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Readers may gasp, but Alan Moore is unashamed of his latest work.
The controversial Englishman, who revolutionized comic books in the 1980s and has been battling publishers and Hollywood ever since, had the chance in an interview to describe his latest book as "erotica." He decided instead to call it "pornography."
"It's not a bad pre-emptive move," Moore, 52, said from his home in Northampton, England. "People were obviously going to say that this is not art, this is pornography. It just seemed more honest to get that debate over right from the start."
For most readers, it won't be much of a debate. In The Lost Girls, an oversized, pricey ($75) and very graphic novel, Moore and artist Melinda Gebbie (his fiancee) imagine the X-rated escapades of three of the world's most beloved storybook heroines: Wendy from Peter Pan, Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz and Lewis Carroll's Alice.
The intelligent writing, intricate plotlines and gorgeous Victorian-style art soften the impact a bit, but make no mistake: The girls cavort in ways most inappropriate for children.
Even more disconcerting may be the timing. Just as his anti-fascist graphic novel of the 1980s, V for Vendetta, ran up against the reality of 9/11 when it was released as a movie, so too does The Lost Girls feel vaguely creepy in the shadow of child-murder cases such as JonBenet Ramsey.
"Obviously the JonBenet case is bigger in the U.S., but we've been following it here in England," Moore says. "Remember, we began writing these stories 16 years ago. We had no idea when we were going to have it finished, or what kind of world it would be emerging into. But we are not talking about reality.
"Our position is this is art and pornography. What we intended with The Lost Girls was to sever the connection between pornography and embarrassment, and between the pornographic imagination and the real world. These are two very distinctive spaces."
As for the three heroines, "as soon as we had those three names, those three women, we realized what an electrifying combination it was."
The graphic novel from Top Shelf Productions represents Moore's latest break with mainstream comics publishers and with DC Comics in particular, where he jolted the comics world with Watchmen and a dramatic updating of Batman in The Killing Joke. Three of his works -- From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and V for Vendetta -- have been made into films, and he has disavowed them all. On Vendetta, he went so far as to take his name off the credits.
"My comics make better comic books than they do films," he says.
As for DC, after this fall's hardcover League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier, Moore says he'll be done, citing a series of disputes over control of his characters and his writings.
DC Comics publisher Paul Levitz, asked about the relationship, said: "We only want to say how much we respect him and love him. We wish him well."
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