Quoting from myself and my original proposal for this book
(I'll update this entry as I change my mind about what to include in the book itself):
I see this book as something of a hybrid lying somewhere between Hy Bender’s The Sandman Companion (Titan Books, 1999)
ISBN: 1-84023150-5 HC or
ISBN: 1-84023-164-5 TPB
and Jess Nevins'
Heroes & Monsters: The Unofficial Companion to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (MonkeyBrain Books, 2003)
ISBN: 1-932265-04-X
PROPOSED TITLE
From
the Radiant Heavenly City
to
{...}
(the end of the World?):
A Guide to
Alan Moore & JH Williams III's
Promethea
(1999-2004)
where {...} is the title of Issue #32 as long as it's something appropriate.
Proposed Official Publication Date
November 18th, 2005
CONTENTS
an
Introduction followed by a chapter on all of the covers and the artists that inspired them entitled
32 which might also include information about other artists important to Promethea such as William Blake, Hieronymous Bosch and Peter Breughel who have some influence on Issue #12,
then a breakdown of the whole of Promethea something like
1st story arc (
Sophie earns her wings)
Book One - Issues 1-6
Book Two - Issues 7-12
2nd story arc (
The Kabbalah Road Trip)
Book Three - Issues 13-18
Book Four - Issues 19-25
3rd story arc (have to think of a title for this probably something about
the End of the World)
Book Five - Issues 26-32
I was thinking of starting the introduction with something like
"Like Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Alan Moore's Promethea is a trilogy in 5 parts...."
but somewhere in there I'd credit
Jess Nevins annotations and Heroes and Monsters as the inspiration for my own output.
If I just published a text book without illustrations I would include the annotations but if I had illustrations I might not actually reproduce all the annotations but instead make references to them and do what Hy Bender has done with his Sandman companion. Namely outline the plots of each issue and then do questions and answers about each issue with Alan and JHWilliams, etc.
Essay topics would probably be something like
One about
Magic
with subheadings parts about
- Dr. John Dee (1527-1608)
- Aleister Crowley (1875-1947)
- Austin Osman Spare (1886-1956)
- Jack Parsons (1914-1952)
Another essay on all the
Literature or Real books mentioned in Promethea
These include:
- Helen Cixious Le Livre de Promethea
- The Lesser Clavicle of Solomon the King
- Lucian's A True Story
- John Kendrick Bang's A Houseboat on the Styx and it's sequel The Pursuit of the Houseboat
plus bits about all the Crowley and associated books that you can see at Jack Faust's place at different times plus any fictional books and if known the works they are based on.
Themes
Of the book such as the snake symbolism that recurs throughout, the dichomoty and fusion of different aspects of individual characters such as Jack Faust, Crowley
Miscellaneous
Interesting coincidences such as the
Promethea Movement
which came into existence at around the same time as Alan first got the idea of using Promethea as a comic book title
the fact that the first cloned horse in the world was named Prometea or that at one time back in the 70’s
Pasolini was interested in helping to produce a film to be called
La Prométhée ('The Female Prometheus')
Interviews
I would also include a
Chronological Time Line of Events
(here's a
preliminary version of this)
and an
A-Z Character Index with additional information about what issues characters appeared in
Preliminary versions of
Issues #1-#25
Issue 26-32
I've already done a much better updated version of these two combined but I won't put that online now.
Maybe a few
Appendixes (appendices?) about
Little Margie in Misty Magic Land
and
Release Dates
and
Sales Figures
Also
Print Runs which can be found at the
4 color Heroes store.
plus a listing of all the
Awards and Nominations Promethea has gotten over the years.
Information about
Foreign Editions and where to purchase them
And of course at the end an updated
Bibliography
