When I met Alan Moore at the San Diego Comic Con in 1985, I happened to be carrying around photocopies of my latest comic book,
Megaton Man #6 (October 1985), which happened to feature a parody of
Swamp Thing. Megaton Man's alter ego, reporter Trent Phloog, used to put a sawdust dummy at his desk in the offices of The Manhattan Project while he was away being busy as Megaton Man. In this sequence, the dummy has taken a missile intended for Trent/Megaton Man, and a
Swamp Thing parody ensues...
Alan responded, "Brilliant writing!" Later, at an evening beach party gathering (I believe hosted by DC Comics), he confided that he had already returned the compliment, saying, "That's okay, I'm ripping off Megaton Man! Well not really..." See what he did in
The Watchmen #4 in
"Alan Moore Ripped Me Off!"
Plenty of people have ripped off Alan Moore without even bothering to acknowledge it. So at least you were classy enough to own up to it :)
ReplyDeleteStrictly speaking, parody or satire is not ripping off, because everyone knows the source and is in on the joke; I was being ironic. ;)
ReplyDeleteLOL... yes, I know. It was a funny parody / homage.
DeleteI only mention this because I'm beginning to realize that blurbs I have posted in jest have been increasingly taken seriously by the public, especially by those who may not have been born when the events to which I refer took place. This and another post ("Alan Moore ripped me off!") are exaggerations, or stated in an exaggerated way, in an effort to be comical, not disrespectful. It is true that Alan told me that his Dr. Manhattan was his "rip-off" of Megaton Man, i.e. his "straight" version of a nuclear-powered hero; this was at a DC party at San Diego Comicon in 1985 after I showed him my Swamp Thing parody that afternoon. But there was no sense that any of this was done in an antagonistic way, or any way other than admiration and inspiration. We have NOT been feuding for decades! The last time we spoke was by phone in 1993 when I was lettering 1963 for Image, and since then he rarely communicates with anyone, as I understand it. I got his permission relating to an exhibition of the "In Pictopia" art in 2010, but I had to go through Top Shelf publisher Chris Staros -- we did not speak directly. I just thought I would take this opportunity to make that clear. Thanks.
ReplyDelete