I've heard Alan Moore disparage The Killing Joke as well. I think the gist of his gripe was that it was just a story about Batman and the Joker, there was no "greater meaning" or something to that effect. This may well be true but it's a great Batman story. It's probably the best statement on the relationship between Batman and the Joker. It's a shame that Moore well probably again never write stories for liscensed characters because he's probably better at it than anyone else.
I know, Alan Moore is the best. He even made me love Superman. I remember when the Justice League cartoon adapted the Alan Moore story from Superman Annual #11. I loved it so much that I tracked down said issue, and it made me cry. Seriously. He's the best.
It's a shame about all of the disputes he's had. He does seem a tad anal, but I guess I would be royally pissed and nitpick over everything if they ruined something I made. Did you guys see League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? Enough said.
OK, here is me tossing a stink-bomb into the room: I love Moore's work, especially his 80s stuff, and I think
The Killing Joke still holds up. But I also hold that he's nowhere near the literary genius that his fans make him out to be.
Watchmen is structurally brilliant, and better than most other superhero comics by an order of magnitude, but it's also filled with ham-fisted symbolism, easy melodrama, and simplistic politics. Ditto for
V For Vendetta, which I loved when DC published it in the late 80s, but seems a little shallow today. And I find his more recent work a mixed bag -
From Hell and
LOEG were great reads, but his ABC stuff seemed like he was phoning it in.
Anyway, Moore's work blew my mind when I was a teenager, and acted as sort of a gateway drug to stuff like Borges or Pynchon, so I wouldn't want to deny anyone else that experience. And I wouldn't think of comparing him to Frank Miller. But I think he's reflexively elevated to godlike status, when really (by his own admission), he's a lot closer to Stephen King than James Joyce - a really good genre writer. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Proceed to eviscerate me now.
