Fashion Beast Is the Dystopian Future Fashion House Monopoly Comic You’ve Been Waiting For

If you’re into fashion, comic books, drag queens, and Alan Moore’s leonine mane of scraggly hair, then oh boy, oh boy, oh boy do I have wonderful news for you! About a month ago, Avatar Press released a moth-eaten comic adaption of a screenplay written in 1985 by Alan Moore and Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren called Fashion Beast, which (thank you for asking) takes place in a dystopian future city dominated by a fashion house, and centers around a young drag queen named Doll Seguin, who has managed to capture the attention of the mysterious fashion house boss lady, Celestine. Sounds a little The Devil Wears Prada but It’s Really Tacky Because We’re Living in a Post-Nuclear War Dystopia and People Are Having Trouble Finding Food Let Alone Enough Prada to Wear, Jeez, doesn’t it? Yes, well, moving swiftly along to the synopsis…

While the world outside fears an oncoming nuclear war, Doll escapes into the carefree lifestyle of music and decadence, a fantasy inspired by the fashion designs of the mysterious Celestine. Catching the deformed recluse’s eye, Doll is drawn helplessly into a sordid tale of tragic lies, false identities, fear, and violence.

Fashion Beast languished for many years before McLaren peddled the story to Avatar. Another whiz-bang nine years after that and we finally have an adaptation of the original screenplay courtesy of a third scribe, Antony Johnston. Word on the street is that the comic is unsettling and suspenseful, but what I really want to know is the level of fucking pissed Alan Moore is going to reach when a studio decides to make this movie, only the studio actually makes it as a Devil Wears Prada Sequel. Very mad would be my best guess, but, who knows? Alan Moore might have really liked The Devil Wears Prada because Meryl Streep plays a prickly artist who no one seems to understand, and something about that character echoed in Moore’s hollow rib cage.