He may no longer be involved in the world of comics, but to our minds Alan Moore will always be one of the most vital creative forces in all of fiction. Now his publisher Bloomsbury is hinting that "something very special" will be revealed early next week.
The animated teaser, released on social media, simply reads: "The year is 1949, the city, London. But not the city you know." That doesn't give much away - still, we're pretty sure we know what it is...
File this one firmly under speculation, but we interviewed Moore a couple of years back on the release of his excellent short story collection Illuminations and he brought up his next projects. Top of his mind was the first volume in a planned series of novels provisionally titled the Long London quintet.
"I'm about halfway through the first book, which is called The Great When," Moore said in the interview. "I'm really pleased with that. It's nothing at all like Illuminations or Jerusalem. This first one is set in 1949 so I'm trying to conjure the mindset of that period. It's got an 18-year-old protagonist who knows very little of the world and over the next three or four books, he will grow up and the time period will change. I'm anticipating that there will probably be a different style for each book."
So, the date matches perfectly. He also noted of the series, "I've got a functional plot that will take me through all five books. But a plot is the least of a book. The characters, the actual prose, the storytelling, these are all things that - at least to me - are much more important and interesting. If I know that the plot is going to work, that's great and then I can pile any sort of fabulous trappings on top of it."
So, it's not certain that this is what Monday's announcement will be, but likewise we wouldn't be at all surprised if it is. Illuminations was excellent so, while this is not strictly a comics story, a new novel by Alan Moore will always shoot straight to the top of our "To Read" pile. We'll find out for sure next week...
Find out more about Illuminations and Moore's thoughts on his earlier work in our exclusive interview with the writer.
