Alan Moore - Writer HARDtalk


Alan Moore - Writer

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with him representing British companies, hoping to speak to their

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Japanese counterparts. We will bring you the latest on that as we

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get it. Now it is time for HARDtalk. Alan Moore is the man behind the

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mask, the mask worn by computer hackers and Occupy protestors the

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world over. But he's no typical insurgent, rather a graphic

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novelist. It was he who dreamt up the anarchist superhero with the

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ghostly, bearded mask, whose face has now become perhaps the symbol

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for subversion. Alan Moore has, in the past, championed graphic novels

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(book-length comics) for their effect on politics and culture. Why,

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in that case, is he now becoming disillusioned? Welcome to HARDtalk,

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Alan Moore. Thank you. I have described you as a writer of that

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graphic novels, but in the past you have said that the term comics

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would do just as well. But these are not the types of comets that

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most people think of. In the 1990s there were a few comics handling

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more adult material, not in terms of sexual violence, but more

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intelligent ideas. The comics industry seized upon them hand came

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up with the phrase, graphic novels. But with the best women the world a

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note of collected Spiderman stories is not a novel. Some of the work it

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you have put out six more happily under the title novel rather than

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comic. Times literary puts one of your novels, Watchmen, on the list

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of its greatest novels ever. No wonder whether the literary

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establishment was cross about that? I was not sure about that time

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magazine poll. For a few weeks it was at the top of the list. The top

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of the hundred books list. I can easily think of 100 great American

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novels that would deserve to be there rather than me. It was number

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five. Watchmen is a gunshot super heroes who are not in your normal

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super hero mould. They are raddled, slightly degenerate, damaged

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individuals. You are trying to subvert the genre. When I did it I

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was trying to think what these fairly ridiculous characters would

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be like if they existed in the real world. In the real world we have

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lots of traumatised children but very few of them go on to become

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vigilantes. So I thought, if you were to put on a costume and fight

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crime, it would probably for all sorts of complex and probably

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unpleasant reasons. They are pathetic, are they? The one who

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gets his Cape court in the revolving door of a bank and is

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shot by one of the armed robbers use trying to protect customers

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against. It is sub version, isn't it? Once again we took the standard

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backman image - the person compulsively dedicated to

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eradicating eradicatingout that and the real world, it seemed

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that such a person would be a lonely, paranoid vigilante with

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terrible hygiene and no friends. This seemed to be to be feasible

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reality, rather than living in a mansion. One of your most

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celebrated characters has been appropriated by Occupy protesters,

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computer hackers across the world. This is the image from your book V

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for Vendetta, back in the 1980s. This is a superhero who is an

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anarchist terrorist trying to fight the forces of fascism and

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repression. Is this character at he wrote to you? We call the very

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first episode the villain because there was an ambiguity that I

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wanted to preserve. One reason we used the character was because in

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Britain we have quite a tradition of making heroes out of criminals

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or people who work in other centuries would have been regarded

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as too rests was strong so I decided to play with that. To date

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someone who, in the context of the society in which he is existing,

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would be seen as a tourist. He does employ terrorist tactics. Yes, he

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employs the symbol of Anarchy, whereas the Ablett characters in

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the book - the totalitarian state - are symbols of patriotism. I saw

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them as the two poles. You have been described yourself as an

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anarchist, so presumably you be at more toward his view of life. But I

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am talking about his tactics. You would not attack the Houses of

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Parliament or the Royal Courts of Justice as he does, but uses

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violence for a purpose. Of course not. I believe this was not

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expanded upon in the films. But in the book we took a great deal of

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trouble to examine the fact that - this guy is the titular hero. Is it

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OK for him to kill people just because he is the euro? In book

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three it is finally decided that it is not OK. That killing people is

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always wrong and at that point the initial hero stands down and let's

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again non-violent person take over. So, it was an exploration of ideas.

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I think your term was slightly tongue-in-cheek, but you said if we

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took out all the leaders tomorrow it and put them up against the wall

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and shot them, society would probably collapse because people

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have become so conditioned to being led. Nonetheless, there is they

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pointed side to that. I suppose that coming from Northampton, which

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during the 17th century we were pretty much at the centre of the

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civil war and feelings did run high. We opposed Cromwell of -- we

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supported Cromwell and as a result we had our Castle pulled it down

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when Charles the Second ascended to the throne. It is fun to talk about

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that in the context of the similarities between the current

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financial situation and the civil war. Or how do you feel about the

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fact that now - you spoke about the civil war, 40 years ago - Your man

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with the mask has been appropriated now for protesters around the

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world? I have absolutely no problem with the protesters appropriating

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it, because the original V for Vendetta narrative was appropriated

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from the 30 years ago by the company he published it. I do not

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own that narrative or those characters. So, it irks you

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slightly that the money spent on these masks ends up going to Time-

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Warner. 80s. I find that more funny than irksome. The idea that a

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corporation like Time-Warner should be enabling the anti- Corporate

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movement like Occupy or like a non miss. Is it appropriate that your

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character was fighting in a fascist dystopia. People protesting about a

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financial crisis or too much surveillance from the government.

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It does not ring absolutely true. That is, for our current

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circumstances, fascism. Our currents circumstances history

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policing to lead to fascism. You have only to look at Germany during

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the 20s and 30s. In these kind of conditions you would tend to get

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far-right groups able to scoop up a lot more disenfranchised people who

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option. You have explored sexual politics in a confrontational way

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in some of the word you have done. I am thinking in particular of a

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book called the Lost girl's, which explored the central figures from

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Children's literature - Alice, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and a

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character from Peter Pan. You put them in very explicit scenes in

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your book. Were you trying to shock? No. The original thing

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behind lost girls with myself and thinking

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thinking that it seems strange that almost every other subject in the

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human world is considered fit for writing literature about will

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creating art around. Whereas sex and sexuality, which is something

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that concerns all of us, the an Lee Johnson or which talks about it is

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this fairly despicable under the counter type which has absolutely

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no standards. These are characters you plucked out of Children's

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literature. That is what shocks. You put them in situations which

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are incestuous and showed children as young as 14 having sex. It is

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not us day's celebration of sex it is also pushing the boundaries of

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what is deemed to be acceptable. pornography in the traditional

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sense which addressed all the problems that people have with

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pornography. It is interesting that use the word pornography because

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people do draw the distinction between erotica and pornography.

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You said that pornography is something that degrades. I was very

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careful to use the word pornography through the 18 years it took us to

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complete those books. Erotica means pertaining to lock up. Most of it,

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as thorough a viscountcy, is about sex. There is not a great deal of

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love in erotica. Whereas pornography means drawings or

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writings of up one turns. There is also be class element. -- wanton

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people. There is also are the class element. If you are upper class,

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you can be reading erotica. But my dad would be reading pornography.

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You are sounding coolly analytical about this, but you were drawing

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images of children. We wanted to be as comprehensive about the human

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sexual nature as possible. I would point out that the word drawing is

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quite a crucial one. photographic images. These are not

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real people. There are exactly as old as the paper they are drawn on.

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One of the points we wanted to make is that Victorians had a different

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attitude to pornography than in America. I am talking about places

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like Spain and the Netherlands. They do not see it is a stigma to

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be reading pornography etc they see it as normal human cause of action.

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In those countries that have less sex crimes and particularly those

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here. That tends to suggest that our attitude towards sex,

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pornography, writings or drawings about sex, are keeping the lid on a

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pressure cooker which can sometimes So you have attempted to be radical

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in your work, but the movie adaptations which were made of your

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work, a regionally you were happy to accept money for that. But then

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what happened? Well, or regionally, are was under the illusion that the

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way that films work is that you have a lot of auction of money, and

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then after a couple of years, they decided that they weren't going to

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make the film. Which was a perfect result. You got the money but the

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film didn't get made. Then they actually made a couple of films out

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of my works, and at that point I decided I would just distance

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myself from them as much as possible. Why? Are because the

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films have nothing to do with my books. The books were written to

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show off what the medium of comics can do. Then why did you saw the

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film rights in the first place? the case of The League of

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Extraordinary Gentlemen and From Hell, this was basically sold on

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the assumption that the films probably would not get made. So you

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were trying to get money? But you can hardly complain when they then

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make the films. Well, I can complain about how those films

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turned out. I was originally trying to take the position of, all right,

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I will not be going to see these films, but I wish them well. Then

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when I actually heard about them, I kind of realised that these were

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absolutely nothing to do with my books. Just to be clear, you have

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never seen these films? How can you pass judgement on them? Well, I do

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prefer to criticise things from a position of ignorance. But I also

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have a lot of friends who have seen these films and to laugh familiar

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but the books and they assure me that there is only a cover

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incidental resemblance. -- are familiar with the books. So I

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decided that if in future people were going to be making films of my

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work - and remember, most of my work I do not own, so I do not have

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a say in whether these films are made or not - but I decided that

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been the case of watch men or V for Vendetta, but if they were going to

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be making films with those characters, but I would give all of

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my money to the artists and in return would have my name taken off

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the film. What is the problem with we imagining your work? You did

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that with Lost girls and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. You

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take other people's work, in this case literature, and rework it for

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your own imagination. What is the problem with Hollywood doing the

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same thing? There is no problem for anybody other than me. So it is a

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personal problem. It is a personal problem. Also, I would say it is a

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problem of trying to adapt from one medium to another. I believe it

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very seldom works and I would also say that the films which I actually

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enjoyed were genuinely written as films. I am not really fond of

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adaption from one medium to another in general. In the case of, say,

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the characters in Lost girls and The League of Extraordinary

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Gentlemen, we're talking about characters who live in her public

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domain, and that is in a literary area where these authors have been

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playing with each other's characters for centuries. I believe

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Jules Verne wrote a sequence for Edgar Allan Poe. It is more of a

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literary game in those circumstances. I am wondering if it

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is also just a small measure of obsession on your part. You said

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yourself, if there is. At one of my sentences, it will be there in the

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finished comic unless something has corner while the wrong. You might

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retain iron control. Absolute there, and it is not going to be that bad.

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Is it slightly precious? probably is. But then again, given

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the alternatives in be, comedian, to being precious, which is to

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simply about all of your heart and your writing to be altered, at the

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whim of an editor, when most of the editors in comics, quite frankly,

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would probably struggle giving you a definition of the word added.

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presumably you're not delighted with the idea of DC Comics coming

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out with prequels to Watchmen. than delighted. This is something

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where we were originally told that we could embark upon a watch men

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because they knew that we wanted to own our own staff. -- Watchmen. And

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we had a contract that would enable us to have the right back when they

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went out of print. Back at that time, there was no such thing as a

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comic that remained in print for longer than six months. So we

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signed these contracts, obviously without reading them very carefully,

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because we trusted these people. Then we found out that all of this

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stuff, no, actually, DC Comics owns it four above. But you have gone

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beyond it in terms of being unhappy about what has happened to your

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work. You said that graphic novels themselves may be on their way out.

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The entire world of comics seems to be on the point of collapse. It is

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in its death throes, I just hope it's final death rattle is not to

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humiliating or desperate, because it is concerned. -- deserved. That

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is pretty punishing language. in a pretty bad mood when I said

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that. But I stick to it, yes. I would say that the comics industry,

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and by that I pretty much mean the American comics industry, which is

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effectively all that is left, it does not seem to have had an your

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idea in decades. All of the genuine creators that it once had it

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alienated. Or it drove them to embittered retirement, and finally

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death. You have to remember, that with the comics industry, you are

:20:42.:20:52.
:20:52.:20:52.

talking about something that was set up in the 1920s by American

:20:52.:21:00.

entrepreneur ofs. It was set up as a cover for bootlegging. So what

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could rescue the comics industry now? Are they new vistas it needs

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to take over? I think the only interesting stuff that tends to be

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happening is the stuff happening on the margins. In comics you have a

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wonderful independent talents that are springing up. People who last

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of publishing their own comics. They are not in the bid spotlight

:21:31.:21:34.

that superhero artists and writers tend to find themselves in these

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days. But you have turned your back on graphic novels? I mean, the

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novel that you are now writing at the moment, 750,000 words long, it

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is a novel. What a graphic novel. Yes, it is my second novel. My

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first one, Voice of the Fire, was largely based around my home town

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of Northampton. In central England. Forgive me, I don't want to be

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brewed, but I am less interested in the subject than before. Why have

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you decided to turn your back on graphic novels, and is it

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permanent? I have not turned my back upon the comics medium. And

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certainly, and number of my works will probably still be coming out

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in the form that is traditionally known as the graphic novel. I have

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got no problem with the comics medium at all. I will always love

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it and I am quite good at it. just wonder if you were growing up?

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It is not a matter of growing up. It is the fact that I can no longer

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work within the comics industry. This is the gangster ethics that I

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was just talking about. After seen great creators driven into their

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grades, cheated and disillusioned,... Strong language,

:22:57.:23:05.

gangster ethics. I am talking about the original gangsters. The men of

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the 1920s. The ethics of the comics industry have not changed since

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those days when they were cheating Gerry Segal and joke Schuster, two

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teenagers from Cleveland who created Superman. National Comics,

:23:22.:23:25.

as I belief there were called at the time, they waited until they

:23:25.:23:29.

went off to fight in the Second World War. And then they told them,

:23:29.:23:33.

well, we need to own the characters what you are away, but you will get

:23:33.:23:37.

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