In a dispute over a film adaptation of his work, renowned comics and graphic novel author Alan Moore is leaving DC Comics and taking future volumes of his hit series, The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, to a copublishing venture between independent publishers Top Shelf and Knockabout.
The author of graphic novels From Hell, Watchmen and V for Vendetta, Moore is credited with taking comics writing to a new literary level, but he's also known to be fiercely independent and a bit eccentric.
The present dispute involves the film version of Moore's graphic novel V for Vendetta, currently under production. Public statements by Vendetta producer Joel Silver, claiming the author was enthusiastic about the film, infuriated Moore, who called Silver's comments "a flat lie." Moore is not a fan of movie adaptations and emphatically refuses to have his name attached to any of the films—they include From Hell, League of Extraordinary Gentleman and Constantine—based on his books. In fact, he arranges for all of the money from these films to be paid to the illustrators of the books.
When DC couldn't meet Moore's demand for a public apology, Moore announced that TheDark Dossier would be his last project for DC. Although he acknowledged that Silver's comments weren't DC's fault and claimed no animosity toward the filmmakers, he stands by his decision to leave DC. Moore said he's "a lot happier being out of this. That's it for me and the major mainstream comics industry."
DC's Wildstorm imprint will publish the graphic novel League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Dark Dossierby Moore and artist Kevin O'Neill later this year. But the proper third volume of the LOEG series will be published by Top Shelf and the U.K.-based Knockabout, although the project's completion remains far in the future, due to O'Neill's workload. Top Shelf has already published several books by Moore, including From Hell, and will release his controversial erotic fantasy Lost Girlsin 2006.
Moore has a long history of disputes with DC. He left the publisher in the late 1980s, unhappy with the handling of merchandising and publishing rights for Watchmen. He was unwillingly dragged back in 1998 when DC purchased Wildstorm, which was set to publish the Moore-created comics line America's Best Comics, which includes the LOEG.
