Title

Miracleman #3 (K)

Type

Fan letter

Description

Fan letter written to Miracleman #3.

Transcribed text:

Dear Editors and folks associated with Miracleman #1;

Jesus H. Christ Gawdalmighty!!!! (Let me here say that I have never before written to a comic book and that I had never heard of Marvelman until a friend showed me the Marvelman Special.) How is it that Alan Moore can take campy, almost ridiculous comic characters and give them unexpected depths of character? What inspires him to soar to poetic heights with his scripting? (Gotta get ahold of meself here—I’m getting syrupy.) Why aren’t there more scripters like him?

I just read Miracleman #1 today and, needless to say, I was impressed! Chapter 1, the reprint, was sooo campy it was almost embarrassing. Why this episode, I wonder? Does Moore (who never does anything without a reason) mean to imply that it has some bearing on the current storyline? And why do the time travelers, with their silly weaponry, come from 1981 (why, for that matter, does the story take place in 1982—three years in the past)? I’m sure the answers will come out in good time in a typical Moore-ish logical but totally unforeseeable climax. He does have a way with intertwined plots.

As for the later chapters—opening them with a quote from Nietzsche was a tour de force. In conjunction with the zoom-in on Miracleman’s smiling face, the quote brought in perfectly the new serious and sinister mood. Garry Leach’s artwork—oy! It fits perfectly with Moore’s script. His modeling of shadows and dark masses around cleanly drawn faces and bodies deftly suggests the old Miracleman while introducing the new. This is a book to be proud of, folks!

Michael Moran’s nightmare is vivid and disturbing. The discovery that he is a middle-aged, rather unattractive man susceptible to migraines (something I get meself) is also disturbing. It makes one wonder what Moore is up to. The episode with the terrorists is surreal. They’re so businesslike! But then—the rebirth of Miracleman! Whoooo! This is what comics are about! The other touches—Liz’s incredulity, Kid Miracleman, the gathering storm, the tiger—they add life and interest to the story. But there was one panel—one incident—that really grabbed me.

On page 25, the first panel, Young Miracleman, “Dicky with the stupid name,” died. Screaming. Two bodies fused in one. It was a horrible way to go, but why were there two of him? What could he be screaming? Then, oh my god, it hit me—he was screaming for help, he was screaming for Miracleman! By calling for his friend, he called out the very phrase that would turn him into a normal human in the midst of an A-bomb explosion. Is that why he died and the others didn’t?

This wasn’t the worst of it, however. In a flash of memory, I recalled, from the Marvelman Special, a strange skeleton trophy—of two people fused together. Jesus! How horrible! How wonderful! It’s such an awful thing to happen, but it’s such a fantastic thing to put in. I can’t come up with the proper adjectives. Alan Moore is just incredible. Garry Leach is impressive. Miracleman is superlative.

Thanks for putting up with such a long letter. You’ve all done a great job. I’m getting Miracleman as often as it comes out!

Chicago IL

You folks who don’t know what [redacted] is talking about: Marvelman Special was a British supplement to the story of M.man, which is appearing in the U.S.A. as (ta-da!) Miracleman 3-D Special #1. Go get it, right now! It’s got 3-D effects by Ray Zone, a framing sequence by Alan Moore, art by Alan Davis, and three miraculous tales by the great Mick Anglo and Co.!

Language

English

Place

Chicago, Illinois, USA

-87.632401

41.883228

Publisher

Eclipse Comics