Alan Moore's "Promethea" - Classic or Dud

I think Promethea's quite good but I'm catching a bus now so remind me to work out why next year.

why are people far more willing to read about esoteric matters in comics than they are in, say, properly researched books about the occult?

"Properly researched books about the occult," AHHHH ha ha ha ha ha...

you can laugh. But think about it, comics are a narrative form. Surely a non-narrative form would be better for communicating the ideas and weltanshauung behind the occult? I mean, that way you don't have some stupid story about people doing stuff getting in your way.

Am reading this comic for the first time and think it’s phenomenal. Just finished the Tarot issue … wow!

why are people far more willing to read about esoteric matters in comics than they are in, say, properly researched books about the occult?

― DV, Sunday, 30 December 2001 12:00 PM (twenty-three years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Heh I have been dipping into the Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic recently, which I guess is both

Have good memories of Promethea, might be time for a reread

There are some absolutely gasp-out-loud pieces of art, truly startling stuff, but yeah a lot of it is people just sitting around discussing "mystical bollocks" as the OG describes

It’s interesting to contrast Promethea with Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles and Rachel Pollack’s run on Doom Patrol. There is so much occultism in sequential art from the last 40ish years

So, I liked Promethea a lot more than I was expecting. The first book is a little stiff but that could also be me getting used to its vibe.

Currently reading The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book, and what I’m trying to figure out is how Moore’s take on magic fits in with the…. occult community at large?

Is his a very particular, esoteric vision on magic or is this how it is generally thought of? Maybe the book will get into this and i’m impatient. How does wikka fit into all this?

So, I liked Promethea a lot more than I was expecting. The first book is a little stiff but that could also be me getting used to its vibe.

Currently reading The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book, and what I’m trying to figure out is how Moore’s take on magic fits in with the…. occult community at large?

Is his a very particular, esoteric vision on magic or is this how it is generally thought of? Maybe the book will get into this and i’m impatient. How does wikka fit into all this?

it's been years since i read these. i wonder if i'd enjoy them as much now as i did c2010 or if i'd find it a bit cloying. i remember the artwork and execution being worth the journey through moore's specific brand of arcana. i was obsessed with his work for about three or four years, then i pretty much grew tired of his schtick overnight. that's probably because i ran out of top-tier work to read (vendetta, watchmen, from hell), read most of the less-celebrated stuff (promethea, swamp thing) and had started-in on his, shall we say phoned-in and not-so-hot work (the later league anthologies (OOF!))

there's a lot that can be said about later League volumes but phoned in they ain't!

Cow Art, I am not familiar enough with the occult community to say anything here for sure, but while he def has connections with other like minded ppl Moore has always struck me as an individualist, so I'd be surprised if there weren't some personal spices added.

Wouldn't class Swamp Thing among Moore's 'less-celebrated stuff' - it was the series that made his reputation in American comics. and DC have kept it in print in various pricey graphic novel formats p much ever since. Less celebrated - Skizz, 1963, A Small Killing, Big Numbers, all the stuff he did for Image, DR and Quinch, for starters.

Is Tom Strong worth checking out? I was surprised to see the character pop up in Promethea.

Is Tom Strong worth checking out? I was surprised to see the character pop up in Promethea.

Tom Strong is a fun parody of Golden Age comics, the bits with his fanclub members can be very funny
love Top 10 the most out of the America's Best stuff, even if the Smax spinoff went ... places ...

I love LOEG and appreciate the effort put into it, but I find everything after the second volume unreadable. I guess there is some autobiographical insight into Moore's worldviews, but... it's just a mess and not much fun or interestingly not-fun.

Similar with Top 10 - the first two volumes are wonderful. I don't remember SMAX at all, and but I do remember finding The 49ers annoying, for some reason (I forget).

Is From Hell "top-tier"? I've never read it, I assumed it was inscrutable and the subject matter put me off somewhat

I think From Hell is top tier, at least in terms of recognition. From Hell is my next read after Bumper Book of Magic. That will probably wrap up Moore for me.

Oddly enough, i’m doing The Artist’s Way, a self-help book for creative people, and there are a LOT of parallels with Promethea and Moore’s idea of creativity being akin to magic. Going through both “programs” at the same time is kinda fun.

From Hell is probably Moore's masterpiece.

Tom Strong is good fun.

The best League volume is Black Dossier, for its melancholy rainy fifties feel and then those rocketships emerging, perfect evocation of how sci fi and comics must have felt to Brits growing up at that time.

From Hell is impressive work, yeah. Just the commitment to detail alone. Moore's an exceptional writer of course, but I feel it's the artists he collaborates with that do a lot of the heaving.

Well yes, that's the nature of the medium. If the art isn't contributing it should just be a prose novel.

V for Vendetta really impacted me when I was a kid. I have a memory of getting to a scene between V and Evey, late in the book, that felt like it really "lifted the lid" on the world for me -- although three decades later, I can't remember anything about how or why it did that. I'd like to reread and revisit it, although I hope it isn't some glib Matrix-red-pill kind of thing.

...Whereas with Promethea, I feeling a bit cross and confused that I couldn't understand the Important-Sounding Lessons within because the art and the words -- so many of them! -- can't getting in the way. (This was also, as a fan, when I started to find Moore a bit annoying.) Perhaps worth a reread.

*I remember feeling

I love LOEG and appreciate the effort put into it, but I find everything after the second volume unreadable. I guess there is some autobiographical insight into Moore's worldviews, but... it's just a mess and not much fun or interestingly not-fun.

Yeah, first two volumes are great and the Black Dossier is really good fun with the mixed-media approach working well.

The initial concept is a draw because everyone has an idea of what makes The Invisible Man, Captain Nemo, Jekyll & Hyde remarkable. Mina Harker is from one of the most famous novels of all time, and has encountered VAMPIRES(!) Allan Quatermain might be the odd one out here, as he possesses no magical qualities and he's less well-recognised, but he makes a perfectly good foil as a straight protagonist.

But after the first two volumes we start seeing the introduction of increasingly niche or lesser-known main characters to the story, including ones from film and TV, who aren't necessarily household names and possess no real "super-powers". I'd never heard of Bulldog Drummond before reading the Black Dossier, for instance. And the fact a lot of characters had to have their names changed for copyright reasons (Emma Peel from the Avengers is re-dubbed Emma Night) adds an extra cloud of obfuscation. These characters have few distinguishing or magical qualities either, so Drummond and Night simply become analogous to "1950s secret agent types".

A lot of the characters and situations are actually just fictional analogues of real people too. By the time we get to the sixties, they're just chucking in Mick Jagger in Performance, where he pretty-much plays himself. It just stops being fun when the characters they're referencing are out of a single episode of the Avengers, or just fictional analogues of Adolf Hitler etc...

Moore himself provides meta-commentary on his views about fiction from certain eras: He all-but spells-out his disapproval of James Bond and Harry Potter as characters, but the impression is that he has no interest in them either. As the Century volumes continue, you can tell Moore is clutching at straws to find literary and filmic references to use. He just doesn't seem to enjoy the modern era save for a few obscure examples. So it raises the question of WHY they didn't just keep the League world within the realm of Victorian and Edwardian fiction. This would have been very possible, especially considering the sheer amount of detail in the first two volumes' appendices.

...Whereas with Promethea, I feeling a bit cross and confused that I couldn't understand the Important-Sounding Lessons within because the art and the words -- so many of them! -- can't getting in the way. (This was also, as a fan, when I started to find Moore a bit annoying.) Perhaps worth a reread.

― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 22 September 2025 18:17 (eleven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I mean... it is annoying. It's really beautiful work, but it's a five-volume explanation of an esoteric religion presented as the most important thing in the world. This along with his intense Lovecraft obsession was where I started asking myself if I really cared enough about magick and tentacles enough to keep reading his work. It's great, but sometimes reading Moore can be like being trapped at a party with someone info-dumping about their specialist subject all evening. That said, whatever he does, he does it with flair and the great stuff is all-time, so I forgive him his peccadilloes.

I also think Moore is BAD at straight prose. The prose sections of League were not good, and any time I've tried reading his novels I've found the language intensely bothersome.

*looks at Jerusalem doorstep on the bookshelf that I still haven't finished, starts sweating*
tbf I loved Voice of the Fire, remember it being difficult to get into tho with the limited language of the first chapter, a bit like Riddley Walker?

So the first time I started Jerusalem I had difficulties getting into the prose. But then I tried it again during lockdown, and realised that the thing was I had to actually pay attention to every word, and my brain just wasn't trained that way anymore, I guess maybe too much indifferent writing in my diet, I'd been reading in half arsed ways for years. So it was intensely pleasant to kind of...relearn how to read, give myself the time to let each sentence sink in. And once I got there I really loved the book, though there's plenty wrong with it too.

Agree that From Hell is top tier - top three - Alan Moore. And Eddie Campbell.

having to concentrate on every word in every sentence of a 1000 page book though, sounds exhausting...

he was on Front Row on radio4 the other day talking about his new book, and previous work. not much i hadn't heard him say before, but it's been a while.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002jgpm - starts 28 minutes in

having to concentrate on every word in every sentence of a 1000 page book though, sounds exhausting...

In a way, sure, but as someone who is (like many on this forum I'd wager) constantly looking for the next thing to read/watch/listen to Jerusalem helped me let go of a lot of that sense of urgency - just read a few pages a day, who cares if I ever finish it, reading should be a pleasure and not a task to be accomplished. Again this being lockdown also played into it, being able to focus entirely on reading was a godsend.

It's made me hold that up as a much more rewarding approach than how I used to read and I still try to apply it to all my reading now, though with varying success.

That’s how parts of the Bumper Book are. Within the book there’s a fictional story that helps explain some of the concepts being explored. The writing in these sections is sometimes exhaustively detailed but that
seems to be the point, as if he’s conjuring something and all of those details are important. I couldn’t read an entire book in that particular style but it suits the purpose of the Bumper Book.

Agree that From Hell is top tier - top three - Alan Moore. And Eddie Campbell.

Top tier Moore, maybe top 120 Campbell.

From Hell is absolutely top tier Campbell artwork... an extraordinary achievement that matches the detail of Moore's script.

From Hell is no question his greatest work… he's not deconstructing super hero comics therein, but rather deconstructing England, and doing so with Eddie Campbell with a breathtaking formal sweep…