View source for Big Numbers (comics)

{{Short description|Unfinished graphic novel by Alan Moore and Bill Sienkiewicz}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2022}}
{{Infobox comic book title <!--Wikipedia:WikiProject Comics--> 
|title               = Big Numbers
|image               = FUMBIG05.jpg
|caption             = The cover of the first issue of ''Big Numbers'', art by [[Bill Sienkiewicz]].
|limited             = magazine
|publisher           = [[Mad Love (publisher)|Mad Love]]
|startmo             = April
|startyr             = 1990
|endmo               = August
|endyr               = 1990
|issues              = 2 (of 12)
|issn                = 0957-8692
|writers             = [[Alan Moore]]
|artists             = [[Bill Sienkiewicz]]
|letterers           = {{plainlist|
* Bill Sienkiewicz
* [[Roxanne Starr]]}}
|colorists           = <!-- B&W -->
|editors             = {{plainlist|
* Debbie Delano
* Phyllis Moore}}
<!-- |creators            = {{planlist|
* [[Alan Moore]]
* [[Bill Sienkiewicz]]}} redundant -->
|subcat              = British comics
|sort                = Big Numbers
|nonUS               =
}}
'''''Big Numbers''''' is an [[unfinished work|unfinished]] [[graphic novel]] by writer [[Alan Moore]] and artist [[Bill Sienkiewicz]]. In 1990 Moore's short-lived imprint Mad Love published two of the planned twelve issues. The series was picked up by [[Kevin Eastman]]'s [[Tundra Publishing]], but the completed third issue did not print, and the remaining issues, whose artwork was to be handled by Sienkiewicz's assistant [[Al Columbia]], were never finished.

The work marks a move, on Moore's part, away from [[genre fiction]], in the wake of the success of ''[[Watchmen]]''. Moore weaves mathematics (in particular the work of mathematician [[Benoit Mandelbrot]] on fractal geometry and chaos theory)<ref>{{cite web  |title=The Great Alan Moore Reread: Big Numbers by Tim Callahan|url=https://www.tor.com/2012/05/21/the-great-alan-moore-reread-big-numbers/ |website=Tor.com}}</ref> into a narrative of socioeconomic changes wrought by an American corporation's building of a shopping mall in a small, traditional English town, and the effects of the economic policies of the [[Margaret Thatcher]] administration in the 1980s.

==Publication history==
The planned 500-page graphic novel was to be serialised one chapter at a time over twelve issues. The series was printed on high-quality paper in an unusual square format.{{sfn|Liddo|2009|p=121}}

The first two issues were produced by [[Alan Moore]]'s self-publishing company Mad Love, with writing by Moore and artwork by [[Bill Sienkiewicz]], but the workload for the comic was intense, and Sienkiewicz stalled. By the time he backed out of the series, the third issue was still incomplete and rising [[Overhead (business)|overhead]] crippled the production.<ref name="CBULR #122">{{cite web |first=Brian |last=Cronin |url=http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/09/27/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-122/ |title=Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed No. 122 |publisher=[[Comic Book Resources]] |date=27 September 2007 |access-date=12 September 2009 |archive-date=17 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017215720/http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/09/27/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-122/ |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Hendrix |first=Grady |url=http://www.slate.com/id/2212884/ |title=Culturebox: Why ''Watchmen'' Failed |publisher=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] |date=5 March 2009 |access-date=5 March 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090310000523/http://www.slate.com/id/2212884/ |archive-date=10 March 2009 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Kevin Eastman]], creator of ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'', stepped in and attempted to have his company [[Tundra Publishing]] publish ''Big Numbers''.<ref name=Blather>{{cite web |url=http://blather.net/articles/amoore/big-numbers.html |title=The Alan Moore Interview: Malcolm McLaren and Big Numbers |last=Kavanagh |first=Barry |date=17 October 2000 |publisher=Blather.net |access-date=6 March 2009| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090301162313/http://www.blather.net/articles/amoore/big-numbers.html| archive-date= 1 March 2009 | url-status= live}}</ref> Moore and Eastman asked Sienkiewicz' assistant, [[Al Columbia]], to become the series' sole artist and [[Roxanne Starr]] to be its [[letterer]]. Columbia worked on the fourth issue but, for reasons which remain unclear,<ref name="CBULR #122" /> destroyed his own artwork and abandoned the project as well.<ref name=Blather/><ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.alanmooresenhordocaos.hpg.ig.com.br/artigos112.htm | title = (Seeking for) THE TRUE STORY BEHIND BIG NUMBERS'S FALL OUT | access-date = 9 June 2013 | last = Wood | first = Ashley | author-link = Ashley Wood | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090312093628/http://www.alanmooresenhordocaos.hpg.ig.com.br/artigos112.htm | archive-date = 12 March 2009}}</ref><ref>Young, Robert. "Zero Sum Masterpiece: The Division of ''Big Numbers'' (AKA Searching for Al Columbia)", ''The Comics Interpreter'' Vol. 2 #3, 2004, 8–18.</ref> ''Big Numbers'' #3 and #4 were never published, and the series remains unfinished.<ref name=Blather/>

In 1999, ten pages of Sienkiewicz's art for ''Big Numbers'' #3 were published in the first (and only) issue of the magazine ''Submedia''.<ref>"Big Numbers". ''Submedia'' 1.1 (1999), p. 54.</ref> In 2009, a photocopy of the complete lettered art for ''Big Numbers'' #3 surfaced on [[eBay]]. The purchaser contacted Moore, and with his permission published scans of the art on [[LiveJournal]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Edelman |first=Scott |title=Lost, never-before-published Alan Moore comic book found |url=http://scifiwire.com/2009/03/lost-alan-moore-comic-boo.php |publisher=[[Sci Fi Wire]] |date=26 March 2009 |access-date=27 March 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090328175354/http://scifiwire.com/2009/03/lost-alan-moore-comic-boo.php |archive-date=28 March 2009 |url-status=live}}<br/>{{cite web|last=Ó Méalóid |first=Pádraig |title=Big Numbers No. 3 |url=http://glycon.livejournal.com/11817.html |work=[[LiveJournal]] |publisher=glycon |date=26 March 2009 |access-date=27 March 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721162511/http://glycon.livejournal.com/11817.html |archive-date=21 July 2011}}</ref>

==History==
{{Expand section|date=August 2013}}
Moore announced the series as his popularity was at a peak. The success of ''Watchmen'' had made him a star writer.{{sfn|Liddo|2009|p=121}} Moore wanted to move away from genre fiction; ''Big Numbers'' was to have no genre, and deal with themes of shopping and mathematics.{{sfn|Liddo|2009|p=121}}

Mad Love ran into a number of difficulties: the proceeds from ''AARGH!'' were donated to defending homosexual rights; the production costs of ''Big Numbers'' were high; and Moore's polyamorous relationship with wife Phyllis and their lover Debbie Delano fell apart.{{sfn|Liddo|2009|p=121}} [[Kevin Eastman]]'s [[Tundra Publishing]] agreed to publish the rest of the series.{{citation needed|date=August 2013}}

Sienkiewicz's detailed artwork was time-consuming to produce.{{sfn|Liddo|2009|p=121}} He hired the 19-year-old [[Al Columbia]] as an assistant, but the pressures of the project combined with personal issues led him to quit ''Big Numbers'' after the second issue's publication. He drew the entire third issue which never saw print. Sienkiewicz drew every page and figures for all three issues and also did several painted/multimedia covers for upcoming issues that never saw print. [[Jon J Muth]] and [[Dave McKean]] were among the names rumoured as replacements. Ultimately the job fell to the inexperienced Columbia. Tundra tried to promote Columbia by publishing his first stand-alone comic book, ''[[Doghead (comics)|Doghead]]'', in 1992, and put out a Columbia-drawn poster for ''Big Numbers''. The pressure turned out to be too much for the young artist, who is said to have destroyed the artwork for the fourth issue in 1992, and was not heard from again until the publication of ''[[The Biologic Show]]'' in 1994.{{sfn|Gravett|2002|p={{page needed|date=August 2013}}}}

==Plot==
Set in the fictional English town of Hampton,{{sfn|Liddo|2009|p=121}} the book explores the socioeconomic changes brought about by globalisation on an insular community, represented by the building of a shopping mall by a large American corporation.{{sfn|Liddo|2009|p=122}} Meanwhile, the community also experiences pressure from prime minister [[Margaret Thatcher]]'s economic policies, including cuts to health care and welfare.{{sfn|Liddo|2009|p=123}}

==Style and analysis==
Each page is laid out in a rigid twelve-panel grid. The all-white [[speech balloon]]s are circular, rather than the more common shape.{{sfn|Groensteen|2007|p=74}}

==Adaptations==
In a 2001 interview Moore indicated that he did not believe ''Big Numbers'' could ever be completed as comics.<ref name=Blather/> However, he spoke of the possibility of the comic being adapted as a television series by Picture Palace Productions, as he had the whole story mapped out on a sheet of [[ISO 216|A1]] paper, and five episodes written.<ref name=Blather/>

An account of the unravelling of the ''Big Numbers'' project is included in [[Eddie Campbell]]'s 2001 graphic novel ''Alec: How to Be an Artist''.<ref>Campbell, Eddie. ''Alec: How to Be an Artist'' (Marietta, GA: Top Shelf Productions, 2001), 112–116.</ref>

==Reception==
The first issue sold 65,000 copies, the second 40,000.{{sfn|Liddo|2009|p=121}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Works cited===
{{Refbegin}}
* {{cite journal
|journal     = The Comics Journal
|issue= Special Edition
|date=Winter 2002
|volume      = 1
|title       = Al Columbia: Columbia's Voyage of Discovery
|first       = Paul
|last        = Gravett
|author-link = Paul Gravett
|url         = http://www.paulgravett.com/index.php/articles/article/al_columbia}}
* {{cite book |last=Groensteen |first=Thierry |author-link=Thierry Groensteen |title=The System of Comics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tgNKwRM00w0C |year=2007 |publisher=[[University Press of Mississippi]] |isbn=978-1-60473-259-7}}<!-- Groensteen 2007 -->
* {{cite book
|last      = Liddo
|first     = Annalisa Di
|title     = Alan Moore: Comics as Performance, Fiction as Scalpel
|url       = https://books.google.com/books?id=8wCbEM6obkQC
|year      = 2009
|publisher = [[University Press of Mississippi]]
|isbn      = 978-1-60473-476-8}}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110721162511/http://glycon.livejournal.com/11817.html ''Big Numbers'' #3]
* {{gcdb series|id=13560|title=Big Numbers}}
* {{comicbookdb|type=title|id=2055|title=''Big Numbers''}}

{{Portal bar|Comics|England|Mathematics}}
{{Alan Moore|type=comic}}

[[Category:1990 comics debuts]]
[[Category:Comics by Alan Moore]]
[[Category:Mathematics fiction books]]
[[Category:Unfinished comics]]