Alan Moore started initially by writing and drawing comics but decided that he was not a good enough artist and stuck to scripting. He started to work for the great British comic 2000AD, then produced to "V for Vendetta" and "Miracleman" before taking over the ailing "Swamp Thing" strip to revive. The rest, as they say, is comic book history.

Before Moore Swamp Thing was a fairly unoriginal, though beautifully drawn, monster strip. Within two issues he had redefined the main character. Where formerly it was all that remained of a dead scientist who's body decomposed in a swamp it was now an entirely new being created out of the dead scientist and the swamp itself.

Moore imagined that this new creature (though a later issue suggested that there had been similar creatures in the past) was linked, not only to the forest, but to all plant life - even that which resides in the human gut. It was capable of both communing and manipulating plant matter. It could also change it's own form.

Some of the early Moore Swamp thing stories were genuinely creepy. Others were also ground breaking. In one strip a woman changes into a werewolf during her monthly cycle - a sort of horror themed pmt tale. And in another the Swamp Thing had sex with his resident squeeze - Abigail Cable.

Moore's next significant project was the ambitious Watchmen. This imagined a time when superhero activities are outlawed as vigilantism. One of these ex superheroes is up to something and the others are trying to find out what. Over 12 issues we follow this plot, each issue focusing on a particular character - both their past and present life.

Much of Watchmen works and as with all of Moore's work the journey is fascinating even if the final payoff is disappointing. He produces beautiful dense literate (over literate?) plotlines which at time threaten to disintegrate in their own intellectual pretensions. 

There are always rumours that Watchmen is going to be filmed - though it is probably unfilmable. Another unfilmable project that has been made is "From Hell" which starred Johnny Depp and Heather Graham. This is a collaboration with Eddie Campbell about Jack the Ripper and boasts (and does it boast) a great deal of research. Again, highly recommended, a fascinating, if loopy story delivered in bravura style. Buy it. Incidentally if you are interested in Jack the Ripper and all the numerous theories concerning the murderer (including the one in "From Hell) then I recommend you try  http://www.casebook.org/.

Like Frank Miller, Moore is flavour of the month when it comes to movie adaptations. There have been films of his, "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" and "V for Vendetta". The former is a passable pastiche which utilises 19/20th century heroes, such as Alan Quatermain, the invisible man, Dr Jekyll, Captain Nemo and Mina Harker. The film is dreadful. V for Vendetta is one of the best things Moore has done. It features a 1984 style totalitarian state where a Guy Fawkes clad terrorist is trying to bring back democracy. The film is a pretty fair effort.

Since "From Hell" Moore appears to have coasted somewhat by his own standards. He worked on a sex themed tale called "Lost Girls" with Melinda Gebbie as well as the aformentioned "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", which is a nice if slight tale. He has also produced the well thought of " Promethea", which has a hint of Wonder Woman about it.

But he is one of the few comics creators who is capable of genuinely surprising readers so who knows what the Nabob of Northampton will do next.

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