Favorite Moorcock Work

[Whiskers]

This one's for you Mr. Simonson.

Why would you choose to work with Mr. Moorcock? What was the work that led you to work with him? Do you have any mutual friends in the business or were these projects just coincidences. What do you consider to be your favorite work of Michael's?

[Walter Simonson]

Favorite Moorcock Work

I haven't any idea if I'm actually getting this right but fortunately, no kid I ever saw on a computer ever cared about that either. They just jump right in! So I'll leave a short reply here until I learn whether or not I'm in touch with something other than the great beyond!

Tough call actually on favorite Moorcock work. There's so much of the damn stuff I haven't read because Mike's been so prolific! But certainly the sentimental favorites in my reading are the very early Elric books. I suspect 'imprinting' has something to do with that. Some of the very first Marvel Comics I read remain among my favorites even though I've read others since that were better written or better drawn, etc. But my initial discovery of them, like my initial discovery of Michael's work, opened up whole new worlds for me. (I don't think that's an intentional pun there!) I really hadn't read anything like the Elric stories when I first found them back in college in the '60's. But I kept pretty close track of Michael's output from then on for some time.

Curiously enough, I never read any of the Jerry Cornelius books; I think that the only one I remember seeing back then--The Final Program--had what I thought at the time was an uninteresting cover on it and for some reason, that was enough to persuade me not to give it a try. Of course, now it sits (in another edition) along with more books than I'm going to admit to, in my 'to be read' pile!

I could keep going with the other questions but I think I'll stop here, post this, and see if it actually shows up!

Best/Walter

PS: I'm heading to Baltimore tomorrow for a comics convention so I won't be back online until Monday at the earliest. But by then, I should know if this works!

PPS: Thanks a million, Berry.

[Whiskers]

Your time is most appreciated and this interview is sure to draw a lot of interested visitors. After you've done this interview, I bet you become a forum junkie. :lol: Just ask Michael.

[Michael Moorcock]

I guess the same process goes for me, too. Thor is certainly my favourite of Walter's early work. But it's easier for me to 'look' at new stuff than it is for Walter to 'read' so much. I continue to be blown away by Walter's skills, which only get better. Walter's one of the few artists I can think of whom I've admired for twenty or thirty years and whose work continues to get better and better. I guess I got the idea for working with Walter after we were brought together by DC to do MM's Multiverse. For me at any rate it was a dream team -- Walter's storytelling ability is superb (as his many scripts testify) and he always finds ways of putting those extra touches onto my stories which only improve them. I do feel a bit guilty, though. Trusting him as I do, I tend to make greater demands on him than I might make on another artist.

[Walter Simonson]

Why would you choose to work with Mr. Moorcock? What was the work that led you to work with him? Do you have any mutual friends in the business or were these projects just coincidences.

I realized I didn't answer any of the other questions here so here're a few thoughts.

I met Michael for the first time somewhere back in the 1980's--I'm guessing in the first half of the 80's although I can't be sure now. I used to share studio space with several artist friends in New York City then and one of these was Howard Chaykin. Howard's one of my oldest friends in comics and we're still close. He knew Michael already I believe and one day--IIRC--Michael came by Upstart Studios. I already knew who he was from my days as an SF fan back in the late 60's/early 70's when New Wave SF was being debated and discusses around fandom. And I'd read a number of his novels.

It wasn't until years later that the MICHAEL MOORCOCK MULTIVERSE project developed through DC's Helix line of comics. Stuart Moore was the editor and although I don't really remember any longer (somehow, I very rarely remember the beginnings of things), I believe that Stuart called me out of the blue to ask if I would be interested in working on one of the stories in the project. (There were three stories for those who haven't read the comic and each story was to be drawn by a different artist). I remember being at DC and talking with Michael on the phone which was, I think, the first time we'd talked in years, probably since the days at the studio. But we got on well and I liked his work. More than that, I've always found that Michael's work is explosively visual, at least for me. I find picture after picture in his prose when I read them. Which made the prospect of drawing a comic he was writing all the more exciting.

And we just had so much fun working together on the MULTIVERSE that doing another project together when we could work it out seemed a natural course of action.

Best/Walter

[Michael Moorcock]

I meant to add that I really like Walter's writing and where he both writes and draws those are my favourite Simonson stories. Orion for instance, which was superb work and still insufficiently appreciated, in my view.
Walter's a great partner to work with because his sense of story values is strong and he'll propose ways of doing things I often haven't thought of.
The Multiverse project was just wonderful. Linda would gasp at every new episode Walter would turn in. What do you think ? I ask her. Oh, it's marvellous. Superb! she'd reply. Walter's so GOOD. Then I'd ask her 'what do you think of the writing'. Writing ? She'd look a bit baffled.
Oh, I haven't READ it. She's still like that about the Elric stories. I'm getting used to it... :)

[Miqque]

Favorite Moorcock work? Favorite Simonson work?

Berry, who's your favorite child?

:lol: