Alan Moore (born 18 November 1953) is an English author known primarily for his work in comic books including ''

Watchmen ''Watchmen'' is a comic book Limited series (comics), limited series by the British creative team of writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons, and colorist John Higgins (comics), John Higgins. It was published monthly by DC Comics in 1986 and 19 ...

'', ''

V for Vendetta ''V for Vendetta'' is a British graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd (comics), David Lloyd (with additional art by Tony Weare). Initially published between 1982 and 1985 in black and white as an ongoing Serial (li ...

'', '' The Ballad of Halo Jones'', ''Swamp Thing'', '' Batman: The Killing Joke'', '' Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?'' and '' From Hell''. He is widely recognised among his peers and critics as one of the best comic book writers in the English language. Moore has occasionally used such pseudonyms as Curt Vile, Jill de Ray, Brilburn Logue, and Translucia Baboon; also, reprints of some of his work have been credited to The Original Writer when Moore requested that his name be removed. Moore started writing for British underground and alternative fanzines in the late 1970s before achieving success publishing

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

s in such magazines as '' 2000 AD'' and ''

Warrior A warrior is a guardian specializing in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal society, tribal or clan-based warrior culture society that recognizes a separate warrior aristocracy, social class, class, or caste. History ...

''. He was subsequently picked up by

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

as "the first comics writer living in Britain to do prominent work in America", where he worked on major characters such as

Batman Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on M ...

('' Batman: The Killing Joke'') and

Superman Superman is a superhero created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, which first appeared in the comic book ''Action Comics'' Action Comics 1, #1, published in the United States on April 18, 1938.The copyright date of ''Action Comics ...

(" Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?"), substantially developed the character Swamp Thing, and penned original titles such as ''

''. During that decade, Moore helped to bring about greater social respectability for comics in the United States and United Kingdom. He prefers the term "comic" to "

graphic novel A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...

". In the late 1980s and early 1990s he left the comic industry mainstream and went independent for a while, working on experimental work such as the epic ''From Hell'' and the prose novel '' Voice of the Fire''. He subsequently returned to the mainstream later in the 1990s, working for

Image Comics Image Comics is an independent American American comic book, comic book publisher and is the third largest direct market comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry by market share. Its best-known publications include ''Spawn (comics) ...

, before developing America's Best Comics, an imprint through which he published works such as '' The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'' and the occult-based ''

Promethea ''Promethea'' is a comic book Ongoing series, series created by Alan Moore, J. H. Williams III and Mick Gray, published by America's Best Comics/WildStorm. It tells the story of Sophie Bangs, a college student from an alternate futuristic New Y ...

''. In 2016, he published ''

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

'': a 1,266-page experimental novel set in his hometown of Northampton, UK. Moore is an

occult The occult () is a category of esoteric or supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of organized religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving a 'hidden' or 'secret' agency, such as magic and mysti ...

ist,

ceremonial magic Ceremonial magic (also known as magick, ritual magic, high magic or learned magic) encompasses a wide variety of rituals of Magic (supernatural), magic. The works included are characterized by ceremony and numerous requisite accessories t ...

ian, and

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

, and has featured such themes in works including ''Promethea'', ''From Hell'', and ''V for Vendetta'', as well as performing

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

spoken word occult "workings" with The Moon and Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels, some of which have been released on CD. Despite his objections, Moore's works have provided the basis for several Hollywood films, including '' From Hell'' (2001), '' The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'' (2003), ''

'' (2005), and ''

'' (2009). Moore has also been referenced in popular culture and has been recognised as an influence on a variety of literary and television figures including

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman (; born Neil Richard Gaiman; 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, audio theatre, and screenplays. His works include the comic series ''The Sandman (comic book), The Sandma ...

and Damon Lindelof. He has lived a significant portion of his life in Northampton, England, and he has said in various interviews that his stories draw heavily from his experiences living there.

Early life

Moore was born on 18 November 1953, at St Edmund's Hospital in

Northampton Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...

to a working-class family who he believed had lived in the town for several generations. He grew up in a part of Northampton known as The Boroughs, a poverty-stricken area with a lack of facilities and high levels of illiteracy, but he nonetheless "loved it. I loved the people. I loved the community and ... I didn't know that there was anything else." He lived in a house with his parents, brewery worker Ernest Moore and printer Sylvia Doreen, with his younger brother Mike, and with his maternal grandmother. He "read omnivorously" from the age of five, getting books out of the local library, and subsequently attended Spring Lane Primary School. At the same time, he began reading comic strips, initially in British comics, such as '' Topper'' and '' The Beezer'', but eventually also American imports such as ''

The Flash The Flash is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Harry Lampert, the original Flash first appeared in ''Flash Comics'' #1 (cover date, cover-dated Jan ...

'', ''

Detective Comics ''Detective Comics'' (later retitled as ''Batman Detective Comics'') is an American comic book series published by Detective Comics, later shortened to DC Comics. The first volume, published from 1937 to 2011 (and later continued in 2016), is ...

'', ''

Fantastic Four The Fantastic Four, often abbreviated as FF, is a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The team debuted in '' The Fantastic Four'' #1 ( cover-dated November 1961), helping usher in a new level of realism i ...

'', and '' Blackhawk''. He later passed his 11-plus exam and was, therefore, eligible to go to Northampton Grammar School, where he first came into contact with people who were middle class and better educated, and he was shocked at how he went from being one of the top pupils at his primary school to one of the lowest in the class at secondary. Subsequently, disliking school and having "no interest in academic study", he believed that there was a "covert curriculum" being taught that was designed to indoctrinate children with "punctuality, obedience and the acceptance of monotony". In the late 1960s, Moore began publishing his poetry and essays in

fanzine A fanzine (blend word, blend of ''fan (person), fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleas ...

s, eventually setting up his fanzine, ''Embryo''. Through ''Embryo'', Moore became involved in a group known as the Northampton Arts Lab. The Arts Lab subsequently made significant contributions to the magazine. He began dealing the hallucinogenic LSD at school, being expelled for doing so in 1970 – he later described himself as "one of the world's most inept LSD dealers". The headmaster of the school subsequently "got in touch with various other academic establishments that I'd applied to and told them not to accept me because I was a danger to the moral well-being of the rest of the students there, which was possibly true." While continuing to live in his parents' home for a few more years, he moved through various jobs, including cleaning toilets and working in a tannery. In late 1973, he met and began a relationship with Northampton-born Phyllis Dixon, with whom he moved into "a little one-room flat in the Barrack Road area in Northampton". Soon marrying, they moved into a new

council estate Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council housing or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011, when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in social housing. D ...

in the town's eastern district while he worked in an office for a sub-contractor of the local gas board. Moore felt that he was not being fulfilled by this job, and so decided to try to earn a living doing something more artistic.

Career

Early career, as writer and artist: 1978–1983

Abandoning his office job, he decided to instead take up both writing and illustrating his own comics. He had already produced a couple of strips for several alternative fanzines and magazines, such as ''Anon E. Mouse'' for the local paper ''Anon'', and ''St. Pancras Panda'', a parody of Paddington Bear, for the Oxford-based ''Back Street Bugle''. His first paid work was for a few drawings that were printed in ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

''. In late 1979/early 1980, he and his friend, comic-book writer Steve Moore (whom he had known since he was fourteen) co-created the violent

cyborg A cyborg (, a portmanteau of ''cybernetics, cybernetic'' and ''organism'') is a being with both Organic matter, organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline.Axel Pressbutton for some comics in ''Dark Star'', a British music magazine. (Steve Moore wrote the strip under the name "Pedro Henry", while Alan Moore drew them using the pseudonym of Curt Vile, a pun on the name of composer Kurt Weill.) Not long afterward, Alan Moore succeeded in getting an

underground comix Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, ...

-type series about a private detective known as ''Roscoe Moscow'' (who is investigating the "death of Rock N' Roll") published (under the Curt Vile name) in the weekly music magazine '' Sounds'', earning £35 a week. Alongside this, he and Phyllis, with their newborn daughter

Leah Leah () appears in the Hebrew Bible as one of the two wives of the Biblical patriarch Jacob. Leah was Jacob's first wife, and the older sister of his second (and favored) wife Rachel. She is the mother of Jacob's first son Reuben. She has thr ...

, began claiming

unemployment benefit Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is the proportion of people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for Work (hu ...

to supplement this income. After the conclusion of ''Roscoe Moscow'', Moore started a new strip for ''Sounds'' – the serialized comic "The Stars My Degradation" (a reference to Alfred Bester's '' The Stars My Destination''), featuring Axel Pressbutton. Moore wrote most of the episodes of "The Stars My Degradation" and drew all of them, which appeared in ''Sounds'' from 12 July 1980, to 19 March 1983. Beginning in 1979 Moore created a new

known as '' Maxwell the Magic Cat'' in the '' Northants Post'' (based in Moore's hometown), under the pseudonym of Jill de Ray (a pun on the Medieval child murderer

Gilles de Rais Gilles de Rais, Pays de Retz, Baron de Rais (; also spelled "Retz"; 1405 – 26 October 1440) was a knight and lord from Duchy of Brittany, Brittany, Duchy of Anjou, Anjou and Poitou, a leader in the French army during the Hundred Years' W ...

, something he found to be a "sardonic joke"). Earning a further £10 a week from this, he decided to sign off of social security and to continue writing and drawing ''Maxwell the Magic Cat'' until 1986. Moore has stated that he would have been happy to continue Maxwell's adventures almost indefinitely but ended the strip after the newspaper ran a negative editorial on the place of homosexuals in the community. Meanwhile, Moore decided to focus more fully on writing comics rather than both writing and drawing them, stating that "After I'd been doing tfor a couple of years, I realised that I would never be able to draw well enough and/or quickly enough to actually make any kind of decent living as an artist." To learn more about how to write a successful comic-book script, he asked for advice from his friend Steve Moore. Interested in writing for '' 2000 AD'', one of Britain's most prominent comic magazines, Alan Moore then submitted a script for their long-running and successful series '' Judge Dredd''. While having no need for another writer on ''Judge Dredd'', which was already being written by John Wagner, fellow writer Alan Grant saw promise in Moore's work – later remarking that "this guy's a really fucking good writer" – and instead asked him to write some short stories for the publication's '' Future Shocks'' series. While the first few were rejected, Grant advised Moore on improvements, and eventually accepted the first of many. Meanwhile, Moore had also begun writing minor stories for '' Doctor Who Weekly'' and later commented that "I really, really wanted a regular strip. I didn't want to do short stories ... But that wasn't what was being offered. I was being offered short four or five-page stories where everything had to be done in those five pages. And, looking back, it was the best possible education that I could have had in how to construct a story."

Marvel UK, ''2000 AD'', and ''Warrior'': 1980–1986

From 1980 until 1986, Moore maintained his status as a freelance writer and was offered a spate of work by a variety of comic book companies in Britain, mainly

Marvel UK Marvel UK was an imprint (trade name), imprint of Marvel Comics formed in 1972 to reprint United States of America, US-produced stories for the United Kingdom, British weekly comic market. Marvel UK later produced original material by British cr ...

, and the publishers of ''2000 AD'' and ''Warrior''. He later remarked that "I remember that what was generally happening was that everybody wanted to give me work, for fear that I would just be given other work by their rivals. So everybody was offering me things." It was an era when comic books were increasing in popularity in Britain, and according to Lance Parkin, "the British comics scene was cohering as never before, and it was clear that the audience was sticking with the title as they grew up. Comics were no longer just for very small boys: teenagers – even A-level and university students – were reading them now." During this period, ''2000 AD'' accepted and published over fifty of Moore's one-off stories for their '' Future Shocks'' and ''Time Twisters'' science fiction series. The editors at the magazine were impressed by Moore's work and decided to offer him a more permanent strip, starting with a story that they wanted to be vaguely based upon the hit film '' E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial''. The result, '' Skizz'', which was illustrated by Jim Baikie, told the story of the titular alien who crashes to Earth and is cared for by a teenager named Roxy, and Moore later noted that in his opinion, this work "owes far too much to Alan Bleasdale." Another series he produced for ''2000 AD'' was '' D.R. and Quinch'', which was illustrated by

Alan Davis Alan Davis (born 18 June 1956) is an English comic book writer and artist, known for his work on ''Captain Britain'', ''The Uncanny X-Men'', ''The ClanDestine, ClanDestine'', ''Detective Comics'', ''Excalibur (comic book), Excalibur'', ''JLA: ...

. The story, which Moore described as "continuing the tradition of Dennis the Menace, but giving him a

thermonuclear Nuclear fusion is a reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei combine to form a larger nuclei, nuclei/neutron by-products. The difference in mass between the reactants and products is manifested as either the release or absorption of ener ...

capacity", revolved around two delinquent aliens, and was a science-fiction take on '' National Lampoon''s characters O.C. and Stiggs. The work widely considered to be the highlight of his ''2000 AD'' career, and that which he described as "the one that worked best for me", was '' The Ballad of Halo Jones''. Co-created with artist Ian Gibson, the series was about a young woman in the 50th century. The series was discontinued after three books due to a dispute between Moore and Fleetway, the magazine's publishers, over the intellectual property rights of the characters Moore and Gibson had co-created. Another comic company to employ Moore was Marvel UK, who had formerly purchased a few of his one-off stories for ''Doctor Who Weekly'' and ''Star Wars Weekly''. Aiming to get an older audience than ''2000 AD'', their main rival, they employed Moore to write for the regular strip ''

Captain Britain Captain Britain is a title used by various superheroes in comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with Excalibur. The moniker was first used in publication by Brian Braddock in ''Captain Britain'' #1 by writer Chris Cl ...

'', "halfway through a storyline that he's neither inaugurated nor completely understood." He replaced the former writer Dave Thorpe but maintained the original artist, Alan Davis, whom Moore described as "an artist whose love for the medium and whose sheer exultation upon finding himself gainfully employed within it shine from every line, every new costume design, each nuance of expression." Guy Fawkes portrait

The third comic company that Moore worked for in this period was

Quality Communications Quality Communications was a British publishing company founded by Dez Skinn that operated from 1982 to 2008. The company's most notable publications were the monthly comics anthology ''Warrior'', which featured early work by writer Alan Moor ...

, publishers of a new monthly magazine called ''

''. The magazine was founded by Dez Skinn, a former editor of both IPC (publishers of ''2000 AD'') and Marvel UK, and was designed to offer writers a greater degree of freedom over their artistic creations than was allowed by pre-existing companies. It was at ''Warrior'' that Moore "would start to reach his potential". Moore was given two ongoing strips in ''Warrior'': '' Marvelman'' and ''

'', both of which debuted in ''Warrior''s first issue in March 1982. ''V for Vendetta'' was a dystopian thriller set in a future 1997 where a fascist government controlled Britain, opposed only by a lone

dressed in a

Guy Fawkes Guy Fawkes (; 13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes while fighting for the Spanish, was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics involved in the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. He was born and educate ...

costume who turns to terrorism to topple the government. Illustrated by David Lloyd, Moore was influenced by his pessimistic feelings about the

Thatcherite Thatcherism is a form of British conservative ideology named after Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher that relates to not just her political platform and particular policies but also her personal character a ...

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

government, which he projected forward as a fascist state in which all ethnic and sexual minorities had been eliminated. It has been regarded as "among Moore's best work" and has maintained a cult following throughout subsequent decades. ''Marvelman'' (later retitled ''Miracleman'' for legal reasons) was a series that originally had been published in Britain from 1954 through to 1963, based largely upon the American comic '' Captain Marvel''. Upon resurrecting ''Marvelman'', Moore "took a kitsch children's character and placed him within the real world of 1982". The work was drawn primarily by Garry Leach and Alan Davis. The third series that Moore produced for ''Warrior'' was '' The Bojeffries Saga'', a comedy about a working-class English family of

vampires A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead humanoid creatures that often visited loved ones and c ...

and

werewolves In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (from Ancient Greek ), is an individual who can shapeshift into a wolf, or especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf–humanlike creature, either purposely or after bei ...

, drawn by Steve Parkhouse. ''Warrior'' closed before these stories were completed, but under new publishers both ''Miracleman'' and ''V for Vendetta'' were resumed by Moore, who finished both stories by 1989. Moore's biographer Lance Parkin remarked that "reading them through together throws up some interesting contrasts – in one the hero fights a fascist dictatorship based in London, in the other an

Aryan ''Aryan'' (), or ''Arya'' (borrowed from Sanskrit ''ārya''), Oxford English Dictionary Online 2024, s.v. ''Aryan'' (adj. & n.); ''Arya'' (n.)''.'' is a term originating from the ethno-cultural self-designation of the Indo-Iranians. It stood ...

superman imposes one." Although Moore's work numbered amongst the most popular strips to appear in ''2000 AD'', Moore himself became increasingly concerned at the lack of creator's rights in British comics. In 1985, he talked to fanzine ''Arkensword'', noting that he had stopped working for all British publishers bar IPC, "purely for the reason that IPC so far have avoided lying to me, cheating me or generally treating me like shit." He did join other creators in decrying the wholesale relinquishing of all rights, and in 1986 stopped writing for ''2000 AD'', leaving mooted future volumes of the ''Halo Jones'' story unstarted. Moore's outspoken opinions and principles, particularly on the subject of creator's rights and ownership, would see him burn bridges with a number of other publishers over the course of his career. Meanwhile, during this same period, he – using the pseudonym of Translucia Baboon – became involved in the music scene, founding his own band, The Sinister Ducks, with

David J David John Haskins (born 24 April 1957, Northampton, Northamptonshire, England), better known as David J, is a British alternative rock musician, producer, and writer. He is the bassist for the gothic rock band Bauhaus (band), Bauhaus and for ...

(of goth band

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...

) and Alex Green, and in 1983 released a single, ''March of the Sinister Ducks'', with sleeve art by illustrator Kevin O'Neill. In 1984, Moore and David J released a

12-inch single The twelve-inch single (often written as 12-inch or 12) is a type of vinyl ( polyvinyl chloride or PVC) gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a "single" or a few related sound tracks on each surface, compa ...

featuring a recording of "This Vicious Cabaret", a song featured in ''V for Vendetta'', which was released on the Glass Records label. Moore wrote the song "Leopardman at C&A" for David J, and it was set to music by Mick Collins for the album '' We Have You Surrounded'' by Collins' group The Dirtbombs.

The American mainstream and DC Comics: 1983–1988

Moore's work in ''2000 AD'' brought him to the attention of

editor

Len Wein Leonard Norman Wein (; June 12, 1948 – September 10, 2017) was an American comic book writer and editor best known for co-creating DC Comics' Swamp Thing and Marvel Comics' Wolverine (character), Wolverine, and for helping revive the Marvel sup ...

, who hired him in 1983 to write '' The Saga of the Swamp Thing'', then a formulaic and poor-selling monster comic. Moore, with artists Stephen R. Bissette,

Rick Veitch Richard Veitch (; born May 7, 1951) is an American comics artist and writer who has worked in mainstream, underground comics, underground, and alternative comics. Biography Rick Veitch is a native of the small town of Bellows Falls, Vermont. One ...

, and John Totleben, deconstructed and reimagined the character, writing a series of formally experimental stories that addressed environmental and social issues alongside the horror and fantasy, bolstered by research into the culture of

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

, where the series was set. For ''Swamp Thing'' he revived many of DC's neglected magical and supernatural characters, including the Spectre, the

Demon A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in folklore, mythology, religion, occultism, and literature; these beliefs are reflected in Media (communication), media including f ...

, the Phantom Stranger,

Deadman Deadman or Deadman's may refer to: * "Deadman" or "dead man", are alternative terms for a dead man's switch * "Deadman's foot" is another name for a Salamander (metallurgy), Salamander in metallurgy * "Deadman anchor" is a buried object (log, con ...

, and others, and introduced John Constantine, an English working-class magician based visually on the British musician Sting; Constantine later became the protagonist of the series ''

Hellblazer ''John Constantine, Hellblazer'' is an American contemporary Horror fiction, horror comic-book series published by DC Comics since January 1988, and subsequently by its Vertigo Comics, Vertigo imprint since March 1993, when the imprint was introd ...

'', which became Vertigo's longest-running series at 300 issues. Moore wrote ''Swamp Thing'' for almost four years, from issue No. 20 (January 1984) through to issue No. 64 (September 1987) with the exception of issues No. 59 and 62. Moore's run on ''Swamp Thing'' was successful both critically and commercially, and it inspired DC to recruit British writers such as

Grant Morrison Grant Morrison (born 31 January 1960) is a Scottish comic book writer, screenwriter, and producer. Their work is known for its nonlinear narratives, Humanism, humanist philosophy and counterculture, countercultural leanings. Morrison has writt ...

, Jamie Delano, Peter Milligan, and

to write comics in a similar vein, often involving radical revamps of obscure characters. These titles laid the foundation of what became the Vertigo line. Moore began producing further stories for DC Comics, including a two-part story for '' Vigilante'' which dealt with domestic abuse. He was eventually given the chance to write a story for one of DC's best-known superheroes,

, entitled " For the Man Who Has Everything", which was illustrated by Dave Gibbons and published in 1985. In this story,

Wonder Woman Wonder Woman is a superheroine who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in ''All Star Comics'' Introducing Wonder Woman, #8, published October 21, 1941, with her first feature in ''Sensation Comic ...

, and Robin visit Superman on his birthday, only to find that he has been overcome by an alien organism and is hallucinating about his heart's desire. He followed this with another Superman story, " Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?", which was published in 1986. Illustrated by

Curt Swan Douglas Curtis Swan (February 17, 1920 – June 17, 1996) was an American comics artist. The artist most associated with Superman during the period fans call the Bronze Age of Comic Books, Swan produced hundreds of covers and stories from the 195 ...

, it was designed as the last Superman story in the pre-''

Crisis on Infinite Earths ''Crisis on Infinite Earths'' is a 1985 to 1986 American comic book fictional crossover, crossover series published by DC Comics. Written by Marv Wolfman and penciller, pencilled by George Pérez, it was first released as a 12-issue limited ser ...

DC Universe The DC Universe (DCU) is the shared universe in which most stories in American comic book titles published by DC Comics take place. In context, the term "DC Universe" usually refers to the main DC Continuity (fiction), continuity. It contains v ...

Atomic cloud over Hiroshima - NARA 542192 - Edit

The limited series ''

'', begun in 1986 and collected as a trade paperback in 1987, cemented Moore's reputation. Imagining what the world would be like if costumed heroes had really existed since the 1940s, Moore and artist Dave Gibbons created a

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

mystery in which the shadow of

nuclear war Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a War, military conflict or prepared Policy, political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are Weapon of mass destruction, weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conven ...

threatens the world. The heroes who are caught up in this escalating crisis either work for the US government or are outlawed, and are motivated to heroism by their various psychological hang-ups. ''Watchmen'' is non-linear and told from multiple points of view, and includes highly sophisticated self-references, ironies, and formal experiments such as the symmetrical design of issue 5, "Fearful Symmetry", where the last page is a near mirror-image of the first, the second-last of the second, and so on, and in this manner is an early example of Moore's interest in the human perception of time and its implications for free will. It is the only comic to win the

Hugo Award The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) and chosen by its members. The award is administered by th ...

, in a one-time category ("Best Other Form"). It is widely seen as Moore's best work, and has been regularly described as the greatest comic book ever written. Alongside roughly contemporary works such as Frank Miller's ''Batman: The Dark Knight Returns'',

Art Spiegelman Itzhak Avraham ben Zeev Spiegelman ( ; born February 15, 1948), professionally known as Art Spiegelman, is an American cartoonist, editor, and comics advocate best known for his graphic novel ''Maus''. His work as co-editor on the comics magazin ...

's '' Maus'', and Jaime and

Gilbert Hernandez Gilberto Hernández (born February 1, 1957), usually credited as Gilbert Hernandez and also by the nickname Beto (), is an American cartoonist. He is best known for his ''Palomar''/''Heartbreak Soup'' stories in ''Love and Rockets (comics), Love ...

's '' Love and Rockets'', ''Watchmen'' was part of a late 1980s trend in American comics towards more adult sensibilities. Comics historian Les Daniels noted that ''Watchmen'' "called into question the basic assumptions on which the superhero genre is formulated". DC Comics writer and executive Paul Levitz observed in 2010 that "As with ''The Dark Knight Returns'', ''Watchmen'' set off a chain reaction of rethinking the nature of superheroes and heroism itself, and pushed the genre darker for more than a decade. The series won acclaim ... and would continue to be regarded as one of the most important literary works the field ever produced." Moore briefly became a media celebrity, and the resulting attention led to him withdrawing from

fandom A fandom is a subculture composed of Fan (person), fans characterized by a feeling of camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significan ...

and no longer attending comics conventions (at one UKCAC in London he is said to have been followed into the toilet by eager autograph hunters). He and Gibbons had earlier created the character Mogo as part of DC's

Green Lantern Corps The Green Lantern Corps is a intergalactic Peacekeeping, peace keeping agency appearing in comics published by DC Comics. They patrol the farthest reaches of the DC Universe at the behest of the Guardians, a race of immortals residing on the plan ...

and a short story by Moore and artist Kevin O'Neill published in ''Green Lantern Corps Annual'' No. 2 (1986) was one of the inspirations for the " Blackest Night" storyline in 2009–2010. Siegfried and the Twilight of the Gods p 180

Siegfried and the Twilight of the Gods p 180

In 1987, Moore submitted a proposal for a miniseries called '' Twilight of the Superheroes'', the title a twist on

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...

's opera ''

Götterdämmerung ' (; ''Twilight of the Gods''), Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis, WWV 86D, is the last of the four epic poetry, epic music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's Literary cycle, cycle ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nibelung''). I ...

'' (meaning "Twilight of the Gods"). The series was set in the future of the DC Universe, where the world is ruled by superheroic dynasties, including the House of Steel (presided over by Superman and Wonder Woman) and the House of Thunder (led by the Captain Marvel family). These two houses are about to unite through a dynastic marriage, their combined power potentially threatening freedom, and several characters, including John Constantine, attempt to stop it and free humanity from the power of superheroes. The series would also have restored the DC Universe's multiple earths, which had been eliminated in the continuity-revising 1985 limited series ''Crisis on Infinite Earths''. The series was never commissioned, but copies of Moore's detailed notes have appeared on the Internet and in print despite the efforts of DC, who consider the proposal their property. Similar elements, such as the concept of hypertime, have since appeared in DC comics. The 1996 miniseries '' Kingdom Come'' by Mark Waid and

Alex Ross Nelson Alexander Ross (born January 22, 1970) is an American comic book creator, comic book writer and artist known primarily for his painted interiors, covers, and design work. He first became known with the 1994 miniseries ''Marvels'', on which ...

, was also set amid a superheroic conflict in the future of the DC Universe. Waid and Ross have stated that they had read the ''Twilight'' proposal before starting work on their series, but that any similarities are both minor and unintended. DC Comics confirmed that the full text of the story would be released in December 2020. Moore wrote the lead story in ''Batman Annual'' No. 11 (1987) drawn by George Freeman. The following year saw the publication of '' The Killing Joke'', written by Moore and illustrated by Brian Bolland. It revolved around The Joker, who had escaped

Arkham Asylum Arkham Asylum () is a fictional psychiatric hospital appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly in stories featuring Batman. It first appeared in ''Batman'' #258 (October 1974), written by Dennis O'Neil with art by Irv N ...

and gone on a killing spree, and Batman's effort to stop him. Despite being a key work in helping to redefine Batman as a character, along with Frank Miller's ''The Dark Knight Returns'' and '' Batman: Year One'', Lance Parkin believed that "the theme isn't developed enough" and "it's a rare example of a Moore story where the art is better than the writing," something Moore himself acknowledges. Moore's relationship with DC Comics had gradually deteriorated over the issues of creator's rights and merchandising. Moore and Gibbons were not paid any royalties for a ''Watchmen'' spin-off badge set, as DC defined them as a "promotional item", and according to certain reports, he and Gibbons gained only 2% of the profits earned by DC for ''Watchmen''. Meanwhile, a group of creators including Moore, Frank Miller, Marv Wolfman, and

Howard Chaykin Howard Victor Chaykin (; born October 7, 1950) is an Americans, American comics artist, comic book artist and writer. Chaykin's influences include his one-time employer and mentor, Gil Kane, and the mid-20th century illustrators Robert Fawcett an ...

, fell out with DC over a proposed age-rating system similar to those used for films. After completing ''V for Vendetta'', which DC had already begun publishing, thus enabling him to finish the final few episodes, in 1989, Moore stopped working for DC. Moore later claimed that fine print in the contracts regarding ''Watchmen'' and ''V for Vendetta'', which stipulated that the ownership rights would revert to Moore and the artists after the stories had gone out of publication, had tricked him into believing he would eventually retain ownership, only to discover that DC had no intention of ceasing publication of the stories, effectively preventing the ownership from ever returning to Moore. In a 2006 interview with ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', Moore recalled telling DC, "I said, 'Fair enough. You have managed to successfully swindle me, and so I will never work for you again'".

Independent period and Mad Love: 1988–1993

Abandoning DC Comics and the mainstream, Moore, with his wife Phyllis and their mutual lover Deborah Delano, set up their own comics publishing company, which they named Mad Love. The works they published in Mad Love turned away from the science fiction and superhero genres that Moore was used to writing, instead focusing on realism, ordinary people, and political causes. Mad Love's first publication, '' AARGH'', was an anthology of work by a number of writers (including Moore) that challenged the Thatcher government's recently introduced Clause 28, a law designed to prevent councils and schools "promoting homosexuality". Sales from the book went towards the Organisation of Lesbian and Gay Action, and Moore was "very pleased with" it, stating that "we hadn't prevented this bill from becoming law, but we had joined in the general uproar against it, which prevented it from ever becoming as viciously effective as its designers might have hoped." Moore followed this with a second political work, ''Shadowplay: The Secret Team'', a comic illustrated by Bill Sienkiewicz for

Eclipse Comics Eclipse Comics was an American comic book publisher, one of several independent publishers during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1978, it published the first graphic novel intended for the newly created comic book store, comic book specialty stor ...

and commissioned by the Christic Institute, which was included as a part of the anthology '' Brought to Light'', a description of the CIA's covert drug smuggling and arms dealing. In 1998 ''Brought to Light'' was adapted by Moore in collaboration with composer Gary Lloyd as a narrative and music work which was released on CD. After prompting by cartoonist and self-publishing advocate Dave Sim, Moore then used Mad Love to publish his next project, '' Big Numbers'', a proposed 12-issue series set in "a hardly-disguised version of Moore's native Northampton" known as Hampton, and deals with the effects of big business on ordinary people and with ideas of

chaos theory Chaos theory is an interdisciplinary area of Scientific method, scientific study and branch of mathematics. It focuses on underlying patterns and Deterministic system, deterministic Scientific law, laws of dynamical systems that are highly sens ...

. Illustration of the comic was begun by Bill Sienkiewicz, who left the series after only two issues in 1990, and despite plans that his assistant, Al Columbia, would replace him, it never occurred and the series remained unfinished. Following this, in 1991 the company

Victor Gollancz Ltd Victor Gollancz Ltd () was a major British book publishing house of the twentieth century and continues to publish science fiction and fantasy titles as an imprint of Orion Publishing Group. Gollancz was founded in 1927 by Victor Gollancz, an ...

published Moore's '' A Small Killing'', a full-length story illustrated by Oscar Zárate, about a once idealistic advertising executive haunted by his boyhood self. According to Lance Parkin, ''A Small Killing'' is "quite possibly Moore's most underrated work". Soon after this, Mad Love itself was disbanded as Phyllis and Deborah ended their relationship with Moore, taking with them much of the money that he had earned from his work in the 1980s. William Gull 3

Meanwhile, Moore began producing work for ''

Taboo A taboo is a social group's ban, prohibition or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, offensive, sacred or allowed only for certain people.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...

'', a small independent comic anthology edited by his former collaborator Stephen R. Bissette. The first of these was '' From Hell'', a fictionalised account of the Jack the Ripper murders of the 1880s. Inspired by Douglas Adams' novel ''

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency ''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'' is a humorous detective novel by English writer Douglas Adams, published in 1987. It is described by the author on its cover as a "thumping good detective-ghost-horror-who dunnit-time travel-romanti ...

'', Moore reasoned that to solve a crime holistically, one would need to solve the entire society it occurred in, and depicts the murders as a consequence of the politics and economics of the time. Just about every notable figure of the period is connected with the events in some way, including "Elephant Man"

Joseph Merrick Joseph Carey Merrick (5 August 1862 – 11 April 1890) was an English man known for his severe physical deformities. He was first exhibited at a freak show under the stage name "The Elephant Man", and then went to live at the London Hospital, ...

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...

, Native American writer

Black Elk Heȟáka Sápa, commonly known as Black Elk (baptized Nicholas; December 1, 1863 – August 19, 1950), was a ''wičháša wakȟáŋ'' (" medicine man, holy man") and '' heyoka'' of the Oglala Lakota people. He was a second cousin of the war lea ...

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was an English textile designer, poet, artist, writer, and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts movement. He was a major contributor to the revival of traditiona ...

, artist Walter Sickert, and

Aleister Crowley Aleister Crowley ( ; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, novelist, mountaineer, and painter. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pr ...

, who makes a brief appearance as a young boy. Illustrated in a sooty pen-and-ink style by

Eddie Campbell Eddie Campbell (born 10 August 1955) is a British comics artist and cartoonist. He was the illustrator and publisher of '' From Hell'' (written by Alan Moore), and the creator of the semi-autobiographical ''Alec'' stories collected in ''Alec: ...

, ''From Hell'' took nearly ten years to complete, outlasting ''Taboo'' and going through two more publishers before being collected as a trade paperback by Eddie Campbell Comics. It was widely praised, with comics author

Warren Ellis Warren Girard Ellis (born 16 February 1968) is an English comic book writer, novelist, and screenwriter. He is best known as the co-creator of several original comics series, including ''Transmetropolitan'' (1997–2002), ''Global Frequency'' ...

citing it as his "all-time favourite graphic novel". The other series that Moore began for ''Taboo'' was '' Lost Girls'', which he described as a work of intelligent "pornography". Illustrated by Melinda Gebbie, with whom Moore subsequently entered into a relationship, it was set in 1913, where

Alice Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...

from '' Alice in Wonderland'', Dorothy from '' The Wizard of Oz'' and

Wendy Wendy is a given name generally given to girls in English-speaking countries. In Britain during the English Civil War in the mid-1600s, a male Captain Wendy Oxford was identified by the Leveller John Lilburne as a spy reporting on his activit ...

from '' Peter Pan'' – who are each of a different age and class – all meet in a European hotel and regale each other with tales of their sexual encounters. With the work, Moore wanted to attempt something innovative in comics, and believed that creating comics pornography was a way of achieving this. He remarked that "I had a lot of different ideas as to how it might be possible to do an up-front sexual comic strip and to do it in a way that would remove a lot of what I saw were the problems with pornography in general. That it's mostly ugly, it's mostly boring, it's not inventive – it has no standards." Like ''From Hell'', ''Lost Girls'' outlasted ''Taboo'', and a few subsequent instalments were published erratically until the work was finished and a complete edition published in 2006. Meanwhile, Moore set about writing a prose novel, eventually producing '' Voice of the Fire'', which was published in 1996. Unconventional in tone, the novel was a set of short stories about linked events in his hometown of Northampton through the centuries, from the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

to the present day, which combined to tell a larger story.

Return to the mainstream and Image Comics: 1993–1998

In 1993 Moore declared himself to be a ceremonial magician. The same year marked a move by Moore back to the mainstream comics industry and back to writing superhero comics. He did so through

, widely known at the time for its flashy artistic style, graphic violence, and scantily clad large-breasted women, something that horrified many of his fans. His first work published by Image, an issue of the series '' Spawn'', was soon followed by the creation of his own mini-series, ''

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cove ...

'', which was "a pastiche of

Jack Kirby Jack Kirby (; born Jacob Kurtzberg; August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994) was an American comics artist, comic book artist, widely regarded as one of the medium's major innovators and one of its most prolific and influential creators. He grew ...

stories drawn for

Marvel Marvel may refer to: Business * Marvel Entertainment, an American entertainment company ** Marvel Comics, the primary imprint of Marvel Entertainment ** Marvel Universe, a fictional shared universe ** Marvel Music, an imprint of Marvel Comics ...

in the sixties, with their rather overblown style, colourful characters and cosmic style". According to Moore, "after I'd done the ''1963'' stuff I'd become aware of how much the comic audience had changed while I'd been away ince 1988 That all of a sudden it seemed that the bulk of the audience really wanted things that had almost no story, just lots of big, full-page pin-up sort of pieces of artwork. And I was genuinely interested to see if I could write a decent story for that market." He subsequently set about writing what he saw as "better than average stories for 13- to 15-year olds", including three mini-series based upon the ''Spawn'' series: '' Violator'', ''Violator/ Badrock'', and ''Spawn: Blood Feud''. In 1995, he was also given control of a regular monthly comic,

Jim Lee Jim Lee (; born August 11, 1964) is a Korean-born American comic book artist, writer, editor, and publisher. As of 2023, he is the President, Publisher, and Chief creative officer, Chief Creative Officer of DC Comics. In recognition of his work ...

's '' WildC.A.T.S.'', starting with issue No. 21, which he continued to write for fourteen issues. The series followed two groups of superheroes, one of which is on a spaceship headed back to its home planet, and one of which remains on Earth. Moore's biographer Lance Parkin was critical of the run, feeling that it was one of Moore's worst, and that "you feel Moore should be better than this. It's not special." Moore himself, who remarked that he took on the series – his only regular monthly comic series since ''Swamp Thing'' – largely because he liked Jim Lee, admitted that he was not entirely happy with the work, believing that he had catered too much to his conceptions of what the fans wanted rather than being innovative. Next he took over

Rob Liefeld Robert Liefeld (; born October 3, 1967) is an American comic book creator. A prominent writer and artist in the 1990s, he is known for co-creating the character Cable (comics), Cable with writer Louise Simonson and the character Deadpool with wri ...

's '' Supreme'', about a character with many similarities with DC Comics'

. Instead of emphasising increased realism as he had done with earlier superhero comics he had taken over, Moore did the opposite and began basing the series on the

Silver Age The Ages of Man are the historical stages of human existence according to Greek mythology and its subsequent interpretatio romana, Roman interpretation. Both Hesiod and Ovid offered accounts of the successive ages of humanity, which tend to pr ...

Superman comics of the 1960s, introducing a female superhero Suprema, a super-dog Radar, and a

Kryptonite Kryptonite is a fictional material that appears primarily in Superman stories published by DC Comics. In its best-known form, it is a green, crystalline material originating from Superman's home world of Krypton (comics), Krypton that emits a u ...

-like material known as Supremium, in doing so harking back to the original "mythic" figure of the American superhero. Under Moore, Supreme proved a critical and commercial success, announcing that he was back in the mainstream after several years of self-imposed exile. When Rob Liefeld, one of Image's co-founders, split from the publisher and formed his own company Awesome Entertainment, he hired Moore to create a new universe for the characters he had brought with him from Image. Moore's "solution was breathtaking and cocky – he created a long and distinguished history for these new characters, retro-fitting a fake silver and gold age for them." Moore began writing comics for many of these characters, such as '' Glory'' and '' Youngblood'', as well as a three-part mini-series known as '' Judgment Day'' to provide a basis for the Awesome Universe. Moore was not satisfied with Liefeld, saying "I just got fed up with the unreliability of information that I get from him, that I didn't trust him. I didn't think that he was respecting the work and I found it hard to respect him. And also by then I was probably feeling that with the exception of Jim Lee,

Jim Valentino Jim Valentino (born October 28, 1952) is an American writer, penciler, editor and publisher of comic books, best known for his 1990–1992 work on '' Guardians of the Galaxy'' for Marvel Comics, and for co-founding Image Comics, a company publ ...

– people like that – that a couple of the Image partners were seeming, to my eyes, to be less than gentlemen. They were seeming to be not necessarily the people I wanted to deal with."

America's Best Comics: 1999–2008

Image partner Jim Lee offered to provide Moore with his own imprint, which would be under Lee's company

WildStorm Productions Wildstorm Productions (stylized as WildStorm) is an American comic book imprint. Originally founded as an independent company established by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi to publish through Image Comics, Wildstorm became a publishing imprint of DC ...

. Moore named this imprint America's Best Comics, lining up a series of artists and writers to assist him in this venture. Lee soon sold WildStorm – including America's Best Comics – to DC Comics, and "Moore found himself back with a company he'd vowed to never work with again". Lee and editor Scott Dunbier flew to England personally to reassure Moore that he would not be affected by the sale, and would not have to deal with DC directly. Moore decided that there were too many people involved to back out from the project, and so ABC was launched in early 1999. CAPTAIN NEMO PLAYING THE ORGAN

The first series published by ABC was '' The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'', which featured a variety of characters from Victorian adventure novels, such as H. Rider Haggard's Allan Quatermain,

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...

' Invisible Man,

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

's Captain Nemo,

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'' is an 1886 Gothic fiction, Gothic horror fiction, horror novella by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. It follows Gabriel John Utterson, a London-based legal practitioner who investigates a series ...

, and Wilhelmina Murray from

Bram Stoker Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912), better known by his pen name Bram Stoker, was an Irish novelist who wrote the 1897 Gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. The book is widely considered a milestone in Vampire fiction, and one of t ...

's ''

Dracula ''Dracula'' is an 1897 Gothic fiction, Gothic horror fiction, horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. The narrative is Epistolary novel, related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist and opens ...

''. Illustrated by Kevin O'Neill, the first volume of the series pitted the League against Professor Moriarty from the ''

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a Detective fiction, fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a "Private investigator, consulting detective" in his stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with obser ...

'' books; the second, against the Martians from '' The War of the Worlds''. A third volume entitled '' The Black Dossier'' was set in the 1950s. The series was well received, and Moore was pleased that an American audience was enjoying something he considered "perversely English", and that it was inspiring some readers to get interested in Victorian literature. Another of Moore's ABC works was '' Tom Strong'', a post-modern superhero series, featured a hero inspired by characters pre-dating Superman, such as

Doc Savage Doc Savage is a fictional character of the competent man hero type, who first appeared in American pulp magazines during the 1930s and 1940s. Real name Clark Savage Jr., he is a polymathic scientist, explorer, detective, and warrior who "right ...

and

Tarzan Tarzan (John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, a feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer. Creat ...

. The character's drug-induced longevity allowed Moore to include flashbacks to Strong's adventures throughout the 20th century, written and drawn in period styles, as a comment on the history of comics and

pulp fiction ''Pulp Fiction'' is a 1994 American independent crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino from a story he conceived with Roger Avary.See, e.g., King (2002), pp. 185–7; ; It tells four intertwining tales of crime and violence ...

. The primary artist was Chris Sprouse. ''Tom Strong'' bore many similarities to Moore's earlier work on ''Supreme'', but according to Lance Parkin, was "more subtle", and was "ABC's most accessible comic". Moore's '' Top 10'', a deadpan

police procedural The police procedural, police show, or police crime drama is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasises the investigative procedure of police officers, police detectives, or law enforcement agency, law enforcement agencies ...

drama set in a city called Neopolis where everyone, including the police, criminals, and civilians has super-powers, costumes, and secret identities, was drawn by

Gene Ha Gene Ha is an Americans, American comics artist and writer best known for his work on books such as ''Top 10 (comics), Top 10'' and ''Top 10: The Forty-Niners'', with Alan Moore and Zander Cannon, for America's Best Comics, the Batman graphic nove ...

and Zander Cannon. The series ended after twelve issues but has spawned four spin-offs: a miniseries '' Smax'', which was set in a fantasy realm and drawn by Cannon; '' Top 10: The Forty-Niners'', a prequel to the main ''Top Ten'' series drawn by Ha; and two sequel miniseries, '' Top 10: Beyond the Farthest Precinct'', which was written by Paul Di Filippo and drawn by

Jerry Ordway Jeremiah Joseph Ordway (born November 28, 1957) is an American writer, penciller, inker and painter of comic books. He is known for his inking work on a wide variety of DC Comics titles, including the continuity-redefining ''Crisis on Infinite E ...

, and ''Top 10: Season Two'', written by Cannon and drawn by Ha. Tree of Life Fludd

Moore's series ''

'', which told the story of a teenage girl, Sophie Bangs, who is possessed by an ancient pagan goddess, the titular Promethea, explored many occult themes, particularly the Qabalah and the concept of magic, with Moore stating that "I wanted to be able to do an occult comic that didn't portray the occult as a dark, scary place, because that's not my experience of it ... 'Promethea'' wasmore psychedelic ... more sophisticated, more experimental, more ecstatic and exuberant." Drawn by J. H. Williams III, it has been described as "a personal statement" from Moore, being one of his most personal works, and that it encompasses "a belief system, a personal cosmology". ABC Comics was also used to publish an anthology series, '' Tomorrow Stories'', which featured a regular cast of characters such as Cobweb, First American, Greyshirt, Jack B. Quick, and Splash Brannigan. ''Tomorrow Stories'' was notable for being an anthology series, a medium that had largely died out in American comics at the time. Despite the assurances that DC Comics would not interfere with Moore and his work, they subsequently did so, angering him. Specifically, in ''League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'' No. 5, an authentic vintage advertisement for a "Marvel"-brand douche caused DC executive Paul Levitz to order the entire print run destroyed and reprinted with the advertisement amended to "Amaze", to avoid friction with DC's competitor

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

. A ''Cobweb'' story Moore wrote for '' Tomorrow Stories'' No. 8 featuring references to L. Ron Hubbard, American occultist Jack Parsons, and the " Babalon Working", was blocked by DC Comics due to the subject matter. DC had already published a version of the same event in their Paradox Press volume '' The Big Book of Conspiracies''. In 2003, a documentary about him was made by Shadowsnake Films, titled '' The Mindscape of Alan Moore'', which was later released on DVD.

Return to independents: 2009–present

With many of the stories he had planned for America's Best Comics brought to an end, and with his increasing dissatisfaction with how DC Comics were interfering with his work, he decided to once more pull out of the comics mainstream. In 2005, he remarked that "I love the comics medium. I pretty much detest the comics industry. Give it another 15 months, I'll probably be pulling out of mainstream, commercial comics." The only ABC title continued by Moore was ''The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen''; after cutting ties with DC he launched the new ''League'' saga, '' Volume III: Century'', in a co-publishing partnership of

Top Shelf Productions Top Shelf Productions is an American publishing company founded in 1997, originally owned and operated by Chris Staros and Brett Warnock with a small staff. Currently an imprint of IDW Publishing, Top Shelf is based in Marietta, Georgia. Top Sh ...

and Knockabout Comics, the first part, titled "1910" released in 2009, the second, titled "1969", released in 2011, and the third, titled "2009", released in 2012. He continues to work with Kevin O'Neill on their '' League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'' spin-off, '' Nemo'', with three graphic novels published, "Heart of Ice", "The Roses of Berlin", and "River of Ghosts". In 2006, the complete edition of '' Lost Girls'' was published, as a slipcased set of three hardcover volumes. The same year Moore published an eight-page article tracing out the history of pornography in which he argued that a society's vibrancy and success are related to its permissiveness in sexual matters. Decrying that the consumption of contemporary ubiquitous pornography was still widely considered shameful, he called for a new and more artistic pornography that could be openly discussed and would have a beneficial impact on society. He expanded on this for a 2009 book-length essay entitled ''25,000 years of Erotic Freedom'', which was described by a reviewer as "a tremendously witty history lecture – a sort of '' Horrible Histories'' for grownups." In 2007, Moore appeared in animated form in an episode of ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...

'' – a show of which he is a fan – entitled " Husbands and Knives", which aired on his fifty-fourth birthday. Since 2009, Moore has been a panellist on the

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

programme '' The Infinite Monkey Cage'', which is hosted by physicist Brian Cox and comedian Robin Ince. In 2010, Moore began what he described as "the 21st century's first underground magazine". Titled '' Dodgem Logic'', the bi-monthly publication consisted of work by a number of Northampton and Midlands-based authors and artists, as well as original contributions from Moore. Despite Dodgem Logic's content not being particularly regional or parochial, its advertising sales remained mainly Midland's based, limiting its financial stability, and making it unusually dependent upon sales revenues. It ran for eight issues and folded in April 2011. In 2010 Moore began publishing a series of comics set in the

H. P. Lovecraft Howard Phillips Lovecraft (, ; August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American writer of Weird fiction, weird, Science fiction, science, fantasy, and horror fiction. He is best known for his creation of the Cthulhu Mythos. Born in Provi ...

universe returning to an earlier interest in the work and worlds of the author. Avatar Press had previously published '' Alan Moore's Yuggoth Cultures and Other Growths'', a compilation of unpublished scripts and strips and comic adaptations of previously published poems by Moore themed around or based upon Lovecraft's work in 2003, followed by the two part '' The Courtyard'' adapted from a previously published Lovecraftian Moore short story. The horror mini-series '' Neonomicon'', the first of Moore's original comic works released by Avatar Press, were illustrated by

Jacen Burrows Jacen Burrows (born September 11, 1972) is an American comic book artist best known for his work on various books from Avatar Press and Marvel Comics. Career Burrows graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design in 1996 with a degree in Seque ...

who had also illustrated the earlier adaptations, and the fourth and final issue was released in January 2011. In 2014 a twelve-part series reuniting Moore with Jacen Burrows was announced titled '' Providence'' on Lovecraft and the sources of the

Cthulhu Mythos The Cthulhu Mythos is a mythopoeia and a shared fictional universe, originating in the works of American Horror fiction, horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. The term was coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent and protégé of Lovecraft, t ...

forming a prequel to ''Neonomicon''. It was published in twelve issues from 2015 to 2017. Moore has appeared live at music events collaborating with a number of different musicians, including a 2011 appearance with Stephen O'Malley at the All Tomorrow's Parties 'I'll Be Your Mirror' music festival in London. A planned future project is an occult textbook known as '' The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic'', written with Steve Moore. It will be published by Top Shelf on 15 October 2024. In September 2016, he published a novel called ''

'', which is also set in Northampton. Alan Moore has joined the Occupy Comics

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

project. Moore contributed an essay on comics as counter-culture. In 2014, Moore announced that he was leading a research and development project to "create an app enabling digital comics to be made by anyone". ''Electricomics'' premiered in 2015. It is an open source app for reading and creating interactive comics. Moore wrote the story ''Big Nemo'', a dystopian sequel to Winsor McCay's '' Little Nemo''. It was illustrated by Colleen Doran and animated by Ocasta Studios with colours by Jose Villarubia. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' chose it as one of the best iPhone/iPad apps of 2015. Pipedream Comics named it the Digital Comics App of the Year. In 2016, Moore confirmed that after authoring a final ''League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'' book, he planned on retiring from regularly writing comic books. In April 2016, Moore began curating a comic book anthology series entitled ''Cinema Purgatorio'' published by Avatar Press, each issue opening with a story written by Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill. The book also features the writing and artist team-ups of Garth Ennis and Raulo Cáceres (''Code Pru''),

Max Brooks Maximilian Michael Brooks (born May 22, 1972) is an American actor and author. He is the son of comedian Mel Brooks and actress Anne Bancroft. Much of Brooks's writing focuses on Zombie (fictional), zombie stories. He was a senior fellow at the ...

and Michael DiPascale (''A More Perfect Union''), Kieron Gillen and Ignacio Calero (''Modded''), and

Christos Gage Christos N. Gage is an American screenwriter and comic book writer. He is known for his work on the TV series ''Daredevil (TV series), Daredevil'', ''Hawaii Five-0 (2010 TV series), Hawaii Five-0'', ''Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'', ''Numbers ...

and Gabriel Andrade (''The Vast''). The anthology series has been described as "Classic tropes of pulp fiction, either turned on their head, given new filters or explored in ridiculous detail, by some of the very best comic creators we have today." In 2018, Moore contributed to the comic anthology ''24 Panels''. The publication was curated by Kieron Gillen and intended to raise funds for those affected by the Grenfell Tower fire of 2017. With the end of the fourth volume of ''League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'', the conclusion of his Lovecraft sequence and some short stories appearing in ''Cinema Purgatorio'', Moore has retired from comics as of mid-2019. In 2022 he confirmed it, saying "I'm definitely done with comics, I haven't written one for getting on for five years. I will always love and adore the comics medium but the comics industry and all of the stuff attached to it just became unbearable." In 2023, it was announced that Moore is a writing a new fantasy series called ''The Long London''. The first book of the series, ''The Great When'', released on 1 October 2024. This series will consist of five books. The second book of the series is named as ''I Hear A New World''.

Work

Themes

In a number of his comics, where he was taking over from earlier writers, including ''Marvelman'', ''Swamp Thing'', and ''Supreme'', he used the "familiar tactic of wiping out what had gone before, giving the hero amnesia and revealing that everything we'd learned to that point was a lie." In this manner he was largely able to start afresh with the character and its series and was not constrained by earlier canon. While commenting on the artistic restrictiveness of serialised comic books, artist Joe Rubinstein gave the example that a comics creator would be limited in what he could do with

Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appearance, first appeared in the anthology comic book ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in ...

, and added, "unless you're Alan Moore, who would probably kill him and bring him back as a real spider or something". As a comics writer, Moore applies literary sensibilities to the mainstream of the medium as well as including challenging subject matter and adult themes. He brings a wide range of influences to his work, such as William S. Burroughs,

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake has become a seminal figure in the history of the Romantic poetry, poetry and visual art of the Roma ...

Thomas Pynchon Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. ( , ; born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, Literary genre, genres and Theme (narrative), th ...

, and Iain Sinclair, New Wave science fiction writers like Michael Moorcock, and horror writers such as Clive Barker. Influences within comics include Will Eisner,

Steve Ditko Stephen John Ditko. Page contains two reproductions from school yearbooks. A 1943 Garfield Junior High School yearbook excerpt lists "Stephen Ditko". A 1945 Johnstown High School yearbook excerpt lists "Stephen J. Ditko" under extracurricular ac ...

Harvey Kurtzman Harvey Kurtzman (; October 3, 1924 – February 21, 1993) was an American cartoonist and editor. His best-known work includes writing and editing the parodic comic book ''Mad (magazine), Mad'' from 1952 until 1956, and writing the ...

, and Bryan Talbot.

Recognition and awards

Moore's work in the comic book medium has been widely recognised by his peers and by critics. Comics historian George Khoury asserted that "to call this free spirit the best writer in the history of comic books is an understatement" while interviewer Steve Rose referred to him as "the

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American director, actor, writer, producer, and magician who is remembered for his innovative work in film, radio, and theatre. He is among the greatest and most influential film ...

of comics" who is "the undisputed high priest of the medium, whose every word is seized upon like a message from the ether" by comic book fans. Douglas Wolk observed: "Moore has undisputably made it into the Hall of Fame: he's one of the pillars of English language comics, alongside Jack Kirby and Will Eisner and Harvey Kurtzman and not many others. He's also the grand exception in that hall, since the other pillars are artists – and more often than not, writer/artists. Moore is a writer almost exclusively, though his hyper detailed scripts always play to the strengths of the artists he works with. That makes him the chief monkey wrench in comics author theory. The main reason that almost nobody's willing to say that a single cartoonist is ''categorically'' superior to a writer/artist team is that such a rule would run smack into Moore's bibliography. In fact, a handful of cartoonists who almost always write the stories they draw have made exceptions for Moore – Jaime Hernandez, Mark Beyer and most memorably Eddie Campbell." Moore was voted Best Writer by the Society of Strip Illustration in both 1982 and 1983. "Other American [sic
/nowiki> Awards,"">/nowiki>sic">"Other American [sic
/nowiki> Awards,"Comic Book Awards Almanac. Retrieved 11 December 2020.

Moore won numerous Jack Kirby Awards, including for Best Single Issue for '' Swamp Thing Annual'' No. 2 in 1985 with John Totleben and Steve Bissette, for Best Continuing Series for ''Swamp Thing'' in 1985, 1986 and 1987 with Totleben and Bissette, Best Writer for ''Swamp Thing'' in 1985 and 1986 and for ''

'' in 1987, and with Dave Gibbons for Best Finite Series and Best Writer/Artist (Single or Team) for ''Watchmen'' in 1987. He received an Inkpot Award at

San Diego Comic-Con San Diego Comic-Con is a comic book convention and multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California, at the San Diego Convention Center. Founded in 1970, originally showcasing primarily comic books and science fiction/fant ...

in 1985. Moore has won multiple Eagle Awards, including virtually a "clean sweep" in 1986 for his work on ''Watchmen'' and ''Swamp Thing''. Moore not only won "favourite writer in both the US and UK categories", but had his work win for favourite comic book, supporting character, and new title in the US; and character, continuing story and "character worthy of own title" in the UK (in which last category his works held all top three spots). Moore has been nominated for the '' Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Awards'' several times, winning for Favorite Writer in 1985, 1986, 1987, 1999, and 2000. He won the CBG Fan Award for Favorite Comic Book Story (''Watchmen'') in 1987 and Favorite Original Graphic Novel or Album ('' Batman: The Killing Joke'' with Brian Bolland) in 1988. He was given the "Best Comics Writer Ever" National Comics Award in 2001, 2002,Sutherland, Kev F. "NATIONAL COMICS AWARDS 2002: THE 5TH NATIONAL COMICS AWARDS RESULTS," 2000ADonline.org
Archived at the Wayback Machine
Retrieved 30 November 2020. and 2003. In addition, he was added to the National Comics Award's Roll of Honour in 2002. He received the

Harvey Award The Harvey Awards are given for achievement in comic books. Named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman, the Harvey Awards were founded by Gary Groth in 1988, president of the publisher Fantagraphics, to be a successor to the Kirby Awards, which were ...

for Best Writer for 1988 (for ''Watchmen''), for 1995 and 1996 (for '' From Hell''), for 1999 (for his body of work, including ''From Hell'' and '' Supreme''), for 2000 (for '' The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen''), and for 2001 and 2003 (for ''

''). Among his numerous international prizes are the German Max & Moritz Prize for an exceptional oeuvre (2008) and the British National Comics Award for Best Comics Writer Ever (in 2001 and 2002). He also won French awards like the Angoulême International Comics Festival Prize for Best Album for ''Watchmen'' in 1989 and ''V for Vendetta'' in 1990, and the Prix de la critique for ''From Hell'' in 2001, the Swedish Urhunden Prize in 1992 for ''Watchmen'' and several Spanish Haxtur Awards, in 1988 for ''Watchmen'' and 1989 for ''Swamp Thing'' No. 5 (both for Best Writer). In 1988 he received a World Fantasy Award for Best Novella for ''A Hypothetical Lizard'', which Avatar Press published in 2004 as a comics adaption by Antony Johnston. Moore also won two International Horror Guild Awards in the category Graphic Story/Illustrated Narrative (in 1995 with

for ''From Hell'' and in 2003 with Kevin O'Neill for ''The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen''). Moore received a

Bram Stoker Award The Bram Stoker Award is a recognition presented annually by the Horror Writers Association (HWA) for "superior achievement" in dark fantasy and horror writing. History The Awards were established in 1987 and have been presented annually since ...

in the category Best Illustrated Narrative for ''The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'' in 2000, then again in 2012 for '' Neonomicon'' as Best Graphic Novel. In 2005, ''Watchmen'' was the only graphic novel to make it on to ''Time'''s "The 100 Best Novels from 1923 to the Present" list.

Eisner Awards

''Best Writer'' * 1988 ''

'' ( DC) * 1989 '' Batman: The Killing Joke'' (DC Comics) * 1995 '' From Hell'' ( Kitchen Sink) * 1996 ''From Hell'' (Kitchen Sink) * 1997 ''From Hell'' (Kitchen Sink); ''Supreme'' ( Maximum Press) * 2000 '' The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'', ''

'', '' Tom Strong'', '' Tomorrow Stories'', '' Top 10'' ( America's Best Comics (ABC)) * 2001 ''The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'', ''Promethea'', ''Tom Strong'', ''Tomorrow Stories'', ''Top 10'' (ABC) * 2004 ''The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'', ''Promethea'', '' Smax'', ''Tom Strong'', '' Tom Strong's Terrific Tales'' (ABC) * 2006 ''Promethea'', '' Top 10: The Forty-Niners'' (ABC) ''Best Writer/Artist'' * 1988 With Dave Gibbons, ''

'' (DC) ''Best Single Issue/Single Story'' * 2000 '' Tom Strong'' #1: "How Tom Strong Got Started", with Chris Sprouse, and Al Gordon (ABC) * 2001 ''

'' #10: "Sex, Stars, and Serpents", with J.H. Williams III, and Mick Gray (ABC) ''Best Serialized Story'' * 1993 '' From Hell'' with

in ''Taboo'' (SpiderBaby Graphix/

Tundra In physical geography, a tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. There are three regions and associated types of tundra: #Arctic, Arctic, Alpine tundra, Alpine, and #Antarctic ...

) ''Best Continuing Series'' * 2001 '' Top 10'', with

, and Zander Cannon (ABC) ''Best Finite Series/Limited Series'' * 1988 ''

'', with Dave Gibbons (DC) * 2003 '' The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II'', with Kevin O'Neill (ABC) ''Best New Series'' * 2000 '' Top 10'', with

, and Zander Cannon (ABC) ''Best Anthology'' * 2000 ''Tomorrow Stories'', with Rick Veitch, Kevin Nowlan, Melinda Gebbie, and Jim Baikie (ABC) ''Best Graphic Album/Best Graphic Album: New'' * 1988 ''

'', with Dave Gibbons (DC) * 1989 '' Batman: The Killing Joke'', with Brian Bolland (DC) * 1994 '' A Small Killing'', with Oscar Zarate (Dark Horse) * 2006 '' Top 10: The Forty-Niners'', with

(ABC) ''Best Graphic Album: Reprint'' * 2000 '' From Hell'', with

(Eddie Campbell Comics) ''The Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame'' * Class of 2014

Film adaptations

Due to the success of his comics, a number of filmmakers have expressed a desire to make film adaptations over the years. Moore himself has consistently opposed such ventures, stating that "I wanted to give comics a special place when I was writing things like ''Watchmen''. I wanted to show off just what the possibilities of the comic book medium were, and films are completely different." Expressing similar sentiments, he also remarked that: The first film to be based upon Moore's work was '' From Hell'' in 2001, which was directed by the

Hughes brothers Albert Hughes and Allen Hughes (born April 1, 1972), known together professionally as the Hughes Brothers, are American twin brother filmmakers. They are known for visceral and often violent films, including ''Menace II Society'' (1993), ''De ...

. The film included a number of radical differences from the original comic, altering the main character from an older, conservative detective to a young character played by

Johnny Depp John Christopher Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor and musician. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Johnny Depp, multiple accolades, including a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for ...

. This was followed in 2003 with '' The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'', a film that also departed radically from the books, changing the ending from a mob war over the skies of London to the infiltration of a secret base in

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

. For these two works, Moore was content to allow the filmmakers to do whatever they wished and removed himself from the process entirely. "As long as I could distance myself by not seeing them," he said, he could profit from the films while leaving the original comics untouched, "assured no one would confuse the two. This was probably naïve on my part." His attitude changed after producer Martin Poll and screenwriter

Larry Cohen Lawrence George Cohen (July 15, 1936 – March 23, 2019) was an American filmmaker. He originally emerged as the writer of blaxploitation films such as ''Black Caesar (film), Black Caesar'' and ''Hell Up in Harlem'' (both 1973), before becomin ...

filed a lawsuit against

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...

, alleging that the film ''The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'' plagiarised an unproduced script they had written entitled ''Cast of Characters''. According to Moore, "They seemed to believe that the head of 20th Century Fox called me up and persuaded me to steal this screenplay, turning it into a comic book they could then adapt back into a movie, to camouflage petty larceny." Moore testified in a deposition and found the process to be extremely unpleasant. Fox's settlement of the case insulted Moore, who interpreted it as an admission of guilt. In 2012, Moore claimed that he had sold the rights to these two works simply for the money; he did not expect the films ever to be made. He was simply "getting money for old rope". Moore said in an interview in 2012 that he had seen neither film. In 2005 a film adaptation of Moore's ''V for Vendetta'' was released, produced by

The Wachowskis Lana Wachowski (born Larry Wachowski, June 21, 1965) and Lilly Wachowski (born Andy Wachowski, December 29, 1967) are American film and television directors, writers and producers. The sisters are both trans women. Together known as the Wacho ...

and directed by

James McTeigue James McTeigue (born 29 December 1967) is an Australian film and television director. He has been an assistant director on many films, including ''Dark City (1998 film), Dark City'' (1998), the The Matrix (franchise)#Films, ''Matrix'' trilogy ( ...

. Producer

Joel Silver Joel Silver (born July 14, 1952) is an American film producer. Life and career Silver was born and raised in South Orange, New Jersey, the son of a writer and a public relations executive. His family is Jewish. He attended Columbia High School ...

said at a press conference for the Warner Bros.' ''

'' that fellow producer

Lana Wachowski Lana Wachowski (born Larry Wachowski, June 21, 1965) and Lilly Wachowski (born Andy Wachowski, December 29, 1967) are American film and television directors, writers and producers. The sisters are both trans women. Together known as the Wacho ...

had talked with Moore, and that " oorewas very excited about what anahad to say." Moore disputed this, reporting that he told Wachowski "I didn't want anything to do with films ... I wasn't interested in Hollywood," and demanded that DC Comics force Warner Bros to issue a public retraction and apology for Silver's "blatant lies". Although Silver called Moore directly to apologise, no public retraction appeared. Moore was quoted as saying that the comic book had been "specifically about things like fascism and anarchy. Those words, 'fascism' and 'anarchy,' occur nowhere in the film. It's been turned into a Bush-era parable by people too timid to set a political satire in their own country." Moore also publicly criticised details of the script before the film's release, pointing to apparent laziness in the writing. "They don't know what British people have for breakfast, they couldn't be bothered o find out 'Eggy in a basket' apparently. Now the US have ' eggs in a basket,' which is fried bread with a fried egg in a hole in the middle. I guess they thought we must eat that as well, and thought 'eggy in a basket' was a quaint and Olde Worlde version", he stated. This conflict between Moore and DC Comics was the subject of an article in ''

'' on 12 March 2006, five days before the US release. In the ''New York Times'' article, Silver stated that about 20 years prior to the film's release he had met with Moore and Dave Gibbons when Silver acquired the film rights to ''V for Vendetta'' and ''Watchmen''. Silver stated, "Alan was odd, but he was enthusiastic and encouraging us to do this. I had foolishly thought that he would continue feeling that way today, not realizing that he wouldn't." Moore did not deny this meeting or Silver's characterisation of Moore at that meeting, nor did Moore state that he advised Silver of his change of opinion in those approximately 20 years. The ''New York Times'' article also interviewed David Lloyd about Moore's reaction to the film's production, stating, "Mr Lloyd, the illustrator of ''V for Vendetta'', also found it difficult to sympathize with Mr Moore's protests. When he and Mr Moore sold their film rights to the comic book, Mr Lloyd said: 'We didn't do it innocently. Neither myself nor Alan thought we were signing it over to a board of trustees who would look after it like it was the

Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls, also called the Qumran Caves Scrolls, are a set of List of Hebrew Bible manuscripts, ancient Jewish manuscripts from the Second Temple period (516 BCE – 70 CE). They were discovered over a period of ten years, between ...

.'" Moore has subsequently stated that he wishes his name to be removed from all comic work that he does not own, including ''Watchmen'' and ''V for Vendetta'', much as unhappy film directors often choose to have their names removed and be credited as " Alan Smithee". He also announced that he would not allow his name to be used in any future film adaptations of works he does not own, nor would he accept any money from such adaptations. This request was respected by the producers of the subsequent screen adaptations of his works: '' Constantine'' (2005) (based on a character created by Moore), the 2009 Warner Brothers ''Watchmen'' film, the 2016 animated ''Batman: The Killing Joke'' film and the 2019 HBO ''Watchmen'' TV series. In a 2012 interview with '' LeftLion'' magazine, Moore was asked to put a figure on how much money he had turned down by refusing to be associated with these film adaptations. He estimated it to be "at least a few million dollars" and said: Moore has expressed criticism of modern superhero movies in general, which he once called a "blight" to cinema and "also to culture to a degree". He said in an October 2022 interview with ''

'' that the popularization of the genre on the part of adults is an "infantilization" that can act as "a precursor to fascism". Lamenting at how deeply such films became part of the culture, Moore commented:

I will always love and adore the comics medium but the comics industry and all of the stuff attached to it just became unbearable... Hundreds of thousands of adults relining up to see characters and situations that had been created to entertain the 12-year-old boys – and it ''was'' always boys – of 50 years ago. I didn't really think that superheroes were adult fare. I think that this was a misunderstanding born of what happened in the 1980s – to which I must put my hand up to a considerable share of the blame, though it was not intentional – when things like Watchmen were first appearing. There were an awful lot of headlines saying 'Comics Have Grown Up'. I tend to think that, no, comics hadn't grown up. There were a few titles that were more adult than people were used to. But the majority of comics titles were pretty much the same as they'd ever been. It wasn't comics growing up. I think it was more comics meeting the emotional age of the audience coming the other way.

During a September 2023 interview with ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are often names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * The Telegraph (Adelaide), ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaid ...

'', Moore reiterated this view, saying that what had appealed to him most about output from comics publishers was "no more", saying, "Now they're called 'graphic novels', which sounds sophisticated and you can charge a lot more for them. These innocent and inventive and imaginative superhero characters from the '40s, '50s and '60s are being recycled to a modern audience as if they were adult fare." During that same interview, journalist Jake Kerridge asked Moore if it was true that he divided the money he had received from onscreen adaptations of his work among the writers and other staffpersons of those productions. Moore replied, "I no longer wish it to even be shared with them. I don't really feel, with the recent films, that they have stood by what I assumed were their original principles. So I asked for DC Comics to send all of the money from any future TV series or films to

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a Decentralization, decentralized political and social movement that aims to highlight racism, discrimination and Racial inequality in the United States, racial inequality experienced by black people, and to pro ...

List of feature film adaptations

Personal life

Since his teenage years Moore has had long hair, and since early adulthood has also had a beard. He has taken to wearing a number of large rings on his hands, leading him to be described as a "cross between Hagrid and Danny from '' Withnail and I''" who could be easily mistaken for "the village eccentric". Born and raised in

, he continues to live in the town, and used its history as a basis for his novels ''Voice of the Fire'' and ''Jerusalem''. With his first wife Phyllis, whom he married in the early 1970s, he has two daughters,

and Amber. The couple also had a mutual lover, Deborah, although the relationship between the three ended in the early 1990s as Phyllis and Deborah left Moore, taking his daughters with them. On 12 May 2007, he married Melinda Gebbie, with whom he has worked on several comics, most notably ''Lost Girls''. His "unassuming terraced" Northampton home was described by an interviewer in 2001 as "something like an occult bookshop under permanent renovation, with records, videos, magical artefacts and comic-book figurines strewn among shelves of mystical tomes and piles of paper. The bathroom, with blue-and-gold décor and a generous sunken tub, is palatial; the rest of the house has possibly never seen a vacuum cleaner. This is clearly a man who spends little time on the material plane." He likes to live in his home town, feeling that it affords him a level of obscurity that he enjoys, remarking that "I never signed up to be a celebrity." He has spoken in praise of the town's former Radical MP, Charles Bradlaugh at the annual commemoration. He is also a vegetarian. As of September 2023, Moore was said to be living "a quiet life in Northampton, England."

Religion and magic

In 1993, on his fortieth birthday, Moore openly declared his dedication to being a

ian, something he saw as "a logical end step to my career as a writer". According to a 2001 interview, his inspiration for doing this came when he was writing '' From Hell'' in the early 1990s, a book containing much Freemasonic and occult symbolism: "One word balloon in ''From Hell'' completely hijacked my life ... A character says something like, 'The one place gods inarguably exist is in the human mind'. After I wrote that, I realised I'd accidentally made a true statement, and now I'd have to rearrange my entire life around it. The only thing that seemed to really be appropriate was to become a magician." Moore associates magic very much with writing; "I believe that magic is art, and that art, whether that be music, writing, sculpture, or any other form, is literally magic. Art is, like magic, the science of manipulating symbols, words or images, to achieve changes in consciousness ... Indeed to cast a spell is simply to spell, to manipulate words, to change people's consciousness, and this is why I believe that an artist or writer is the closest thing in the contemporary world to a

shaman Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into ...

." Connecting his esoteric beliefs with his career in writing, he conceptualised a hypothetical area known as the "Idea Space", describing it as "... a space in which mental events can be said to occur, an idea space which is perhaps universal. Our individual consciousnesses have access to this vast universal space, just as we have individual houses, but the street outside the front door belongs to everybody. It's almost as if ideas are pre-existing forms within this space ... The landmasses that might exist in this mind space would be composed entirely of ideas, of concepts, that instead of continents and islands you might have large belief systems, philosophies,

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

might be one,

Judeo-Christian The term ''Judeo-Christian'' is used to group Christianity and Judaism together, either in reference to Christianity's derivation from Judaism, Christianity's recognition of Jewish scripture to constitute the Old Testament of the Christian Bibl ...

religions might make up another." He subsequently believed that to navigate this space, magical systems like the

tarot Tarot (, first known as ''trionfi (cards), trionfi'' and later as ''tarocchi'' or ''tarocks'') is a set of playing cards used in tarot games and in fortune-telling or divination. From at least the mid-15th century, the tarot was used to play t ...

and the Qabalah would have to be used. Taking up the study of the Qabalah and the writings of the early 20th-century occultist

, Moore accepted ideas from Crowley's religion,

Thelema Thelema () is a Western esotericism, Western esoteric and occult social or spiritual philosophy and a new religious movement founded in the early 1900s by Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), an English writer, mystic, occultist, and ceremonial ma ...

, about True Will being connected to the will of the

pantheistic Pantheism can refer to a number of Philosophy, philosophical and Religion, religious beliefs, such as the belief that the universe is God, or panentheism, the belief in a non-corporeal divine intelligence or God out of which the universe arise ...

universe. In some of his earlier magical rituals, he used mind-altering psychedelic drugs but later gave this up, believing that they were unnecessary, and stated, "It's frightening. You call out the names in this strange incomprehensible language, and you're looking into the glass and there appears to be this little man talking to you. It just works." Moore took as his primary deity the ancient Roman snake god Glycon, who was the centre of a cult founded by a prophet known as Alexander of Abonoteichus, and according to Alexander's critic

Lucian Lucian of Samosata (Λουκιανὸς ὁ Σαμοσατεύς, 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridi ...

, the god itself was merely a puppet, something Moore accepts, considering him to be a "complete hoax", but dismisses as irrelevant. According to Pagan Studies scholar Ethan Doyle-White, "The very fact that Glycon was probably one big hoax was enough to convince Moore to devote himself to the scaly lord, for, as Moore maintains, the imagination is just as real as reality." Moore has an altar to Glycon at his home.

Friends and hobbies

Moore is a member of Northampton Arts Lab and takes walks with the novelist Alistair Fruish.

Political views

Moore politically identifies as an

, and outlined his interpretation of anarchist philosophy, and its application to fiction writing in an interview with Margaret Killjoy, collected in the 2009 book, ''Mythmakers and Lawbreakers'': In December 2011, Moore responded to Frank Miller's attack on the Occupy movement, calling his more recent work misogynistic, homophobic and misguided. Worldwide, Occupy protesters adopted the Guy Fawkes mask from ''V for Vendetta''. The mask has also been adopted by

Anonymous Anonymous may refer to: * Anonymity, the state of an individual's identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown ** Anonymous work, a work of art or literature that has an unnamed or unknown creator or author * Anonym ...

, Egyptian revolutionaries, and

anti-globalization The anti-globalization movement, or counter-globalization movement, is a social movement critical of economic globalization. The movement is also commonly referred to as the global justice movement, alter-globalization movement, anti-globalist ...

demonstrators. Moore described Occupy as "ordinary people reclaiming rights which should always have been theirs" and added: Moore is a member of The Arts Emergency Service, a British charity working with 16- to 19-year-olds in

further education Further education (often abbreviated FE) in the United Kingdom and Ireland is additional education to that received at secondary school that is distinct from the higher education (HE) offered in universities and other academic institutions. It ...

from diverse backgrounds. In August 2016, Moore endorsed

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who has been Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington North (UK Parliament constituency), Islington North since 1983. Now an Independent ...

's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election. In the 2017 general election, Moore expressed guarded support for the Labour Party, mainly due to the left-wing socialist Corbyn being elected leader, although he does not vote as a matter of political principle. In November 2019, Moore again expressed guarded support for Labour, saying that he was voting for the first time in over forty years. "Although my vote is principally against the Tories rather than for Labour," he wrote, "I'd observe that Labour's current manifesto is the most encouraging set of proposals that I've ever seen from any major British party. Though these are immensely complicated times and we are all uncertain as to which course we should take, I'd say the one that steers us furthest from the glaringly apparent iceberg is the safest bet." In 2022, Alan Moore published a letter supporting Brazilian presidential candidate Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, from the Workers' Party.

On conspiracy theories

Doing research into

conspiracy theories A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * ...

for his work on '' Brought to Light'', Moore came to develop his own view about why people accept conspiracy theories, stating that:

On comic book writing and style

Despite his advocacy for creator-owned comics, Moore has expressed dissatisfaction with the output of independent comic companies, stating in a 1985

essay An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...

that, "With a very few bold exceptions, most of the creator-owned material produced by the independent companies has been indistinguishable from the mainstream product that preceded it." Moore has also criticized his own overuse of "a basic elliptical plot structure, where elements at the beginning of the story mirror events which are to happen at the end ... acting as bookends to give the story that takes place in between a sense of neatness and unity." He has also faulted his own excessive use of overlapping or coincidental dialogue in scene transitions. Moore explained his preference for comic book writing over other mediums: "In comics, I have complete control, other than the input of my artists... every full stop and comma that I put down on that script is going to end up in the finished comic." Moore complimented Frank Miller's realistic use of minimal dialogue in fight scenes, which "move very fast, flowing from image to image with the speed of a real-life conflict, unimpeded by the reader having to stop to read a lot of accompanying text".

Selected bibliography

Comics * ''

'' (1982–1985, 1988–1989) * '' Marvelman/Miracleman'' (1982–1984) * '' Skizz'' (1983–1985) * '' The Ballad of Halo Jones'' (1984–1986) * '' Swamp Thing'' (1984–1987) * ''

'' (1986–1987) * '' Batman: The Killing Joke'' (1988) * '' From Hell'' (1989–1996) * '' Big Numbers'' (1990) * '' A Small Killing'' (1991) * '' Lost Girls'' (1991–1992, 2006) * '' Top 10'' (1999–2001) * ''

'' (1999–2005) * '' Tom Strong'' (1999–2006) * '' The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'' (1999–2019) * '' The Courtyard'' (2003) * '' Neonomicon'' (2010) * '' Fashion Beast'' (2012–2013) * '' Providence'' (2015–2017) Novels * '' Voice of the Fire'' (1996) * ''

'' (2016) * '' The Great When: A Long London Novel'' (2024) Short stories * '' Illuminations'' (2022) Non-fiction * '' Alan Moore's Writing for Comics'' (2003)

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * * * (The definitive behind-the-scenes story of the demise of Moore's magnum opus.)

External links

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, Alan 1953 births Living people 20th-century English novelists 21st-century English novelists Anarchist writers Artists from Northampton Avatar Press British alternative history writers British comic strip cartoonists Ceremonial magicians Critics of conspiracy theories British critics of religions Cthulhu Mythos writers Eisner Award winners for Best Writer/Artist Eisner Award winners for Best Writer English anarchists English cartoonists English comics writers English male screenwriters English modern pagans English occult writers English science fiction writers Glycon cult Harvey Award winners for Best Writer Hugo Award–winning writers Inkpot Award winners Modern pagan artists Modern pagan writers People educated at Northampton School for Boys British postmodern writers British weird fiction writers Writers from Northampton Writers of books about writing fiction British occultists English occultists 21st-century anarchists

Early life

Career

Early career, as writer and artist: 1978–1983

Marvel UK, ''2000 AD'', and ''Warrior'': 1980–1986

The American mainstream and DC Comics: 1983–1988

Independent period and Mad Love: 1988–1993

Return to the mainstream and Image Comics: 1993–1998

America's Best Comics: 1999–2008

Return to independents: 2009–present

Work

Themes

Recognition and awards

Eisner Awards

Film adaptations

List of feature film adaptations

Personal life

Religion and magic

Friends and hobbies

Political views

On conspiracy theories

On comic book writing and style

Selected bibliography

See also

Notes

References

External links