Top Shelf and Knockabout announce Alan Moore’s ‘Unearthing’

By John Freeman on 1 August 2012

Top Shelf Productions and Knockabout Comics have just announced a project several years in the making: a sumptuous new book from Alan Moore, serving as a biography of his close friend and mentor Steve Moore (no relation), a history of London, a mystical journey, and a tribute to human imagination.

Described by the New York Times as a “poetic and densely allusive text,” Unearthing has now been transformed by Alan Moore and photographer Mitch Jenkins into a stunning narrative art-book.

And while Unearthing will be offered in the upcoming October Diamond Previews in two editions, to help fund the production of this enormous expensive work of art, the creators have graciously agreed to an exclusive third edition incorporating a letterpress bookplate, hand-signed and numbered by Alan Moore and Mitch Jenkins, limited to 300 copies worldwide.
These 300 Signed & Numbered “double-sized hardcover” copies are being pre-sold (starting today), as a Top Shelf website exclusive.

By pre-ordering one, you’ll not only be able to secure one of these rare Signed and Numbered editions, but Top Shelf and Knockabout say you will also have done your part to help to get this gorgeous project off the ground.

An intensely poetic and innovative work of biography, Unearthing maps the lifetime of author, orientalist and occultist Steve Moore, author of various comic strips for many years but most recently the strange but compelling novel Somnium (see our news story on this from last year); while simultaneously investigating the extraordinary history of South London with which that life has been intertwined.

Integrating text with haunting and exquisite imagery Unearthing excavates a territory at the margins of a city, of reality, and of human imagination.

Starting life in Iain Sinclair’s seminal anthology LONDON: City of Disappearances, this dazzling and hypnotic piece has evolved through a series of live performances and acclaimed recordings, culminating in this breathtaking full-colour volume.

• Pre-order one now from Top Shelf

About the Author
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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as 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.