'Defoe: The Divisor'.
Stewart Kenneth Moore, also referred to as S.K. Moore or Booda Moore, is a Scottish visual artist. For both his figurative paintings as well as his graphic novels, he likes to explore several art styles and techniques. As a graphic novelist, he is best known for his adaptation of Shakespeare's 'MacBeth' (2016) and his collaboration with Pat Mills on 'Defoe: The Divisor' (2019) for 2000AD.
Early life and career
Stewart Kenneth Ignatius Moore was born on the last day of 1968 in Los Angeles, California. Since his parents were Scottish, he spent some early years going back and forth between Los Angeles. and Glasgow. The family eventually returned to their home country for good, first settling in Rutherglen, Glasgow and then in Westhill, Aberdeen. Stewart had his first exposure to fine-art print making at the Aberdeen-based Peacock Printmakers in 1982, and the experience sparked a life long interest in graphic art. Even though he learned to become a graphic designer, he had a keen interest in comics too. His work as a student was done in Jim Baikie's Orkney Studio, where he did some assistant chores on the comic book 'Clive Barker's Nightbreed' (1990). Apart from Baikie, he ranks Bernie Wrightson, Brian Bolland, Carlos Ezquerra, Robert Crumb and Art Spiegelman, Hergé, Moebius, Daniel Clowes, Los Bros Hernandez, George Herriman and Gilbert Shelton among his major graphic influences.
Painter in Prague
In the early 1990s Moore quickly switched from graphic art to painting. Again he admires a wide range of painters, and went to great lengths to study them. He visited Amsterdam many times to examine the work of Vincent Van Gogh and Rembrandt Van Rijn. Vermeer is another favorite of the Dutch Masters. Among Moore's other influences are Leonardo Da Vinci, Salvador Dali, Diego Velázquez, Pablo Picasso and M.C. Escher. His interest in the Czech artist Alphonse Mucha was one of the reasons why, in 1994, he moved to the Czech capital Prague. There he made a living as an illustrator, with clients like Esquire Magazine, the Wall Street Journal and British Airways, and as a portrait artist for the city's business community. He also picked up figurative painting, while experimenting with new techniques and media. Apart from oil paint and pastel, he pioneered the technique of using red wine as paint. He was also one of the first digital painters who worked directly on PDA phones, iPhones and iPads.
'The Tragedy of MacBeth'.
Graphic novelist
Throughout the 1990s, Moore's only comic project was 'Morris Mule, Taxidermist' (1995), which appeared in 72 issues of the English language newspaper The Prague Post. He didn't return to the medium until 2012, when he slowly but steadily started working on his extensive graphic novel project 'Project MKUltra: Sex, Drugs & the CIA'. It was based on a film script by Brandon Beckner and Scott Sampila, detailing the real-world efforts of the CIA to weaponise LSD for purposes of mind control during the Cold War. In 2018, Moore launched a crowdfunding campaign on Patreon to finish the final 100 pages. The work was eventually published in 2021 by Ted Adams' Clover Press.
'Thrawn Janet'.
In addition, S.K. Moore created 'The Tragedy of Macbeth' (2016), a graphic novel based on the stage performance of 'MacBeth' by the Prague Shakespeare Company. The 114 page book began as a #28DayGraphicNovel Twitter challenge to illustrate 'Macbeth' in just 28 days, but Moore's dark and moody black-and-white rendition certainly didn't suffer under the tight deadline. Between 2016 and 2018 Moore worked for David Lloyd's digital comic anthology Aces Weekly on 'The Boötes Void' and an adaptation of R.L. Stevenson's 'Thrawn Janet'. By 2019 he teamed up with scriptwriter Pat Mills to illustrate 'Defoe: The Divisor' (2019), a new chapter in Mills' steampunk zombie fantasy set in 17th-century London for 2000 AD. The character Titus Defoe was originally created by Mills and artist Leigh Gallagher in 2007. For the occasion, Moore switched to a more Baroque artistic approach, fitting for the time period he wanted to evoke.
Other activities
In addition to his graphic activites, Booda Moore works as actor in the TV and movie industry. He has appeared in supporting roles and bit parts in productions like 'Solomon Kane' (2009), 'Borgia' (2011), 'Crossing Lines' (2014), '12 Monkeys' (2017), 'Britannia' (2018), 'Knightfall' (2017-2019) and other productions.
'Dark Angels'.