Some time back we reported that Alan Moore, famed creator of The Watchmen and V for Vendetta, and Frank Miller, father of the Dark Knight graphic novel, had gotten into a heated exchange of words over the Occupy movement.
It was quite a verbal battle going back and forth, and if it was turned into a graphic novel, where two comic creators battled to the death, it would certainly be a best seller.
Now Moore’s taking on an even bigger target: Harry Potter. According to the London paper The Independent, Moore’s next graphic novel, Century 2009, has “allusions” to the famed young wizard that “are unmistakable,” except here Potter is portrayed as the Antichrist. Of course this is going infuriate a lot of Hogwars nuts, and should definitely send a good sized sh*t-storm Moore’s way.
As The Independent also notes, this is Moore’s way of crapping on the publishing industry, and there may be repercussions from the Potter empire as well, although this will of course result in even more publicity for Century 2009 and Moore’s work.
However, no matter how much it could upset Potter fans, and even the grand dame JK Rowling herself, as Howard Stern and South Park have proven time and again, nothing’s sacred.
And as much as I personally feel that the Harry Potter series has done a lot of good for the publishing world (anything that encourages reading in this day and age I’m all for), we also need iconoclasts like Moore to shake things up, debunk pre-conceived notions, and break wind in the face of the establishment, to paraphrase George Romero. (Yes, zombies are anti-establishment as well).
It’s always important to remember that no matter what anyone writes or says about Harry, it will never put a single dent in anything the series has accomplished. Moore’s certainly entitled to his opinion, and instead of getting crazy about it, we should all try to take it in with a bemused chuckle.
