Alan Moore’s Illuminations short story collection gets paperback release

By John Freeman on October 3, 2023

Alan Moore‘s first-ever, much-acclaimed short story collection, Illuminations, which spans forty years of work and features many never-before-published pieces, has been released in paperback by Bloomsbury.

Illuminations by Alan Moore (Paperback, 2023)

First published in hardback last year, international bestselling author and legendary creator of From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and other modern comic classics, Alan Moore, presents nine stories full of wonder and strangeness, each taking us deeper into the fantastical underside of reality.

In A Hypothetical Lizard, two concubines in a brothel for fantastical specialists fall in love, with tragic ramifications. In Not Even Legend, a paranormal study group is infiltrated by one of the otherworldly beings

they seek to investigate.

In Illuminations, a nostalgic older man decides to visit a seaside resort from his youth and finds the past all too close at hand. And in the monumental novella What We Can Know About Thunderman, which charts the surreal and Kafkaesque history of the comics industry over the last seventy-five years through several sometimes-naive and sometimes-maniacal people rising and falling on its career ladders, Moore reveals the dark, beating heart of the superhero business.

From ghosts and otherworldly creatures to theoretical Boltzmann brains fashioning the universe at the big bang, Illuminations is exactly that – a series of bright, startling tales from a contemporary legend that reveal the full power of imagination and magic.

Alan Moore is an English writer widely regarded as the best and most influential writer in the history of comics. His seminal works include From Hell and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

He is also the author of the bestselling novel, Jerusalem. He was born in Northampton, and has lived there ever since.

• Illuminations by Alan Moore is available in paperback and hardback (AmazonUK Affiliate Links)

• Illuminations by Alan Moore is available in paperback and hardback (Bookshop.org Affiliate Links)

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC | Pages: 464

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.