Alan Moore Pulls LOEG III from DC

Top mainstream comics writer Alan Moore will once again sever his relationship with DC Comics after finishing up the latest round of books, taking a planned third League of Extraordinary Gentleman volume to smaller publishers Top Shelf and Knockabout as a joint publishing venture, Rich Johnston reported yesterday.

Moore has enjoyed a long and occasionally contentious relationship with DC, the company with which he first made his name on Swamp Thing more than two decades ago. The problems stretch back to the mid 1980s, most famously problems concerning DC trying to claim obvious merchandising considerations as promotional items in order to get around their agreement with Moore. Moore's work for Jim Lee's Image studio WildStorm went to DC when Lee sold it to them (a deal announced in '97, completed in '98 I think) along with his company's other assets. Moore was assuaged by being afforded a corporate set-up that kept him one step removed from the company, in addition to the pressure of having committed to books in the heart of the ABC line to the point that many artists were far along in their work. Still, DC and Moore managed to clash at least twice over content issues, once causing him to withdraw permissions that killed a 15-year anniversary Watchmen promotion. Matt Brady has the best summary of the ABC-era relationship.

Apparently, the straw that broke the camel's back was Moore's objection to film producer Joel Silver claiming Moore had essentially endorsed the forthcoming V For Vendetta movie, which Moore termed a giant, bold-faced lie nearly the exact opposite of his actual encounter with Silver.

Moore and North American publisher Top Shelf have enjoyed a friendly relationship in the last four to five years. Top Shelf has 18 Moore projects and related items in its catalog right now, and also enjoys a healthy working relationship with Moore's From Hell collaborator Eddie Campbell.

If a third volume of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comes off, and it's the kind of project that may lend itself to a smaller publisher's way of doing things as opposed to the kind of technical support a full line of superhero books like America's Best Comics required, this could be a great stabilizing influence for Top Shelf. The trades related to the projects have done very well, and are consistent strong-sellers. If I recall correctly, at least the first issue of the second volume of the comic book series sold around 45-50,000 copies.

DC's inability to find a wholly satisfactory way of working with such a great and productive talent may be one of the weirdest stories in mainstream comics of the last 20 year, and I imagine many fans share Moore's relief at having once again terminated that relationship.

Update: I received an e-mail today saying that the reason the Watchmen anniversary stuff ended up not being done was not so much a withdrawl of permission by Moore but a clear signal of non-particpation.
 
posted 9:03 am PST | Permalink
 

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