Rob Liefeld Smack Talks Alan Moore

Rob Liefeld, the Image founder turned comics pariah is having something of a comeback. Not the kind of comeback where he's working, but the kind of comeback where everyone is fascinated by what the most hated man in comics has to say. Part of that is the fact that the guy isn't afraid to tell it like it is, because it's implausible anyone could hate him any more than they already do. First there was the great Brian Bendis interview discussing his notoriety, and now there is an interview at OC Weekly (yes, that OC) where he badmouths Alan Moore (Watchmen). That's right, the worst creator in comics is slandering the best creator in comics:

“Alan just wants to get paid more money, that’s it. Sorry Alan. I got my body of work out of Alan Moore, he doesn’t intimidate me, I don’t put him on a pedestal like Jack Kirby and Frank Miller. He’s just a guy who wants to get paid, and he cuts deals for himself that he doesn’t like down the line, and then he gets whiny and cries about it...Hey man, he worked for me for two years, I was quiet for like ten years. And then I watched him burn every other bridge, and I go “Hmm.” Although we didn’t have a falling out with him. He just stopped working with us, because he now wanted to invest in his new universe with Wildstorm comics, and again, like I said, OOPS! That went up in flames. He gives 'temperamental artist' a new meaning.”

Via Bags and Boards.

Alan Moore Talks Anarchy, V for Vendetta Movie Distaste

We've always known Alan Moore hates the film adaptations of his work, but the reclusive comics genius rarely pops out for long enough to really talk about why. Now Infoshop News has an interview with him about how radical politics have shaped his work wherein he does just that:

What had originally been a straightforward battle of ideas between anarchy and fascism had been turned into a kind of ham-fisted parable of 9-11 and the war against terror, in which the words anarchy and fascism appear nowhere.

It gets really juicy after the jump, including a bit where he accuses Americans of thinking giants "still" exist in England...

I mean, at the time I was thinking: look, if they wanted to protest about George Bush and the way that American society is going since 9-11—which would completely understandable—then why don’t they do what I did back in the 1980s when I didn’t like the way that England was going under Margaret Thatcher, which is to do a story in my own country, that was clearly about events that were happening right then in my own country, and kind of make it obvious that that’s what you’re talking about. It struck me that for Hollywood to make V for Vendetta, it was a way for thwarted and impotent American liberals to feel that they were making some kind of statement about how pissed off they were with the current situation without really risking anything. It’s all set in England, which I think that probably, in most American eyes, is kind of a fairytale kingdom where we still perhaps still have giants. It doesn’t really exist; it might as well be in the Land of Oz for most Americans. So you can get set your political parable in this fantasy environment called England, and then you can vent your spleen against George Bush and the neo- conservatives. Those were my feelings, and I must admit those are completely based upon not having seen the film even once, but having read a certain amount of the screenplay. That was enough.

The interview in its entirety is a really great read, so check it out. In other news, it took me aback how old Alan Moore is in that photo. He's been using those old 80's headshots and cartoons for his author bios for so long that I just wasn't expecting him to actually age... It's a comics thing, I guess.

Via Blog@Newsarama.

In Case of Revolution... Break Glass

Overheard on Digg:

UPGR4Y3DD: So, if a revolution had already started, you'd then break the glass and put the mask on? Poser...
albrown123: Should read, "In case of fascism break glass."
BevansDesign: They don't want to have to replace their display right away.

Zing!