3 crampons out of 5

If you read some of the blurbs regarding the creation of Skizz, Alan Moore’s hope was to take E.T. and de-Hollywood it, trying to show what it might actually be like for an alien to crash land on Earth.  While this intention is flirted with, the story seems to actually follow most of the beats of E.T. and its ilk, except with a British flavor to it.  It doesn’t make for an unpleasant read, just not a very original one.

We open with Skizz’s ship going down.  There’s some comical 2000 A.D.ish comedy (read: dry humor) with how the alien interacts with his ship, and then he’s wicked freaked out and on Earth.  Skizz looks cool.  He looks like a robot.  In fact, nothing makes us believe otherwise, adding credence to the notion that this might be a slightly more sophisticated take on the sci-fi fish-outta-water story, willing to give us an artificial lead.  Alas, at some point, Skizz de-helmets and the E.T. comparisons start to pop up, because he looks like every other cute alien.  Moore tries to push the concept about by having Skizz get sick on our food and feeling ill and threatened all the time, but the story is no longer from his point of view at this point and so it just seems like some extra drama to fluff out our tale’s length.  The P.O.V. ends up being taken over by Roxy, a typical 80s “strong” female lead who finds some purpose when trying to care for the ailing Skizz.  So now we’ve lost our unique alien in favor of a cute one and we’ve lost our unique point of view for a relatable human one.  The government gets involved and is evil, and Roxy’s friends get involved and help delay the evil government from grabbing Skizz until he can phone home.

But it is an enjoyable tale.  2000 A.D. is campy sci-fi, bite-sized stories which, frankly, were rarely madly original.  They were written and drawn energetically and gave readers a weekly hook to follow.  Alan Moore’s stuff from this era definitely has its highlights, but he’s still just a man, and men produce regular work on occasion, which Skizz totally was.  It benefits from the weekly format, keeping the pace pretty peppy, and Jim Baikie’s art is like the more grounded, consistent version of Steve Yeowell, giving the book a nice balance between comic and soapy drama.  The story isn’t especially notable, and wouldn’t have turned your eye to Alan Moore at the time, as his desire of putting a different spin on the friendly alien tale just wobbles from the norm.  It passes the time pleasantly and pads your Moore library.