h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, yes. But it started a bit earlier in the UK.

The three Halo Jones stories aren't really in the same artistic league as Watchmen, but they're still well worth looking up. Having chosen my h2g2 identity from a peripheral character, I could hardly let an Alan Moore entry go by without chipping in!

When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping...

Lux

I personally disagree about Halo Jones. It started out a little self-conscious perhaps, but parts of the saga and in particular a lot of book three is fantastic. Individual stories like the one about the 'terrorist' getting older after they died are to my mind a brilliant example of how the forced conciseness of a medium such as a 6-page 2000 AD story can produce strong stories, ideas and emotions.

I would also argue for 'V for Vendetta' being a wonderful complete piece of work.

I personally disagree about Halo Jones. It started out a little self-conscious perhaps, but parts of the saga and in particular a lot of book three is fantastic. Individual stories like the one about the 'terrorist' getting older after they died are to my mind a brilliant example of how the forced conciseness of a medium such as a 6-page 2000 AD story can produce strong stories, ideas and emotions.

I would also argue for 'V for Vendetta' being a wonderful complete piece of work.

Hmm, the Watchmen thing is that the one with a guy in an owl costume and Rorschach and a nude blue guy? Those comics seemed weird.

you are an idiot.

Personally, I don't care where it started, but I can't forgive you guys for overlooking Alan Moore's fantastic Swamp Thing work.
Especially sinceSwamp Thing was an existing American series, THIS was the greatest influence he had on the medium: beginning with all those who took over Swamp Thing after he left (and a few other Brits who took over American series at about the same time), he started a whole movement which has lead for example to the Vertigo-imprint (subsidiary of DC-Comics), with classic series like Hellblazer (a Swamp Thing "spin off"), Doom Patrol (the revamped version, completely surrealistic), and of course the great Sandman.
So maybe Alan Moore himself is not well-known, but his influence can be noticed everywhere...
Would there have been comics by Neil Gaiman if Alan Moore hadn't been there first? I wonder...

Well, I wouldn't rate Halo as high as Watchmen, but it's certainly on a par with V, at least if you read is as a GN. Skizz was also a pretty good Moore effort for 2000AD in 1983, even if big chunks of it were ripped of from ET!

Moore also wrote a lot of three-to-five page stories for 2000AD, called Time Twisters and Future Shocks. Some of the Time Twisters in particular are excellent and are probably Moore's best work, even more so than Watchmen.

I'd forgotten Skizz! Big chunks ripped off ET? Rubbish! It was ALL ripped off ET. It was basically a more realistic ET set in Birmingham (if that makes sense).
Some of the 2000 AD time twisters are very good indeed. Is a background in the 6-page story environment in the UK a better training than in the huge 28-page stories of American comics?

One area where AM excels is humour. Ironically, few comics writers can produce real laughs. Alan Moore with such works as DR & Quinch and the Bojeffries family does this with seeming effortless ease.