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The 10 best Alan Moore comics, ranked: From Watchmen to From Hell
Think Watchmen is Alan Moore’s masterpiece? These comics might change your mind.
GuidesbyChris Arrant, Editor-in-Chief
Published on Thu Aug 27 2026
There are great comic book writers, there are influential comic book writers… and then there’s Alan Moore.
Over the past 40+ years, Moore has repeatedly changed the conception of what comic books — especially superhero comic books — are capable of, and was on the frontlines of broadening comic books from being seen as juvenile literature into a place where more difficult subjects such as politics, philosophy, horror, history, and the human condition could be tackled no different than great prose novels… and in some cases, even better with the help of the right artistic collaborator. His works on Swamp Thing, Superman, and especially Watchmen reshaped superhero comics in such a way that there is now a clear demarcation line for superhero comics before Alan Moore’s influence, and then superhero comics after Alan Moore’s influence.
In making a list of the best Alan Moore comics, I’m not going for the biggest-selling or the ones with the best adaptations. Instead, I’m focusing on the comics themselves, and not the business around it; ranking them based on storytelling, artistic collaboration, influence, and lasting impact on myself as a reader… and hopefully how it’ll be for you.
Alan Moore at a glance
Emerging from Britain’s underground comics scene in the late ’70s, Alan Moore went on to revolutionize superheroes, horror, and long-form comics storytelling with landmark works including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Saga of the Swamp Thing, and From Hell. His ’80s comics work was so popular and successful that he found himself dealing with complicated battles with publishers such as Marvel and DC and several of his fellow creators over ownership and rights over these works, as they received such popularity that none of them would have realized when they first agreed to terms. With all that creativity and all that success, he gradually became disappointed when the optimistic potential of what comics could be was stymied by the big business surrounding big comics successes.
The 10 best Alan Moore comics
10. Providence (2015 – 2017)
- Writer: Alan Moore
- Artist: Jacen Burrows
- Publisher: Avatar Press
- Genre: Horror
Why it’s one of Alan Moore’s best comics: If Watchmen reinvited superheroes, then Providence is Alan Moore taking that same approach to the Cthulhu mythos created by H.P. Lovecraft. Created with artist Jacen Burrows, this 12-issue series takes the concepts of Lovecraft’s work and presents a slow-burn mystery with a foreboding tinge of horror creeping at the edges of the comic panels. Far more than fan fiction of H.P. Lovecraft, Providence embraces, contorts, and confronts that author’s works, including the racism, sexism, and other prejudices embedded in the source material.
9. Miracleman (1982 – 1989)
- Writer: Alan Moore
- Artist: Garry Leach, Alan Davis, John Ridgway, Chuck Beckum, Rick Veitch, John Totleben
- Publisher: DC Comics
- Genre: Superhero
Why it’s one of Alan Moore’s best comics:Alan Moore’s Miracleman begins with a simple but unsettling question: what would happen if a forgotten bygone superhero suddenly remembered he was real? Mike Moran is an ordinary middle-aged journalist plagued by migraines and strange dreams until he rediscovers the magic word that transforms him into the godlike Miracleman. What might seem commonplace and rote in 2026 was revolutionary in 1982 when Moore’s Miracleman burst onto the scene, grappling with the dark, human side of the light-hearted power fantasy that superhero comics traditionally are.
8. Saga of the Swamp Thing (1984 – 1987)
- Writer: Alan Moore
- Artist: Stephen R. Bissette, Shawn McManus, Rick Veitch, Stan Woch, John Totleben, et al.
- Publisher: DC Comics
- Genre: Superhero
Why it’s one of Alan Moore’s best comics: Alan Moore’s Saga of the Swamp Thing takes a straightforward monster comic and turns it into something far stranger and more profound. By succinctly retconning the idea that Swamp Thing was a human-turned-monster and instead an elemental force sapping the dying embers of one man’s tragic accident, the series turns into a prescient eco-horror tale that fans of Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein would claw into.
7. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (1999 – 2019)
- Writer: Alan Moore
- Artist: Kevin O’Neill
- Publisher: Various
- Genre: Various
Why it’s one of Alan Moore’s best comics:Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is the blockbuster lit hero crossover epic you didn’t know you could have. Pulling key characters from Victorian fiction such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and more, this series mixes pulp fiction and meta renditions of literary icons that both you and your college lit professor can gush over together. While the idea of a ‘cinematic universe’ has become big business, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen shows it can be a great story as well (which is what we’re really here for, right?).
6. Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? (1986)
- Writer: Alan Moore
- Artist: Curt Swan, George Pérez
- Publisher: DC Comics
- Genre: Superhero
Why it’s one of Alan Moore’s best comics: Alan Moore, Curt Swan, and George Pérez’s ‘Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?’ succeeds because it understands that Superman’s greatest strength has never been his powers, but his capacity for decency. As one old enemy after another returns for a final reckoning (how many of those have we read?), this story allows the stakes to turn genuinely tragic without losing sight of the character’s essential optimism.
5. V for Vendetta (1982 – 1989)
- Writer: Alan Moore
- Artist: David Lloyd
- Publisher: Quality Communications / DC Comics
- Genre: Superhero
Why it’s one of Alan Moore’s best comics: V for Vendetta is Alan Moore’s argument that ideas can outlive governments, armies, and even the people who create them. Set in a Britain hollowed out by fear and ruled by fascism, this serialized story follows the enigmatic V as he wages a campaign of destruction designed to simultaneously topple a regime and awaken a population that has forgotten its own freedom. What could be a vitriolic polemic is made even more ocular by the fact that V isn’t an easy hero, and the answers aren’t comfortable. Provocative for its time in an era of UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, it’s only grown in stature through subsequent far-right pseudo-populist government figures between then and now.
4. The Ballad of Halo Jones (1984 – 1986)
- Writer: Alan Moore
- Artist: Ian Gibson
- Publisher: IPC Media
- Genre: Superhero
Why it’s one of Alan Moore’s best comics: Halo Jones doesn’t set out to save the galaxy… she just wants to leave home. What begins as one young woman’s attempt to escape a dead-end life becomes something far bigger, as Alan Moore and Ian Gibson follow her from a rundown housing ring on Earth to luxury starliners, distant worlds, and the frontlines of an interstellar war. It’s a science fiction epic that is resoundingly personal and human, down to its unfinished status showing the most human of traits: being messy.
3. Watchmen (1986 – 1987)
- Writer: Alan Moore
- Artist: Dave Gibbons
- Publisher: DC Comics
- Genre: Superhero
Why it’s one of Alan Moore’s best comics: A murder mystery, a political thriller, and a superhero story all at once, Watchmen follows a group of costumed heroes reunited by the death of one of their own as the world teeters on the brink of nuclear war. Originally conceived as a dramatic revamp of bygone company superheroes, fear of breaking the company’s toys led to a detour into a fully creator-driven creation that peels back the mythologicalization of superheroes and turns them into deeply flawed humans forced into impossible moral choices, but having superpowers (or at least super skills) to make the results even more chaotic.
2. Promethea (1999 – 2005)
- Writer: Alan Moore
- Artist: J.H. Williams III
- Publisher: DC Comics
- Genre: Superhero
Why it’s one of Alan Moore’s best comics: At first glance, Promethea looks like a superhero comic… but it isn’t. Not really. What begins as a legacy superhero tale becomes a fantasy-meets-philosophy tale as college student Sophie Bangs discovers she’s the next in a line of hosts for a hero rooted in imagination. As Alan Moore’s last major superhero work, it shows him and his talented collaborators pushing the idea of what superhero comics can be, and maybe even giving a roadmap for what they could be.
1. From Hell (1989 – 1998)
- Writer: Alan Moore
- Artist: Eddie Campbell
- Publisher: Various
- Genre: Crime
Why it’s one of Alan Moore’s best comics:From Hell is less a possible solution to the famous Jack the Ripper murders that gripped London in the late 1800s, but instead an attempt to understand the culture that made them (and the reaction of the time) possible. Dense, demanding, and richly rewarding, From Hell is arguably Alan Moore’s most multivalent work; it turns what could be a simple crime story into a portrait of an era staring into its own darkness.
Honorable Mentions
Alan Moore is known for writing long, from his numerous short stories to his long comic scripts, and his weighty prose novels. Any list of the 10 best Alan Moore comics leaves more than a few out in the cold. Here are the ones on the doorstep, and ones we’ll probably be reading arguments for in the comments.
- Batman: The Killing Joke (1988) with Brian Bolland: Batman and the Joker are turned into mirror images, asking whether one terrible day can really explain either heroism or madness.
- The Bojeffries Saga (1983 – 2013) with Steve Parkhouse: A family sitcom where the family happens to be vampires, werewolves, and monsters — and somehow feels more grounded than most comics about ordinary people.
- Top 10 (1999 – 2005) with Gene Ha & Zander Cannon: A police procedural set in a city where everyone has superpowers, proving that superhero worlds become even stranger when you stop looking at the heroes.
- D.R. & Quinch (1983 – 1985) with Alan Davis: Imagine The Hangover movies crossed with interstellar delinquency, resulting in a gleefully destructive comedy powered by two teenagers who make every bad decision possible.
- Lost Girls (1991 – 2006) with Melinda Gebbie: A reimagining of Alice (of Wonderland), Dorothy (of Oz), and Wendy (of Peter Pan) as adults, using eroticism not for shock value but to explore the stories we tell ourselves about growing up.
Where to Start Reading Alan Moore
Alan Moore is a giant in comics literature, so much so that even a list of his top 10 best Alan Moore comics is still daunting. So I’m unpacking it in a different way, working from the prospective reader back like any good librarian, bookstore worker, or comics-lovin’ tour guide that we are.
If you’ve never read Alan Moore…
I recommend starting with Batman: The Killing Joke. With recognizable characters, A++ art from Brian Bolland, and a succinct page count, it’s a good entry point to get to know Alan Moore before you get to really know Alan Moore.
If you like superheroes, read…
I recommend you start with Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?. It’s a fertile distillation of many of the things that make Superman great, and gives you more than a few off-ramps in where to go next.
If you like horror, read…
From Hell is my pick. While it doesn’t have the supernatural monsters of some of Alan Moore’s other works, it shows how people can be monsters in and of themselves.
If you want one masterpiece, read…
I recommend Watchmen… even if you’ve read it before. From all angles – art, storytelling, superheroes, dread, and more – Watchmen achieves something that its enveloping hype sometimes overshadows for creator, critic, and fan alike.
Interested? Here’s where to find your closest local comic store, courtesy of Sweet, and here’s a guide to how (and where) to read comics online. If you’re looking for the best comics in recent memory, check out the Eisner Awards winners and the Harvey Awards nominees. And if you like free comics, here’s everything we know about Free Comic Book Day 2027.
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Chris Arrant: Chris Arrant is the Popverse’s Editor-in-Chief. He has written about pop culture for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher’s Weekly, Marvel, Newsarama, CBR, and more. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. (He/him)
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