In the office of the director, was waiting for him a detective. It was clear that the thing not looked good for Alan Moore. It was 1969, I was 16 years old and had filled all the vessels of the patience of others: it seemed to generate problems with the same rapidity with which it grew its labyrinthine hair. So much so that the institute, sick of their rebellion, turned to the police. He must of smelled the danger: when he was taken out of his art class for the last time, took advantage of the way to get rid of the marijuana that she kept in the pockets. It was late, however, to free himself from his history of early flirtation with LSD. The verdict of the responsible brigade of the local anti-drug turned out final: expulsion. Thus, the small Moore returned to The Borough, the poor neighborhood of Northampton (Uk) where I lived, and told his parents the new. For them, it was “the end of the world”. Nothing could be further from the reality. It was the beginning.
If the institutions they gave it back, would look for a success away from them. Then and for always. It launched, therefore, to write and draw comics. Soon abandoned the pencil and focused on the letters. More than a test, Watchmen, V for Vendetta or From Hell represent the judgment denying a talented revolutionary. Moore is today one of the authors of comics most venerated of the story. Your 66-year-old keeps his imagination overwhelming, his spirit, against the current, your ideal “anarchist” and a hair that the decades have become more grey, but no less chaotic. But something has also changed: on the one hand, confirms that his relationship with comics is finished. And, on the other, The Borough is now also the title of the first volume of Jerusalem, the second novel of Moore, who a few weeks ago, the order was published in Spanish (Minotauro). The land that a day will region today boasts proud of your neighbor even more famous —the author resides in Northampton—. And he has been dedicated to the square kilometre where he grew up his work “over ambitious”.
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The author provides an email summary of what Jerusalem meant to: “I Wanted to focus on Northampton, in the time and the death, to expose the corners more strange than the existence of my family, talk about the development of the English language, of the poor and the unwritten history of the working class, whose voice is barely present in the literature. And I wanted to create a narrative for the young people away from the boom post-Harry Potter books-profit allegedly for children.” The effort has cost him a decade. And the result is huge: overflowing the 1,000-page, sum 652.041 words (more than War and peace) and became the Spanish translation of José Torralba a feat. Without moving from Northampton, the book travels through the centuries, the formats and languages, a mixture of Dickens, Dos Passos and samuel Beckett. Even includes a chapter written in a language what Joyce that Moore recognizes that it can be incomprehensible. “The language is there to play with it and move forward”, he argues. In a review, The Guardian celebrates the moments dazzling of Jerusalem, but also warns: “it Is a novel in which everything is said at least twice”.
“it Represents an attempt to go towards a new narrative that is not tied to any rule, but that is highly accessible,” adds the author. In addition to the daring, Jerusalem also retains the empathy with which Moore treats his characters. “I’ve always tried to feel some compassion even for the most unpleasant,” he says. Resonate here the echoes of the great lesson that he inherited from his parents: above all, should be “an individual’s decent”.
At times, yes, Moore reaches quite far. “Writing can be demanding, but the moments of progress are compensated plenty. When we create, I feel we are only a millimeter of the divine,” he explains. Since then, the small Joshua Chamberlain would agree. This child, also a resident of Northampton, he sent the author a letter in 2016, when he was nine years old. “You’re the best writer in the history of mankind. Please, answer me,” he said. The author replied with a grateful heart, but take issue with. But his influence on the contemporary culture is enormous. There are Guy Fawkes masks from V for Vendetta by filling in the squares, superheroes dominating shelves and lockers or adaptations to the tune of millions of your work. The last series, Watchmen, has been the joy of the year for HBO.
But for decades, Moore lost his intellectual property and you do not receive anything for it. So much so that, in their answers, skip the question about it. Already made clear that it does not want to talk about DC Comics. “When I started in the comic, it was a means created for the working class, and especially for their children. It was produced and distributed cheaply to a wide audience teenage, the age in which the public is more hungry for new ideas and radical. Now, nearly all comics are for the middle class, and about it. Much of this audience literarily dying is people of middle age are motivated by the nostalgia of your childhood and of simpler times,” says Moore. Paradoxically, the author is aware that he contributed to this desolation. In the eighties, at the same time that Art Spiegelman and Frank Miller, showed that comics could be for adults, to be at the height of the novel or eligible for the Pulitzer. “What was our art form today, it is a passion vanishing for people who have been arrested in adolescence,” he insists.
And not only. Moore always struck with their employers. Accumulated fights, marches forward and ended up as far as possible from Marvel and DC Comics. “They are like Dante’s Inferno, while the independent scene is like 1984. I’m tired of the industry of comics. Have already taken too much of my time. I despised 80% of my work in comics, since it does not allow me to be your owner. I have been alienated completely. Do not keep copies at home, and I will not read those works,” he says. Because your list of disputes is almost as long as their curriculum: Moore always disagreed with adaptations in film and the mass exploitation. Where he abanderaba risk and complexity, we wanted to “theme parks”, to quote a pressure that you used before that Martin Scorsese to refer to the cinema of superheroes. Today what is considered “a pest”. But he was deprived of the last word on his creatures. Nor was ever the benefits they generated. “Often it has proved impossible to maintain the freedom of my creations. And I’ve found many people who have tried to take advantage of my talent. It would take all my moral decisions, in spite of its cost. I have No regrets. The single, sometimes, is the fact that I dedicate myself to the comics,” adds Moore. Readers, in contrast, seems to them a decision more than right.
faith in the reader… and the Brexit
“The good writing is that which pushes the reader to active engagement. The art is truly effective requires that the public have at least half of the work,” says Alan Moore. His work is a clear example of this. Ambitious, daring, cryptic, but adored. The author shows a robust faith in his followers, but much less in the industry: “The average individual is able to cope with a complex narrative, but often it is not what is on offer. In popular culture, first, it is decided that the public is composed mostly of simpletons who would not appreciate anything intelligent. Then, produced works of that style, assuming that is what the mass wants. This process, long-lasting, for decades, generated an audience that will hardly be able to recognize a smart material, if it is what you see”.
yes, Alan Moore does not want to all the readers for the same. There is an explicit exception: “The referendum on the Brexit was a coup from above. Several generations will have to bear its consequences. It would be preferable that the people that voted to avoid both my works as my person. I promise to show you the same consideration.”
