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The Extraordinary Works Of Alan Moore: Indispensable Edition

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The Extraordinary Works of Alan Moore: Indispensable Edition is George Khoury's revamp of a book published years before called, simply, The Extraordinary Works of Alan Moore. For those of you who are new to the book itself, I'll taLk about it first. For those who want to know exactly what is different between the two publications, skip the first half of this review. TEWAM and TEWAMI are the absolutely definitive books (the Indispensable edition includes more of everything with a few excisions; details below) on Alan Moore. Known as a recluse, Khoury somehow earned his trust enough to complete a biography (with lots of wonderful photos) of him - through a series of lengthy, detailed, revealing interviews (so it might actually be called an "assisted autobiography," perhaps) - that range from his childhood, to his adolescence (selling LSD and getting kicked out of school and black-spotted in his hometown from then on), his painfully on-a-budget early adulthood (he went by pen names so he wouldn't lose his government assistance money), his role as parent (raising two daughters in an unconventional household and his being a very unconventional father), to his big break through with DC, to the big breakups (with DC; with his wives; um, yes, I said "wives" as in plural; with Bill Sienkiewicz who literally ran away from Moore's never-finished magnum opus called Big Numbers!), the loss of Mad Love publications (his idea of what a great, smartly run comic company could be), his newly found love and marriage of recent years with Melinda Gebbie, on and on. You get his astounding ideas on more abstract things, also, such as art, magic, writing, politics, mythology, history, etc. Everything definitive is included here: a perfectly thorough bibliography (that was changed thanks to smart Moore fans posting at 4colorheroes forums; now we know A Day in the Life was NOT written by Moore) from comic strips to comics to films to scripts to, well, everything; you also get some very rare things printed here that you're not going to find anywhere else unless you're in a serious big money collector's market and can even find them. You get lots and lots of voluminous pages of Moore comics and paraphernalia. If you want to know all you can know about Moore in one stop, this is the book to buy. It may lead on to other books you'll want to buy, but, so far, no publication on Moore comes close to this level of expertise or insight about this highly-touted author. THE DIFFERENCES IN EDITIONS: p. 128 in the original has "In Pictopia" and a few pages of art work done by other artists; the new version replaces these with a newly coloured "Mr. Monster" story. // p. 145 The full page drawing of Miracleman is replaced by "True Comic Book Stories" by Chirs Sprouse. // p. 170 The "True Comic Stories" by Chris Sprouse is replaced in the new version by a photo of Moore. // p. 171 Dunbier's and Keith's comic is replaced by the beginning of Chapter VII. // p. 198 begins an all-new chapter IX, "Alan Moore Today." // p. 206 vs. 223 in the Bibliography. The "Contact II Publishing _Day in the Life_ is excised" (in accord with the fact that it is now known NOT to be written by Moore). // p. 214 the pictures of Sinister Duck, Godzilla Pin-Up, and Heroes for Hope is gone in the new version (replaced by nothing). // And, of course, there are changes in the Twomorrows advertisements in the back of the book. // The original has 224 pages. The Indispensable has 240 pages. The paper seems of lesser quality, also. ADVICE: As these tpbs at one point were selling for $65-100, I'd highly recommend that you buy an Indispensable edition or an older one (now not so collectible) before this goes out of print. They will both skyrocket in price once the publishing run has run out. Just realize that if you buy an older version, you're losing an entire chapter as well as an updated bibliography. COLLECTOR'S NOTE: There is also a very limited Twomorrows publishing run of this that was printed in hardback; it includes a signed lithograph Moore photo. Mine cost $50 and I've seen it selling for well four times that already.

The Extraordinary Works of Alan Moore: Indispensable Edition covers the works of a world-famous comic book artist and reclusive British actor who tells his own story of his life, work and influences. A series of interviews blends with black and white representations of his many works in this fine biography of the writer of watchmen and V for Vendetta, perfect for any graphic novel or cartoon-oriented library.