Ungoliantschilde

Alex Ross Art

It’s a previously used pinup called “‘Mind if I cut in?”

“Tango with Evil”

“Mind if I Cut In?”

ok, http://JoeVince.Tumblr.com, first of all - the comments thing on Tumblr sucks, so I have to do this crap now in order to respond.

Alan Moore wrote “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow” because DC was doing Crisis on Infinite Earths, and they wanted a denouement for everything that came before.

In one fell swoop, Alan Moore managed to kill every character he liked as a kid, and spit venom at the idea that the characters had changed from when he was a kid, AND he spat that venom at DC’s latest event at the same time.

It was kinda like saying, “OK, you guys do not want to play MY game anymore? Fine, then I am gonna take my ball and go home, and NOBODY gets to play any games anymore, so nah-nah.”

He killed all of the characters, and turned Superman into a human being that said he preferred the quiet life of not being noticed. That is a pretty cut and dry case of a writer being upset about the directions a character has taken.

If you want a love letter to Silver Age Superman by Alan Moore, read his “Supreme” stuff.

Dude, I like the stuff that Alan Moore has written. I like it a lot. It is brilliant, brilliant stuff. I also see it for what it is.

Alan got expelled from high school for allegedly dealing drugs. He then went on to create comics. V for Vendetta and MiracleMan being his big starts. He then did Swamp Thing. And then Watchmen, and on and on.

V for Vendetta is a comic written by a very angry young man that blamed his government and the politics of the time for his situation. It was a great comic book, but it was also shaped by his experiences and troubles, as all great work is.

MiracleMan was a reboot of a UK SHAZAM-KnockOff character from the ‘50s. The character essentially decides to do away with the inconveniences of being Human by the end of Alan Moore’s tenure. Neil Gaiman picked up the reigns by having MiracleMan continue his reign as absolute ruler of a paradise wrought from superhuman efforts. a paradise brought on by massacring a huge number of people in London when MiracleMan fought Young NastyMan.

Swamp Thing was defined primarily by the fact that Alan chose to write Swamp Thing as a plant that thinks it is a man, and not as a man that became part plant.

Watchmen is a deconstruction of SuperHeroes in general.

Batman: the Killing Joke does not re-read very well. Seriously. It comes off weird. Both the Joker and Batman act out of character throughout the whole book, and the origin that Alan gave the Joker absolves him of a lot of responsibility. Alan Moore suggested that the Joker really is crazy, instead of him just being a sociopath that likes to mess with Batman. It actually hurt the Joker’s credibility as a villain in my eyes. Joker is a great villain because he has everyone believing that he is crazy, but he is actually just the flip side of the same coin as Batman, and he knows that Batman knows that too.

his run on WildCATs was about the WildCATs finding out that the war between them and the Daemonites had ended in their home Galaxy centuries before. Basically, Alan Moore showed that the WildCATs were fighting a pointless war.

Supreme, his great love letter to Silver Age Superman, also slyly took pop-shots at Rob Liefeld, who was publishing the book. Alan Moore wrote his version of Supreme as being one of an endless number of different versions of the same Superman knock-offs. It was great, but it also had a nasty undertone.

Alan wrote his best stuff when he did the first two volumes of League, the ABC stuff was great, and “From Hell” stands at the top of his best work, at least IMHO.

from VintageGeekCulture:

Alan’s Top 10 and Tom Strong is worth reading as well. Another of his silver age love letters, albeit more outright fun than Supreme ever became.

Alan’s mainstream superhero work has an undercurrent of bitterness to a lot of it. Angry, resentful. Bitter. His work stands at the forefront of the deconstruction period of Superhero comics. He deconstructed every character he seriously wrote, down to the level where he thinks they should stay. It’s hard to read that approach without seeing a bit of anger in its inception.

My favorite story in the DC Universe Stories of Alan Moore is “the F Sharp Bell”, about a Green Lantern from a sector with no stars, who instead adopts a bell as his symbol. A civilization with no concept for light and dark would relate everything thru sound. That’s brilliant stuff. And it was not bitter or angry. He just added to the mythos with reverence. When he wrote Superman though, there was clearly a turning point for him on when the “good” stories ended and the “bad” stories began. His “For the Man Who Has Everything” story in the annual, with Dave Gibbons artwork is great. But it wasn’t a book that only Alan Moore could write. It doesn’t sound like Alan Moore’s voice. It’s a better than average Superman book, but it’s not the greatest Superman book of all time.

He wrote Watchmen in what, 85-86? , V for Vendetta before that. His response to the movies was that he was not gonna go see them and something about how he wanted to spit venom at the people who made the movies. I am not gonna debate the Alan Moore adaptations, they weren’t perfect - League was out right terrible - but his work and his movies are still getting attention 30+ years later. And he wants nothing to do with any of it. He is still revered (rightfully so) as perhaps the best writer in Comics history. And he resents it. I don’t pretend to know his motivations or thought processes, all I can do is reflect based on my analysis of his work.

Alan’s best work was for his own characters and his own comics. I agree with Warren Ellis’ introduction at the beginning of the reprint thereof, “From Hell” is maybe Alan’s best work. It’s incredibly dense and immersive, and it was obsessively researched.

I have gotten some distance on this, and I will say that Zack Snyder’s 4 hour long ultimate version of the Watchmen movie was about as close as it can get to adapting that story as a film. He had his own takes on certain scenes, but I really don’t know how he could have done it better.

Killing Joke is a rotten apple. That book has been reprinted endlessly, and it fucking sucks. Barbara Gordon got Fridged in it. The Joker was portrayed as sympathetic. Fucking no. No. Fuck that. I did a lengthy post on the Killing Joke.

I had a lengthy argument about why I don’t like the Joker movie with Joaquin Phoenix.

Those stories fundamentally miss the core concept of who and what and why the Joker exists. The Joker is the perfect counter balance to Batman because he’s anonymous, remorseless, and there’s no version of him worth understanding. He’s the opposite of Batman. He’s the worst human being. Making 2 movies explaining his point of view, and the first one came out as a rallying cry for class warfare during the height of Covid and the BLM stuff? Yeah fucking NO.

Kaare Andrews

Versatile. Talented. He can draw funny in the same book as a fist fight. Dude is a TALENT.

Alex Toth Batman Villains DC Comics (1994) Source

“Case Study”, by Alex Ross and Paul Dini, with Letters by Jack Morelli. From Batman: Black and White.

I did not like or appreciate the Joker movie with Joaquin Phoenix. He deserved his Oscar, and my praise for that film stops there. Heath Ledger’s performance was the most on-the-nose realistic. Jack Nicholson’s gleeful psychotic felt closer for me. Mark Hamill is the voice I hear when I read Joker.

He’s not sympathetic. You should not try to empathize. And Harley does not love him. It’s a sick, codependent and abusive relationship. Stop cosplaying it. A lot of cosplay enthusiasts are women. STOP playing Harley and Joker, it’s a sad, fucked up situation. He abuses and manipulates her. When I see you ladies at conventions, it makes me feel like you’re either dressing up for attention, or you’re just straight up damaged goods. Joker doesn’t love Harley. It’s abusive. Cosplaying them as a couple perpetuates an awful message. Stop doing it.

He is a sadistic psychopath that hates Batman because of the positive attention that Batman gets. That’s it. He’s not a sad, misunderstood comedian. He’s a sadistic piece of garbage.

And Alex painted him correctly. He’s not skinny, sunken eyed drug addict. He’s a prize fighter in a gaudy suit. A clown prince; a natural counterpoint to a grim knight.

Batman: the Killing Joke, Pg. 33, by Brian Bolland and Alan Moore.

Comic - From The DC Vault: Death In The Family: Robin Lives! #01 Cover (2024)

Art by Mike Mignola

Joker by David Finch, with My (unfinished) Inks.

To me, he shouldn’t be a skinny, cracked out whacko. He’s a fop. A dandy. A prize fighter with a delicate and particular sense of style. He’s a pimp with the frame and body of a UFC Heavyweight. He powders his cheeks and rouges his lips like a dandy. Feather boas, mink coats, brass knuckles, .357 magnums, and lots and lots of amphetamines cut on porno magazine covers with switchblade knives.

And his darling. His dance partner. The grimacing silver spoon little lord Fauntleroy that dresses like Dracula. How better to shame the sad little rich boy that wants to fix the world than to dress like the most obnoxiously, contemptuously over the top clown. How better to show Gotham who the real joke is than to shame the joke with satire and bloody fists.

And no purple and clowns. Black. Black like an undertaker. A grinning pallbearer for a failed city that failed him and failed the little rich boy. That keeps failing the sad little rich boy and his sad little rich boy friends. Burn it all down and smile.

First of all, your inks keep improving.

Second: Joker is an all time great villain. While I agree on many of your points there are subtleties I disagree. Joker is not quite sane. Most people have stops, limits, they paise due to fitting to norms or consequences. They have lines uncrossed and sense of self-preservation. They have method to their madness. Joker has the madness.

Having worked at construction Batman has the weight lifter bodybuilder Set, doing safe, effective workouts for strenght and agility. Like some guys at construction sites he knows what he can lift and improve that methodologically. They also tire and try to protect themselves. Joker just goes for it. And same in their fights. Batman knows rules and multiple martial arts. Joker is like from James Crumley book " so, they are bigger, stronger and trained in karate. Bet they do not expect a bite in the balls"

Wiry or buff main point is walking chaotic nightmare. But indeed with his DNA from" the Man who Laughs" intact ( the old black and white movie with Conrad Veidt)

Because there is absolutely nothing funny about a clown in the moonlight

Not necessarily buff, just big enough that he can be appear to be a physical threat when he’s unarmed. He’s crazy, but he can collect and he can run a heist. He can go into the iceberg and broker a deal for guns. Everyone knows he’s unpredictable and dangerous, but there is a method to him. He doesn’t lift weights or do cardio, he’s just been beating up and killing anyone he wants to for so long that he is quite good at it. I don’t like seeing him looking like a skinny mental patient. I like seeing him as a legitimate physical threat.

I like seeing him dressed in black, with fancy touches of color. A black tuxedo coat with a deep plum silk lining, with pinstriped pants and a waist coat with a pocket watch. He’s a dandy. Rides around in a white El Dorado with leopard skin seats. Spats on his shoes. He applies the white powder to his cheeks himself, and puts on the lipstick to complete the effect. He’s dapper in a flamboyant way. He’s vain and he enjoys his appearance. Gold bracelets. White leather gloves. Top hats, stick cane with a hidden sword, and every pocket has amphetamines packets, hallucinogen tabs, knives, and bullets.

And thank you for your steadfast encouragement of my artwork!