Entertainment Weeklyrecently caught up with Moore to discuss how his newest novel grew out of his comics work.
Is that how you yourself conceive of artistic inspiration?
Have you seen something like the Great When?
Alan Moore on Sept. 6, 2013 and the cover of his novel ‘The Great When’.Credit:Kevin Nixon/SFX Magazine/Future via Getty; Bloomsbury
As long as we still had the idea of a chair, then we could make more.
It’s when we lose our knowledge that the big disasters happen.
She destroyed them, and the physical world followed in the wake of that.
The cover of Alan Moore’s novel ‘The Great When,’ illustrated by Nico Delort.Bloomsbury
If you destroy the ideals that are supporting something, the physical thing itself will eventually wane and die.
That’s the way that I’m using the Great When.
How have you refined your approach to depicting a higher reality?
The cover of ‘The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,’ writing by Alan Moore and art by Kevin O’Neill.DC Comics
Well, it’s using them for different things.
As for how I approached it, you’re quite right.
Italics, for some reason, make things more intense.
They’re leaning forward, they look like they’re in a hurry to get somewhere.
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The imagery inThe Great Whenis so arresting and vivid.
Did working with great artists over the years, like Kevin ONeill inLeague, influence your descriptive writing?
You are actually writing literary descriptions that are meant to entertain and hypnotize the reader.
But it’s basically the same process I have.
So in my prose, I want to really make up for that.
Oh, that’s a lovely word.
So that has been very handy.
