You're right that it was stupid of me to have assumed you were American without having checked; I'm sorry.
And you're right that I haven't engaged with your comments about From Hell. I read it as it was coming out, and haven't re-read it, and don't have a copy handy, so I can't even tell what you're talking about when you say "chapter 8, pages 31-32". Which is a shame, since these seem to be the claims that most strongly support your thesis.
However, you didn't mention V for Vendetta at all. The very first mention of it on this page is in John C Wright's comment. The reason I mentioned it at all is that your opening sentences seemed like a reaction to V for Vendetta.
Anyway, your argument seems to break down into (roughly) these parts (which I'm ordering from most to least important, as I see them):
1) From Hell demonstrates anti-capitalism, displaced anti-Thatcherism, sympathy towards early socialism, and at least one strong symbol of attachment to Marx. I can't address these points, for reasons I've already explained, but at least you've motivated me to finally go buy the collected From Hell.
2) WildC.A.T.s contains an allegorical "apologia for the Evil Empire". Again, I can't address this, as I explained right off the bat.
3) Moore had a crisis of faith of some kind caused by the collapse of the USSR, as demonstrated by the lapse in his career. As I pointed out, there are other explanations for this lapse.
4) Moore's tendency to portray the dark, sexual side of superheroes indicates a hatred of American icons. This seems like a pretty weak claim to me. You yourself admit that you can't make it jibe with Moore great Superman story, "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?". I also have a hard time reconciling this claim with Moore's work on Supreme.
Anyway, the greatest flaw in your essay -- and the reasons I assumed, without looking, that you were American -- is that you're vague about exactly what your claim is about Moore's politics. You start out by saying that Moore's not an anarchist, or at least wasn't one before 1990. You say that he was "beyond reasonable doubt, a Communist. Not just a Marxist, a Marxist-Leninist." But then you soften that: "To the question, therefore: is Moore a Communist, the answer is: at the right time, and taking the word in a broad enough sense, he could hardly help but be. Probably the best definition is 'fellow traveller'." As I understand it, in Europe this generally describes someone who isn't an actual party member, but who has strong pro-communist sympathies, hangs out with communists, maybe attends occasional meetings. In the US, it has connotations of crypto-communism. So I'm just unsure of exactly what you're saying here.
And as for the "progression" you mention in your comment here -- first, Moore's Twilight of the Superheroes proposal predates The Killing Joke by a couple of years, though I suppose the two could have been written around the same time given how long it can take to turn a script into published issues. Anyway, this "return to basics" was not a Moore-only phenomenon. In the early '90s, comics fans (and creators) were complaining about the "dark and gritty" "deconstructionist" comics that had been inspired by Watchmen and Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. 1963 was part of the "reconstructionist" movement that also included Kurt Busiek's Astro City.
no subject
And you're right that I haven't engaged with your comments about From Hell. I read it as it was coming out, and haven't re-read it, and don't have a copy handy, so I can't even tell what you're talking about when you say "chapter 8, pages 31-32". Which is a shame, since these seem to be the claims that most strongly support your thesis.
However, you didn't mention V for Vendetta at all. The very first mention of it on this page is in John C Wright's comment. The reason I mentioned it at all is that your opening sentences seemed like a reaction to V for Vendetta.
Anyway, your argument seems to break down into (roughly) these parts (which I'm ordering from most to least important, as I see them):
1) From Hell demonstrates anti-capitalism, displaced anti-Thatcherism, sympathy towards early socialism, and at least one strong symbol of attachment to Marx. I can't address these points, for reasons I've already explained, but at least you've motivated me to finally go buy the collected From Hell.
2) WildC.A.T.s contains an allegorical "apologia for the Evil Empire". Again, I can't address this, as I explained right off the bat.
3) Moore had a crisis of faith of some kind caused by the collapse of the USSR, as demonstrated by the lapse in his career. As I pointed out, there are other explanations for this lapse.
4) Moore's tendency to portray the dark, sexual side of superheroes indicates a hatred of American icons. This seems like a pretty weak claim to me. You yourself admit that you can't make it jibe with Moore great Superman story, "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?". I also have a hard time reconciling this claim with Moore's work on Supreme.
Anyway, the greatest flaw in your essay -- and the reasons I assumed, without looking, that you were American -- is that you're vague about exactly what your claim is about Moore's politics. You start out by saying that Moore's not an anarchist, or at least wasn't one before 1990. You say that he was "beyond reasonable doubt, a Communist. Not just a Marxist, a Marxist-Leninist." But then you soften that: "To the question, therefore: is Moore a Communist, the answer is: at the right time, and taking the word in a broad enough sense, he could hardly help but be. Probably the best definition is 'fellow traveller'." As I understand it, in Europe this generally describes someone who isn't an actual party member, but who has strong pro-communist sympathies, hangs out with communists, maybe attends occasional meetings. In the US, it has connotations of crypto-communism. So I'm just unsure of exactly what you're saying here.
And as for the "progression" you mention in your comment here -- first, Moore's Twilight of the Superheroes proposal predates The Killing Joke by a couple of years, though I suppose the two could have been written around the same time given how long it can take to turn a script into published issues. Anyway, this "return to basics" was not a Moore-only phenomenon. In the early '90s, comics fans (and creators) were complaining about the "dark and gritty" "deconstructionist" comics that had been inspired by Watchmen and Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. 1963 was part of the "reconstructionist" movement that also included Kurt Busiek's Astro City.