Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Alan Moore, illuminations, waterstones

Want Alan Moore's Illuminations With A Sprayed Edge? Go To Waterstones

Published Wed, 28 Sep 2022 03:58:12 -0500

In April last year, Bleeding Cool got the scoop that Alan Moore was to publish a collection of short stories, Illuminations, out next month, which will include what is anticipated as a takedown on the comic book industry, with "What We Can Know About Thunderman" which is described as a "monumental novella" that "charts the surreal and Kafkaesque history of the comics industry over the last seventy-five years through several sometimes-naive and sometimes-maniacal people rising and falling on its career ladders, Moore reveals the dark, beating heart of the superhero business."

Published on the 11th of October, in different editions for the US and the UK, British bookstore chain Waterstones has a separate version of Illuminations exclusive to them. With… a sprayed edge. Someone has gone and sprayed the edges of the books in a special pattern, to match the cover and to look like this – and it is exclusive with no additional charge! And for non-Brits, you can take advantage of the crashing pound…

They also have signed copies, not available to purchase yet, but for no additional cost, suggesting Alan Moore will be doing a signing and, if so, probably at Waterstones in Piccadilly.

As we previously pointed out, if you live in the UK, the USA or Canada, you can forward any proof of purchase of Illuminations to the publisher Bloomsbury and receive a free badge or pin, depending on your nearest territory.

There are also a number of on-line talks arranged. One with the Guardian newspaper with Stewart Lee, who first interviewed Alan Moore for BBC's Radio 4's Chain Reaction back in the day, and the two have collaborated on a number of projects over the years, including Dodgem Logic and Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle. That will be conducted online on Monday the 3rd of October for the sum of £7 from 8-9pm BST, 3-4pm ET, noon-1pm PT. If you live in the United Kingdom, you can pre-order a copy of Illuminations with your ticket at checkout for a special combined price of £23.

Then on Saturday, October the 10th, Alan Moore will take part in two back-to-back online events, both free, though donations are accepted. The first with Joseph Beth Books Gifts And Food, in collaboration with the Wisconsin Book Festival, at 10.30am ET. And then again with Brookline Booksmith and speaker Matt Bell, also in collaboration with the Wisconsin Book Festival, at 11.30am ET. You can also buy copies of the book through the event as well.

In his first-ever short story collection, which spans forty years of work and features many never-before-published pieces, international bestselling author and legendary creator of From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and other modern classics, Alan Moore, presents nine stories full of wonder and strangeness, each taking us deeper into the fantastical underside of reality.

In A Hypothetical Lizard, two concubines in a brothel for fantastical specialists fall in love, with tragic ramifications. In Not Even Legend, a paranormal study group is infiltrated by one of the otherworldly beings they seek to investigate. In Illuminations, a nostalgic older man decides to visit a seaside resort from his youth and finds the past all too close at hand. And in the monumental novella What We Can Know About Thunderman, which charts the surreal and Kafkaesque history of the comics industry over the last seventy-five years through several sometimes-naive and sometimes-maniacal people rising and falling on its career ladders, Moore reveals the dark, beating heart of the superhero business.

From ghosts and otherworldly creatures to theoretical Boltzmann brains fashioning the universe at the big bang, Illuminations is exactly that – a series of bright, startling tales from a contemporary legend that reveal the full power of imagination and magic.

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