It would be almost a year before Moore and David Lloyd finalised their V for Vendetta contract with DC. The reasons Moore signed are self-evident: he trusted DC, they would pay him the highest page rates in the industry plus a royalty, they were keenly interested in publishing anything he had to offer and making all the right noises about creators’ rights. In 1984, Moore’s back catalogue divided neatly into four categories: 1) his work for Marvel UK and 2000AD, which he didn’t control the rights to; 2) his work for Sounds, Maxwell the Magic Cat and The Bojeffries Saga, which were all unsuited to the mainstream US market; 3) Marvelman (and the related Warpsmith), which DC couldn’t publish; and … 4) V for Vendetta.
Within a month of Pacific collapsing, Warrior received another blow. On 21 September 1984, Marvel’s lawyers sent Skinn a letter objecting to the use of the name ‘Marvelman’. This had been triggered by Quality republishing a number of old Mick Anglo Marvelman strips in a one-off comic called the Marvelman Special. It was the first time the name had appeared in the title of a magazine, although in his reply, Skinn noted that Marvel UK had known all about Marvelman appearing in Warrior for years and not objected. Four more letters were exchanged, with Marvel seeking a clearer assurance that Marvelman would not reappear. The threat of legal action proved useful to Skinn, as it acted as a smokescreen for the behind-the-scenes problems with the strip. He published the correspondence in Warrior #25 and #26, gaining sympathy from fans.
It also, briefly, saw Moore on the same side as Skinn. Temperamentally distrustful of lawyers, Moore saw the legal action as something akin to an assault on the natural order: ‘Despite the fact that “Marvelman” has been a copyrighted character in England since 1954, it was feared that a certain major American comic company (not DC) might take exception to a comic entitled Marvelman being published upon its own turf. Despite the fact that the company concerned hadn’t adopted their name until the very late sixties, it was decided that corporate clout and legal muscle would be more likely to decide the issue than such comparative trivialities as the concepts of right and wrong.’ In the same issues he published the exchange of letters with Marvel’s lawyers, Skinn was able to trumpet the American reprints of Warrior material, starting with Axel Pressbutton #1 (cover dated November 1984). The small US comics company Eclipse had swiftly bought Pacific’s intellectual property in a bankruptcy sale, and this included the reprint rights to some, but not all, material from Warrior. The deal included Pressbutton, Marvelman and Warpsmith, but – for reasons about which now not even Moore, Lloyd or Skinn are entirely clear – excluded V for Vendetta and The Bojeffries Saga.
It came too late to save Warrior, though. Issue 26 (February 1985) was the last to be published. It saw the first contribution by writer Grant Morrison, an instalment of The Liberators, a new series created by Skinn. Another chapter of that, and of V for Vendetta, were complete but would remain unpublished for some time. That summer, Skinn told Amazing Heroes magazine Warrior would return, but from now on he would insist that he owned any new characters.
Meanwhile, Eclipse Comics pressed on with their plans for Marvelman. Co-founder Cat Yronwode loved the series: ‘It’s a great story. Great art. I thought it was one of the most adult – and I don’t mean pornographic – stories I had seen in comics. I loved where Alan Moore was going with the story from what I’d read in Warrior. And I knew that if he had kept it up, it would be a masterpiece.’ For the time being, though, Moore had little involvement with Eclipse. Even with each American comic reprinting four Marvelman chapters from Warrior, it would be #7 (provisionally scheduled for March 1986, eventually published in April) before any new material would be required from him.
Eclipse had aggressive plans for Marvelman; they made moves to secure the rights to the character, trademarks and the continuation of the story beyond the Warrior material, signing contracts with Quality Communications for Skinn’s company to supply them with completed pages equivalent to twelve issues of both Marvelman and Pressbutton – in both cases, the first six issues would be Warrior reprints, the next six issues all-new material. Most of the comics sold exclusively in comic shops – the ‘direct market’ – were premium products for avid collectors, with a higher cover price than the regular comics sold at news-stands. Eclipse would sell Marvelman only to the direct market, but at the same price point as a news-stand comic, 75¢. It was a conscious attempt to muscle in on DC and Marvel’s territory.
As The Comics Journal reported in February 1985, the name ‘Marvelman’ remained a sticking point whichever side of the Atlantic it appeared, and Eclipse weren’t quite sure how to proceed. Moore therefore wrote to Archie Goodwin, a senior editor at Marvel, issuing an ultimatum. Although he had already vowed not to work for Marvel UK again, he still had some leverage, as Alan Davis explains: ‘At the time Alan Moore and I were producing Marvelman and Captain Britain, UK-originated comics were not being taken seriously. There were no contracts between Marvel UK and its freelancers, and the Warrior contracts only ever covered the broad concepts of the series, not specific pages. Because we were being paid so little by both Marvel UK and Quality/Warrior, we were able to sell our work as “first English language edition only.” That is, we sold the company the right to print the work once. After that, they would have to renegotiate for further publication.’
Moore wrote Marvel a further letter in which he stated that he was denying Marvel – both Marvel UK and the American parent company – the rights to reprint any of his work, and to avoid doubt (not everything he had written had been credited to him in the comics) sent them a list of the work. It would be some months before Alan Davis, whose Captain Britain strips formed the bulk of that list, learned Moore had done this, while industry legend suggests that the result was only uncovered years later when someone was clearing out Jim Shooter’s desk. As Moore recounts: ‘Archie Goodwin had said, “Alan Moore’s not going to be working for Marvel in any way, or letting us reprint Captain Britain unless we ease up on the Marvelman deal,” and he’d said, “I suggest that you go along with him.” But Jim Shooter, who was another one of these comic book industry führers, whose will is not to be meddled with, he’d petulantly screwed this letter from Archie Goodwin up and thrown it in the bottom of a drawer somewhere.’ Moore now allowed Eclipse to rename the character ‘Miracleman’. Eclipse’s statement to The Comics Journal, reported in July 1985, that the name change was ‘suggested by Moore’ gives no hint of his mood when he did so. The first issue of Miracleman sold 100,000 copies, making it easily the best-selling Eclipse comic in the company’s history.
With apparently no behind-the-scenes drama whatsoever, Eclipse continued to publish Steve Moore’s Axel Pressbutton, relaunching the series as Laser Eraser & Pressbutton when they started printing new strips instead of Warrior reprints. As planned, twelve issues (and a 3D Special) were published, from November 1984 to July 1986. Other one-off strips from Quality occasionally appeared as back-up strips in other titles, but there was nothing like the range-within-a-range Skinn had envisioned when he was talking to Pacific.
All the while, Moore continued to keep himself busy. He had scaled back his work in British comics, but had not abandoned it altogether, saying ‘I do still want to be involved in the British comics scene, so I don’t feel like a deserter’. After vowing not to work for Marvel UK, however, and with no interest in continuing DR & Quinch, his only major British work at the time was Halo Jones. The lukewarm reaction to Book One meant there had been no guarantee of a Book Two, but it appeared a few months later (#405–415, February–April 1985). This was in part because 2000AD wanted to keep Moore working for them, and ‘both Ian and I were excited about the strip and, to their credit, the editors of 2000AD know that the best chance of getting first-rate work out of creative people is to give them something they’re excited about.’
Book Two sees Halo away from the hermetic world of the Hoop, working as a hostess on a luxury spaceliner. It has more action, less futuristic slang, Halo shows a lot more skin and the s
tory finds a much larger role for her robot dog, Toby, who’d proved very popular. Moore worried at the time that this had been at the cost of fleshing out the world he and Gibson had created, and said that while he was writing it that it was ‘more of a compromise than I’d have liked … having to make concessions to the younger audience tends to blunt the edge of the strip for me’, but in his Introduction to the first collected edition he admitted that ‘looking over the current volume as one complete work, I think we just about managed to pull it off’. Book Two certainly proved extremely popular, and Moore was careful to lay down in it some hints for Book Three, which 2000AD were keen to run as soon as he had time to write it (it would appear in #451–466, January–April 1986).
His other British work tended to be obscure, and was clearly done because it entailed short pieces for friends or projects that intrigued him. Moore was far more prolific in America. He continued to write Swamp Thing, and June 1985 saw the publication of his longest single work to that point, the story For the Man Who Has Everything in Superman Annual #11. He also did a variety of one-off pieces for other companies – including his only work for Marvel US: three pages as part of the famine relief comic Heroes for Hope and a strip for glossy Epic Illustrated.
In the summer of 1985, Moore was approached by Malcolm McLaren, former manager of the Sex Pistols and now working for CBS Theatrical Productions, the feature film arm of the TV network. McLaren had recently discovered Moore’s work (naming a 1985 album Swamp Thing). They spent an afternoon together, and were joined by McLaren’s girlfriend, the model Lauren Hutton. When the impresario told Moore he had ideas for a number of movies and needed a writer, the concept that caught Moore’s eye was Fashion Beast, a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast myth channelled through a fictionalised version of the life of Christian Dior. The idea’s originator had been the writer Johnny Gems (who would go on to work with Tim Burton, notably on Mars Attacks!), while Kit Carson, screenwriter of the 1983 remake of Breathless and of Paris, Texas, had written a treatment the previous Christmas. Memno Meyjes, who’d adapted The Color Purple, had also developed a treatment. Moore completed a draft of the screenplay and was paid £30,000 for it, but CBS Theatrical Productions was closed in late November 1985, and Fashion Beast went into ‘turnaround’ – essentially it was shelved. Moore, however, clearly considered Fashion Beast to be an ongoing project for some time after this – he mentioned the movie in a March 1986 interview with the NME and it was listed as one of his forthcoming works in the collected edition of Halo Jones, published in July of the same year, while McLaren continued to shop it around, with Moore’s script attached. (Although never filmed, it was adapted for comics by Avatar in 2012–13.)
Moore made his second trip to America a year after his first, this time taking Phyllis. In early August 1985 he was a guest at San Diego Comic-Con, which was attended by about 6,000 fans. Here he met Cat Yronwode, his Miracleman editor, in person for the only time. He, Bissette and Totleben and Swamp Thing were showered with Kirby Awards, the American industry’s top accolade: Best Single Issue (Annual #2), Best Continuing Series, Best Writer, Best Art Team and Best Cover (#34). While Moore basked in such accolades, he was far more impressed that he was able to meet the man the awards were named after: Jack Kirby, artist of the issue of Fantastic Four (and so many other comics besides) that had changed Moore’s life. Moore shared a panel with Kirby and Frank Miller – he was embarrassed to hear Kirby praising him and Miller for what they had done for comics – but did not get much time with his idol, saying, ‘all I remember was that aura he had around him. This sort of walnut coloured little guy.’
Moore also held court in a solo panel; a transcript that appeared in The Comics Journal #106 was accompanied by the assertion that based on sales ‘Alan Moore may not be the most “popular” writer in comics right now, but he certainly is the most respected’. It was the first time the American convention scene had been treated to what had become a regular occurrence in Britain – a wild, bearded, surprisingly jovial figure getting an audience to eat out of his hand. Moore threw questions open to the audience and was able to talk about a huge slate of work. He had just finished Batman Annual #11 and his last DR & Quinch story, and was continuing to work on Swamp Thing and Halo Jones (which he was planning to write many more books of). He would like to do a Congo Bill story ‘because he’s a really stupid character’. He was due to start on ‘the graphic novel’ (he used the term) The Killing Joke. He was just about to sign contracts on the DC version of V for Vendetta, and had written the first chapters of Book III. ‘I’m going to be doing a Superman graphic novel, and Julie [Schwartz] wants me to do some occasional stories during his tenure on the book.’ He had also resurrected the title of his unpublished seventies fanzine, Dodgem Logic, as the title of an anthology comic for Fantagraphics, a black-and-white magazine that would feature one 48-page story per issue, drawn by a different artist. (Moore had said elsewhere of the project, ‘If I do this right I hope I’ll be able to bridge a little of the gap between what can be achieved with comics and what can be achieved with serious literature.’) He would never again work for Marvel (following their legal action against the name Marvelman). And he also took the opportunity to announce ‘I’ve ceased all contact with Dez Skinn.’
Around this time, Alan Davis was talking to Jamie Delano, now the writer of their Captain Britain series: ‘He told me about Alan being snubbed by Jim Shooter and, in retaliation, denying Marvel permission to reprint Captain Britain – nothing to do with the Marvelman name. I confronted Alan, told him to withdraw his objection to the Captain Britain reprints or I would deny Eclipse my Marvelman rights. Which I eventually did! Eclipse, Dez and Alan all ignored my protests/refusals.’
To add insult to injury, Captain Britain was an ongoing series – Moore’s writing stint fell between runs by Dave Thorpe and Delano. By blocking the reprints of the middle of the story, Moore hurt the chances of any of Davis’ Captain Britain run being collected. Davis was annoyed that Moore had taken this course of action in, as he put it, a ‘fit of anger’, but the real issue was that ‘Alan hadn’t bothered telling me … I found out, sort of like, five months after he had actually said that and just because someone assumed I already knew’. Reacting to Marvel’s intransigence over the use of the Marvelman name and the departure of Bernie Jay, Moore says: ‘I just thought that me and Alan Davis were pretty much on the same page with everything, although that may have been a misunderstanding upon my part and I perhaps didn’t do enough to make sure that was the case.’ But the relationship between the two men became strained – Moore believes Davis purposefully avoided him at a convention they attended around the time.
Davis had just had his break in the US industry. He became the artist on Batman and the Outsiders from #22 (June 1985; it sold about 140,000 copies a month compared with Swamp Thing’s 95,000), and would be promoted to the main Batman title, Detective Comics, the following year. Moore was able to block reprints of Captain Britain because he had only granted first English language edition rights, and, despite the artist having returned his stake in the character, the same applied to Davis’ artwork on Marvelman: Davis could make a very simple tit-for-tat response. On 16 July 1985, Dez Skinn wrote to Moore to inform him that Davis was refusing permission to reprint Marvelman Book Two, or to let Eclipse use his designs for characters like Evelyn Cream, Sir Dennis Archer and Marveldog. He also informed Moore that Garry Leach was happy for his work to be reprinted, but had not agreed to his designs being used in any new material (Leach’s designs, critically, included the series logos, the Marvelman insignia, Marvelman’s costume, and the main characters Mike Moran, Liz Moran and Johnny Bates). Skinn told Moore he ‘would appreciate being informed of your intentions’.
What happened next is hotly contested, and ended Moore and Davis’ friendship. Davis later said, with some regret, ‘Alan and I had a great working partnership and what I thought was a solid friendship for more than three years. We were both there at the end. We b
oth know the truth. If his version differs from mine it becomes a matter of who you choose to believe.’
Moore does not seem to have addressed the Captain Britain issue, and did not contact Davis. Instead he concentrated on resolving the issue of Davis withdrawing his consent to use the Marvelman material. Cat Yronwode asserts that Davis ‘sold … his one-third share of Miracleman, to Eclipse’, and Moore says he ‘was told that Alan Davis had sold out his rights’. Davis’ position is a flat denial: ‘I did not give or sell anything to Eclipse. I have only ever sold a single right, to one English language publication, of any of the Marvelman pages I drew, for their first appearance in Warrior.’ Moore told Yronwode he would not contribute any new Miracleman material until he had written proof that Davis had given permission. Rumours about the dispute were inevitably to end up in the comics press: Cat Yronwode took a hard line with Davis, telling Speakeasy magazine in late 1985, ‘Dez Skinn signed a contract with Eclipse allowing us to reprint material from Warrior, and we intend to reprint that material. If Alan Davis granted Dez Skinn the power to make that contract, and has since changed his mind, that is unfortunate for Alan but he is legally bound to that contract. If Dez Skinn represented himself to Eclipse as having the power to represent Alan Davis when in fact he did not, that is a matter for Alan Davis to settle with Dez Skinn. In any event Eclipse will be reprinting the material.’
Magic Words: The Extraordinary Life of Alan Moore Page 21