Posted in: Comics, DC Comics, Rebellion / 2000AD, Titan, Tokyopop | Tagged: Alan Moore, Albion, forbidden planet, hardcover, john reppion, leah moore, Liverpool, signing

Albion, The Alan Moore Comic, Lawyers And Executives Made Happen

Albion, the Alan Moore comic lawyers and executives made happen, gets its hardcover deluxe edition, and Forbidden Planet signing in Liverpool

Published Fri, 02 Oct 2026 06:17:13 -0500

by Rich Johnston

Comments

Article Summary

Alan Moore’s Albion returns in a 2026 hardcover deluxe edition from Rebellion’s Treasury of British Comics.
Originally published by WildStorm/DC, Albion was Alan Moore’s final work-for-hire comic and a rare DC project.
Leah Moore and John Reppion script a story reviving IPC heroes like The Spider, Steel Claw and Robot Archie.
A Forbidden Planet Liverpool signing on 17 October celebrates Alan Moore’s Albion and its long-awaited return.

Albion, the six-issue limited series plotted by Alan Moore, scripted by Leah Moore and John Reppion, pencilled by Shane Oakley, inks by George Freeman, colours by Wildtorm FX and covers by Dave Gibbons, is receiving renewed attention in 2026 with a new hardcover collection from Rebellion's Treasury of British Comics imprint.

Originally published by WildStorm/DC Comics between 2005 and 2006, it was Alan Moore's last work-for-hire comic. A deal he hadn't engaged in for decades, even then, especially not from a DC Comics property. And all because he loved the IPC characters he grew up with. And all because then-Publishing Director at Time, Inc UK, Andrew Sumner, then-DC Comics SVP Sales Bob Wayne and then-Wildstorm EIC Scott Dunbier had worked out that DC Comics could publish these classic British comics characters from the pages of Lion, Valiant, Smash!, Wham! and other IPC/Fleetway titles of the 1960s and early 1970s due to a variety of companies that the parent company Warner Bros. had bought over the years. It was a hard legal needle to thread, and the project was nominated in that year's global internal Time Warner Awards for "inter-company entrepreneurial collaboration", receiving a runner-up prize, though it probably should have gone to the lawyers involved.

Among those featured were The Spider, The Steel Claw, Robot Archie, Captain Hurricane, Grimly Feendish, Faceache, and many more, as Danny, a young comics enthusiast, and Penny, the daughter of one of the imprisoned characters, discover that the heroes and villains of those old comics were real people. The British government had rounded most of them up decades earlier and locked them away in a remote facility, while publishing the comics to convince the public that they were only fiction. As Danny and Penny dug deeper, they uncovered the dark truth behind the disappearances and set out to free the forgotten figures of British comics history.

After two decades out of print, the complete series has been collected in a new Treasury of British Comics hardcover edition released in 2026 by Rebellion, which now owns the rights to the vast majority of the old IPC/Fleetway catalogue. The new edition includes additional material looking at the history of the characters. Writers Leah Moore and John Reppion are currently promoting the anniversary edition with signings, including a signing/launch event at Forbidden Planet in Liverpool, the comic store chain where Andrew Sumner is now Chief Operating Officer of its owner, Titan Entertainment Group, on the 17th October, 2-3 pm. You can also order a signed copy here.