Customer Reviews

The Birth Caul

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Alan Moore, probably one of the best writers in comics (no, that's wrong... in literature!!!), collaborated once again (after "From Hell") with artist Eddie Campbell. It is a very musing, philosophical book, with life as its topic. I can't really describe what it's about, but it definitively strikes a chord in me. Mr. Moore speaks about how we act in life, how from childhood to the end our life is affected by society. And some more. Now GO! Read it!

Alan Moore, the much-admired writer of such dark comicbook classics as V for Vendetta and Watchmen, was sent on a path of reflection on life's most profound questions after the death of his mother in 1995. His thoughts are documented in the Birth Caul, a shaky, poetry-like exposition, performed as a spoken word piece and later produced as this experimental comic book, illustrated in the scatchy artwork of Eddie Campbell. Like all Moore creations, the Birth Caul is forbiddingly contemplative. The author has long displayed a gift for placing sizeable meaning into small pictures. But the wide range of bewildering subject matter packed into forty-eight pages (the illusions of childhood, the plights of the working class and the big bang are both portrayed somewhere in the book) and its repetitiously cynical, spiteful tone make the Birth Caul come off as somewhat pompous. The work features a few sparks of serious power but the graceful blueprinting that allowed Moore to dodge pretension in his more grounded work is not evident in this overly confrontational and unstructured book.

Anything written by Mr. Moore is worth reading. He understands human nature and the power of words, two things that are essential for a great writer. He is one of the few who can make me cry. For those who are hesitant to read a book with pictures (The Watchmen, V for Vendetta) "The Birth Caul" is a great place to start.

...it's more like a comic book essay. Alan Moore has written some of the best comics stories I've ever read, but other things he writes go completely over my head. This one falls primarily into the "over my head" category. These are the same creators who brought us the excellent FROM HELL, but the BIRTH CAUL doesn't resemble that story much. It has no real characters or plot; and if there's an argumentative point it makes, I can't say what the point is.

That's not to say it's all bad, or even mostly bad. Some of the passages really sank in for me and kept me reading. It definitely affects your mood and makes you think, a bit, about how you are living your life.