Was I missing something?

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Pete, the thing I think you're missing is not reading it 20 years ago.

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I read it twenty years ago (closer to 25, really!) and I was not impressed. I loved Dave Gibbons' art, but I found the story (if it can really be called such) increasingly hard going, and when we came to the revelation that Rorschach had been crazy even before he put on the costume, I gave up. It was all too negative and nihilistic, and completely at odds with what superheroes are supposed to be. Like using a baseball bat to beat somebody over the head. Sure, you CAN do it, but does that mean you SHOULD?

Incidentally, it is extremely disingenuous of Moore to say he wishes the comic industry had "moved on", since he himself has not.

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Sure he has - he now produces kiddy porn.

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Using somebody else's characters -- in other words, more in the same vein as WATCHMEN. Moore has become his own cliche.

Sure he has - he now produces kiddy porn.

I just recently read "Lost Girls" and could point out that it's actually an extremely literate allegory for how out of control the world had gotten in the days leading up to World War I, but there's no way I'm winning that fight on this board and, besides, by now it's rather tired and old news anyhow.

However, I will mention that earlier this week a teacher colleague of mine in the history department of our high school offered extra credit to students by showing "The Wizard of Oz" synced up to "Dark Side of the Moon" and then exploring its symbolism. I wandered in for a bit and was amazed at just how well the two compliment one another. (For example, we get to the line, "The lunatic is on the grass" just at the point we first meet the Scarecrow dancing around his field.) However, as a result of just having read "Lost Girls," it was hard to not think of Dorothy doing the nasty with virtually every single character on screen (including Toto and various and sundry Munchkins).

… However, as a result of just having read "Lost Girls," it was hard to not think of Dorothy doing the nasty with virtually every single character on screen (including Toto and various and sundry Munchkins).

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Just what one would expect from an "extremely literate allegory".

The fact that you are a schoolteacher, Albert, scares me more than I can describe.

...the revelation that Rorschach had been crazy even before he put on the costume, I gave up.

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How was that revelation delivered? Maybe somewhat troubled, but "crazy" doesn't seem like a fair description. Maybe I'm forgetting something.

Incidentally, it is extremely disingenuous of Moore to say he wishes the comic industry had "moved on", since he himself has not.

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Since The Killing Joke, have any of his superhero works contained the same themes? Again, that isn't a challenge. I'm just wondering if I'm forgetting something, or if it's just a different point of view at work.

I think Alan Moore has written some pretty good stuff over the years.

I do think it sucks that proper super hero comics have pretty much been snuffed out by the influence of Watchmen (and Frank's DKR). I liked both Watchmen (didn't like the film) and DKR, but they should have been one-offs that existed in isolation. Watchmen is negative and nihilistic. I don't mind that in a story contained within itself, but when it bleeds over into all other comics it becomes a massive problem.

I think Moore's work on Top 10, Tom Strong and  Supreme does show that he has left behind that nihilism and negativity more than a lot of other writers influenced by him in the first place.

I think it was a mistake to make SuperHeroes into something they are not.
Heroes do need to triumph over evil, and sure that villany needs to be depicted (to a point.) but showing SuperHeroes being UN-Heroic is not a SuperHero comic story. It's something else. Don't call an apple an orange, they're similar but DIFFERENT, just like these comics.

Sadly fanboys are unable to distinguish SuperHero comicbooks from the crap polluting the stands today.
New books don't have good guys in them, they have action heroes, and new readers have no clue that there's a difference. New writers expand on the divide because they don't know how to WRITE SuperHeroes. I'm looking at YOU Bendis.