One of graphic novelist Alan

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One of graphic novelist Alan Moore's problems (and there are quite a few of them) is definitely with the Wachowski brothers' V for Vendetta (Warner Bros., 3.17), given his statement that he's "read the screenplay" and "it's rubbish." He also feels, according to Dave Itzkoff's 3.12 profile of Moore in the N.Y. Times, that the American film business "has distorted his writing beyond recognition," which refers not only to Vendetta but his adverse feelings about the way From Hell and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen turned out. (Curiously, Itzkoff didn't speak to the producer of these films, comic-book maven Don Murphy, who knows the situation and would have provided a snappy quote or two.) Moore also feels that the mainstream comics industry (D.C. Comics in particular) "has hijacked the properties he created." What it all boils down to is that Moore is more than a bit of a prima donna. Living off in his own precious, tucked-away realm and "fighting to maintain an integrity that [others] don't understand," in the words of Moore's artist-fiancee Melinda Gebbie, Moore almost makes the concept of artistic integrity seem tiresome. Wait...he does make it seem tiresome! "I was kind of a selfish child who always wanted things his way," he tells Itzkoff, "and I've kind of taken that over into my relationship with the world." His graphic novel fans, meanwhile, are looking forward to "Lost Girls," a work of erotic imagining due this summer, and a new volume of "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" either later this year or in early '07.