Timothy Hole

 

Creation

Timothy Hole (pronounced: “Holly”) was a collaborative effort by Alan Moore and Oscar Zarate for their Original Graphic Novel: A Small Killing (1991).  Moore supply the back story and the name, while Zarate designed the character and would illustrate him for their book.
 
The name “Hole” is interesting, since it is possible Moore intended this a play on words.  Hole meaning:  an empty spot.  Much like a whole in the ground where he symbolically buried his guilt and childhood.  We are later told it is pronounced “Holly” which is contradictory to a “Hole”, since a “Hole” is not living.  Living things can live in a hole, but a hole itself is not as celebrated by natures Holly.

Origin

A lonely old man who comes to terms with his guilt after chasing the “lost” innocence of his childhood.  Timothy Hole is a successful adman and has to seal the deal on the most difficult assignment of his career, which is to sell one of the top American Soda companies products to the Russian market.  
 

A Small Killing

A Small Killing is the Original Graphic Novel in which we find Timothy Hole.  He is an adman who goes to Russia to sell soda.  In A Small Killing as a story is mostly told in a reverse time-line.  There is a symbolic digression or devolution with the modes of transport Hole takes in this series: Plane, train, car, bike and feet.  This devolution ties in to Hole’s moment of evolution to the cold calculated business man who killed the child like innocence that was once there. A Small Killing is this battle of guilt chasing Hole and Hole chasing guilt until he has to come to terms with it.