The Rocket Countdown is a list of questions we send to each creator working on a Rocket Comic. We believe that the answers to these ten questions will tell you everything you need to know about both the creator and the comic on which they are working. This time around, Stuart Moore (writer of Lone) will fill us in on his dizzying work history, why super-villains never think through their insidious plots and his never-ending fight with his cats.

1. How long have you been in comics/What was your first work?

I was a comics editor for many years: co-founded DC's Vertigo imprint, founded their Helix imprint, edited the Marvel Knights line for a couple of years. As far as my writing, the first work was either Zendra from Penny-Farthing Press or a short story in a Wildstorm Star Trek Special -- both came out around the same time.

2. What are your influences?

In comics: Alan Moore, Garth Ennis, Steve Gerber, Bendis, Neil Gaiman, so many others...I've been very lucky to work with some of the best writers in the field, and I've picked up some tricks. In prose, I tend toward science fiction and crime writers, some well-known

and some fairly obscure: Joe Lansdale, Philip K. Dick, Charles Willeford, R.A. Lafferty, Robert Anton Wilson, Charles Bukowski, Barry Malzberg, J.G. Ballard, David Goodis, Michael Moorcock, Jonathan Lethem, Cordwainer Smith. Oh, and I've really been enjoying Sparkle Hayter's Robin Hudson mysteries lately.

3. What project are you doing for Rocket?

Lone. It's a tender, touching story of a boy who loses his pet dog...and then finds it again! (Okay, no, it's not that at all.)

4. What makes it cool?

Take your pick:

a) It's all about the aftermath of war -- what it does to people, what it can do to a nation and the world, as personified by one tough gunslinger and the young people who need his help. Very timely, considering the scary stuff going on all around us.

(b) Zombies, mutants, gunfights, explosions, tough guys, and a geezer named Cletus who cackles a lot.

5. How did you come to work with Dark Horse/Rocket Comics?

My friend Tom Peyer, who's writing the excellent Go Boy 7, suggested me to them, and they liked what I'd done on other science-fiction comics.

6. Besides your Rocket book, what else are you working on at the moment?

Let's see:

Para, new Penny-Farthing Press miniseries, debuting fall 2003. A paranormal thriller about nuclear physics, one haunted girl, and the beginning (and end) of the universe. Artist: Pablo Villalobos.

Giant Robot Warriors, graphic novel from AIT/PlanetLar, December 2003 (tentative). Political satire about the U.S. Dept. of Giant Robot Warriors, which has to move fast when a mideast country achieves Giant Robot technology. Artist: Ryan Kelly (Lucifer).

Justice League Adventures: Two issues so far, one focusing on Green Lantern & Hawkgirl, the other on The Flash. First one is out in August 2003.

Vampirella: A fun short story, parodying of 100 Bullets, rap moguls...and white people. All in nine pages, including two (count them) Vampirella raps. Artist: John Lucas. Fall 2003.

And miscellaneous projects in development, including a space adventure with a chronically depressed captain, a supernatural mood piece about a medium and a vampire, and a tough-guy cop book starring elves.

7. What comics are you reading now?

Regularly: Daredevil, Queen & Country, League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Powers, X-Statix, Gotham Central, Alias, New X-Men, The Punisher, 100 Bullets, Sweatshop, Love & Rockets, Stray Bullets, the new Wolverine, a lot of others...I'm just getting caught up on Lucifer and Y the Last Man. I follow a lot of creators. I just bought a few older Love & Rockets volumes and the first Promethea trade, and I'm having fun with those. There's an incredible amount of good material coming out now.

8. What's your impression of the rest of your creative team? Please feel free to dish some dirt.

Jerome's a phenomenon -- his stuff is just great, from small character moments to giant fight sequences. I could make up something nasty about him, but I don't actually know him personally. Sorry. :)

9. If you were a hero in a Rocket comic, what would your power be?

I'd be able to figure out when the villain's plot didn't make any sense. "Take over the world? How the hell are you gonna do that? What are you gonna do when you get it? You'll never be able to keep track of all that."

10. Do you have any amazing powers in real life?

I have good hearing and can size up office politics very quickly. Which, now that I'm working at home, just means I can tell whenever the cats are about to knock over my computer. I usually report them to Human Resources and then get back to work.