Forgotten Alan Moore: CHRONOCOPS!

Here’s another goodie from the archives. Alan Moore is well-known for his work on such complex, layered graphic novels as Watchmen and V for Vendetta, but before his long-form works, Moore worked on dozens of short science fiction stories for the long running U.K. weekly, 2000 A.D. Writing these “Time Twisters”, Moore perfected his method of manipulating the chronology of his stories and the structure of the story itself, tricks he would return to again and again in his career. His earliest work with Dave Gibbons, perhaps his finest collaborator, was on little throwaway vignettes like this. Gibbons clear line and detailed eye lent clarity to what could have been utterly baffling stories in lesser artistic hands. In “Chronocops!” we can see Moore’s nascent fascination with story structure and layered narrative complexity as event builds upon event to produce a tale that twists in and out of time. Note how the story begins and ends with a close-up of Joe Saturday, a visual hint that the narrative has doubled back on itself, with the hunter now the hunted, so to speak. All this in a simple 5 page story that reads like a Mad Magazine parody of Dragnet gone horribly awry. Enough telling; time for the show:

"CHRONOCOPS!"
Script: Alan Moore
Art: Dave Gibbons
Story scanned from The Complete Alan Moore Future Shocks, Rebellion, the Studio, 2006