: like, i think the next really BIG person in comics is
: going to be the guy who figures out how to bring back
: the 9-panel grid.
Did you read Murder Me Dead by David Lapham? I love that GN for just the reasons you mention.
: but then when you think about moore, and by moore, and
: all this what i'm trying to get at is the CUTTING, you
: know, between images, which he'd do where you know- i
: don't know how to describe cutting- or there's that
: steranko three-panel sequence in that horror comic he
: did, house of shadows??? have you ever seen that one?
: brilliant comic. uhm, cutting.... okay, i don't know
: what cutting means...
What McCloud calls "closure?" What happens between the panels that the reader fills in with their own imagination, invisibly, instantly?
: i almost went with smax, which i know you like, but i
: didn't have much money the other day, and i'm not a
: real fantasy fan these days.
Smax isn't fantasy, though -- it uses fantasy elements, but it makes fun of the genre more than adoring it. But if you didn't like Top 10, you might not enjoy what it is. That said, I can't imagine why you don't like Top 10, but in my experience, you really have to read the whole thing in one chunk to get the depth of it. How about Forlorn Funnies? Hornschemeier's doing an awful lot with tiny panels.
: the moore level of world-building,
: is it even possible anymore? who knows- is anyone
: doing it?
Sure, the Hernandez Brothers continue to explore the world of Love and Rockets, and Gilbert's stories, especially, are complex and expansive. Check out the Palomar hardcover when it ships next month, if you haven't read that stuff your mind will be blown. How about Strangehaven? Black Hole?
: because ultimately, that's what looking at moore feels
: like- like things have degraded. have they? i can't
: say they have. i think that's wrong, even if i can't
: point to anything that i'd say competes with either of
: those works too successfully in certain
: qualities(though not all).
Alan Moore's mind is unique, and the moment that he revealed (note: not fulfilled) the fuller potential comics has (and will ALWAYS have) was a singular moment, one that thanks to TBP collections has been well-documented for later generations to experience, but there are works coming out now that give me thrills as big as (if not the SAME as) Watchmen, V, Swamp Thing, Miracleman and the rest did twenty years ago. Unfortunately, Crumb, Clowes, Ware, Hornschemeier, they're not pumping it out monthly, but maybe that's the tradeoff for the fact that no one will ever have the mind and energy of Alan Moore in 1986. Including Alan Moore. But his current stuff (Promethea, Tom Strong, Smax, etc.) also blows my mind regularly, in varying ways. I think Tom Strong is one of the most under-appreciated books out there -- it's so ludicrous that Supreme is remembered as this fantastic work he did, when Supreme was really just the warm-up for the world-building in Tom Strong, which has for the past few years given us a believable, moving and exciting look at a family of superheroes, each of which is fascinating and alive in their own right, and Chris Sprouse is one of the best goddamned comics artists in history. Why isn't this book #1 in sales? Beats the fuck out of me, because it's an awesome read that even comes out semi-regularly, certainly more often than The Ultimates. The last two issues of Promethea were two of the best things Moore's ever written. Where's the praise? Where's the second printings and inflated back-issue prices? Beats me. People are fucking dumb, and in this case, they're missing out big time.
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