The Guardian had a nice piece about Alan Moore the other day that I forgot to link to, luckily Joe caught it.
Rather acted as an antidote to this piece of really bloody awful journalism in the Mail (I know, I know; The Mail and really crappy journalism – who’d have thought eh?)
And I also received an email that I thought I’d share with you, a little tale of Alan Moore as told by Paul Rainey, who kindly gave permission to reprint it here:
“My friend works with the son of a guy who knows Alan Moore and told me about an evening they were organising to raise money for Romanian orphans. So us and two other friends got tickets and went along.
The evening began with a folk-type band but once they finished it was all mainly Moore’s event. He started with about 30 minutes of stand up. He was actually very funny. After, he recited a poem, did a Q & A (featuring some insider Michael Jackson/Simpsons insider knowledge that may or may not be true) and sang with two bands (one being old guys he had performed with 30 years ago and the other being made up of young upstarts).It was an unexpected but enjoyable evening that, clearly, he had put some effort into. Anyway, I learned one of the important ingredients to his success which is not arrogance but unshakable faith in whatever creative thing it is he is doing.”
Paul went on to say, in a follow up e-mail:
“From my POV, the important point is that this idiotic piece appeared in the Mail not even two days after he had helped to raise thousands of pounds for these kids with A.I.D.S.. Here’s a quote from the night’s organisers – ” An absolutely brilliant night, thanks to everyone for their support and help in making it all go so well. We raised £1337, which is being matched by an anonymous angel, plus we hope to get £750 from Barclaycard’s charity section, making £3424 in all.”
Event Facebook, webpage.
Love Light Romania Charity.
Hardly the grumpy old man the Mail were trying to portray, don’t you think?
March 21st, 2009 at 10:15 am
That The Daily Mail seemed stunned that someone could turn down money over a point of principle pretty much says it all.
Interesting to note that they chose to name check and picture only Silk Spectre II rather than any of the other characters. Presumably Rorschach didn’t make the cut because he’s unemployed, but I can’t help wondering if Malin Akerman’s photo would be adorning the article if the loathsome, little rag knew the character’s heritage was Polish . . .
March 22nd, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Given that comics are really an American communications artform and Watchmen hasn’t done great in America, from direct plain observation anyhow, I’d wonder what Alan Moore has up his superhero sleeve next?