Let me start with a bit of fair disclosure: I'll read just about anything this man has written. The main barrier to reading his works is working their purchase into my budget. I can't buy all the books I want to, and I don't have time to read all the books I want to, either. But when I can treat myself to a new Alan Moore volume, it jumps to the top of my reading list.

And that was the case with the first volume of Promethea. I had been looking at this somewhat askance for over a year now, as I haven't really been budgeting a lot for books, least of all graphic novels. But one recent trip I decided to give this a try, after thumbing through briefly and looking at the artwork. After all, I'm already certain I'll like the writing, since it's Moore. And the artwork was really enticing, so I gave it a shot. Good thing, too.

Promethea is the story about a heroic figure that seems to appear rather consistently in mankind's legends and literature over the span of hundreds of years (if not more). A college student is doing a term paper on this, when she learns that Promethea has actually existed, in different forms over the ages, as a kind of by-product of the belief in the various myths themselves. And more, she (the student) is next in line to take up the mantle.

The story is really well-paced, and the vision of a not-too-near future is all believable. The innovations are subtle, and seem like logical extrapolation from what we already have here and now. Like I said, the art is really good. The dialog moves the story along, and the way the different literary myths are intertwined give the book a very unique feel. I'm already looking forward to the second volume (even if I have to borrow it from someone).

Now, Top 10 is a somewhat different kind of story, though there are some similarities in language between the two. Both use the term, "science-hero" to refer to people who make themselves into super-heroes of sorts by use of technology. But the similarity fairly ends there. Where Promethea is set in New York, Top 10 is in a more sci-fi setting, a manufactured city called Neopolis that is designed to house the burgeoning science-hero populace. The police precinct stays in communication with identical precincts in alternate universes, and all follow roughly the same set of laws as managed by the main precinct, a place referred to simply as "Grand Central".

The story centers around a fresh-from-the-academy cop on her first day at the 10th Precinct (a.k.a. "Top 10" to the cops stationed there). What looks like a simple homicide soon leads to a very sticky drugs investigation, with twists and slamming doors all around. It's another completely unique, fresh take on society. This is just as clean and crisp as when Moore created a similar invention with the Watchmen in 1987. And as with Promethea, the art is really fantastic. The artists (Zander Cannon and Gene Ha) render an almost infinite number of different self-made superheroes, ranging from robots to Greek gods. Not quite what I had gotten so amazed at in Promethea, from Mick Gray and J.H. Williams, but it didn't have to be, since it was a different story. And the art suits the story.

So, two more titles that come highly recommended. Not just for their great writing, but for the art as well, and for the way the whole thing just works together, as a package.