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Posted on Feb 26, 2005 - 07:46 PM by Admin |
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Katrina French is back to shine the spotlight on another one of Comicdom's Glorious Gals! The daughter of legendary writer Alan Moore, Leah Moore is now making a name for herself in the industry! Read on as Trina talks to Leah Moore about her WildStorm miniseries Wild Girl, how she broke into the business, her famous father and the evils of Dairy Milk Chocolate!
Leah Moore was born in Northampton, England in 1978, but moved to Liverpool at age twelve, where she met her future husband just four years later. Always interested in literature of all kinds, Moore earned a degree in Classics and English Literature at the University of Manchester. Moore's first published work was a short story in her father Alan Moore's Tom Strong's Terrific Tales #5, which featured a day in the life of Tom Strong's Ape friend Solomon. Now, Moore writes WildStorm's Wild Girl with John Reppion, a miniseries about a young girl that can communicate with animals.
Katrina French: Hello, Leah. And thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview!
Leah Moore: Hello there, Katrina! Thanks for asking and for being so patient!
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Katrina French: Describe in your own words what Wild Girl is about.
Leah Moore: Wild Girl is about a girl who discovers she has an ability to speak to animals. This, coupled with a typically thirteen year old inability to talk to humans, makes her leave home and go on a bit of an adventure to find out more about her abilities. It's a standard fantasy scenario, but I think the story really pulls together a lot of familiar children's book ideas. The series was intended for the young adult market (but try telling that to a forty-something fanboy!).
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Katrina French: How did you get the idea for Wild Girl?
Leah Moore: It was the culmination of lots of ideas, really. We liked stories with animals in them, and the way that animals are often used as metaphors for human traits. We liked the idea of animals in an urban setting, and the animals leading the plot, telling stories...it was the introduction of Rosa, the main human character, that brought it together. She's a little Mowgli, really. Thinly disguised, too!
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Katrina French: What is it like collaborating with writer John Reppion?
Leah Moore: It's great! No one has to be waved off to the office! We both get to share the writing, the typing, the housework, everything! It's a wonder we're not sick of each other, but we still think it's a giggle, so it must be going right.
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Katrina French: How about Shawn McManus? He has a very unique and refreshing style when it comes to drawing. I think his art fits Wild Girl very well....would you agree?
Leah Moore: Definitely. The cartoony quality makes the grim urban bits quite surreal, and the fun jokey bits really Disney and weird. It's nice not to have that grainy, realistic, heavy blacks look, because that would make Wild Girl look too dark and deep for her character...imagine Wild Girl in the style of The Dark Knight...scary stuff! I also think it throws J.H. Williams' stuff into relief and makes the vignette bits stand out on their own in a different world, which is where we wanted them to be. A dreamy world for her to dip into for a while in each issue.
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Katrina French: Are there any plans for future Wild Girl miniseries or stories?
Leah Moore: We have a heap of ideas for her...there's a whole natural world for her to explore, and bags of animal myths and interesting stuff to play with for storylines...it comes down to funding, really. If the first series doesn't do so well, we don't get a second one. I think it'd be a shame if there was only one series, as this first series is an origin story really, and we don't find out what she is until the end of it. So it would be nice to then see what she can do and how she grows as a character.
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Katrina French: Tell us about the issue you wrote for Tom Strong's Terrific Tales. I understand there's an interesting story about how you got hired to write that...
Leah Moore: My dad suggested out of the blue that I have a go at writing a strip, just a few pages long or so. He didn't say particularly why, but I was sitting behing a very quiet reception desk all day most days and had the time to do some doodles. I doodled the Solomon story and typed it into a script and sent it to dad. He liked it and said I should email it to Scott Dunbier from an anonymous email address. He had told Scott someone would be sending him a script, but not who. Scott liked it and thought it could go into the Terrific Tales line...that was when he found out who wrote it. He asked me to do another and then the proposal for Wild Girl...I'd still be behind that reception desk if it weren't for Mr. Dunbier!
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Katrina French: What is your favourite comic that your father has written and why?
Leah Moore: Halo Jones, because I read it when I was small and wanted to be her...and the drawings are so lovely. The women in Halo Jones are so future-glam! (Is that a really girly reason?) I love some of his other books too, but Halo Jones is the one I'd save from my house if it was on fire.
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Katrina French: Was your father your main influence when it comes to writing in general (not just comic books)?
Leah Moore: Erm...he encourages me to write, but I'd say it was all the great stories I've read along the way that have influenced me. Admittedly dad bought me quite a few of them, but I have always loved reading since I was quite little, so that's a lot of books to influence me. Also, the literature I did in Uni (classics and English lit) was so timeless and stunning it was a massive influence. I had everything from Homer to Hunter Thompson (may he rest in peace) from Beowulf to Shelley and Ovid. I think if I have to move house again, I will have to get rid of lots of books because I'm sick of lifting them every time.
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Katrina French: What kind of comics (if any) did you read as a child?
Leah Moore: I was started on Pippin, with The Gingerbread Boy by Colin Wyatt, progressed onto Buttons and then Twinkle, which had cut out dolls on the back of it...great fun for a Saturday afternoon there. After that, it was the Buster, the Beezer, the Dandy, Beano, Whizzer and Chips, the whole gamut of British kids comics really. I had this huge stack on a shelf above my bed, and at night I would reach up and lazily try and pull the bottom one out without getting out of bed. How many times the whole lot would fall down and cover me I couldn't say...but quite often!
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Katrina French: Is there someone in the industry (artist or writer) that you would love to work with (besides John)?
Leah Moore: Ooh, now that's a toughie...there's loads I admire, and loads I love to read, but heroes would be the Bros. Hernandez (I so wanted to be a Hernandez girl when I grew up!). I love Eddie Campbell's Bacchus comics. I did a presentation on them for my classics course.
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Katrina French: What are your goals for the future?
Leah Moore: To get enough work to live comfortably, and to continue enjoying it as much as I do now...
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Katrina French: What are some of your interests outside of writing?
Leah Moore: I like films, and drawing, and gigs and all the normal things. Eating...that's a biggie, and you have to wash food down with something...so I might end up in the pub sometimes.
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Katrina French: From doing my interviews, I have found it inspiring that more and more women are contributing to this male-dominated industry. What do you believe needs to be done to pull in even more female readers and creators?
Leah Moore: That's the hardest question, I think. Maybe the women already in the industry could try to do some less fighting/shooting/flying men with big chins-related comics, and then girls wouldn't think that was all comics were about. And then they'd grow up wanting to be cartoonists. There's plenty of brilliant women cartoonists in the small press in Britain. I got a great one about these crazy weasels at the last Bristol Con. Maybe subverting male-oriented comics by drawing make up on the big chinned guys or something.
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Katrina French: Do you have any advice for aspiring writers out there?
Leah Moore: Only to keep reading good books and watching good films and putting more interesting things into your head. It's the only way to get interesting things out of it. Oh, and do things for nothing, do fanzine stuff and web stuff and anything you can get into. You never know where it will lead!
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Katrina French: Just for fun...what is your favourite kind of candy?
Leah Moore: Dairy Milk Chocolate. Sent by Beelzebub himself...I am fiercely addicted to it.
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Katrina French: What is your favorite movie?
Leah Moore: "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes"...its funny because its true!
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Katrina French: If you could be a character in a fairy tale, who would you be and why?
Leah Moore: An ugly sister...not sure why.
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Katrina French: And what is your favorite cartoon?
Leah Moore: Cities of Gold! "Esteban!!!" Heart-wrenching stuff when you're nine!
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Katrina French: Thank you again!
Leah Moore: No probs!
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Big thanks go out to Katrina French for another great interview, and huge thanks to the extremely talented Leah Moore for taking the time to do this interview. For more information about the works and upcoming projects of Leah Moore, feel free to check out Leah Moore and John Reppion's website.
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