Win "The Mindscape of Alan Moore"

Games
Music
Movies
- Reviews
- Articles
- TV
- Trailers
- Calendar
Downloads
Forums
About
- Site Blog
- Staff
- Jobs
- FAQ
- Archive

Win "The Mindscape of Alan Moore"

Written by Arya Ponto

Wednesday, 17 September 2008

Alan Moore is a name equated to brilliance within the comic book circles. A writer as revered as Shakespeare by his peers, Moore's achievements have reached god-like status in his own domain. Next year (or the year after that, depending on that %*#@&!! lawsuit), non-readers will get at least a taste of his masterwork Watchmen, when Zack Snyder's blockbuster adaptation of the book hits theaters. But you won't see Moore's name anywhere on the credits.

That's because, as was the case with the V For Vendetta movie, Moore is withholding his consent and requested to not be associated with any of these movies, leading to a public perception of him as one of those cantankerous black magic hermits one would imagine him to be upon seeing his wild-eyed picture on the back of his books. His good-humored guest appearance on the last season of The Simpsons dispelled some of the notion that he's a bitter old fool, but the stink of his public feud with DC Comics and Warner Bros over Joel Silver's lies (Silver told the press that the Wachowskis had Moore's support, which was never true) still remains, especially when now we have Watchmen also being made against his wishes.

The Mindscape of Alan Moore is a more flattering profile that paints him more as an eccentric intellectual who never forgot where he came from, rather than a misanthropic recluse hiding in his backyard. True to its title, it is not just a study of his work, but of his whole persona. Formatted more like an intimate interview rather than a documentary, Mindscape starts with Moore’s history; he recites stories and places from Northhampton, England—the hometown he still lives in today—shaping his childhood in a working-class family and the subsequent aimless youth that consist of odd menial jobs. From then, we discover his entry into comic books, his aversion to celebrity, his political inclination, his knowledge of quantum physics, his social observations, and even his spiritual beliefs as a man who claims that every artist is a magician (as in the Merlin kind, not the Criss Angel variety). Narrated from beginning to end by Moore himself, to call this doc a journey into his mind is an understatement. Mindscape seeks to understand Alan Moore completely in the hopes of understanding his stories. Though it gives no easy answers, it certainly helps to hear it from the horse’ mouth. At the very least, it cements the impression of Moore as a mad genius with a galaxy’s worth of fascinating ideas in his head.

As a neat supplement, director DeZ Vylenz also shot key moments from V For Vendetta and Watchmen to compliment and illustrate the topics Moore talks about. They don’t look as accomplished as they did under the James McTeigue or Zack Snyder, of course, but Mindscape has something going for it and that is Alan Moore voicing Rorschach’s voiceover narration as he reads a macabre entry from his journal. Now that should be a treat for any Watchmen fan.

The 2-Disc DVD set also boasts a 20-page booklet and three hours of extras that include:

Interviews with Melinda Gebbie (Lost Girls), Dave Gibbons (Watchmen), David Lloyd (V For Vendetta), Kevin O’Neill (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) and Jose Villarubia (Promethia and Mirror of Love)
“Making of” featurette
Introduction to Alan Moore’s work by Paul Gravett
Selected scene analysis with director’s commentary
Interviews with director, composer and special make-up FX artist

The Mindscape of Alan Moore is available in stores September 30th and priced at $29.95, but JustPressPlay was provided with copies of the set for you to win.

Three (3) winners will each get a copy of The Mindscape of Alan Moore on a 2-Disc DVD set. Enter below.