QuoteProject
Everything you've ever read of mine is first-draft. This is one of the peculiarities of the comics field. By the time you're working on chapter three of your masterwork, chapter one is already in print. You can't go back and suddenly decide to make this character a woman, or have this one fall out of a window.
Alan Moore
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote highlights the unique nature of creating comics, where early drafts are published before later chapters are completed.

Alan Moore emphasizes the challenges of working in the comic book industry, where once a chapter is published, changes cannot be retroactively made to characters or plot points. This highlights the constraints of storytelling in serialized formats and the importance of planning and commitment to one's creative decisions from the outset.

Themes

ComicsCreativityStorytellingFirst DraftWriting

In practice

Example use cases

Mentioning this quote at a comic book convention to illustrate the unique challenges faced by comic creators.

More from Alan Moore

One of the advantages of travelling the world is that you get to know the world broadly. And one of the advantages of staying in one place is that you get to know the world deeply.
Alan MooreRead
The only reality we can ever truly know is that of our perceptions, our own consciousness, while that consciousness, and thus our entire reality, is made of nothing but signs and symbols. Nothing but language. Even God requires language before conceiving the Universe. See Genesis: “In the beginning was the Word.
Alan MooreRead
My main point about films is that I don't like the adaptation process, and I particularly don't like the modern way of comic book-film adaptations, where, essentially, the central characters are just franchises that can be worked endlessly to no apparent point.
Alan MooreRead
The magician to some degree is trying to drive him or herself mad in a controlled setting, within controlled laws.
Alan MooreRead
When I was working upon the ABC books, I wanted to show different ways that mainstream comics could viably have gone, that they didn't have to follow 'Watchmen' and the other 1980s books down this relentlessly dark route. It was never my intention to start a trend for darkness. I'm not a particularly dark individual.
Alan MooreRead
Love your rage, not your cage.
Alan MooreRead

Similar quotes

Nobody knows what will work until they try it. Some of comics' biggest success stories in recent years have explored subjects that no one was writing about at the time - stories no one had any reason to think would succeed. My advice? Write what you want to read. You'll have more fun doing it - and if all else fails, you'll always have at least one loyal reader.
Scott MccloudRead
There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.
Edward De BonoRead
One very important aspect of motivation is the willingness to stop and to look at things that no one else has bothered to look at. This simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity.
Edward De BonoRead
Creativity has two possibilities. One is that it arises out of your silence, love, understanding, your clarity of vision, your intimate friendliness with existence - then creativity is healthy. But if it does not arise out of meditation, out of silence and peace and understanding and love, then there is a danger. It may be arising out of your confused mind. It may be arising out of your insanity.
RajneeshRead
The only way to maximize group creativity—to make the whole more than the sum of its parts—is to encourage a candid discussion of mistakes. In part, this is because the acceptance of error reduces cost. When you believe your flaws will be quickly corrected by the group, you're less worried about perfecting your contribution, which leads to a more candid conversation. We can only get it right when we talk about what we got wrong.
Jonah LehrerRead
We need to make the world safe for creativity and intuition, for it's creativity and intuition that will make the world safe for us.
Edgar MitchellRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.