Alan Moore Fan Site

: : Biography

Alan Moore was born November 18, 1953 in Northampton, England, an industrial town between London and Birmingham. The oldest son of brewery worker Ernest Moore and printer Sylvia Doreen, Moore's childhood and youth were influenced by the poverty of his family and their environment (as well as the eccentricities of his highly religious and superstitious grandmother). He was expelled from a conservative secondary school and was not accepted at any other school. In 1971, Moore was unemployed, with no job qualifications whatsoever.

It was during this time that Moore began working with Embryo, a magazine he had been publishing with friends, which led to his involvement in the Northhampton Art Lab. Moore married in 1974, eventually having two daughters, Amber and Leah.

In 1979, Moore began working as a cartoonist for the weekly music magazine Sounds, in which a detective story called Roscoe Moscow appeared under the pseudonym Curt Vile. Eventually, though, Moore concluded that he was a poor artist and decided to focus his efforts on writing instead.

Moore's early contributions were to Doctor Who Weekly and the famous science-fiction title 2000 AD, under which Moore created several popular series, such as The Ballad of Halo Jones, Skizz, and D.R. & Quinch. Moore then worked for Warrior, a British anthology magazine. It was on this title that Moore began two important series: Marvelman (known in the United States as Miracleman), a revisionist superhero series, and V For Vendetta, Moore's groundbreaking tale of the fight for freedom and dignity in a fascist and dystopian Britain, both of which earned him the British Eagle Awards for Best Comics Writer in 1982 and 1983.Moore's exceptional writing talent won him his first American series, Saga of the Swamp Thing. Moore reinvented the character, while at the same time revolving his plot around tough topics (gun control, racism, nuclear waste, etc.). Moore displayed great depth and insight in his work, demonstrating that he was able to write on a wide range of topics and situations. Moore's stories set the pace for the "Sophisticated Suspense" by which most comics under DC's Vertigo line operate under today.

In addition to Saga of the Swamp Thing, Moore also penned several other DC titles, such as Tales of the Green Lantern Corps, a Batman Annual and several Superman stories.

In 1986, while DC Comics was reconstructing their comic's universe, Moore quietly came out with Watchmen. Watchmen, in conjunction with Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, redefined the comics book medium, and changed the tone of comics to this very day.

Watchmen's complex script provided a realistic portrayal of superheroes in a world that neither understood, nor trusted them. Considered by some to be the greatest comic ever produced, Moore was riding on a high. Watchmen, became the first comic book to be a recipient of the prestigious Hugo Award.

Moore finished his run on Swamp Thing, completed the V For Vendetta storyline under DC Comics and wrote quite possibly the best Joker story ever in Batman: The Killing Joke.

However, Moore was very unhappy with the fact that he didn't own the rights to Watchmen, nor did he feel that he was receiving adequate royalties from the series.

Furthermore, at the time there were discussions of implementing a comic book ratings system, of which Moore was firmly against. In the late 80's, Moore left DC and mainstream comics to work strictly for the smaller, independent publishers.

Once free of DC, Moore began several projects. In 1988, Moore set up his own publishing imprint called Mad Love Publishing. Moore began working on a screenplay with Sex Pistols manager, Malcolm McLaren, called Fashion Beast, though the film never came about.

He also began work on Big Numbers with artist Bill Sienkiewicz and began two series for Stephen Bissette's Taboo, called Lost Girls with artist Melinda Gebbie, and Moore's ground-breaking series, From Hell. From Hell reconstructed the Jack the Ripper murders in meticulous detail. Moore also did a personal story called A Small Killing, with artist Oscar Zarate. Self-publishing, however, was not good to Moore. Of the series begun during this period, only A Small Killing and From Hell have seen completion.

Moore eventually began working with Image Comics, a new comics company run by a group of very popular young artists and writers. With this company, Moore penned 1963, sort of an atonement for the bad writing from other writers that resulted in the comics medium as a result of the Watchmen. He also wrote several stories for Todd McFarlane's Spawn character.

Perhaps the greatest treasure to appear under the Image imprint was Moore's revamp of the Supreme series. Supreme was a thinly-veiled version of Superman created by artist Rob Liefeld. Moore's take on the character was both nostalgic and inventive, harking back to the early days of DC Comics. Unfortunately, the series was halted due to financial problems and the final two issues have yet to see print.

Currently, Moore has his own imprint, America's Best Comics (ABC), under which he's once again paving new territory with several new series: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Promethea, Tom Strong, Tom Strong's Terrific Tales, Tomorrow Stories and Top Ten. Moore's other projects include CD's and a book or two…in addition to his desire to become a magician.

Alan Moore lives in Northampton, England.

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