Alan Moore is undeniably a superb writer, but over the last five years or so he’s mostly been notable for being the Grumpy Cat of comicdom. Now the other beloved, kind-of-insane, British comics writer is calling him out on his bad attitude.
Grant Morrison was recently invited to weigh in on an article about Moore, who you might be aware thinks Morrison is ripping him off left right and center. After, let’s see here, almost two decades or so of abuse, Morrison finally had enough, and watching him let it rip is really something to behold.
Morrison is polite, but he’s also blunt. While he’s not out to tear down Moore’s work, and in fact has nothing but praise for it, he’s clearly pretty sick of the man himself. Probably the best takedown in the entire piece is this:
Moore constantly reiterates the idea that all modern comics are copied from stuff he did in the ’80s – and they’re all rubbish!
Is he genuinely saying that his influence has been entirely malignant?
Morrison is a nice guy, possibly one of the nicest in comics, but it’s fairly clear he’s fed up and it’s hard to blame him. Unlike a lot of guys from the ’80s, Moore is still putting out work worth reading, but it’s getting a little exhausting hearing about how all comics that aren’t written by some guy in a beard who worships a snake god are just pale imitations, or griping about money and creative control from a guy who commands more of both than literally anyone else in comics.
So, really, let’s just skip ahead to the Moore/Frank Miller cage match we all want, huh?