A self-proclaimed vegetarian, anarchist, practicing magician, occultist, and devout follower of the Roman snake-deity "Glycon," Alan Moore was born to Ernest (a brewery worker) and Sylvia Moore (a printer) on November 18, 1953 in Northampton, England - an impoverished industrial town located between London and Birmingham. Very little is known about Moore's childhood, other than his being influenced by an extremely religious and superstitious grandmother. In 1970, Moore was expelled from a conservative secondary school (or "high school" in America-talk) after being caught selling LSD (Moore is often quoted as saying he was "one of the world's most inept LSD dealers."). Little did he probably realize at the time that his talents (or lack thereof) as a dealer of hallucinogens would pave the way for an acclaimed career as a comic book writer.
After his expulsion, Moore attempted and failed to get into another school, and soon realized he would be thrust into the working world earlier than expected. In the midst of jockeying between menial, dead-end jobs and unemployment, Moore married his first wife, Phyllis, in 1974, and subsequently had two daughters, Amber and Leah (the latter would follow in her father's footsteps becoming an accomplished comic book writer in her own right). He has since remarried his longtime collaborator, Melinda Gebbie.
By 1979, Moore would eventually find his niche in the world of underground comics, providing strips for British rock magazines such as Sounds and NME under the pseudonym "Curt Vile." He would later adopt the nom de plume "Jill de Ray" (a play on infamous 15th century serial murderer, Gilles de Rais, a.k.a. Bluebeard) writing and drawing a comic strip titled Maxwell the Magic Cat for the Northants Post newspaper - a gig Moore said he would've enjoyed sticking with if not for the newspaper's staunch anti-homosexual leanings.
Soon thereafter, Moore decided that his talents as an artist would only take him so far, and decided to focus solely on writing. In 1980, he began writing stories of the UK's long-running comic magazine, 2000 A.D., scripting Judge Dredd, Future Shocks, and Time Twisters short stories. Concurrently, Moore revitalized Marvel UK's Captain Britain character, which quickly spawned its own series.
1982 saw Moore experimenting with longer-form comic stories for another comic magazine, Warrior, attracting wide critical acclaim. In addition to a re-imagining of a long-forgotten comic character called Marvelman (which would later be renamed to Miracleman for obvious legal reasons), Moore also created V for Vendetta -- a direct commentary on the threat of Britain being overrun by fascism at the time.
His success in England cemented, Moore turned his sights to the lucrative American comic market a year later, landing a gig writing the horror classic Swamp Thing for DC Comics, and also introducing a new character to the franchise named John Constantine (the basis for 2005's Constantine feature film). With his work on Swamp Thing being a critical and commercial success, DC offered Moore the chance to write Superman and Batman, of which Moore penned two of the character's most memorable tales -- Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? and The Killing Joke, respectively.
However, Moore's greatest triumph would come in 1986, when he would team with artist Dave Gibbons on a 12-issue series titled Watchmen; a superhero murder mystery that places the capes-and-tights set in a truly realistic setting. Watchmen would prove to be groundbreaking on numerous levels, but more than anything, it ushered in a new era of "adult" themed comics.
After a highly-public falling-out with DC Comics in 1989, Moore decided to return to his underground "comix" roots, with his most notable work being From Hell -- a look at 1880's London in the realm of the Jack the Ripper slayings (which also inspired a major motion picture) - and more recently, Lost Girls, a highly-erotic tale which featured recognizable girls from classic fiction such as Alice from Alice in Wonderland, Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, and Wendy from Peter Pan.
Since then, Moore has returned to mainstream comic work at Wildstorm Productions (an imprint of DC Comics), with his own line of comics, "America's Best Comics," the standout series being The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen -- widely praised among comic fans who choose to forget the widely panned movie adaptation.
