Previewsworld hat ein langes und ausführliches Interview mit Comic-Gott Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta) anläßlich des bald erscheinenden dritten Bandes von „The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen“ (via Hirnwichse). Die Story spielt ab dem Jahr 1910 und darin verwurstet er Figuren aus Brechts Drei Groschen Oper, Stummfilmen aus der Zeit und Jack The Ripper. Überhaupt: Alan Moore. Ich habe mir neulich erst die Dokumentation „The Mindscape of Alan Moore“ angesehen. Unfassbar, wie ein kauziger Mann mit Rauschebart und eine Doku über ihn, die nichts anderes macht, als ihn zu zeigen, wie er seine Lebensgeschichte in seinen Bart nuschelt, so hypnotisch sein kann. Die Doku ist natürlich online, unbedingt ansehen.
Hier ein paar Zitate daraus, via Underwire
On his early career: “I wound up at a tannery pulling sheep skins out of tanks of urine and blood. We threw testicles at each other to relieve the boredom. I was smoking dope in the men’s room and got fired. Then I became a toilet cleaner at a hotel and went downhill from there, to where I finally became a comics writer.”
On education: “I was expelled at 17 from school. My headmaster wrote to all the schools that I might apply to, telling them I would be a corrupting influence. He referred to me as psychopathic, which I thought was rather harsh.”
On V for Vendetta: “It was very overcast times politically in the early ’80s with Reagan in America and the National Front in England. In V for Vendetta, to get over the idea of fascism, I needed a symbol: security cameras on every corner. Readers were impressed and so, apparently, were government officials.”
On Watchmen: “Watchmen also grew out of the early ’80s … when nuclear destruction suddenly seemed a very real possibility. We treated these fairly ridiculous superhuman characters as more human than super and used clichés of the superhero formula to discuss notions of power and responsibility in an increasingly complex world.
A few things chimed well with the public but the most important thing was the actual storytelling. The world we presented didn’t really hang together in terms of linear cause and effect but was presented as some massively complex simultaneous event with connections made of coincidence and synchronicity.
This resonated with an audience that realized their previous view of the world was not adequate for the complexities of this scary and shadowy new world we were entering into. Watchmen, if anything, offered new possibilities for how we perceived this new environment.”
On magic: “Magic is the science of manipulating words and images to change consciousness. The artist is the closet thing to the shaman. In the present time, the fact that the power of magic has degenerated into cheap manipulation and entertainment is a tragedy.”
Noch mehr Moore: io9 hat drei Ausschnitte einer älteren Doku: „Monsters, Maniacs and Moore“.
Die Alan Moore Doku hat zwar schon ein paar Jahre auf dem Buckel, ist aber ohne Zweifel erhaben. Die DVD habe ich auch hier rumliegen..
Kann dir z.B. die “Will Eisner: Profession – Cartoonist” Doku von 1999 nur ans Herz legen. Haben die am Dienstag beim Naaman geguckt. Will Eisner war eine unglaubliche Person und wohl einer der wichtigsten Künstler der Comicgeschicht. Und das nicht nur wegen The Spirit =)
Großartige Dokumentation.
existiert zu der will eisner doku n link… ?? weil der kerl is toll… (ich kenn leider nur die sachen die in seinem band von der comic-bibliothek der frankfurter allgemeinen)
Ich dachte, der dritte LXG-Band sei schon “Black Dossier” gewesen.
@Jens: Öhm, weiß ich jetzt nicht. Die Doku ist alt, ja, aber grandios. Ich kann doch nicht so oft bei meinem Comic-Dealer vorbeigehen, da werde ich doch arm ;)