There are two major parts to this "essay" with pictures. The first part is the classic "Writing For Comics" which Alan Moore wrote in a Fanzine. The last part is a supplement Moore wrote as a retrospective of after 15 years of the original "essay's" printing. Chapter 1: The Basic Idea: Thinking About Comics In the first chapter Alan Moore tries to define comics, its current state and what the medium is about. Chapter 2: Reaching the Reader; Structure, Pacing, Story Telling In this chapter Moore uses examples from his own books on how the story features certain structure, pacing or other narrative tool. Such as V for Vendetta and its "V" theme. Chapter 3: World Building; Place and Personality Alan Moore believes all stories should be treated as their own true world or universe. Even the background characters should have some sort of life to them to make the world in which the reader sees as more believable. Chapter 4: The Details; Plot and Script Some one died. "So What?" Moore takes us reader on defining what a plot really is and how it is not just events, but how the events interact with the characters in time and space. Some stories can be very plot driven like a murder mystery, but some stories need more then plot but actual interesting threads that come together. An example was his Superman Story, For the Man Who Has Everything, Superman Annual #11. In this story Moore has two threads in a single comics, one thread is Superman mentally battling with a parasite, the other is his friends coming to visit him on his birthday only to have to fight a villain who infected Superman. Both threads work separately, but join together nicely at the end. AfterwordsMoore reflects on what he once said 15 years prior and almost tries to undo it all by saying forget it all. Some may take it literally, but some could see it as him trying to enforce the new rule to simply "write". Push yourself. Play in the creative pools that you are not comfortable in. Only in submersing yourself within challenge can you really find things that you didn't know you can do. Because if you know you can do it, it is likely easy or it has been done before, what is the fun in that?
