A library employee in Kentucky was so offended by Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentleman: The Black Dossier that she effectively took it out of circulation, and was recently fired for her efforts.

But God knows what the amateur comics censor would have thought of the prolific Moore's other titles, some of which make The Black Dossier look like Harold and the Purple Crayon. Here are seven arguably more controversial works that might have burned bigger holes in her pious backpack.

From Hell————————————————————————

Most everyone knows the story: A deranged madman named Jack the Ripper terrorizes England, immediately rendering it less jolly. But within Moore and artist Eddie Campbell's roughly drawn monstrous diagrams (pictured above) of mad science, dark magic and intertextual history lie horrors that would have given the crusading Kentucky librarian the creeps for the rest of her afterlife. Soaked in blood and sex, but with brains so dense that they might not fit in the Bluegrass State, From Hell is an epic masterpiece worth hiding from the authorities.

(Warning: Some might find the following images from adult comics shocking. Please report your offense to the nearest God-fearing public library employee.)

Lost Girls————————————————————————–

This sprawling erotic epic, which mashes a sexually explicit Dorothy, Alice and Wendy into World War I's repressed meat-grinder, is probably the most conventionally profane title in Moore's enormous catalog of work.

By design, of course. "I've been insistent on calling Lost Girls pornography right from the start," Moore told me in 2006, mainly because he believes the difference between porn and erotica "is the state of the person reading it."

"Pornography is such a degraded genre with absolutely no standards," he added. "It doesn't serve any function other than to make people feel wretched, ashamed and alone. It reinforces our loneliness and our wretched human misery. And it shouldn't."

It's charged territory, the sexual plane. But Moore is adamant that charting its outer and inner reaches with smarts and artistry is a must. Plus, it's already been done, if indirectly, in the parent texts that Lost Girls cleverly samples. Where do you think all those Disney films come from anyway?

Swamp Thing——————————————————————————–

Although there's lots of human and vegetable horror to be had in Moore's storied run on DC Comic's freaky earth spirit, one memorable moment, pardon the pun, sticks out. That's when Moore makes Swamp Thing and Abby Arcane mate in a hallucinatory state. (She eats his tuber. There, I said it.) It's a hard issue to find, even if you're an outraged library employee. But a little fungus told us that it's collected in DC Comics Saga of the Swamp Thing Book 2, out Nov. 25.

Watchmen—————————————————————————–

How do two people have a threesome? When one of them is Watchmen's quantum superhero Dr. Manhattan. That and other hero-on-hero sex can be had in this legendary comic — as well as rape, murder, pillage, apocalypse and worse. (Note to offended parties, especially library employees: The Watchmen film came out this year. You might want to rifle through the DVD section as well, just to be fail-safe.)

Promethea—————————————————–

Speaking of magic, Moore is a practicing conjurer who knows his Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn from his Aleister Crowley and David Blaine. His philosophical and supernatural concerns come brilliantly to life in this psychedelic coming-of-age metafiction about a time-traveling avatar. Outraged parents who don't want their kids watching a young female immortal having sex with a really old one should probably not get involved with Promethea. They might have an out-of-body experience.

The Mirror of Love, a poetic homage to same-sex relationships by Alan Moore and José Villarrubia, is pretty, but could turn Kentucky libraries ugly.Images courtesy Top Shelf Productions

The Mirror of Love————————————————————————–

To combat gay-haters, Moore fired off this dense, evidenced epic uncovering the loving roots of same-sex history through the ages.

Starring the people you usually see in libraries and museums — Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Oscar Wilde — and featuring visuals (above) from José Villarrubia, The Mirror of Love is a lauded defense of amour in all its formats. What's to hate?

Brought to Light——————————————————————-

Had enough of the transgressive sex and violence? How about some old-fashioned treason? This condemnation of what Dick Cheney called the dark side of American power contains Moore and artist Bill Sienkiewicz's Shadowplay: The Secret Team, which is literally told by a drunk, grumpy American eagle that also happens to be a retired CIA agent. If you thought a jaunty adventure like The Black Dossier was scandalous, wait until you get the Olympic swimming pools of blood found in Shadowplay, thanks to the United States' various black ops. Forget disappearing comics; you'll be ready to call Homeland Security.

Did we miss a few heretical texts? Blaspheme us in the comments section.

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