Supreme: The Story of the Year [Paperback]

Alan Moore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 2002

The acclaimed Alan Moore run of Supreme is collected in trade paperback at last! This is the first of two volumes, and contains Moore's ground-breaking The Story of the Year arc in its entirety. Checker adds a never before published Alex Ross cover to create the supreme graphic novel of the season.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

No one understands superheroes better than Moore. This collection won him the 1997 Eisner Award for Best Writer, and shows he can still find fresh things to say about the nature of comic book superheroes. Supreme began life as an exceptionally violent Superman rip-off. Moore took over in 1996, jettisoning everything except Supreme's blond, muscular good looks and turning a copycat into an ingenious homage to the Superman archetype. This clever work retells the history of superhero comic books as reflected through Moore's retro drawings and superheroes modeled on characters and narrative styles from the 1930s to today. Suffering from amnesia, Supreme has returned to Earth, but must also return to his roots-his smalltown family, allies and bombastic enemies-to discover his origins. In his everyday identity, he's a mild-mannered comic book artist who draws a line of violent superheroes. As Supreme investigates his past, readers are treated to a delightful series of tongue-in-cheek flashbacks to revised versions of the Golden and Silver eras of comics. Supreme grows up in Little Haven, rather than Smallville; lives in Omegapolis, instead of Metropolis; and convenes meetings of the Allied Supermen, rather than the Justice League of America. Moore weaves a complex plot that leads to a startling, ingenious climax. He also offers his characters and readers moments of poignant self-discovery. In his superhero masterpiece Watchmen, Moore stressed the dangers of identifying with comic book heroes. This work is a much kinder look at the form, done with wit, intelligence and love.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Moore, writer of the acclaimed From Hell (2000), returned to superhero comics with Supreme, a tribute to and knockoff of the original superpowered crime fighter, Superman. Best known for bringing realism to superhero comics in the 1980s, Moore is more playful here, reconciling the juvenile elements of the Man of Steel's adventures with the greater sophistication of contemporary comics. Like the 1960s Superman, Supreme has a mild-mannered, bespectacled cover identity, is accompanied by a younger female version of himself, and has an evil-genius arch-foe and even a superpowered pet. Moore skillfully toys with superhero conventions, and the Supreme stories become fashionably "meta" as the characters begin to get inklings of their existence as comic-book heroes. Not nearly as profound as Moore's more ambitious works, this is a marriage of two qualities usually mutually exclusive in superhero comics, intelligence and fun; Superman should be in stories this satisfying. Moore's devoted following will seek out this collection, while others old enough to recall the decades-old stories that inspired it will appreciate it, too. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 332 pages
• Publisher: Checker Book Publishing Group (November 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971024952
• ISBN-13: 978-0971024953
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 6.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,059,913 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Up! Up! And over!", August 31, 2003

By 

Sam Thursday (APO, AE United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Supreme: The Story of the Year (Paperback)

The Writing:
Moore's charming, loving rendition of the classic planet-tossing superhero is rightly noted by several other reviewers as aping Superman at his silliest, but it's also a fun, funny, compassionate look at the Superman character, and one filled with insight into what makes him tick. It's not a deconstruction, refreshingly, and it's not a revamp - it's a "prevamp," if you will, a harking back to the times before all the assembly-line serial killers and grim, stalkerish superheroes began to flood the market with angst. There is a warmth here that is decidedly missing in even the best of Moore's work, especially between Ethan and Linda (the Clark Kent and Lois Lane characters), and it just feels great to read something like Supreme for the sheer childish joy of it. If you liked Rob Leifeld's run on the book, you'll probably dislike this a great deal, but that, frankly, is good news. For Rob Leifeld fans, I recommend Gray's Anatomy, until you recover.

The Artwork:
The art is admittedly sub-par, for the most part; Joe Bennett's renditions of Supreme are still stuck in the early-nineties days of bulked-out powerhouses in clothing that might as well be painted on, and nearly every female character appears to be smuggling canteloupes. The good news is that Rick Veitch manages to save every single issue with his flashback sequences. Veitch deftly imitates nearly every notable comic artist of the silver age - his Harvey Kurtzman (Mad Magazine) spoof is worth the price of the book all by itself, and his Bill Finger and Wayne Boring are dead-on. You'll also get to see, very briefly, some of Chris Sprouse's work on the title, which makes the next book all the more enjoyable.

Summary:
An excellent book with a few forgivable artistic flaws and a great deal to recommend it. Age-appropriate for nearly everyone and a whole lot of fun.

NOTE: This book has gone through a new and better printing since the early reviews that complain about the 600 dpi scan quality of the first. I believe that Checker has an exchange program for those who bought the sub-par printing of the book, as well.

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid effort from Moore, March 27, 2003

By 

D. Sippel "Rocker" (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Supreme: The Story of the Year (Paperback)

I wanted to address some of the criticisms of other reviewers. First of all, while the reproduction isn't top notch, and doesn't match the quality of the majority of TPB's, it is acceptable, and didn't diminish my enjoyment of the story. The lack of refinement and general smoothness in the colors is noticeable, however, so if you think this might bother you, check it out in a store, library, friend's collection, whatever, before you buy it here.

The many flashback sequences all have a legimate authentic golden and silver age look and feel to them. While the idea of presenting the story of Supreme with this technique is inititally clever and effective, over the course of this 300+ page TPB, Moore goes to the well too often. If I had read this collection in the original monthly installments, I wouldn't have minded it, and probably would have even looked forward to the next issue. While I'm not sure which segments I would jettison (because they're all individually drawn and written with care and imagination), the repetition starts to weigh in, especially if you try to read the whole book in one or two sittings.

This is a fun read, suitable for audiences of all ages. This is much more in line with Moore's work on Tom Strong, and especially, Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow. Fans of Moore's more "serious" work: Watchmen, From Hell, V For Vendetta, and Swamp Thing, may be disappointed with this.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great writing, so-so art, BAD printing, high price, January 10, 2003

By 

Jeffrey D. Clem (Overland Park, KS USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Supreme: The Story of the Year (Paperback)

I can't add too much to what the other positive reviews have said about Alan Moore's handling of Superma-, er, Supreme, but beware: 1) The art is just so-so in some instances (most of the Image-ish, modern-day stuff is flashy yet weak; the flashbacks are great), and 2) the production/printing on this ...trade paperback is ATROCIOUS! Who are these guys? If you can't print it an an acceptable quality level, then don't bother, and if you must bother to do it, then don't charge twice as much as you should! These "Checkers" book publishers are supposed to be releasing more Alan Moore Supreme collections later on this year...they're hard-bound and leather-bound and they contain all kinds of extra goodies and they cost a bundle. Just be ready for sub-standard printing (printing an already-printed image resulting in fuzziness instead of from good film negatives or shooting from the original art). I thought this initial undertaking of theirs was too good to be true. Go out and buy the original issues for about the same amount or a little more and get good, clear printing.