The Black Dossier
30 11 2007Clearly I am a prolific and dedicated writer. I have reviewed the Black Dossier for Den of Geek. I utterly loved it, though as you might read on Seb’s Livejournal, most online reviewers seem in complete denial of its quality. I tend to agree with him, that it’s because most people are just skipping the text/sourcebook parts and sticking to the comics bits. FOOLS! It took me the best part of an entire day to read the Black Dossier the first time, and it was worth every second it took to pore over the details. A message to all comics reviewers: giving it a quick once-over and bashing a review out the same day it arrived in the post so that you can be first to write about it does not reflect well on you. The Black Dossier is going to judged over years, and when you look at your review again it’s going to be painfully clear that either you didn’t read it or didn’t understand it, and neither circumstance is desirable.
I don’t really blame people for not understanding a lot of it - it’s very dense, and bits of it are difficult to “get” if you don’t know the references he’s throwing in. But not understanding it and declaring, as a result, that it must be crap is inexcusable. An honest reviewer, if it didn’t really click with them, would say as much, while acknowledging the brilliance of the craftsmanship on show.
And the phrase “Stop being so clever, Mr. Moore” might rank as just about the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever read on the entire interwebses.