Master Magus vs teh Hollywood Elite: Whose Side Are You On?

No, not in regards to Marvel's Civil War but rather Ipsissimus Alan Moore versus big-shot Hollywood producer Joel Silver . The gist of it is that Moore was hella pissed when Silver mentioned at a press conference for the V for Vendetta movie (based on the comic of the same name written by Moore) that Moore "was very excited about what Larry had to say and Larry sent the script, so we hope to see him sometime before we're in the UK. We'd just like him to know what we're doing and to be involved in what we're trying to do together." Moore was upset because he had said nothing of the like, and was really displeased with the film because they turned the core of the comics' theme of anarchism vs fascism, to liberal vs conservative. Moore relinquished all rights to payments he was due to the film, and also asked to be left off the credits as the original creator. This is why only artist David Lloyd is credited on posters for the film.

Now, you may say holdup Mystical Master Magician, aren't you being a bit extreme here? Well, Moore's a bit of a special man, you see. He holds really deep personal attatchments to his work, and, as like Morrison, he uses it to explore and further his magical beliefs, especially in titles like Promethea . There's also a big part of him that doesn't trust big business, based on his past dealings with DC Comics. He's a self-proclaimed anarchist for fuck's sake!

The ironic thing about Moore's troubles with DC is that if it wasn't for him and the work he did in the mid to late 1980's, creator ownership of their own properties would not have happened to such an extent that DC does allow creator owned comics now; such as Neil Gaiman's Sandman, Morrison's the Invisibles and Garth Ennis' Preacher. Moore's conflict with DC started over Watchmen. The contract he signed stated that once the book went out of print, the rights would revert back to Moore and artist Dave Gibbons. The problem? Watchmen was such a success (arguably the first post-modern super-hero comic) and had such an impact and influence on the industry that it has since then never gone out of print. Which means DC retains the rights.

Back when the contract was signed, it wasn't conceivable that a comic would never go out of print. This was before trade paperbacks and graphic novels really came into force, which didn't really happen until the late 1990's. It was never envisioned that there would be a life for a comic series beyond it's intial serialization and, if lucky because they were extremely rare back then, it's first collection. DC has exploited this loophole to make a lot of money over the years, that righfully should be Moore's. At last count, Watchmen is into it's 20th printing, and DC have no plans to let it go completely out of print and for the rights to revert to Moore and Gibbons.

Moore was also sued as part of a lawsuit by a movie studio over the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen film, claiming that the comic Moore created plagiarized a screenplay for a movie in development by that studio, which used some of the same characters that the movie version of the LoEG did. The problem? The characters that were being disputed about had never been used at all by Moore in the original comics, and the comic had been written well before this movie studio's screenplay. Moore felt that the suit against him was ridiculous, and that the questioning he had to endure in the court case was worse than if he had been a child rapist on trial, and that the suit casted unwarranted aspersions on his credibility, professionalism and reputation. This in turn led to him refusing money from and having anything to do with future films for properties that he had created work for hire for DC, like Constantine (which incidentally so should have used the comics' title of Hellblazer rather than just the characters' last name). Properties that he fully owns he intends to not sign away the movie rights for anymore because, as in the case of From Hell, the comics work is much stronger than the movie product, and he considers the comic the final word on the subject anyway.

So, whose side are you on?