Alan Moore's fabled scripts

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XIII
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Joined: Thu Jun 19, 2008 8:16 pm

Alan Moore's fabled scripts

Post by XIII »

Erik Larsen, one of Image Comics' founding fathers, is working on a revival of SUPREME, starting from Alan Moore's final script of the original series, which was never drawn. So somebody on his board made him this question:

http://forums.imagecomics.com/viewtopic ... 304#p35304
Bendrix wrote:
"Are Alan's scripts as detailed and as much fun to read as I heard?"

Erik Larsen:
There's a lot to swim through and there are a lot of details which are repeated over and over as though he expects the artist will forget what's been established. He seems to take the long way around when it comes to saying anything and often there are several options in regard to background information. It was pretty complicated and it took me a long time to draw. It wasn't easy.
My question is:
As an artist who has worked extensively with Alan Moore on Captain Britain and D.R. & Quinch, what do you make of Larsen's words?



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Alan Davis
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Re: Alan Moore's fabled scripts

Post by Alan Davis »

Without seeing the script in question I have no opinion. I worked with Alan Moore for about three years over twenty five years ago. I never had any dense or massive scripts from Alan. A few typical samples can be seen in my Website Trivia section.
http://www.alandavis-comicart.com/scripts.html
Alan rarely wrote a script that we hadn’t discussed at length beforehand—we met regularly at each other’s homes and spent a fair bit of time on the phone—so it is possible he didn’t think I needed reams of detailed instruction.
I was sent one of Alan’s scripts (The Hyper Historic Headbang) by Steve MacManus, an editor at 2000AD, because two other artists had rejected it as impenetrable or unworkable. Steve sent it to me because I was already working with Alan so might be able to decipher it. I don’t recall that being too different from the scripts Alan wrote on Marvelman, Captain Britain and DR and Quinch so I’m either misremembering or it is possible Alan changed his MO.
The most challenging script/plots I ever tackled were written by Chris Claremont. I should say challenging and satisfying in equal measure. Chris’ stream of consciousness writing was so filled with possibilities that they had to be ‘absorbed’ before they could be rationalised. Happy days!

Alan
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