When it comes to graphic novels, there is no writer quite as revered as Alan Moore. His creations - such as Watchmen, V for Vendetta, The Killing Joke and From Hell - have helped to revolutionize the industry, bringing it the artistic recognition that it had previously been denied. So much of the great output that we see in comics and graphic novels today owes a debt to his efforts, and the boundaries that he was willing to push on his way to greatness. With success such as these, it was only a matter of time before Hollywood tried to adapt some of Moore's works for the big screen. Unfortunately, though, while the quality of his writing has been consistently brilliant, the adaptations of Moore's work have been something of a mixed bag. We've seen a good Watchmen film, a flawed though interesting V for Vendetta, and adaptations of From Hell and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen so bad that it would take the combined powers of Kirby and a planet of sentient vacuum cleaners to produce a suckier film experience. Much of this can be put down to the complexity of Moore's writing. His works are never simple; they are normally long, multi-layered, fiercely intelligent and full of controversial moments that you don't often see at your local cineplex. This leads to the cutting and re-shaping of the source material so that it fits into the standard movie format, and in some cases, results in scenes that originally worked so well on the page ending up on the cutting room floor. To highlight this point, here are 8 great scenes from Alan Moore's graphic novels that didn't make it into their subsequent film adaptation....
Matthew Chard is a writer who has lived and worked across Australia, USA, South Africa, UK, Cambodia and Tanzania. When not writing articles he can be found working on his next novel, traveling, in the surf, or listening to David Bowie while wearing red Spider-man underpants.
