‘I want to see a Batman that combines the cynic, the scholar, the daredevil, the businessman, the superhero, the wit, the lateral thinker , the aristocrat. He terrifies the guilty but he has great compassion for the weak and the downtrodden and will lay his life on the line for anybody who’s in trouble. He’s a master of yoga and meditation who has as much control over his body and his feelings as any human. He has a wider range of experiences than most people will dream of in ten lifetimes. This is not a one-note character! So, while I won’t pretend we all live on Sunnybrook Farm, I don’t think its appropriate – particularly in trying times – to present our fictional heroes as unsmiling vengeance machines. I’d rather Batman embodied the best that secular humanism has to offer – a sour-faced, sexually-repressed, humorless, uptight, angry, and all-round grim ‘n’ gritty Batman would be more likely to join the Taliban surely?’

‘The way that we worked on Lost Girls was actually different than the way I’ve worked on any other comic I’ve done. I’m known for turning out book-sized scripts with detailed written descriptions of each panel and all the dialogue and captions and sound effects. But Melinda had never worked with a scriptwriter before, so she looked at these enormous scripts I’d written for the first four or five episodes, and I think it crushed her spirit. She wasn’t comfortable, and she suggested that maybe I could do thumbnails, which is something I haven’t really done for other artists because I’m so lousy at drawing thumbnails. I have to write pages of explanation to tell them that this little blob down in the right-hand corner is actually the leading character’s head and shoulders. But Melinda, since she was living up here, I could talk her through all the breakdowns. She’d take my rough thumbnails and a pep talk and would go and turn out these lovely pages. Then I would do the dialoguing after the artwork was done, so that I could have a look at the expression that Melinda brought to the work. I could fine-tune the dialogue for the images so everything was much more synchronized. Lost Girls probably marks the closest that I’ve worked with an artist on a comic, perhaps unsurprisingly. With the nature of the material, it more or less demands an intimate relationship between the creators. Not just intimate in the usual physical sense, but also intimate in a mental and creative sense.’

Alan Moore: ‘…if we have any optimism in [Watchmen] it’ll be valid optimism because it won’t simply be based on ignoring the nasty facts of life. To me, just in that last panel, in Godfrey’s last line “I leave it entirely in your hands” – that’s talking to the reader as well… I leave it entirely in your hands, how do we sort out this Gordian Knot? If the question is who makes the world? then if there’s an answer it is that everybody does. Yeah, there’s people that seem to be in more immediate power than others but really the world is an elaborate series of accidents, coincidences and unbelievable synchronicities that people appear to be in control of but… well, think about the events in your own life, the things that have made really dramatic changes in you can be traced back to deciding to pick up a ballpoint pen or not pick it up.’

1. Alan Moore.
2. Grant Morrison.
3. From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell.
4. Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
5. Daredevil: Born Again by Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli.
6. Cerebus by Dave Sim and Gerhard.
7. St. Swithin’s Day by Grant Morrison and Paul Grist.
8. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller.
9. 2000AD (between 1977 and 1989).
10. The Castafiore Emerald by Hergé.
11. Steve Bell.
12. The Playboy / I Never Lived You by Chester Brown.
13. Dan Clowes.
14. Doom Patrol by Grant Morrison and Various Artists.
15. Elektra: Assassin by Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz.
16. Hate by Peter Bagge.
17. It’s A Good Life if you Don’t Weaken by Seth.
18. “Gaze into the Fist of Dredd!”
19. Peep Show by Joe Matt.
20. Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau.
21. The Alec McGarry Stories by Eddie Campbell.
22. Daredevil.
23. Rupert the Bear Annuals (Probably the first comics I ever read).
24. Brendan McCarthy.
25. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill.

26. Grendel: God and the Devil by Matt Wagner, John K. Snyder III and Jay Geldhof.
27. Charley’s War by Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun.
28. Hellblazer #27 – Hold Me by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean.
29. The Batman TV Series.
30. Shadowplay: The Secret Team by Alan Moore and Bill Sienkiewicz.
31. V For Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd.
32. Batman: Year One by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli.
33. Judge Dredd.
34. Stray Bullets by David Laptham.
35. Alan Moore on Swamp Thing with Various Artists.
36. Carlos Ezquerra.
37. Ghost World by Dan Clowes.
38. Evan Dorkin.
39. We3 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely.
40. Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon by Hergé.
41. Brian Bolland.
42. American Flagg by Howard Chaykin.
43. Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo (the Manga and the Film).
44. Warren Ellis.
45. DC comics from the 60s with go-go checks on the cover.
46. The Shadow by Andy Helfer, Bill Sienkiewicz and Kyle Baker.
47. The Incredible Hulk.
48. Hellblazer.
49. America by John Wagner and Colin MacNeil.
50. Lex Luthor.

51. Why I Hate Saturn by Kyle Baker.
52. Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein.
53. The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke.
54. Uzumaki by Junji Ito.
55. John Garrett.
56. The Time Machine (from 2000AD #324) by Alan Moore and Jesús Redondo.
57. The Eltingville Comic Book, Science Fiction, Horror, Fantasy and Role-Playing Club comics by Evan Dorkin.
58. Philip Bond.
59. All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely.
60. Neilalien.
61. Eightball #22: Ice Haven by Dan Clowes.
62. Y: The Last Man by Brian Vaughan and Pia Guerra.
63. General Zod as played by Terrance Stamp.
64. Comics Letterers — Tom Frame, John Constanza, John Workman and Tom Orzechowski.
65. Issue 6 of Sandman by Neil Gaiman, Mike Dringenberg and Malcolm Jones III.
66. John Wagner.
67. Tomb of Dracula by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan.
68. The 600 page novelisation I did of the Judge Dredd story Apocalypse War which is now sadly lost to history.
69. scans_daily on LiveJournal.
70. Barry Allen.
71. The smell of old comics.
72. Local by Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly.
73. Moon Knight by Doug Moench and Bill Sienkiewicz.
74. Zenith by Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell.
75. Walter the Wobot.

76. Rom the Spaceknight.
77. Dave’s Long Box.
78. The 1989 Batman Movie. directed by Tim Burton.
79. Winker Watson from The Dandy.
80. Mek-Quake.
81. Animal Man #26 by Grant Morrison and Chaz Truog.
82. Mike McMahon.
83. Diesel Sweeties.
84. Dave McKean.
85. Hicksville by Dylan Horrocks.
86. Captain Haddock.
87. John Romita Jr.
88. The V.C.s
89. DR and Quinch by Alan Moore and Alan Davis.
90. Green Arrow.
91. Shang Chi, Master of Kung Fu by Doug Moench and Various Artists.
92. Powers by Brian Michael Bendis and Micheal Avon Oeming.
93. The Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons.
94. The Watchmen Smiley Face Badge.
95. The Mighty Tharg.
96. Jack Chick’s Comics.
97. Robert Crumb’s Cross-hatching.
98. The Original Superman Movie.
99. DMZ by Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli.
100. Chopper (aka Marlon Shakespeare).