I used to think Moore was a crank, rather like the Free Software Foundation's Richard Stallman. Both men were fierce, vocal advocates for creator control in the 1980s, when such a position made them, well, cranks in the eyes of most observers. Both men are still vocal advocates for creator control today, though I doubt they would see eye to eye on what exactly constitutes a "creative work". Moore's remarks in the Fast Company piece go a long way toward making him the more reasonable of the two, in my eyes.
DC comes in not just for anger on Moore's part, but scorn, too.
“It seems a bit desperate to go after a book famous for its artistic integrity. It’s a finite series,” says Moore. “Watchmen was said to actually provide an alternative to the superhero story as an endless soap opera. To turn that into just another superhero comic that goes on forever demonstrates exactly why I feel the way I do about the comics industry. It’s mostly about franchises.”Like a lot of comics pros (and fans), he has been driven away from mainstream publications and publishers.
“There’s a widespread cultural barrenness across art and political culture. But there are some pockets of resistance on the extreme margins, like the techno-savvy protest movements, small press, the creator-owned comics, that seem to be getting some signs of hope for the future,” he says. “All of the genuinely interesting work is being done on the margins, with independent companies, self-producing, and alternative distribution networks.”A tangential note: accompanying the article is a sample by Darwyn Cooke, an artist tasked with at least one of the prequels. It's apparently meant to be evocative of the artwork in real comic books of the time in which the prequel stories are to be set. The art is about as interesting to me as dried mud. Oh well, DC wasn't going to get me to subscribe anyway.
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