Dodgem Logic #1

Dodgem Logic #1

by Alan Moore, Kevin O'Neill, Steve Aylett

From Knockabout Comics. Dodgem Logic is committed to alleviating the attendant sense of anguish and despair by brightening the world with the astonishing cartoon-work of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen's sublime Kevin O'Neill or that of underground legend Savage Pencil; the musings of Father Ted, The IT Crowd and Black Book's own Graham Linehan or of the nation's sweetheart, the implacably positive Josie Long; even a delirious commemoration of the lunar landing's anniversary by the masterful Steve Aylett. In addition to a variously-hosted women's column launched by Lost Girls co-creator and erstwhile underground cartoon artist Melinda Gebbie, Mr. Moore will himself be contributing a lead feature on the history of underground subversive publishing from its origins in the 13th century, along with various illustrations and words of advice. All these and many other sterling features, Including a free CD of Alan Moore-approved music.

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Alan Moore is an English writer most famous for his influential work in comics, including the acclaimed graphic novels Watchmen, V for Vendetta and From Hell. He has also written a novel, Voice of the Fire, and performs "workings" (one-off performance art/spoken word pieces) with The Moon and Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels, some of which have been released on CD.

As a comics writer, Moore is notable for being one of the first writers to apply literary and formalist sensibilities to the mainstream of the medium. As well as including challenging subject matter and adult themes, he brings a wide range of influences to his work, from the literary–authors such as William S. Burroughs, Thomas Pynchon, Robert Anton Wilson and Iain Sinclair; New Wave science fiction writers such as Michael Moorcock; horror writers such as Clive Barker; to the cinematic–filmmakers such as Nicolas Roeg. Influences within comics include Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Kirby and Bryan Talbot.

Reviews

[Owen Watts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alan Moore's pulpy Northampton underground 'zine project from a decade ago is a fascinating piece of cultural ephemera - containing a smattering of comics, a few articles, a couple of "how to's" and a touch of fiction as well as a CD of local music and a pull-out of extra material (intended to be different for each region, but my one is also Northampton-based). It's worth maintaining for the Alan stuff, particularly his entertaining history of underground publishing in the UK (modestly putting Dodgem Logic alongside the International Times and fiery 18th C polemics).

There's also a charmingly pleasant bit of comix from charmingly likable comedian Josie Long, a far-out illustration by the legendary Kev O'Neill and uh, a bit on the "civility and pleasantness of Twitter" by a now-banned-from-Twitter bigot which hasn't aged particularly well at all. I was quite taken with "Northamptonshire's place in Rock History" article by Gary Ingham - featuring some top anecdotes and dripping with local charm which seemed to deeply fulfill the zine's broad brief. Shame it folded less than ten issues later but Northampton's premier counter-cultural evil wizard had his heart in the right place with this engaging grab-bag of things.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is Alan Moore's latest effort to create outside mainstream comics. I wish him well with it, but it's not for me.

Actually, I really enjoyed Alan Moore's essay on the history of underground publishing, and Melinda Gebbie's on feminism. There's one fairly funny piece about the witty things Neil Armstrong could've done or said on the moon. I found the rest of the articles to be fairly turgid, however. I'm not given much hope for future installments (I think it's up to issue six or something) when only three writers provide worthwhile content in a magazine with over a dozen contributors.