History Creator / AlanMoore

Moore had a huge knowledge of comics history and a canny instinct for reconfiguring and resurrecting forgotten and little-known or weakly-selling titles. He had planned to do a story about superheroes that involved a murder mystery around one of their numbers, with his initial concept involving the MLJ run published by Archie Comics, which he had assumed, wrongly, that DC had rights to. What DC did have was rights to the properties of Creator/CharltonComics, and Moore made his pitch using them, but his publishers, while impressed by the pitch, pointed out that Moore's premise would render a number of the characters unusable by the end of the story and so invited him to create an entirely new series. Thus, ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'' was born, with Moore using characters who can be recognized as {{Alternate Company Equivalent}}s of the Charlton characters but with gradual sharp differences from their inspiration and from most superhero comics of their time. Collaborating with Dave Gibbons, the comic was sophisticated on a level that mainstream comics had not known at the time, having a character and plot that rivaled the most highbrow books (and continues to rival the best that many writers can come up with). ''Watchmen'' proved to be a massive sensation, and with Frank Miller's ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns'' is credited with launching UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks, and starting a new market for graphic novels, along with other comics such as Art Spiegelman's ''ComicBook/{{Maus}}'' and Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez's ''ComicBook/LoveAndRockets''.

** In general, Moore's dark, introspective, sometimes horrific work introduced a much darker tone which tinged the status quo of comic books in his earlier years, with works like ''Comicbook/TheKillingJoke'' and ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'' often seen as kickstarting UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks.

** Moore is often co-credited as having started UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks with his stories ''Comicbook/TheKillingJoke'' and ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'', alongside Creator/FrankMiller's ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns''. [[OldShame He's not proud of this fact]]; he thinks ''Comicbook/TheKillingJoke'' in particular [[CreatorBacklash was weak as a story]] and ''especially'' as a basis for an industry-wide tonal shift, and overall resents the idea of having led comics into a more deconstructive and angsty direction that didn't understand the context, intent, and purpose of his example. Note that his most influential works to this era, [[UnbuiltTrope while often dark, are almost always idealistic]], and his later works [[LighterAndSofter were often lighter]] even if they did retain an edge.

[[quoteright:350:[[KubrickStare https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Alan_Moore.jpg]]]]

* Western ritualism, specially Kabbalah and hermeticism. It shows up almost everywhere, from ''ComicBook/SwampThing'' to ''ComicBook/{{Promethea}}. ''[[AuthorTract Specially]]'' ComicBook/{{Promethea}}.

[[quoteright:350:[[KubrickStare https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Alan_Moore.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Not actually [[UsefulNotes/RasputinTheMadMonk Rasputin]]... ''[[FalseReassurance far]]'' [[FalseReassurance harder to kill]].]]

--> "I’ve been told the Joker film wouldn’t exist without my Joker story (1988’s Batman: The Killing Joke), but three months after I’d written that I was disowning it, it was far too violent – it was Batman for christ’s sake, it’s a guy dressed as a bat. Increasingly I think the best version of Batman was Adam West, which didn’t take it at all seriously.”

Moore has also become known in the '90s-onwards as a performing artist in a variety of mediums. One of his performing art pieces, "The Birth Caul" was later adapted by Eddie Campbell as a graphic novel. He has also written works of fiction, such as ''Voices in the Fire'', and in October 2016, he released his second novel, the [[DoorStopper 1,300-page]] ''Jerusalem''. He has also collaborated on a number of films with Mitch Jenkins, a series of shorts that form the anthology ''Show Pieces''. As a writer for comics, Moore is known for his famously dense and detailed scripts, packed with detail that describes the comic panels and everything that happens inside it. [[Webcomic/SomethingPositive Apparently]], his amazing talent comes from Satan. [[MemeticBadass Not by selling his soul for it]], mind you, but because he used to beat Satan up for his lunch money until the Devil bribed Moore with genius to leave him alone. Additionally, Death is afraid of him. He is known, with a particularly vivid description of ''ComicBook/FromHell'', to have driven [[Creator/NeilGaiman Neil "Scary Trousers" Gaiman]] to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=337-ycZz6IM&feature=related leave a restaurant to go outside and get some fresh air so he wouldn't vomit.]] Twice. Gaiman also wrote [[http://lysad.blogspot.com/2007/08/neil-gaiman-writes-alan-moore.html this]] short comic about him, which pretty much sums up how many people view him.

** Extensively detailed backgrounds, use of flashbacks to provide backstory, as well as text-only appendix and post-scripts that provide additional WorldBuilding. Also issues which commit GenreAdultery and move towards an OutOfGenreExperience such as Walt Kelly's Pogo making an appearance in ''Swamp Thing''. Likewise there is a lot of metafictional commentary, such as ''Crossed +100'' a post-apocalyptic story about post-apocalyptic fiction.

* ''Maxwell the Magic Cat'' [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness (A comedic, kid-friendly comic strip written and drawn by Moore]]; 1979-1986; [[TheBusCameBack 2018 one-off]])

* And, of course, DoingItForTheArt. During TheNineties, he was forced to do things by the book in order to make ends meet, but generally he never does it for anything else besides for its own sake.