Yesterday's edition of the New York Times included a feature on Alan Moore, covering his latest project Unearthing. Always one to surprise his fans, Alan's latest creation isn't a book or a comic, but is, as the NYT puts it, "a lengthy spoken-word recording accompanied by an atmospheric musical soundtrack and a book of photographs".
All well and good, but why am I mentioning it here? Well, the subject of Alan's narrative is none other than his fellow comics writer and long time friend and mentor Steve Moore (no relation). Steve was instrumental in creating some of the first comic fanzines in Britain, worked on the staff of Pow! in 1967 and, along with Phil Clarke and Mike Higgs, presented the very first comic convention in the UK in 1968. Alan covers these early pioneering days of comics fandom on Unearthing, giving Steve, Phil and Mike their due. (Steve of course later went on to create strips for Warrior, Phil set up one of the UK's first and lasting comic shops Nostalgia & Comics, and Mike created The Cloak, Moonbird, and other popular strips.)
"After all those years of working within the comics industry and quietly going mad, this is what erupts" said Alan to the New York Times. Unearthing also pays tribute to Shooter's Hill, the area where Steve Moore lives and which has been mentioned in the writings of Dickens and Wordsworth.
Steve Moore is said to be amazed and amused by the project's focus on his life.
Promo clips of Unearthing are on YouTube. I've embedded one here which will hopefully play if you click on it:
You can pre-order Unearthing on import from Amazon HERE.
My thanks to Cathy Frumerman for the info. (Cathy's book On the Trail of The Prisoner can be ordered from http://www.priz.biz )
I saw Alan Moore deliver Unearthing in the tunnels under Waterloo station last week and it was an odd experience! The narrative is almost three hours long and while Steve Moore is the main subject there is also a lot of mythical stuff about Shooters Hill etc. The comics history is a small part of the overall set and actually seemed to be at odds, style wise, to the rest. My impression was that this is much moor a story written by Alan Moore than one about Steve Moore.
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