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Rating: 
Summary: Splendid bio and celebration of a comic book great!
Review: I brought this book with very little expectation, having already purchased the Abiogenesis book by Gary Spencer Millidge and smoky man. Did we really need a second book telling us how great and wonderful Alan Moore is? YES. I've spent most of the day reading this thing and found it unresistable. From the moment I turned the first page, and until I got to the final page of the bibliography I was honestly enraptured with Moore's story. The author/mapmaker does a good job of taking us on a journey with Moore, which starts with his birth and ends in the present day. Moore is always forthcoming and candid in all his responses about his work and life. The interview is extensive and insightful, but more than that it was inspiring. The overall presentation of the book is lovely as well. Within the interview are examples of Alan Moore's best work, two complete scripts and a prose story. His collaborators are also represented, from Brian Bolland to John Totleben, doing strips honoring the man. This book charmed and delighted me. A really pleasant surprise and one of the best books I picked up this summer.
Rating:
Summary: An Extraordinarily Worthy Tribute to a Master
Review: Just outstanding. The longest most in-depth interview with Alan Moore ever takes up the bulk of this tremendously impressive effort and makes this book Moore's almost-autobiography...
Tributes in comic book form are smattered throughout, by some cohorts-in-creation including Neil Gaiman/Mark Buckingham (who provide an utterly charming, affectionate 2 page strip; Rick Veitch (a sublime dreamy sequence); Dave Gibbons and Brian Bolland who each write/illustrate warm fuzzy funny one-pagers... Also peppered throughout the book are rare works by Moore including Pictopia, a powerhouse short story-comic that illustrates the state of the industry from the 80's until recent times, that Moore's current ABC line (Tom Strong, Promethea, Top Ten, etc) provides the antidote to... If you've never read anything by Moore, this book is the perfect launching point into his ouvre; if you've read everything by him, you'll enjoy it even more...
Rating:
Summary: The story of a master writer
Review: This is the autobiography of Alan Moore, in a way. George Khoury has taken the 50th birthday (and semi-retirement) of Alan Moore as an excuse to conduct a massive interview that stretches from his childhood to today. Moore's personal life, career ups and downs, and all of his stories and characters are discussed. It's exhausting --- but in a good way. For the Alan Moore fan, this is the Holy Grail. Most of this information has been covered before elsewhere, but not with this kind of depth and inter-connection. Take Moore's family, for example. In other interviews, he's spoken about his marriage, divorce, and daughters. But here, with years of hindsight, he describes these events in a way that is respectful, humorous, and free of gossip. It's all very matter-of-fact, but never dull. The more important topics --- the comic books --- are approached in the same way. Moore is proud of his body of work, but he is honest about disappointments and unrealized ideas. In the later sections, he gets into his exploration of magic and occultism. He sounds like a professor who has decided to experience his topic of study first-hand rather than reading about it. He's trying to find the source of human creativity, but without pretension. It's fascinating to read about. It gives you an insight into how and why he's created so many amazing comics over the last few decades. Finally, this book is full of extras. Alan Moore's daughters get the first and final word of the book. Collaborators get small interviews and comic pages to comment on their relationship with Moore. There's a long bibliography at the end that covers 99% of everything he's done, and a sample of one of his scripts (which has never been illustrated).
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