Alan Moore is Disingenuous

Alan Moore is disingenuous.

In interview after interview he complains about the injustices perpetrated against him in the comics industry, how his stories were stolen from him, how he had no choice but to ultimately walk away from the medium.

But Alan Moore is disingenuous. His heyday was in the ‘80s. That’s when he produced his best-known work (Saga of Swamp Thing, V for Vendetta, Watchmen). Immediately following the ‘80s was of course the ‘90s. In the ‘90s comic book creators very famously forged new ground for creator control. Moore himself wrote for Image. His work there wasn’t notable until he settled in with his Silver Age Superman pastiche version of Supreme, which when he left Rob Liefeld’s studio was converted into Tom Strong and the rest of the ABC line, which was handled by WildStorm, right before it sold to DC.

So Moore quit again. He continued working in comics. He continued his public domain bonanza League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. He did a few other things. He kept complaining about what DC did with all his famous stories done under its umbrella.

Then he quit and quit again, proclaiming how unfair the medium is to creators, right to the present day.

Tell me what, beyond V, that he’s created wholesale that his fans unabashedly adore. Tell me what he did once leaving DC that was wholesale, that he had every ability, like every other modern creator, to own completely, that his fans trumpet in the same way as his classics.

(Never mind that fans as a rule, of anything, very rarely step out of the shadows of classic material.)

Tell me that Moore didn’t thrive, best, using or reinterpreting, the creations of others throughout his whole career.

And then argue that Alan Moore is not disingenuous. The argument always turns on his fans proclaiming all over again how great his best works are, that whatever his stance is their stance. 

The man has had many years and many opportunities to create and own outright whatever his heart’s desire. He has either been incapable of doing so, or uninterested.

That’s the real story, here.

Everything else is Alan Moore being disingenuous. And I’m tired of hearing the man complaining by explaining he isn’t complaining, that if DC had only been fair to him, everything would be different. 

DC or otherwise, that’s the history of literature, and Alan Moore has always been a part of it, building on the legacy of the work of others. Eventually every creator’s name is forgotten, and the story, if it’s important enough, endures.

Get comfortable with history, Alan Moore. Eventually, if your work is important enough, it will endure. And no one will remember the name Alan Moore, or care how hurt you felt about controlling the rights, or destiny, of those stories. If it’s that important to you, do something magnificent, undeniable, now, while you still can. And then see if it’s really as successful as your classics, you’ll lose control anyway. Fans have a funny way about expressing their appreciation. They will do the same thing DC did to Watchmen. I guarantee there are reams of Watchmen fan fiction out there you never saw or knew existed. No one made a career out of it, a name for themselves, a fortune. But it’s the same thing. It’s life beyond the original story, the Trojan Horse after The Iliad. If you had owned the rights to all those comics, blocked their constant republication, they wouldn’t even be remembered today, except by diehard fans. And a generation after their death, a footnote. Then nothing.

Just think about it. Decades ago it was the fight of your life. Decades later you’re still fighting it. It’s like George R.R. Martin at this point, making a career out of talking about writing that next book instead of getting the darn thing published. People like to say you wouldn’t complain about this anymore except everyone who interviews you forces you to all over again, every single time. Except you have a choice. You’ve always had a choice. And more importantly, as a creator you have always had the chance to express yourself, as you always did, through your work. At some point your narrative shifted from your work to your complaints. You still write, and have shifted, increasingly, to prose. But you’ve discovered that the prose world, so eager previously to use you as a shining example of the literary merits of comic books, doesn’t care as much about you when you’re operating under its own rules. So maybe you keep plugging away at it and change minds, or you reconsider what all your decisions have resulted in, and take one last great stab. While you still can.

Either way in a hundred years it won’t matter. Unless you do, and the choices you make now impact whatever legacy you have. It’s about your peace of mind. Because as much as you might claim otherwise, you’re kind of an angry old man. Anything you say to the contrary is disingenuous.