Sunday, October 5, 2008

Comics Review: Alan Moore, et al, Miracleman

This review has been moved to the R. S. Martin website. Click here to read.
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6 comments:

Pete Dratt said...

Great article. . .except for this part here:

"one who yields to the temptation of ignoring the prose captions is probably better off."

That's just crazy talk, man. I mean, there may be a COUPLE of discriptions that are over the top, but to suggest that it might be a good idea to skip 'em all, that's just nuts. There's a lot of great writing in those captions, and most of the prose is incredibly beautiful, esp in Book III. Other than that, I REALLY enjoyed the thoughtfullness of this article. Nice work!

October 8, 2008 at 3:43 PM
R. S. Martin said...

I'm glad you enjoyed the post. One on the Gaiman-Buckingham treatment is scheduled for October 26.

I overstated things a bit with the line about ignoring the prose captions, but I truly cannot stand Moore's efforts at descriptive prose--they strike me as ridiculously purple. They mar his otherwise strong work on Miracleman and Swamp Thing. I've found the only exception is when he's writing the captions in a specific character's voice; that finely tuned ear of his kicks in and takes over, and they read extraordinarily well.

If you like his abstract prose, great; to each their own--his editors at DC reportedly used to read it aloud in the hallways whenever a new script arrived in the office. I just can't help but grit my teeth at it.

October 8, 2008 at 4:44 PM
Anonymous said...

You were obviously as impressed as I was by Bob Fiore's review in TCJ, but I think you crib a bit too much from it ...

-- JN

January 3, 2009 at 9:03 PM
R. S. Martin said...

I wasn't cribbing from any Fiore review from The Comics Jounral. As far as I know, he's never even reviewed Miracleman. The quote by him, as indicated at the top of my review, is from The New Comics.

April 17, 2009 at 8:18 PM
Anonymous said...

I think you are reading some panels correctly, For instance the leopard that you mentioned was not "shot" but mauled to pieces by Miracle-dog. That juxtaposes, I suppose death and life(love-making of MM and Liz). Sure, alan's writing was not as polished as it was in Watchmen but it sure feels good to read his raw early writing. I don't think his similes and purple narration are somethings to put down too.They are great to read. Esp in a comics book.

November 24, 2009 at 10:15 AM
R. S. Martin said...

I'm sorry about the wait in posting your comment. I wanted to double check the scene where the jaguar is killed in Book Two. You're right; the animal was mauled, not shot. I've made a correction in the review.

As far as Moore's purple prose goes, well, as I responded to Pete Dratt, to each their own.

November 29, 2009 at 1:55 PM

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