Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Alan Moore, Gran Morrison

When Grant Morrison Made Alan Moore A Subterranean Pirate

Published Mon, 22 Aug 2022 09:57:09 -0500

Grant Morrison has been giving notes on writing Multiversity in his Xanaduum Substack. And how they keep being accused of doing versions of Alan Moore in their comics. Which, given past enmity between the two, might be considered a little on the nose. I think Morrison might have read this blog in particular, as they directly address some of the points being made, as ell as draw parallels between many of Morrison's comics and those of Alan Moore as well. They write "Curiously these characters seem to invite interpretation; I've seen suggestions that the Gentry might, from one angle, resemble the kind of homogenizing, standardizing corporate forces that are slowly sapping mainstream comics of their cultish, counterculture oddness in favour of endless Batman product. I've seen the Gentry reduced at various times to a scathing critique of DC executives, a swipe at Comics Journal critics or, inexplicably, Alan Moore! There is, however, no intended one-to-one correspondence between the Gentry characters and real- world individuals or organizations, while the sometimes-stated opinion that 'Alan Moore ruined the DC Universe with cynicism' is not one I share. It seems hardly controversial to point out that Moore in fact provided DC with an unprecedented jolt of energy, imagination and possibility that still sustains their threadbare continuity 40 years later." It's not the only time comparisons have been made with Grant Morrison characters and Alan Moore and they want to tackle some of these as well.

" Zor in Seven Soldiers is no more, no less than the nigh-on omnipotent villain Zor from the Spectre story in More Fun issue #55 1940, who was chosen specifically because of his godlike power levels and, most importantly, his close resemblance to Zatara the magician, Zatanna's beloved dad! Zor and his self-proclaimed 'magnificent beard' are not subbing for Alan Moore!"

"Likewise, the super-vampire Mandrakk from Final Crisis is not an avatar of Alan Moore, neither is Vyndyktvx from Action Comics, nor the pervert Santa Claus, (as brilliantly portrayed by comics fan and Spider-Man writer Joe Reitman), in Happy! despite what some outraged readers have insisted! Sometimes a devouring, soulless, nihilist horror is just a devouring, soulless nihilist horror!… Not every character with any kind of beard or incidental facial hair in my stories is an Alan Moore stand-in!" But he does confess to one.

"The only deliberate Alan Moore insert in any of my stories appears as All-Beard the mildly satirical subway pirate from Seven Soldiers; The Manhattan Guardian – 'Can't you see I'm walking barefoot on scalding tiles of radioactive pearl?'"

"- which also features a cartoon version of myself in All-Beard's nemesis No-Beard – '…All-Beard was always the best pirate…'"

"Incidentally, and contrary to popular belief, the end of that story does not show No-Beard as the winner of the pirate battle – the irradiated, hairless, semi-skeleton driving the train wears the same fur-collared coat both pirates wore and we make a point of not showing his hands/hooks to keep his identity ambiguous. The point being that the passage of time, the dwindling of interest, and the inevitable contingencies of folk tale, fake news and rumour have so mixed up and misremembered the reality of the pirates' lives that, at the last, each has become indistinguishable from his old rival."