On Adapting Alan Moore’s Light of Thy Countenance – an exclusive interview with Antony Johnston

Light of Thy Countenance is a story by Alan Moore, which was first published in the anthology ‘Forbidden Acts’, in October 1995. Light of Thy Countenance is quite an unusual piece of prose. It was written partially as a short story, partially an historical essay of the evolution of television, and partially a “freestyle beat poem” which painted a damning picture of the misuse of the television medium, and the culture that had arisen around the bland, commercial and hypocritical disgrace that had usurped the medium’s potential.

Now, from Avatar Press, comes a new Graphic Novella adaptation, by Antony Johnston, with fully painted artwork by Felipe Massafaro. The adaptation is set to be released this Wednesday, March 18th 2009, as a 48-page full colour graphic novella, and also as a hardcover edition, limited to only 2000 copies.

Light of Thy Countenance begins as the tale of Maureen Cooper, a British TV soap star played by Carol Livesay. It is soon revealed that not all is not as it seems though, as the walls of Maureen Cooper’s fictional World begin to literally melt around her. We see that Maureen Cooper and Carol Livesay are not real, have no power in themselves, but serve a far higher power. “This power is as old as the World, and eternally new”. It is mankind’s one and only true God, the Television. TV is depicted as the only friend and lover that will be with us to the end, we know characters on TV better than we do our own families, and we sit hypnotized in front of the box for hours on end, living vicariously though the characters, while the TV sucks the will to live out of us like some sort of emotional vampire.

The original prose was quite similar to the spoken word poetry that Alan Moore began performing in the mid 1990s. He began performing one-off “workings” (a word, which in ritual magic means a pre-planned series of magical acts), which combined ritualistic and performance art elements with spoken word prose poetry, read by Moore as part of a performance art group, ‘The Moon and Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels’. The original prose of Light of Thy Countenance puts me very much in mind of these spoken pieces. Whilst reading the poem, one almost feels like they are reading a magical invocation, and the use of language is really evocative and incensive. This is actually how Alan Moore describes his perception of magic, as the use of words, images, and actions to affect people and the way they think.

[Alan Moore] actually said it’s “probably more gripping than the original story”, which is about the highest compliment you can get.

This must have been one really challenging adaptation for everyone involved. As I was so interested in the process of converting this work into sequential storytelling, I contacted both Antony Johnston and Felipe Massafera to see if they would be willing to discuss their experiences working on the book. Antony Johnston, was more than happy to answer some interview questions for me.

So, without further ado, the following is my interview with Antony Johnston on adapting Alan Moore’s Light of Thy Countenance:

Light of thy Countenance is written in a somewhat unusual stream of conscious style, part freestyle poetry, part historical treatise, and part a damning commentary on TV culture . It shares a lot like Alan Moore’s spoken word recordings in its storytelling style. What would you say were the major challenges in adapted this work into sequential story telling?

You’re right, it’s very similar to Alan’s spoken word performances — you can sort of see the seeds of those in LIGHT, I think — and of all the adaptations I’ve done, by any author, this was definitely the most difficult.

What I did was look for the threads that run through the piece, any recurring symbology. Alan’s a very visual writer, even when he’s doing prose, so you’ll often find motifs throughout those pieces. Some of his wordplay also lends itself to visual double entendres, and I took a lot of what was implied by the text, kind of reading between the lines. Then I tried to make the overall visual style and flow match the stream of consciousness style of the text. For such a relatively short work, it was tough. But I think it was worth it.

This is the fourth Alan Moore work that you have adapted for Avatar press. How was this collaborative alliance founded? Were you picked to do this by Alan Moore, or Avatar press specifically to do this?

It all stemmed from THE COURTYARD, the first adaptation of Alan’s prose that I did for Avatar. I was recommended to Alan by Avatar for that, and we had sort of a try-out, which Alan was happy with. So then I did THE COURTYARD, and he was very happy with that, and they kept returning to me to do all this other stuff, with Alan giving his blessing each time. I think it worked out well — I’m a huge fan of Alan’s, obviously, but I also know how to write a good adaptation without being overly slavish. It’s a largely instinctual process.

How would you compare this to the other Alan Moore prose works that you have adapted previously?

It’s different in a lot of ways. It’s not a traditional story, by any means, and the visuals reflect that. It’s quite short, but packed full of detail, which I have to say Felipe handled with aplomb. Honestly, you don’t even want to see my script for this book, it’s worthy of Alan himself. Insane amounts of detail and period reference required.

On the other hand, the important thing that it does have in common with those other works is fidelity. I always strive to stay as close to Alan’s vision as possible.

Much of Light of Thy Countenance is a rather damning diatribe on the mindless television culture that had arisen by the 1990s; how we live vicariously through the lives of TV characters. Since the original was written, TV has become even more prevalent and pervasive than ever before. The television culture has continued to grow exponentially as we have seen the rise of reality TV, On-Demand TV, 24 hour news, streaming media on the Internet. Would you say that this message is even more relevant 14 years after its conception?

Oh, definitely. LIGHT in 1994 was very much a cautionary tale, but in hindsight it looks more like a terrible prediction. It’s very much like THE DAY TODAY; what seemed in the ’90s to be impossible, absurd and outrageous is now commonplace, even celebrated. Anyone who’s ever despaired at the childish banality of modern TV — and, more importantly, the audience that allows and encourages this downward spiral — will be nodding furiously as they read this book.

The original prose of Light of Thy Countenance references several proprietary characters and TV shows. Is this something you had to change for the adaptation, were there legal issues involved? As an Example, there is a line in the prose where it says, ” LUCILLE BALL and PRICESS DI in flagrante delicto with SABU and NORMAN SCHWARTZKOPF, test-card peacocks sodomized by HOMER SIMPSON, arced ejaculate of Magic Kingdom fairy dust.”

I honestly have no idea, that’s Avatar’s department. I didn’t change any of those references in the script, but I haven’t seen the final book yet. I’d assume it’s all fair use and fair comment, personally, but I’m not a lawyer.

Has Alan Moore read your final adaptation? If so, what did he think about it?

He has, and he’s been exceptionally kind. He actually said it’s “probably more gripping than the original story”, which is about the highest compliment you can get.

Finally, do you have any other projects coming up that you can tell us about?

Well, WASTELAND #25 — the midpoint of my ongoing sci-fi series for Oni Press — is just around the corner, as is volume 1 of WOLVERINE: PRODIGAL SON, the manga revamp I’m writing for Del Rey. And I’ve just finished scripting DEAD SPACE EXTRACTION, the new game for the Wii, although that won’t be out until later in the year. Beyond that, nothing I can talk about. But suffice to say, my plate is full!

Thanks to Antony for taking the time to answer these questions. It is greatly appreciated. Remember, the book will be released at all good comic stores on Wednesday 18th March 2009. If you can’t find the book locally, have a look for it in Avatar Press’ online store, or even on Amazon.

While you are at it, make sure you pick up some of Antony’s other work. Wasteland in particular, is exceptionally good.

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