CINEMA PURGATORIO
Movies and Moore
Alan Moore may have left mainstream comics far behind, but he still hasn’t given up on the medium itself. Most of his comics work now comes via indie publishers Avatar, and his latest project for them is an ambitious one – this monthly black-and-white anthology.
Moore has assembled an impressive spread of writers – including Garth Ennis and Kieron Gillen – and he’s also contributing a story each time. This first issue shows that their “Cinema Purgatorio” tales are going to be unsettling filmbased horror stories, carrying the same grotesque, brutal tone as later League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen adventures.
The rest of the contents are a mixed bag, however. The black-and-white visuals from a selection of artists are consistently imaginative and spectacular, but not all the writers are yet delivering eight-page chapters that feel truly satisfying – except for Gillen, who steals the show with the Mad Max-meetsPokémon adventure “Modded”. Cinema Purgatorio has gotten off to a slightly uneven start, but hopefully the strong creative backing will soon see this anthology finding its feet. Saxon Bullock