Dispatches from the Fury Road: Moore
Phlogiston is the hypothetical principle of fire regarded formerly as a material substance.
This is according to the Miriam Webster online dictionary, a site I’ve had to visit many times while reading the stories of Alan Moore. Moore uses the word in his novella, the hilarious and savage, “What We Can Know About Thunder Man”. For many decades now the author has sent me scurrying to discover what a word means so I can enjoy all of Moore’s intentions contained within his sentences.
I was barely twelve-years-old when i discovered a copy of The Saga of the Swamp Thing, issue 21, hidden away in a box of comics that smelt like the owner’s herbal cigarettes. This was the first time I’d read the name Alan Moore. At this point the author meant nothing to me. I was more intrigued by the cover, the haunting artwork that portrayed a muck creature emerging from the shadows to confront a horrified man in a blue suit. I opened the comic, stared at the strange artwork that looked nothing like the work of John Byrne or George Perez, and read the opening lines:
“It’s raining in Washington tonight. Plump warm summer rain that covers the sidewalks with leopard spots. Downtown, elderly ladies carry their houseplants out to set them on the fire escapes, as if they were infirm relatives or boy kings. I like that.”
I liked that too. In fact, i loved it. I also had to look up what infirm meant, and once I had locked that away in the old brain box, I enjoyed that opening even more.
From that moment I needed to find all the issues of the Swamp Thing comic I could lay my hands on. I wanted more Moore wherever I could find his work. Over the years I thirstily collected V for Vendetta, The Killing Joke, MiracleMan, his Superman Annual, and of course, Watchmen. It was mainly Moore’s fault that I pestered adults back in the 80s declaring comics were no longer just for kids.
Bless.
It was also Moore who introduced me to a higher class of storytelling. HIs influence inspired me to read Maus, Love and Rockets, and Eightball. His quoting of Friedrich Nietzsche saw me buying a copy of Thus Spake Zarathustra at Standard Books in Rundle Mall. I did not understand it, but I returned to it over the years, slowly peeling back meaning as my focus and general knowledge improved.
I find that all the great artists I’ve loved have motivated me to discover the artists that inspired them. This in turn has enriched my palette to such an extent I can enjoy a wide range of entertainment regardless of whether it is considered high and low art. It means I don’t belong to any specific club which is a relief. As another hero of mine Groucho Marx once declared, “I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member”. All my favourite creators thumb their noses at the hierarchy of their industries, producing work that constantly reaches for the stars, never diminished in the knowledge that perfection always exceeds the grasp.
(Thank you Robert Browning)
Why am I writing this? I’ve been enjoying Alan Moore’s course on writing at BBC Maestro. Not only is it everything one would expect it to be, but I’d forgotten entertaining he can be. I’ve found myself laughing aloud while sitting alone in my apartment, and this is not something that happens on a regular basis. Invariably when I’m sitting alone and something hilarious happens on the TV, I’ll think “Funny” and move on. At one point Moore performed a written piece for the course, and one of his lines delighted me, “…put the art into artillery…”. It came and went so quickly that it wasn’t until much later that it popped back into my head, and delighted me once again.
I guess I’m writing this because I’m 52 now, and I’ve realised it is the forty year anniversary of this one-sided relationship. Superlatives aren’t enough for a man who I’m guessing would prefer to avoid the signifier “super” and its relationship to his past work. Instead of banging on, I’ll borrow the words he used to finish his run on the Swamp Thing which sums up all my feelings about the author.
Laissez les bons temps rouler.
And yes, I had to look that up too.
Justin Hamilton
25th of January, 2025
Surry Hills