68 Years Later, Alan Moore's Favorite Comic Hero Proves Why He's Such A Genius

Published Sep 30, 2026, 6:00 PM EDT Ambrose Tardive is an editor on ScreenRant's Comics team. Over the past two years, he has developed into the internet's foremost authority on The Far Side. Outside of his work for ScreenRant, Ambrose works as an Adjunct English Instructor. Alan Moore's favorite comic book character tells readers everything they need to know about the quixotic author. So, who is it? What era is the character from? What about the character captured Moore's imagination and helped influence his own formidable contributions to the comic medium? The answer is both surprising and completely on-brand for Alan Moore. It isn't a Marvel or DC superhero. In fact, "hero" is a stretch for this character, though they do have a unique set of powers that qualify as clearly "superhuman." No, this character is something else; not an Omega-level mutant, Kryptonian, Asgardian, or anything else in the history of comics. Which is, naturally, part of why Alan Moore maintains such an affinity for the character. There's also nostalgia, but novelty is the key to this comic character's legacy. Herbie Popnecker, who the Watchmen and V for Vendetta writer has cited as his #1 favorite comic hero of all time, is largely forgotten by pop culture now, but Moore is keeping his memory alive. Who Is Herbie Popnecker & Why Is He Alan Moore's Favorite "Superhero"? No, not the self-aware Volkswagen Beetle, Herbie. No, not the Fantastic Four's robot sidekick, H.E.R.B.I.E. We're talking about Herbie Popnecker, the laconic, lollipop-licking kid with astounding abilities who first appeared in a 1958 issue of the long-running comic anthology Forbidden Worlds. For context, Alan Moore was five years old at the time. Which made him eleven when Herbie got his own series in 1964, which ran for three years, until Moore was approximately fourteen. So, yes, the first thing Moore's love of Herbie Popnecker tells us is that a flame of nostalgia still burns within him, at least for the comic characters he loved in his youth, if not for his own comic work, which he has disavowed at this stage in his life. But there's more to it than that. Herbie taught Alan Moore that absolutely anything was possible in comics, making all Moore's triumphs in the medium, from Swamp Thing to Watchmen to Batman: The Killing Joke possible. The thing about Herbie is that he might not look like much, but he's absurdly overpowered. He can fly. He can turn invisible. He's physically invulnerable and indestructible. He can talk to animals. He can hypnotize his enemies. And he gets all his powers from lollipops. What does this say, in relation to Alan Moore's work? It speaks to an absence of rules. Something the anarchist author would naturally appreciate. To Alan Moore, Herbie Popnecker Was The Ultimate Testament To Creative Freedom Alan Moore's fiction, from his prolific comic book work to his more recent prose career, goes places others don't. Moore's raw imaginative power is off-the-charts to a Herbie Popnecker-type degree. Moore's chief criticism of other comic creators, those who write superhero stories in particular, is that they are self-limiting, and too often self-serious. They don't lean into the cavalier creative freedom that produced a character like Herbie. Not nearly as much as they could, or should. Whatever Alan Moore's stories wind up looking like on the page, that's where he's starting from. Popnecker-esque limitless potential. Freedom from lore, freedom from character conventions, freedom from style, freedom from censorship. Herbie is Moore's creative spirit animal, you could say. And so the curmudgeonly character, who barely talks, and always seems unfazed no matter what outrageous hijinks he gets into, deserves at least some credit for changing the comic medium for ever, via his impact on Alan Moore. What do you think of Herbie Popnecker being Alan Moore's favorites?