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Jim Kingman on Alan Moore’s Difficulties With Watchmen Including Difficulties With DC Comics
posted August 18, 2008
 

Regarding your latest comments on the "Alan Moore vs. DC Comics" debacle, I'm a little wary of throwing my two cents worth into the fountain, mainly because I don't want to cause any ripples I can't possibly subside. Honestly, I have absolutely no personal involvement in the matter, and I don't know the accused parties personally. What I know is what I learn from reading about the subject, be it on your website, in The Comics Journal, in Wikipedia entries, and in discussion with fellow fans of both Alan Moore and DC Comics. No matter any knowledgeable grasp I have of the situation, no matter my highly conceivable ignorance of the issues involved; in the end, in my little comics corner of the world where I obsessively read and collect funny books of all sorts, and casually observe the doings of the comics industry from a self-imposed distance, I'm just disappointed. With everybody.

And the reason I'm so blasted disappointed is because of the great admiration I have for both Alan Moore as a writer and DC Comics as a comics company. DC has entertained me for thirty-five-plus years, and as flawed as some of their business practices have been over the years, and as justified as many creators have been (and still are) at how they've been screwed by the company, it is this particular comics company that has thrilled and enthralled me with the publication of, among other outstanding works, Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams' Green Lantern/Green Arrow, Jack Kirby's Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth, Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers' Batman, Frank Miller's Ronin and The Dark Knight Returns, Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, Watchmen, and V For Vendetta, Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, Grant Morrison's Animal Man, Doom Patrol, Flex Mentallo, and Seven Soldiers, Ed Brubaker's Scene of the Crime, and Jason Aaron's Scalped. And that's just the tip of the creative iceberg. I am grateful to DC Comics. I have the highest regard for DC Comics.

And I have the highest regard for Alan Moore. His work is brilliant, thoughtful, demanding, entertaining. He has given us Swamp Thing, Watchmen, V For Vendetta, From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Promethea, and Lost Girls. And that's not the whole creative iceberg.

I can celebrate the work of Alan Moore as an individual and DC Comics as a publishing company every day for the rest of my life. I am also proud of the work they have done together. And then we get to this long-standing "Alan Moore vs. DC Comics" debacle, and the sour taste kicks in. Personally, and selfishly, I want Alan Moore to get over it. I don't want him to appear bitter. I want DC Comics to pursue a satisfying form of compromise, something above and beyond the standard, "It's business, Kate," way of handling business, something that will put smiley faces on both Moore and the company, and we can live happily ever after celebrating the sweets of artistic creativity with no sour aftertaste. But that's fantasy on my part. I know this, I may be ignorant, but I'm not stupid. And that's why when all is said and done and the debacle continues, I'm disappointed with everybody.

But this debacle is between Alan Moore and DC Comics. It will always be between Alan Moore and DC Comics. It doesn't matter what the rest of us say or think. The rest of us maintain our arguments or choose our sides and support our opinions and keep the tab running high at the criticism saloon. Honestly, unless one or the other or both of the parties involved does the right thing, we have better things to do.

I appreciate your last paragraph, Tom. The idea of an easy part in this situation is only for people who don't really care. For the rest of us this matter is hard, simply because we want some kind of a happy ending, and we want there to be some justice considered and involved, especially from those we admire and respect. Shoot, I have no limits, I want justice and a happy ending in the eastern Congo, in Georgia, and on the streets of east L.A, where the debacles are not only real but deadly and genuinely heart-breaking. Down that path I shift from disappointment to depression. So on that note, I return to my life-long preferred medium of escapism, the one that has made my worst days better and my best days perfect.