It's time to bow our heads to pay a moment of respect as this week brings the end of an era.
With this final issue of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Tempest, writer Alan Moore brings an end to his comic book writing career (though presumably not writing altogether).
He's built an amazing backlog of work, with a number of achievements - any one of which alone would place him in the top creative ranks. Say them with me, kids: Miracleman, Swamp Thing, Watchmen, key issues of Superman and the Green Lantern Corps, Supreme, Tom Strong, Top Ten, Promethea, and of course the LOEG series, always working with the amazing artist Kevin O'Neill.
For their final issue they've packed in the usual incredible amount of detail, as armageddon descends on not just Earth but the entire galaxy.
Yet there are still moments of actual tenderness and laugh-out-loud humor, including a scene lifted wholesale from one of Stan and Jack's high points.
It's a wild finish to a series that's covered a stunning range of stories, formats and characters - the amount of research involved is incredible.
It's easy to admire Moore's amazing attention to detail, to story structure, to character development, and original storytelling - but his relationship with the companies that own and operate the comics industry has been difficult, so it's easy to understand why he wants to call an end to that stress.
But it's a real loss for the comics readers, especially at a time when we need more great writers, not fewer.
Still, we can be grateful for the work he's created, and honor him as one of the industry's all-time greats.
We may never see his like again!
Grade: A
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5 comments:
Well said!
I'll be getting my copy of this final issue at the end of the month from Discount Comic Book Service. Like you, I'm sad this series is ending. After I read the issue I plan on reading the entire series all over again.
Nicely written. I would include V for Vendetta, From Hell, and Lost Girls on the list, and that still leaves out smaller one shots items, like Big Numbers, Batman: Killing Joke, the 2000 AD stuff, and the Lovecraftian stuff, etc.
El Vox, excellent additions to the list - I knew I was leaving some good ones out (always a danger when one makes a list off the top of one's head). And Billy, I think re-reading the entire LOEG is a great idea - I must do likewise! It's one of the few series where I felt like I was missing some great references on almost every page.
what a wonderful end : Hyde dancing with Mina. Bet someone down the years will want to make this into a movie or TV series
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