out of the blue

A few excerpts from a very interesting article/interview with Alan Moore on comics, sexuality and life:

… The restaurant has rather low, vaulted ceilings and Alan Moore is very tall; he seems to loom in the confined space. It is, however, an entirely affable, unthreatening sort of loom….

… [Gebbie had] sat in comics conventions alongside men who were considered the best humorists in sexual satire, and heard them say that women have no sense of humour and no sex drive. 'And I disputed both those things. It's just that women's sexuality is far more aesthetic and subtle, and that guys just haven't gotten there yet.' …

… The root of Moore's magic is the belief that the world of the imagination is as real as the material world, but real in a different way. He worships Glycon, a Roman snake god, not because he believes in Glycon … but because what he represents to Moore is real and important. The things Moore pays attention to – magic, pornography, Glycon – can often make him seem more than a little mad; but the things he refuses to pay attention to – London, literary fashions, Hollywood, consumerism, money – make him seem completely sane….

… 'The Magic Theatre' is a virtuoso demonstration of what an Alan Moore comic can do that novels and films can't get near – provide multiple strands of simultaneous narrative and visual information that wind around each other in dizzying fashion, echoing and commenting on each other….

… [Alan Moore on:] LIFE 'It's a horrifying, romantic, tragic, comical, science-fiction cowboy detective novel. You know, with a bit of pornography, if you're lucky.' …