{"id":429,"date":"2015-07-31T23:47:39","date_gmt":"2015-08-01T03:47:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/?p=429"},"modified":"2015-08-06T20:51:57","modified_gmt":"2015-08-07T00:51:57","slug":"story-construction-part-5-more-moore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/?p=429","title":{"rendered":"Story Construction – Part 5: More Moore"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, I start my review of the approach to creating comics authored by Alan Moore.\u00a0 An earlier column touched upon Moore\u2019s approach as viewed through the lens of Neil Gaiman, who claims to have learned his technique directly from Moore.<\/p>\n

For those who don\u2019t know, Alan Moore is credited with a fresh approach to comics in the mid-eighties with his tenure on Swamp Thing, Watchmen, and various other titles.\u00a0 Shortly after his success, Moore authored the book entitled Alan Moore\u2019s Writing for Comics<\/em>.\u00a0 The edition that I reviewed was a reprint of the original work with an added Afterword section that was published by Avatar Press in 2006.<\/p>\n

\"Alan<\/a><\/p>\n

As a writer, Alan Moore\u2019s approach to story construction is obviously text-based.\u00a0 That said, it was remarkable how little he dwells on the imagery of the comic in his text.\u00a0 He chooses to confine the majority of his discussion to the thinking process associated with the creating comics.\u00a0 He explicitly avoids saying how he does it<\/p>\n

\n\u2026I don\u2019t want to produce anything that smacks even remotely of \u201cHow to Write Comics the Alan Moore Way.\u201d Teaching a generation of emergent artists or writers how to copy the generation that came before was a stupid idea when Marvel\u00a0 introduced their \u201cHow to Draw\u2026\u201d book and it would be equally irresponsible of me to instruct up-and-coming writers on how to write sickly extravagant captions like \u201cDawn transformed the sky into an abattoir or whatever.”<\/p>\n
Alan Moore<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Rather he discusses how to think about the craft of comics writing.\u00a0 The main point here is that a story should be useful in some way \u2013 it should be relevant to the reader.\u00a0 He feels that changing printing techniques, adding new characters or new computer graphics won\u2019t make a difference unless the fundamental assumptions of the artform are challenged.\u00a0 And he identifies comics writing as the greater area of focus because it is the very start of the process; the bones on which the flesh of the story is hung.<\/p>\n

Story Structure<\/h2>\n

Moore urges the reader to understand the structure of the work that he is creating; even if the creator is deviating from it, it is important to know that he is.\u00a0 He identifies four types of story structure, most of which he used in his run on the Swamp Thing (note some of the terminology is mine):<\/p>\n