I wish I could remember at this late date exactly what it was that prompted me to call Alan when I was looking for a new writer to take over Swamp Thing.

In 2003's Alan Moore: Portrait of an Extraordinary Gentleman, the late Wein recalled his first experience with Moore, when Wein called Moore to ask him to take over Swamp Thing. RELATED: Did RoboCop Intentionally Include an Iron Man Comic in the Movie? How did Len Wein sign Alan Moore to write Swamp Thing? However, things could have been MUCH different had Moore chosen the OTHER open assignment that Wein had at the time - writing Justice League of America! When Len Wein hired him to take over as the writer on Swamp Thing (a title Wein was editing, and famously had created himself with Bernie Wrightson a decade or so earlier), Moore transformed the character and made the series one of the most acclaimed comic books in the industry, reshaping DC's entire comic book line when all was said and done (especially once DC began hiring other British writers following Moore's success, from Alan Grant to Jamie Delano to Grant Morrison to Neil Gaiman to Garth Ennis to Warren Ellis). The name that really changed everything, though, was Alan Moore.

Brian Bolland was the first big name to be signed by DC, with Dave Gibbons following close after him (Bolland would work on covers for Justice League of America, edited by Wein, while Gibbons would work on Green Lantern, written by Wein). In the early 1980s, DC editor Len Wein (and Dick Giordano, DC's head editor) famously got heavily interested in the British comic book industry based off of the critical and sales success from 2000 A.D.

First alan moore swamp thing