Leah Moore, the daughter of legendary comic book writer Alan Moore, has spoken about her love for Liverpool and her career in the comic book industry. The 48-year-old artist moved to Liverpool from Northampton as a child after her parents split up. It was The Beatles that drew the family to the city, but she soon fell in love with everything about the culture there.
She said: "It's got this amazing history and there are so many communities that have been squished in together and I think that's what Liverpool is. It's the combination of them [cultures] in this rich, historical, amazing place."
A Family Drawn to Liverpool
Leah, who now lives in Allerton with her husband John Reppion, a fellow acclaimed comic book writer, said they considered moving away before their children were born. She recalled: "[When I was older] we thought about moving away before the kids were born, and I was just like, 'Why would we go somewhere else?'"
The married couple worked together to bring the celebrated comic Albion to publication in 2005. The story follows 1970s comic book heroes, but John and Leah made sure to put their own stamp on it by setting the story in Liverpool.
Learning on the Job
Albion came at the beginning of their careers, when they were tasked with completing a story plotted by Leah's dad Alan and artist Shane Oakley. Alan transformed comics when he wrote Watchmen, and taking on such a task was daunting for Leah. She said: "We were literally learning on the job. It was for DC, so this big American publisher was going to be shining this great big spotlight on the whole of Britain as a result of it. I didn't realise at the time, but the pressure was really intense."
Leah also felt the weight of expectation from living up to her dad's reputation. She said: "Especially to basically go, 'And here's Leah Moore, who is definitely as good as her dad and not in any way deficient'. And I was like, 'I might be deficient'." She added: "At the time, it felt like a nepo baby kind of leg up, and actually looking back, it was more like a diving board. It was like, 'You're all the way up here, go for it!'"
A Love Letter to Liverpool
John, who has always lived in the city, was determined to authentically capture his home region in the panels. He recalled: "Because of Shane's attention to detail with the characters, and Alan's attention to detail with the plot, I think maybe we were feeling a bit left out. We decided we were going to go over the top with [the Liverpool references]. One of the things I remember is going into Sayers and asking the woman behind the counter if we could take a picture of the counter and her uniform and everything. And her being baffled by that."
He added: "And we did a load of bus referencing. And Norton's for Scrap (on Parliament Street), which isn't there anymore, but that was the scrapyard that was featured in it."
Inherited Curiosity
While Leah has established herself as a comic book artist in her own right, she has been shaped by her dad's enquiring mind. She said: "I think I've inherited his curiosity. When you go around and chat with him, he'll say, 'Oh, I read this thing in New Scientist about this,' or whatever book he's been reading or a conversation he's had. And his whole head is filling up constantly with little interesting glimmers of, not necessarily a story idea, but just information."
Leah also revealed she has passed on her love for Liverpool to her dad, who guards his private life closely. She said: "He used to come up here a fair bit. He's not doing so much at the moment, but he used to come up and he loves it."
John recalled the surreal moment Alan performed in Liverpool as a mandrill at a Super Weird Happening Event at the Florrie a number of years ago. He said: "If you look it up on YouTube, there's definitely still videos of it, but he did this absolutely incredible performance as this mad inspirational mandrill, and it was the best, honestly."
Re-release and Fan Response
John and Leah are proud of the way they have documented the city in such a popular comic series and were thrilled to greet fans at an Albion signing at Forbidden Planet yesterday to mark the comic's re-release earlier this year. Leah said: "We've always had brilliant responses to it at the conventions over the years. People come up to us and go, 'I really enjoyed Albion', so we're really pleased it's being re-released."
