A1 Book Two

A1 #2

by Alan Moore

Book 2 of 6. Published in England. A graphic novel anthology from various comic book artists and writers. This volume is a unique "flip-book". Stories include BOJEFFRIES SAGA by Alan Moore and Steve Parkhouse, MR. X: WINDOWS by various artists including Charles Vess, Michael Kaluta, Dave Gibbons, Paul Chadwick, Simon Bisley, Mike Mignola and many more.

Genres: Comics, Anthologies, Fiction, Graphic Novels

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Alan Moore is an English writer most famous for his influential work in comics, including the acclaimed graphic novels Watchmen, V for Vendetta and From Hell. He has also written a novel, Voice of the Fire, and performs "workings" (one-off performance art/spoken word pieces) with The Moon and Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels, some of which have been released on CD.

As a comics writer, Moore is notable for being one of the first writers to apply literary and formalist sensibilities to the mainstream of the medium. As well as including challenging subject matter and adult themes, he brings a wide range of influences to his work, from the literary–authors such as William S. Burroughs, Thomas Pynchon, Robert Anton Wilson and Iain Sinclair; New Wave science fiction writers such as Michael Moorcock; horror writers such as Clive Barker; to the cinematic–filmmakers such as Nicolas Roeg. Influences within comics include Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Kirby and Bryan Talbot.

Reviews

[Yafu]

Segundo A1.

[D.M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Though this second book of the six-book A1 comic anthology series is twice the size of the first, the quality of content and contributor takes a noticeable dip. While the first volume was mostly heavy-hitters from the comic industry, those big names take a back seat this time around (though there are still contributions from Alan Moore, John Bolton, Eddie Campbell and others from the first one). The majority of the 'finer' artists offer only pinup-style imagery (a cover from Bolton, a flip-side cover from Dave McKean, Mr. Monster contextual paintings from Dave Dorman), and the only prominent writers offer more of their lighter fare (Moore's Bojeffries and Campbell's Bacchus). Beyond that, the offerings are not particularly engaging, further handicapped by a long text story of the inexplicably popular (in England) Axel Pressbutton and an average muscled-barbarian story with art by Simon Bisley suffering muddy-looking repro to black-and-white. The two pages of letters promised in the first book appear to have been mysteriously replaced by clippings from Fortean Times.
There are, of course, high points (bound to be, with this much content): Pete Milligan and David Lloyd's 'Big Death' is a touching (though unfortunately also badly reproduced) but strange piece; 'King Pant' is a typically zany outing from Philip Bond and Jamie Hewlett; the 'Mr. X: Windows' is a lovely set of miniaturised pinups from an all-star cast including Mike Mignola, Kevin O'Neill, Michael Kaluta and MANY more; Shawn and Kevin McManus team up with Steve Moore to give a chilling horror tale called 'Obsessional'; John Bolton illustrates another artistic tangent (with Van Gogh in an unlikely role this time) for Graham Marks; and Barry Windsor-Smith gives a lovely dreamlike one with 'Men and Hats.'
For some reason, this double-sized volume was done like the old Companion Library books: it's split in the middle and has to be flipped to be read all the way through.
Not a bad book, but even at its size it was bound to suffer a bit in comparison to the striking first one.

[Fugo Feedback]

Andasaber si algún día veo en algún formato esta antología inglesa, pero el que diga Alan Moore bastó para mandarlo como to-read en su momento, y no veo por qué debería sacarlo salvo que corrobore que es absolutamente imposible leer este tomo de algún modo.