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Terry Hooper-Scharf

Monday 9 September 2013

Avatar Press/Titan Books: Alan Moore's Fashion Beast



story by Alan Moore & Malcolm McClaren
Script by Alan Moore
Art: Facundo Percio
US Trade Paperback format
 25.7 x 16.8 x 1.5 cm
Full colour
256 pages
Avatar Press/Titan Books
$24.99 US/£18.99 UK
 ISBN-13: 978-1592912117
ISBN-10: 1592912117

release 5th September, 2013


In the 80s Alan Moore wrote the most acclaimed graphic novel of all time - Watchmen. His next project, working with Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren, was for a screenplay ultimately never produced. Now that screenplay comes to life as an incredible comic book series - a classic re-telling of the fable Beauty and the Beast set in a dystopian future city!

A "lost masterpiece" and when I received this I was in a very bad mood and was going to tear into Moore and this newly recovered masterpiece. There was all thathuge bag of stale air -Alan Moore did this so it was brilliant.  Arse-lickers.  Malcolm McClaren? Briefly -briefly- met him once and, uh, I liked him. Go figure.

Boy was my spleen ready to vent.

Read Moore's intro and how this all came about.  Yeah, yeah. Blah-blah.

But then the art.  For once the word "art" really and truly applies to a comic book. I went through the book once, twice and a third time and the colours, figures --I tried but the only word I think applies to Percio's work is "beautiful".

I then realised that it was not over heavy with burdensome dialogue. This is truly Moore at his best...I had to really choke that out. In all honesty this was wonderful. Judging by what past artists who have worked with Moore have said, he would have provided good descriptions of what he wanted -what the writer sees in his/her minds-eye- and then gone from there.

What we get are a mixture of fashion grotesques, eccentrics and bloody well written characters and plots. I do not believe that any reviewer can adequately describe Fashion Beast.  It needs to be in your hands and for you to sit down and take it all in.  This isn't a casual "dinner-break-burger-book" deal. You need to do what I did and sit in silence and just soak it all in.

Oh ****. I'm praising Alan Moore -but Alan Moore work from his real hey-day and when he really knew how to grab your balls and make you read the story. And combined with Percio's art....you cannot go wrong.

My only worry is that some might find £18.99 a bit expensive but with 256 pages of story plus covers gallery this is worth it. Love this book.













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