Alan Moore – Deconstructing Comics

#361 “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” marathon!

FLASHBACK! While this podcast has covered the odd League of Extraordinary Gentlemen book here and there, no one has dared think of trying to discuss all of Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill‘s series in one episode… until now! Kumar and Dana take on the task, with special attention paid to Black Dossier (and the record that was recorded for it), the Century trilogy, and the injustice that Kumar feels was done to Volume 2 way back in 2006, episode 21!

(Originally published June 24, 2013. Re-presented in observance of the passing of League artist Kevin O’Neill.)

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#695 Zander Cannon talks “Smax”!

Smax

A comics series that’s sadly hard to find these days is Smax by Alan Moore, Zander Cannon, and Andrew Currie. Emmet has been waxing nostalgic for this spinoff of Moore, Cannon, and Gene Ha’s Top Ten, so this week he calls up Cannon to chat about it – the meaning of the handprint on Smax’s chest, how the collaboration on this book (and Top Ten) worked, controversies in the fantasy genre, and more.

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#691 Moore and Andrade’s “Crossed +100”

Crossed Plus 100

It’s debatable whether Garth Ennis’ series Crossed, about a disease that causes people to act in the most reprehensible ways possible, had any redeeming qualities, but when Alan Moore steps in to write the next chapter, you know it’s going to be worth discussing. And so we have Crossed +100 by Moore and Gabriel Andrade. In Moore’s hands, what is it, exactly, that the disease does? Is his attempt at writing future dialects of English annoying or fascinating? Kumar and Jordan settle in for a fascinating, but depressing, sequel.

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#685 Hilary Barta interview

Where Monsters Smell

Hilary Barta has been drawing (and sometimes writing) comics for decades, for nearly any publisher you can name. He even worked with the great Alan Moore on “Splash Branigan.” In this week’s show he talks to Koom about working with Moore, his Plastic Man stint, and his new humor story with Doug Rice “When Monsters Smell” in Marvel #4. And, the utility of drugs to the creative process is debated.

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#682 “John Constantine: Hellblazer”

Hellblazer

The pandemic has caused a variety of entertainment content to go unreleased or even unmade. Unfortunately, that extends to the recent series John Constantine: Hellblazer by Simon Spurrier and Aaron Campbell, canceled after issue 12 when Spurrier had expected to get six more issues. Kumar and Jordan are big fans of the series, and this week they walk through the hilarious and frightening series we got.

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#670 Moore and Burrow’s “Providence”

Seemingly every time a horror comic comes up on our show, it seems to have some kind of connection to H.P. Lovecraft. In this case, it’s Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows‘ Providence, part of the Lovecraftian “Cthulhu Mythos.” Kumar, Emmet, and Dana discuss whether you need to have read Moore’s other Lovecraft-inspired comics (or any Lovecraft at all) before reading Providence, how Lovecraft’s work contrasts with Dracula stories, Lovecraft’s problematic personal views, and more.

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#662 Warren Ellis’ Three Pieces of ‘Watchmen’

Black Summer

Warren Ellis’ Black Summer, No Hero, and Supergod are three separate stories, but if you put them together you’ve kinda got all the elements of Alan Moore’s Watchmen. But was Ellis really writing these books in response to Marvel’s Civil War? Kumar and newcomer Jordan evaluate all three books.

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#628 Two viewpoints on “The Killing Joke”

The Killing Joke

Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s Batman: The Killing Joke is a favorite of many, but also a tough read more many others. And perhaps there’s some overlap.

In this episode we meet two who both spoke on this book at recent Batman in Popular Culture conference in Bowling Green, Ohio:

William Weaver on the book’s portrayal of people reacting to trauma, something that Batman and the Joker have in common with virtually every hero and villain; and
Tricia Ennis on how a book reviled by many as a prime example of the “women in refrigerators” trope — where a woman is harmed solely to get at a man in her life, not because of who she is — led to the much-loved heroine Oracle. How can something you hate be the cause of something you love?

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#622 “A Small Killing” – and also “Jerusalem”

asmallkilling-jerusalem

A man is being stalked by a child who wants to kill him. Who is the child? Or perhaps the question is, what does the child symbolize? Could this book be an autobiography in disguise? Koom and Mike discuss Alan Moore and Oscar Zarate’s underappreciated 1991 work A Small Killing— as well as Moore’s prose novel Jerusalem and simply the nature of Alan Moore.

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#617 Swamp Thing meets the monsters

Swamp Thing 40

After, well, a slight delay, Deconstructing Comics continues its look at Alan Moore’s 1980s run on Swamp Thing— a run in which the title character met werewolves and vampires (as Moore and co. found a new way to use these old tropes), as well as new character John Constantine. Moore was aided by artists Stephen Bissette, John Totleben, and Alfredo Acala, among others. Koom and newcomer Darrell Epp discuss.

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