I cannot verify this in any way, but I do have friends (mainly the ones who urged me to give "Top Ten" a try despite my loathing of Kingdom Come and The Watchmen) who claim that Moore was far more dickish and reclusive when he was writing stuff like "The Watchmen" and "Miracleman" then he is lately. I think it's more a case of everyone still thinking that comics have to be dark and depressing to be taken seriously, while Moore has gotten past that and realizes you can have fun with the medium without denegrading it.

Also, Bill Murray made a great comment about fame. I'm paraphrasing, but it was something like "After you get to be famous, you have about a year or two of being an asshole. If you don't get over it during that time, you never will." Of course, Murray's reputation is open to debate as well, but I think that the point may apply equally well to suddenly-famous comic book writers and artists.

I also think he's got problems with women, considering they're usually simpering victims (Evey in VfV), total bitches (Laurel in Watchmen), or whores. I suppose the men don't come off much better, but at least a few of them manage to be sympathetic.

I freely admit this may be irrational, but there's something about his style that I just don't like. I don't disparage anyone for liking his work, because I'm clearly in the extreme minority, but it's something else that's always bugged me.

Moving along.

I don't mean to beat you over the head with defending Moore, but (well, first of all, Evey surely doesn't end up a victim, but more significantly) if you feel this way, you really, really should check out Promethea. It's girl power all over the place.

(Your criticism does, of course, apply to Frank Miller. That is a scary individual.)

Your point about turnabout being fair play in the "deconstruction" game is very interesting, and at least on the rare occasion that someone with talent adapts Moore's work, I think there is a lot to it. I think Moore felt that the V movie had a different emphasis than his book, being focused more on Evey, and portraying V more as an anti-fascist than as an anarchist. (Again, there's the issue that a big-budget Hollywood movie more faithful to the original probably could not have hoped to be successful... and the question of whether that's an excuse.) I would agree, though, that it is a good movie, and that it could easily be argued that the filmmakers made V reflective of their own 21st century American experience in much the same way that Moore has often made other peoples' characters reflective of his own themes.

Although Watchmen will probably always be the one that gets talked about most because it deals with the costumed guys, I think From Hell is Moore's most amazing accomplishment. (And nah, I don't need to see a Watchmen movie either.)

I did like From Hell, but Watchmen is the more interesting work for me. Not just because it's "the costumed guys," but because he manages to explore and deconstruct every single convention and cliche of the form. The final confrontation with Ozymandis, complete with his revelation that causes them to realize that they're not up against "A villain from a Republic serial," as he put it, is one of the most stunning moments I've read in any form of literature.