Albion

(WildStorm, 2005)
™ and © IPC Media Limited & DC Comics

Alan Moore stories are tricky. His amazing sense of timing, suspense, and dialogue makes the reader conscious of every nuance, because the whole plot can revolve around the smallest detail. It is supposed to be vague, subtle, and challenging to read. The payoff is enormous—it is worth the challenge.

Though Moore plotted Albion, he didn’t script it. Unfortunately, that script is vague to the point of impenetrable, and the art is stylized and unclear. The murky style does not invite one back to re-read to try to understand it. The characters are flat, poorly introduced, and annoyingly vague.

There is a two-page “comic within a comic” that has more clarity, character, interest, and intrigue than the rest of the main story. The art is a beautiful British tabloid (think 2000 A.D.) adventure-strip homage and it hits its mark. The simple Dave Gibbons cover and the homage comic are the only high points; otherwise, Albion is confusing, ugly, annoyingly artsy, and—for fans of Moore’s more serious work like Promethea and From Hell—a big disappointment.

— Mike Keeney

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