Magic Words: The Extraordinary Life of Alan Moore

Alan Moore. Even to those only superficially familiar with comics, that name conjures images of someone more myth than man. Whether you view him as a top-shelf writer, a comic god, an enfant terrible, a wildman, a recluse, or a gimmick run amok, you most definitely have an opinion about him.

Magic Words is Lance Parkin’s exploration of both the man and the legend, chronicling his meteoric rise in British comics, his transition to the American comics industry, his ongoing creative journey, and the gradual build of the many myths of varying veracity that surround him.

Thankfully, while Parkin is obviously a fan with an exhaustive knowledge of Moore’s life and work, he doesn’t allow his fanboy nature to blind him to the more abrasive and inexplicable actions and statements of his subject. He asks what we’re to make of Moore’s claims of magic, his sometimes baffling contrariness, and most tellingly, is it possible that the joke is on Moore’s most loyal and ardent fans? These valuable questions take Parkin’s book beyond casual biography and into much more challenging and worthwhile territory.

Magic Words pulled out all the stops to give readers the chance to form their own opinions.