Alan Moore: Storyteller [Hardcover]

As someone who encountered Moore at just the right age- I remember picking up Warrior issue 1 as a teenager and it being a revelation, I've inevitably followed his work for good (From Hell) and bad (his Image and Awesome work). In recent years I've often found the Moore interview as entertaining a read as any fiction he might have come up with. He is always worth listening to even if he is blathering on about magic (or should that have a y in it?) or the fact it is his principles that have led him to fall out with all of the major comics publishers. Moore is a terrific raconteur and Milledge gives him plenty of opportunity to do just that. The simple prose means you can hear that Northampton accent with extraordinary clarity as you gallop through his body of work.

It serves as a good companion to the Twomorrows book The Extraordinary Works of Alan Moore: Indispensable Edition and Milledge's book celebrating Moore on his 50th birthday a few years back. As another reviewer comments, it isn't a full biography, but in many ways it is enough to draw a picture of the dope smoking hippy who has an innate ability to combine words and pictures so that they are as as powerful as some the finest works of fiction of the last century.

All it is perhaps missing is getting Moore to reflect that he may have, on occasion, overreacted to situations and that there are artists/ editors (Dez Skinn excepted - he really is a shark!) that he no longer considers friends that really, if everyone could be a little more grown up, might be collaborators with him again. However, Alan Moore is important because of his humanity and who said humans ever had to act rationally?

One final word of warning, whilst a handsome coffee table volume, remember to put it on the top shelf when the in-laws visit, otherwise they may get slightly confused by the pages on his Lost Girls books!

In other words, don't expect anything in the way of criticism or of critical analysis of Moore's works except for those expressed by Moore himself. You won't find a bad word said against the Great Man except, of course, for those uttered by himself. This is a clear work of hagiography a word which is defined as "a biography of saints or venerated persons" and "idealising or idolising biography" and I certainly think Alan Moore fits into both categories. Once you accept that, Millidge (a long-standing friend of Moore's) has done a pretty good job.

(Incidentally, don't get me wrong. I am a big fan of Alan Moore's work and have been since the days of Warrior. I have many of the original comics [such as Swamp Thing and Watchmen] and also have them in absurdly expensive editions as well. Hell, on the wall just above my head I have an original page of Watchmen artwork! I do think he's something of a genius who revolutionised the comics industry. But I don't think the sun shines out of his fundament and am of the opinion that he may be somewhat curmudgeonly when he feels he's been slighted.)

That said, for what this book is which is a survey of Moore's work, its origins, how it came to be created, and his battles with publishers, it's hard to beat. It's certainly authoritative as Millidge was pretty much able to consult with Moore on anything and everything to do it. Visually, it's a feast with massive amounts of rare or unpublished material, including family photographs. It's also highly readable. For anyone wanting to know about Moore's writing and work in other media this is terrific.

Where it does skimp, however, is about Moore the man, the father, the husband, the friend. We never see any real glimpse of the private face of Alan Moore. Then again, I suppose, the title is Alan Moore Storyteller not Alan Moore the Private Life. I mention this because I feel that this unseen aspect is also a part of the artist, a more subtle perhaps even undefinable part but a part nonetheless and that's why I'm only giving it four stars.

But for what it sets out to do it does superbly and is (despite my minor reservations) unreservedly recommended to anyone interested in Northampton's greatest son.

I greatly enjoyed this book and found it to be incredibly inspirational. As an aspiring writer (not of comics but novels and short stories), I took two important lessons from this book; One - if you feel the need to create then just do it and don't let anything stop you, and; Two - don't compromise on your vision, even if it hurts you financially and professionally. Moore may have fallen out with just about every single comic publisher, perhaps justifiably, perhaps not, but just consider what works resulted from the realisation of his uncompromising vision...

The book covers Moore's writing all the way from its very beginnings up to the latest instalment of his on-going series, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century. Any good book about Alan Moore needs plenty of graphics and images to support the text and this book is certainly not lacking in this regard: the pictures enhance the text immensely, demonstrating just what makes Moore stand out from the pack. I could have read a book twice this length but that's not to say that it feels lacking, more that the subject is so interesting. True, I didn't particularly have much interest in Moore's non-comic work, but these sections were still a good read and provided a fuller picture of the man.

The best way to measure the success of a book like this is whether or not it causes the reader to revisit the subject's work. For the past few days I've been frantically catching up on the Moore comics I've either never read or had any intention of reading, and I can't wait to go back over my favourites.

A great read, thoroughly recommended.