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‘THE ENTIRE IDEA EXPLODED IN OUR FACES'
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Through the looking glass
Miles Fielder talks to Alan Moore about his most controversial project yet, as he depicts the sexual fantasies of three iconic female creations
‘ bat we wanted to do with Lost (iirls was to come up with a different form of pornography. We realised we had the
ideas for something enormous and wonderful.‘ Alan Moore. who‘s widely considered to be the finest writer working in comics today and is best known for his groundln‘eaking and hugely influential graphic
novels Iliut'lunen. l'fin' l'emlettu and The League of
[it‘lrut)rtlr'nury' Gentlemen. is talking about his latest book. an erotic literary fantasy he co-conceived with the American underground comix artist Melinda Gebbie. who also happens to be Moore's wife. Like Moore‘s League stories. Lust Girls brings together a number of famous figures from literature as adults. in this case Alice from Lewis Carroll‘s Alice in llbmlerlund. Dorothy from Frank Bautn‘s 'l‘lie lt'imrtl of 0:. and Wendy from JM Barrie's Peter Pan in a highly erotic — and very graphic — menage—a-trois that takes place in a hotel on the Austrian border on the eve of the First World War.
Completed over a lengthy 16-year period. Lost (fir/s was originally published in the US back in 2006. but didn't appear in the UK until the beginning of 2007 when the copyright to Barrie's characters lapsed and Wendy and the boy's came into the public domain. though former rights holder the Great ()rmond Street Hospital balked at Moore and Gebbie's use of them in a sexualised context.
Lost Girls was further delayed. however. by the interference of UK customs. and when it finally arrived in Britain last March many bookshops literally kept it under the counter. Happily. the book
has since been embraced by stockists and by the end of 2008 had sold out it first print run. ‘We thrashed sotne ideas aroundf Moore recalls of Lost (iir/s' origin back in the late l‘)t<0s. ‘and found out what we did and didn't like in pornography. Then. I threw an idea into the mix: a sexually decoded \ersion of Peter Pan. Then I began thinking: if one of these women was Wendy from Peter Pan. who would the other two be‘.’ Immediately. the names .-\lice and Dorothy came to mind. And as soon as we got those three names. the entire idea for the book exploded in our faces.‘
What Lost (iirls does so cleverly is to stibyert the girls‘ well—known stories to interpret their fantastic adventures as metaphors for sexual abuse and awakening. and then has their erotic liaisons act as emotional healing for them. (liven its explicit nature. it‘s unsurprising that [.osl (iirls has had a rocky publishing history. It is. however. a smartly conceived and beautifully delivered labour of love. a psychosexual drama that genuinely represents. as Moore puts it. a ‘good' form of pornography.
‘Pornography will always be with Us. but its influence on society is largely negative. I don't necessarily think that should be the case. We wanted to counter the seedy. grubby under—tbe-counter kind of pornography with another kind. one that was well- conceived. beautiful. intelligent. which answered the feminist critics. and which might make pornography something that could even be socially useful. After all. sexuality is something that affects us all.‘
Lost Girls is out now published by Top Shelf.
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* Alan Moore and Melinda Gehbie’s Lost Girls See preview, left. Top Shelf.
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