Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, HRL

Alan Moore Knows The Score – He's Sixty-Four

Published Sat, 18 Nov 2017 08:00:16 -0600

Last updated Sat, 18 Nov 2017 09:54:55 -0600

Will you still need him, will you still read him, now Alan Moore's sixty-four?

The Great Magus of Northampton celebrates his sixty-fourth run round the sun today. Bleeding Cool wishes him the best of health and happiness and hope he gets plenty of Lush beard products to open today.

One year away from official retirement age in the UK, he shows no sign of doing so quite yet, working on curating the anthology series Cinema Purgatorio for Avatar Press, a final League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen for Knockabout and the film and TV series, The Show, and battling with Northampton Council over their planned closure of the local libraries.

And we hope he manages to avoid any of the publicity for Doomsday Clock. It is his birthday, after all.

Moore has written so many fun comic books over his career, including publishing his own, as well as launching a musical career, writing one of the longest novels in the English language, getting involved in political causes and writing short films. He gave the comics medium a brand-new set of tools for telling stories, many of which have been used, picked up on and expanded by current comic book writers. He fought for creator rights, and while his own battles with DC Comics often led to stalemate, his intransigent stances saw publishers improve the conditions for creators who followed him so as not to repeat the same mistakes.

So to Alan, in the knowledge that he'll never actually read this as he doesn't have an internet connection and rarely goes online, we wish you a heartfelt happy birthday. Our brains are in a better shape because of the things you have written, and despite everything that fights against it, the comic book medium of which we love, is far richer, cleverer and more interesting than it would have been without your presence — as long as we look in the right places. Thank you. And we look forward to what you are planning next.

Because yes, we still need him, yes we still read him, now he's sixty-four.