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Umbrella Academy/Fabulous Killjoys author Gerard Way has been using his down time since disbanding My Chemical Romance to learn photoshop, apparently, and reacquaint himself with the pleasures of loving cats. Way is an avowed Grant Morrison fan—the Scottish writer appeared in several MCR videos—so his responding to the epic Alan Moore interview yesterday with a jibe isn’t a surprise. What is maybe a little surprising is how clever it is:

 

This great Moore/Morrison feud—which is NOT a put on by the way— is leading to some great insults that will enrich the language forever!

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58 COMMENTS

  2. i would like to read the grapes of fucking wraith. sounds better than the non fornicating version.

  3. Did you rush this one Heidi? Lots of odd capitalization and misspellings. Not up to your normal excellence.

  4. Might be a little easier to take seriously if he knew the publisher was called Charlton, but this entire affair is pretty stupid. Way’s need to insert himself into the argument, and his method of doing so, are pretty embarrassing.

  5. I think probably on some level this sort of silly nostalgic stuff confirms Moore’s criticism about most comics people being childish and obsessed with childish things…

    …Then again, isn’t League just (almost?) as much a recapitulation of stories for teenage boys from many decades ago as the recent Avengers and Dr. Who projects are?

    Either way, the text of that interview yesterday contained the best and funniest writing from a comics writer that I’ve read in at least five years. As a piece on its own, I’d compare the latest Moore interview favorably to any and every comics run since the sum total of Promethea, at least. I remain a fan of both writers, but I seriously doubt Grant Morrison will ever be able to top the carefully wrought insulting hilarity of what Moore unleashed yesterday.

    The way Moore recast things as him turning down Morrison’s invitation to dress up like Batman and Robin simultaneously shot down Morrison’s take on superheroes and “deaded” the very idea of adults caring so much about this stuff. To come back the way Gerard Way is, by producing a childish mock-up with a ’60s TV Robin on it, just seems to be missing the point. I can’t really look at Way’s joke here without hearing Alan Moore say, “Yes. Exactly. You people are permanently doomed to toss around pointlessly in childish nostalgia. This is why I want nothing to do with you.”

  7. Is having an opinion and vocalizing it really “inserting yourself in to the argument”? Does a grown as man like Alan Moore really need a bunch of dudes on the internet rushing to his defense any time someone chides him for being a flinging shit like a little baby?

    Tune in next week to find out.

  8. I’m sure he does know what the publisher was called. The whole invalidate what someone says because they spell a word incorrectly (or miss a single letter out in this instance) bit never really does much for me.

    It’s funny because it’s so cheap and petty and because Moore has repeatedly demonstrated an utter inability to accept any citicism of himself, no matter how slight. And I suspect he’s one of those people who can’t cope with the idea of people laughing at him either.

  11. I can’t really look at Way’s joke here without hearing Alan Moore say, “Yes. Exactly. You people are permanently doomed to toss around pointlessly in childish nostalgia. This is why I want nothing to do with you.”
    ***
    I know there are some sad people out there who want to define themselves by what a misanthropic old weirdo thinks of them but most of us are confident enough in ourselves to like whatever we want without embarassment.

    And if you’re looking for people tossing around pointlessly in childish nostalgia there’s a new League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen book out in March…

  12. By the Gerard Way, good job on putting ‘comic book’ on it’s own line and in bold. Putting down comic books when it’s something you enjoy and partake in don’t necessarily help the outward appearance of the industry, do they?

  13. Fuck the outward appearance of the industry, it’s been looking like a mess for ages – some guy formatting the word comics in a weird way is the least of its problems.

  15. Of course, any reasonable person should see that Alan Moore is worth roughly two billion Gerard Ways. (I say that as a fan of The Umbrella Academy).

  16. I wish there was a like button for comments.

    That being said, if you have issue with Heidi’s reporting here, wait until Teen Beat gets a hold of it:

    “WAY TO GO WAY! Find out more about the gnarly old dude the totes adorbs Gerard is standing up to! (Spoiler: He’s in league with SATAN!)”

  19. >>> Christ almighty, people, BC didn’t invent snarky journalism. Have you ever heard of Gawker? Or Benjamin Franklin?

    Calm, calm – ‘sub’ as in ‘sub-editing’ – in US terms, copy editing … as Brian says, this piece seems rushed. I’m assuming the headline is simply a joke I’m missing.

  21. Alan Moore wrote hundreds of great comics. Profound, wondeful, moving. That said, as I posted elsewhere today: Re Alan Moore’s “Ew! Avengers is popular among adults! Yuck! Grown-ups liking stuff originally created for kids is a sign of something bad! Ignore the man whose career has largely been built on repurposing” (albeit excellently and with genius) “the very same sort of thing as work for adults, like Watchmen, Swamp Thing, Batman, Superman, some Green Lantern stuff, Superman again in Supreme, early Marvel in 1963, the ABC line on comics in general (including many pastiches of earlier decades’ comics), the Victorian JLA/Avengers of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the erotica based on Peter Pan/Oz/Wonderland, and pretty much everything other than From Hell and Promethea (and even Promethea has a fair amount of super-hero comics stuff in its world) and a few later, less-well-known works!” — re all that, I defer to C.S. Lewis:

    “Critics who treat ‘adult’ as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”

    Re Morrison, I defer to Morrison’s own commentary:

    https://www.comicsbeat.com/the-strange-case-of-grant-morrison-and-alan-moore-as-told-by-grant-morrison/

    Just sad. I won’t stop reading Alan Moore (despite his request that people who like Morrison do so–gah) but I think this is really insulting to … well, an awful lot of us.

  25. new years resolution. stop reading the comment section of comic book news. The level of butt hurt over the little things is embarrassing. Fans of comics need to grow a thicker skin.

  26. :/
    I first started following Heidi’s various blogs because it good without having the TCJ shmarmy snobbery or the cbr/newsarama snickering nerd rage.

    This post has the worst of both.

  27. “Did you rush this one Heidi? Lots of odd capitalization and misspellings. Not up to your normal excellence.”

    Sarcasm? 95% of posts have errors like this on them. I got a theory that everything on here is written on an iPhone or something similar, that’s how I explain it.

  29. I’m not sure what’s funnier, the rush to bash Alan Moore when he says something or the rush to defend him.

  30. Its very likely that anyone who started working in the industry after 1986 owes their career to Moore to SOME degree, so… the rush to bash him.

  34. Horseshit practically every antiestablishment group in the last decade is marked with Guy Fawkes masks. Moore changed the way comics work and pushed ideas into the mainstream well beyond comic books. Gerard Way is an ex-boy band member who fancies himself the Wes Anderson of comics but comes off more like Morrison’s puppy hoping over back and smelling his ass.

  35. God, I am SO tired of reading the latest “Alan Moore said this against comics” post on all of the websites. Why do you reporters all give this old man so much space to preach the same B.S. over and over again? Who cares what he thinks? Why don’t we ask Steve Ditko and other grouch creators their opinions as well? I agree with Way completely – get over yourself Alan Moore – you were relevant 20 years ago. Quit reminding us of that and go write something of that caliber again.

  37. >> God, I am SO tired of reading the latest “Alan Moore said this against comics” post on all of the websites.>>

    Who’s making you read them?

    >> Why do you reporters all give this old man so much space to preach the same B.S. over and over again?>>

    It’s not as if he keeps bringing it up. They do. And they do it because you (and thousands of others) will click and read it and fulminate about it for days or weeks.

    Reporters chase stuff repeatedly if it’s stuff that audiences will eat up. If the audience stops eating it up, they’ll chase something else.

    >> Who cares what he thinks? >>

    The people who keep clicking the links to read it, whether they claim to hate it or not care about it or whatever.

    >> Why don’t we ask Steve Ditko and other grouch creators their opinions as well? >>

    Columnists would be lined up ten deep to ask Ditko about things, if he was willing to do interviews.

    >> I agree with Way completely – get over yourself Alan Moore – you were relevant 20 years ago. Quit reminding us of that and go write something of that caliber again.>>

    I think Alan wants to write the kind of thing he’s writing now, not return to what he was doing 20 years ago (1963, FROM HELL and SPAWN) in order to satisfy people who want to shout at and insult him because he doesn’t like what they like.

    As long as he’s got enough of an audience to support himself doing what he wants to do, he’s fine. It doesn’t matter one bit if it’s of interest to people who loved his 1993 output.

    kdb

  38. Chinhead, you note: “anyone who started working in the industry after 1986 owes their career to Moore to SOME degree,” which is valid, but it could also be argued that Moore owes his comics (and popular) career in the same way to Steve Ditko (Rorschach and Dr. Manhattan), Jack Kirby (1963), Mort Weisinger (Supreme and Superman), Len Wein and Berni Wrightson (Swamp Thing) and a whole host of literary works (League of E.G.) among others, so perhaps he should consider that before he attempts to tear down the creators of today like he does continuously in these childish rants of his. I don’t know if being an excellent writer gives you a free ticket to acting like a jerk.

  39. I don’t know, Kurt – I’ve seen numerous live interviews with Moore (a creator whose work I used to enjoy) and he seems to bring all of this up on his own, with little prompting from others.

  41. I still gotta say, JW, the answer to why you gotta keep seeing this stuff is that you’re choosing to. You’re apparently seeking out more of it than I do, at the very least.

  42. Kurt – I read interviews with creators whose work that I like. Just like I read interviews with you to see what you are up to currently. I used to love Moore’s work, so I read his interviews, hoping that something interesting would be mentioned. Instead, I run into these continuous gripe sessions instead. I chose this forum to note that I was very tired of that situation. I won’t be reading any more regarding him, but these sites, which I read often for other news, make it very difficult to bypass because they provide him with so much space.

  43. >> these sites, which I read often for other news, make it very difficult to bypass because they provide him with so much space.>>

    You gotta click on ’em to read ’em. Merely having space isn’t enough to stop you bypassing them, honest.

    I know this because of the many, many things I bypass regularly, without ill effect.

    kdb

  44. I don’t get why people hang on the every word of some of these guys (especially the ones who seem insufferable), but on the other hand I find these industry feuds to be very funny. People get all worked up and it must increase the number of clicks sites like this get. It’s amusing as hell.

    Personally, I enjoy the works of other writers who don’t get treated like gods more than I do Moore or Morrison, although I generally like Morrison when he doesn’t get too weird just for weird’s sake, and Moore wrote some impressive and influential comics at one point. Of course, nothing Moore has written recently interests me simply because it isn’t to my tastes.

  45. What is “the Gerard Way”? (old British joke about musician Adam Faith). I can’t imagine why he made this little object, he can’t have thought it would further the debate, so I can only assume Matt Sager is right.

    I don’t think it’s any exaggeration to say that but for Alan Moore, and the people he encouraged and influenced (so especially him), comics would still be “just for kids”, no comic book creators would be interviewed in the broadsheets, and there would be a lot less people working in comicdom, publishing, and Hollywood land.

  46. Putting something on Twitter in the hopes of it reaching Alan Moore is akin to a child thinking their letter addressed “North Pole” will reach Santa.

  48. “…a child thinking their letter addressed “North Pole” will reach Santa.”
    >>
    @David D.:
    Also sounds like the business model of most adults who publish anything on the web.

  49. >> Putting something on Twitter in the hopes of it reaching Alan Moore is akin to a child thinking their letter addressed “North Pole” will reach Santa.>>

    This assumed Gerard wants to actually reach Moore with it, rather than make comment for his Twitter followers.

    kdb

  50. Alan Moore, even at his most contrary, gives us a lot to think about. For example, it’s true that comics were created for kids, and all too often regurgitate the same tired cliches. It’s true, too, there are fifty-year-old guys who are stuck in limited adolescent patterns regarding this incredible art form. I think there is still value to be found in some superhero comics (not too many, any more, from the major publishers) but there are tendencies in some that are plainly awful.

    I do feel increasingly disappointed by the posts that erupt whenever Alan Moore is the topic, whether he is being difficult or not. I think, often, he is not – he’s simply direct, and remembering a lot of comics history that forum posters seem to forget, or discount. I also don’t see him as a hypocrite, which is the easy charge I read again and again. The negativity is astounding. I would like him to keep being interviewed and to keep creating comics… which perhaps some here could care less about. I mean, really? Why are fans so quick to write off the guy that has done such good comics work for more than thirty years?

    When I don’t agree with him (which isn’t often), I tend to forgive him his more cranky statements. Even his critics must recognize that he did directly address the concerns that were swirling about, and apparently he did this on Christmas Eve!

  51. RE: Twitter & Moore’s knowledge of social media. In a Sneddon interview (apparently while they were still talking), Moore not just connects the question about Occupy to Anonymous, but more specifically to LulzSec, something far less reported.

    I’m certain that he could not care less about Gerard’s burn, but could be expected to be “aware” of it, I’m sure.

    Silly but True

  52. Kurt said:
    “It’s not as if he keeps bringing it up. They do. And they do it because you (and thousands of others) will click and read it and fulminate about it for days or weeks.”

    He doesn’t have to answer, of course. Clearly, since he does continue to do so, Moore wishes others to know his opinions, whether they agree with him or not. I’ve no problem with his expressing opinions. I just wish they had some consistency to them.

    Last month I posted something along the same lines as what David said above: that his fulminations on AVENGERS are nonsensical.

    http://arche-arc.blogspot.com/2013/12/alan-moore-elitist-neopuritan-pt-2.html

  53. I’m loving how Moore “Ether”-ed Morrisson. Damn, son, Nas didn’t even destroy Jay-Z that badly. I fully expect Morrisson to come back with a “Super Ugly” and talk about sleeping with Moore’s baby-momma the way Jay tried responding to Nas.

    I don’t really get why people get so angry. If you love superhero comics, then you love superhero comics. Have some confidence in the stuff you like and don’t let one writer get you so worked up. I mean, I’m sure there are writers who hate the work of other writers I read, but I don’t really care. I never understand why superhero writers and readers care so much what Alan Moore says about them. Have some confidence!

  54. Can anybody tell me an easy way I can get Alan Moore to start going on about what a crappy person I am and how shitty stuff I wrote was?

  56. Well, in mine, I didn’t get raped, but I had a dream of a violent assault, which people have themselves taken to be rape, and then have started levelling accusations of misogyny at my dreams over this presumed rape. Oh and the golliwog was only there because my partner convinced of its social relevance, and now others are accusing my dream of being racist.

    Silly but True

  58. BTW, I just noticed Gerard Way thinks someone who wrote the Grapes of Wrath can act however he wants. Grapes of Wrath is generally afforded the same amount of respect Watchmen is in the literary world, so I guess that means Way thinks Moore can act however he likes as well? Sorta defeats the point of his little award there…

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