miracle. Only a historical perspective will judge whether it’s our greatest ever season – Jose Mourinho leading Chelsea to their first title in fifty years in 2005, or Carlo Ancellotti’s double-winning campaign of 2010 must surely also be in contention.
But as nights go, this was the greatest night in Chelsea’s history, no question (and despite what some opposition fans may suggest, Chelsea have a rich history – winning a European trophy against Real Madrid in 1971 before Liverpool won anything in Europe for an example - a legacy which Chelsea continue to build while others rest on past glories).

Congratulations Chelsea, Champions of Europe 2012, a trophy fully deserved, no luck about it.


A Post Script:
On switching on Sky Sports News at midnight, I was rather amused to read the scrolling ‘Breaking News’ that Tottenham had qualified for the Europa League. There’s nothing like putting a positive spin on bad news, but I don’t expect that was much consolation for Spurs fans.
It did get me thinking that England having four representatives in the Champions League is probably a large degree due to the success of Chelsea over the past five years anyway, and that third place was quite achievable for Spurs during the run in to the Premiership season – some were even suggesting that they might be a title contender at one point, so I can’t help thinking they only have themselves to blame.

Top Tens

Having being alerted to Bridgeen Gillespie’s blog post on her Top Ten Independent Comics today, it reminded me that I had been asked for my Top Ten All-Time Comics Works by the Hooded Utilitarian website this summer.

My initial thought on reading Bridgeen’s list was that it was remarkably similar to my own, but actually it turns out to be substantially different, although this is probably due to the specific criteria applied.

The Hooded Utilitarian compiled the Top Ten lists submitted by 211 invited comics professionals who answered the question, “What are the ten comics works you consider your favorites, the best, or the most significant?” into a Top 115 list.
Especially of interest is that each creator’s Top Ten are all individually listed.

My own selection was as follows:
Cages, Dave McKean
Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson
Cerebus, Dave Sim & Gerhard
The Fantastic Four, Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, with Joe Sinnott, et al.
La Femme du magicien [The Magician’s Wife], Jerome Charyn & François Boucq
From Hell, Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell
Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, Chris Ware
Krazy Kat, George Herriman
The Palomar Stories, Gilbert Hernandez
The Spirit, Will Eisner

It’s a very personal choice, picked as much for the effect they had on me, as measure of absolute quality. It was very difficult to limit the list to ten, and those that I had to leave out surprised me. There’s no Tintin, no Watchmen, no Asterix, no Bone, no Little Nemo, no Robert Crumb and most remarkably no Daniel Clowes.

Bridgeen’s list spotlights some titles that were more immediately influential on Strangehaven that my own list of all-time greats above. We actually only overlap on three titles - Krazy Kat, Love & Rockets and her ‘honorable mention’ Cerebus.

I specified Gilbert’s works over Jaime’s because of the raw emotional content, particularly in the early Heartbreak Soup stories. The Locas stories were a little breezier, but oh-so beautifully drawn. Bridgeen notes that she stopped reading Cerebus with the eighth volume Women (understandably) but it would be a huge pity if Sim’s extreme politics entirely overshadows his unique, monumental and extraordinary body of work .

Almost all of the 1980s indie works that Bridgeen picks are hard to argue against; certainly the Fantagraphics/Drawn & Quarterly axis of Eightball, Black Hole, Peepshow and I Never Liked You (although I far prefer Chester Brown’s earlier surreal Ed the Happy Clown stories) are my favourite comics of the period.

Craig Thompson’s massive romance Blankets was under consideration for my own ten, although it is perhaps too recent to see in context of the other established (in my mind at least) works. The importance of Maus cannot be underestimated, of course, but even though I read it serialised in Raw Magazine, I never quite took it to my heart.

Scott Pilgrim is the only book I haven’t read - and therefore can’t pass judgement, although it has been on my Amazon Wishlist for a good while.

On a related note, the reason why I don’t ever respond to the best of the year lists because I’m always so far behind in my reading. After spending almost a year reading nothing but works by Alan Moore, I’ve been pretty much comicked-out this year and my to-read pile now extends over several long bookshelves.

Happy Holidays 2011!

Is it that time again already? Festive love to every single one of you.

From Leigh to Leeds

After two false starts in recent years, I'm finally attending Leeds' Thought Bubble comics festival at the weekend, 19-20th November.

I'll have a table in Saviles Hall, alongside my long-time pal Chris Staros with his latest Top Shelf line of books. It's the first event at which I've exhibited for way, way too long, and I'll have with me a limited number of Alan Moore Storyteller, Comic Book Design, Draw Dragons, Draw Fantasy Figures, plus all three Strangehaven volumes and the Spirit of Hope benefit anthology among other bits and pieces. I'll also have some original artwork for sale.

On Sunday at 1:00PM at the Alea Cinema Room, I will be interviewed by Tim Pilcher about Alan Moore Storyteller, and joining me on stage will be Moore's musical collaborator Gary Lloyd and Moore uber-fan Pádraig Ó Méalóid, both of who were invaluably helpful in putting my book together, so this promises to be a lively hour.

Thought Bubble has received rave reviews in preceding years, and I'm very much looking forward to sampling the atmosphere for myself. For more details, check out their website here.

Spirit of Hope

Shortly after the devastating earthquakes and subsequent tsunami that left so many dead, missing and homeless in Japan in March this year and New Zealand, I was asked to contribute to a charity anthology called Spirit of Hope by the UK’s new non-profit organisation The Comic Book Alliance.

At that time, I was still trying to put the last few finishing touches to Alan Moore: Storyteller for Ilex Press and attending to several other urgent freelance jobs, and the extremely short two-week deadline made it unlikely that I’d find the time to be able to contribute. I racked my brains for some sort of positive, uplifting angle (as had been stipulated by the organisers, the ) and had pretty much given up on coming up with something worthwhile when I was inspired by a two-minute film in Channel 4’s nightly series 4Thought while stir-frying some chicken and vegetables for that night’s dinner.

By the time I was washing up, I had a pretty good idea whatI wanted to do, and granted a few extra day’s deadline extension, I somehow managed to produce two pages in three days, researched, written, illustrated, lettered and coloured (yep, coloured); probably the fastest I’ve ever produced anything in my life. But I really felt like I need to contribute to this cause. Half a page of “This Fragile Earth” is reproduced above; you’ll have to buy the book to see the rest.

The quality and variety of contributions in the preview of the book that I saw at the Bristol International Comic & Small Press Expo were simply stunning, each piece focussing compassionately and insightfully on the subject matter.

Creators beside myself who have contributed to this project include Alan Cowsill, Jimmy Broxton, Mike Allred, Natalie Abadzis, Nick Abadzis, Adrian Bamforth, Jasper Bark, Donna Barr, Jordie Bellaire, Paul H Birch, Bolt-01, Dan Boultwood, Mark Buckingham, Jim Campbell,

Richmond Clements, Jason Cobley, Simon Coleby, Mike Collins, Martin Conaghan, Gary Crutchley, Glenn Dakin, Al Davison, Brandon DeStefano, Benjamin Dickson, Martin Eden, Mats Engesten, Gary Erskine, Al Ewing, Glenn B Flemming, Emma Flint, Henry Flint, Leigh Gallagher, Matt Gibbs, Gary Gilbert, Alan Grant, Jon Haward, Peter Hogan, Kev Hopgood, Graeme Howard, Inko, Rich Johnston, Ant Jones, GM Jordan, Jessica Kemp, David Leach, Tony Lee, Nigel Lowrey, Ciaran Lucas, Paul McLaren, Michiru Morikawa, Alex Moore, Leonie O’Moore, Michiru Morkawa, Eva Perkins, Grant Perkins, Martyn Pick, Maria Pickering, David Pugh, James Reekie, Regan, Neil Roberts, Darick Roberston, John Robbins, John Ross, Declan Shalvey, Liam Sharp, Akiko Shimojima, Si Spencer, Vicky Stonebridge, Lew Stringer, Steve Tanner, Archie Templar, S Thompson, Geoffrey D. Wessel, Chris Western, Andrew Wildman, WJC, Ant Williams, Rob Williams, Sean Michael Wilson and Yel Zamor.

It’s a high quality, 116-page full-colour, squarebound book, due for publication on 18th June 2011, and priced at £14.99 + £3.00 postage to UK addresses. All proceeds will be going to help disaster victims via donations to Second Harvest and the New Zealand Red Cross.

Readers based in the UK can now place preorders and choose between two covers at the Comic Book Alliance website page here, and advance orders will include 3 small limited edition prints. It’s something I’m proud to be a part of, so go, grab yourself a fabulous book and contribute to a good cause at the same time.

storyteller sneak preview

British publisher Ilex Press have officially released several spreads from my forthcoming book Alan Moore: Storyteller as well as the fabulous final cover as created by Chip Kidd and José Villarrubia. Chip came up with the concept and used one of José's classic photos to produce a set of book spine models, which were then, with cunning circularity, photographed by José.

The book tracks Moore's early life and influences with never-before-seen family photographs and even reproduces his baptism certificate!

All his major works like Marvelman/Miracleman are covered in some depth as well as much of his more obscure creations in his various fields of comics, prose, performance, music and art, and beautifully laid out by the designer of the book Simon Goggin.

The book even offers glimpses of Moore's own personal working notebooks, like this incredible densely thumbnailed chapter from a chapter of From Hell.

Storyteller has been rescheduled to ship in early to mid July in both the UK and the US (Rizzoli/Universe) and can be preordered from any comic or book retailer worth their salt, instore or online right about now.

You can read a little more in my interview on smoky man's blog Alan Moore World.

alan moore: telling stories

I haven't (at the time of writing) seen it myself yet, but the book I spent the vast majority of last year writing is listed in the current Diamond Previews catalogue dated February 2011.

I haven't been making a lot of noise about it up until now as (a) I got told off by one of the editors when news of it leaked out too early and (b) I tend to avoid commenting on my projects until they're completed, due to delays and abandonments in previous projects.

Alan Moore: Storyteller is, I believe, the most comprehensive and accurate biography of one of Britain's most creative minds ever published. It's going to be presented in a lavish format; A 320-page 8.5" x 11" full colour hardcover with audio CD.

The book not only includes an in-depth survey of all of Alan's comics creations, but also covers his musical projects, prose writings, magical performances and artwork in some depth. Some of his most renowned co-creators (including Alan Davis, Dave Gibbons, Eddie Campbell and David Lloyd) have provided never-before seen materials; an unpublished script for V for Vendetta, rare artwork (Captain Britain and Watchmen among others) and photographs.

Alan himself was incredibly co-operative, generously making time for numerous interviews in person and by phone, providing family photographs and allowing me access to some of his personal notebooks which give unprecedented insight into his working techniques, from Lost Girls, From Hell and Voice of the Fire.

Alan has also granted permission to reproduce the entire legendary Big Numbers chart, detailing the whole plot of the sadly abandoned project with Bill Sienkiewicz.

I've also attempted to delve into Moore's philosophies, politics, attitudes to drug use, celebrity, the Hollywood system, working routines and methods in order to reveal some of the man behind the hype.

The audio CD included with the book is another treasure trove in itself, a compilation of tracks from almost all of Alan's recorded projects, from the Sinister Ducks to the Moon & Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels and including numerous previously unrecorded tracks from the Satanic Nurses and the Emperors of Ice Cream (including the infamous "Mr. A"). All nineteen tracks have been gloriously post-mastered by Alan's sonic collaborator on the audio version of 'Brought to Light,' Gary Lloyd.

There's also a bibliographic guide to the most effective way of picking up Alan's printed works and a obsessively detailed timeline of his career in a double gatefold insert.

As well receiving materials from many of Alan's collaborators, I was lucky enough to receive reproductions of some of his rarest works from members of the Alan Moore fan community, in particular having tremendous assistance from Pádraig Ó Méalóid who has his own Moore-centric blog Glycon which can be viewed here.

The famed science fiction author Michael Moorcock was kind enough to provide a fantastic introduction for the book, and the cover has been cooked up between Chip Kidd and José Villarrubia.*

Another Alan Moore-related project is not something I would have pursued under my own steam; my personal ambition remains the continuation and completion of Strangehaven as soon as circumstances allow; Alan Moore: Storyteller was commissioned by British packager/publisher Ilex Press, for whom I wrote Comic Book Design in 2009. It will also be published in the US by art books specialist Rizzoli and I understand there is also a French language edition in the works and possibly one or two other foreign editions under consideration.

It's due for publication in the spring around May time and you can already pre-order it from your local comic shop, book shop and the usual online retailers.

The Diamond Previews listing is here and their order code is FEB111253.

*Note: The cover currently posted on the Previews, Amazon and other websites is not the actual cover. As soon as I get the go-ahead on the official, final cover I'll post it here.