Though comic book writer Alan Moore has officially finished his final projects and begun a well-deserved retirement from the medium of sequential art, he has also full turned his eye to, among other mediums, film — which, at least in adaptations, has treated him poorly. After a cycle of hometown prequel short films, some of which were gathered in the anthology feature Show Pieces, Moore’s collaboration with Northampton director Mitch Jenkins was finally released in cinemas and VOD this fall: The Show. On this episode, I’m joined by comic book/film/TV/pop culture writer Rich Johnston to discuss:
How Moore’s influence from film helped his innovative comics work from his career’s outset;
what early projects, like his Fashion Beast screenplay, may have taught him of writing for film;
why his best adaptation might be a Justice League Unlimited episode;
and yet, why a string of insultingly stupid adaptations, ones that often completely ignored the source material, soured him on the medium for such a long period, leading to him taking his name off V for Vendetta, the Watchmens, and The Killing Joke.
Also:
How, by the way of Watchmen’s flashback influence on Lost, Moore influenced all modern American television;
why The Show’s funny world-building works better with subtitles and rewatches;
how Edgar Wright might have contributed to The Show finished film;
and why the proposal of its prequels, feature, and five seasons (with a pilot written by and those seasons plotted by Moore), leads to the promising prospect of Moore (and Jenkins) mastering the film medium.
Rich Johnston is the founder of the Bleeding Cool website, is the longest-serving digital news reporter in the world (since 1992), and is author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With a Deja Vu, The Many Murders of Miss Cranbourne, and Chase Variant. He lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics, is a political cartoonist, and a father of two. Johnston interviewed Moore when he declared he was taking his name off all future film adaptation.
The Show is available on VOD.