Moore Albion. Or, Why The Series Died A Death Despite GREAT Artwork!

 

Back at the May, 2005, Bristol Comic Expo I picked up a copy of the Wildstorm ashcan issue of the series Albion.

I can tell you that not many people were picking up this freebie.  Why not???

Anyway, I had sat through the "Albion Panel" and listened to Leah Moore and John Reppion talking about the series.  Or trying to.  The thing was that it was quite obvious that neither of the writers (Alan Moore's name was simply used because as Leah explained: "My father had an idea and passed it along to me".

Now, I'm quite sure that had Alan Moore written it and been true to the characters, it would have been interesting....maybe.

A person in the audience asked just what I was thinking: "You both seem too young to remember those comics -does your father have a big collection of them you've read?"  The answer came:"No."

WHAAAT???

Then Leah Moore explained that the series would not have been possible had it not been for the books penciller Shane Oakley: "He gave us a stack of comics so we knew which characters were which."

So, Alan Moore has an idea -sorry "concept and plot"- which he passes to his daughter who has no idea who the characters are. Neither did her partner John Reppion.  It also turned out that, according to the duo who seemed out of their depth answering questions on things they knew nothing about (but had written the series), Shane Oakley (a brilliant -brilliant- British artist and I mention that as people seem to think he is American) added "masses" to the panels and pages.

The inker was George Freeman, a favourite of mine since his work on Captain Canuck. Oakley and Freeman -how could you lose?  The writers...ah, right.

Oh, my Ashcan edition is worth, according to some sites....$3.00.  Just $3.00?????

Anyhow, there were lovely Dave Gibbons covers and I'm going to post some of these and cover art plus a few original B&W pages.

Personally, I say let Oakley write and draw a real series based on these characters!

Just checking and the First edition Albion #6 -£5.99 Thunderbolt Jazon -£3-7 for #1. In fact the whole "Make British characters American" line appears to not command much interest or collectability -though I think the art is worth it I think most people outside the UK would have no idea who was who or what (Indian readers might since there is a big following of old Fleetway characters there).

Disappointing

Visit Shane Oakley's blog for art and more!

http://shaneoakley.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=albion