Alan Moore: “I disown almost 90 percent of my comics. I won’t go back to them.”

When Alan Moore (Northampton, UK, 1953) announced he was leaving the world of comics, many readers lost all hope of ever hearing from him again. The British screenwriter, known for works such as Watchmen , V for Vendetta , and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen , tried to reassure his fans by saying they would stay in touch, but in a different way. And that avenue, it seems, is through novels.

He published the ambitious Jerusalem in 2022, about the history of his hometown, Northampton, and The Great When has recently arrived in bookstores from Nocturna Ediciones, the first of five installments in the saga he has named Eternal London and which stars a young bookseller who discovers a portal to a magical London. An alternative version of the city where reality and fiction intertwine.

You announced your retirement from the world of comics a while back. Would you be open to another artist adapting your novels into comics?

I'm afraid not. I've long since disowned almost 90 percent of my comics. I won't return to them. This latest saga has been conceived as a series of novels, and to achieve this, I employ all the techniques of prose. Therefore, any futile attempt to turn them into graphic novels will be carried out at my side, and I hope not even then.

Yes, however, this plot will make the jump to television.

I recently signed deals for a potential five-season series with an amazing production company called Playground, who did Hilary Mantel's splendid adaptations of Wolf Hall , and obviously have a stunning production history and a scrupulous eye for period detail.

The story is set in London in 1949.

I wanted this saga to indirectly comment on our century and current circumstances, examining the final decades of the previous century and studying the historical and cultural steps that led us to our current situation. I decided that London, in the aftermath of the turmoil of World War II, could be an ideal starting point for such a story.

For what reason?

The beginning of our late modern era came in 1945 with the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ushering in a new era of global anxiety and all the environmental, political, and economic repercussions it entailed. In the postwar period, England was beset by a deep and dangerous class divide, was hesitant about its membership in any kind of European Union, and was beginning to see its first West Indian immigrants and, consequently, the first signs of a racist backlash. So, pretty much the same as now, but without AI.

Create a new protagonist: Dennis Knuckleyard

A few years ago, I woke up laughing and a name popped into my head: Dennis Knuckleyard. The surname means 'knuckles.' I jotted it down, knowing it would be useful as a name for some character in the future, even though I had no idea who it was. It seemed like the name of a working-class English man, possibly from a time before our own. At first, I thought it might belong to a rough character. Gradually, I began to perceive him as a comically unfortunate and hapless individual, for whom his unusual name—not found in any annals of the world—had always been a source of ridicule and shame. He basically came out of my dreams and appeared in my book.

Do you think it would have happened without your previous experience as a screenwriter?

Maybe so, but it would have been a different book. I'm more conscious of the visually descriptive passages now because I know there won't be an illustrator to interpret them.

In The Guardian , he criticized the fandom , speaking of his "emotional stagnation" when queuing to see superhero movies or read comics.

I warned back in 2013 that this audience was a potential precursor to far-right populism. I saw this mass infantilization as a retreat from adult responsibility. Those who don't feel in control of their own lives are often eager to relinquish control to a "strong," even tyrannical, leader. Sound familiar?

A stage closed with key and padlock

Alan Moore has said goodbye several times throughout his career. The first time he announced his retirement from the world of comics was in 2016. He wanted to dedicate himself to film and literature, and he did, although he returned to the world of comics shortly after. In 2019, he made a second announcement, and it seems this time he's serious. "Having toxic corporations take away most of my intellectual property was undoubtedly a great incentive, but more than that, my disgust with everything came from what the comics industry has become, with an ever-decreasing number of readers, made up of a good number of reactive and bitter incels ," he laments to La Vanguardia .