Paranormal Pop Culture: Alan Moore's Mothman

Mothman is the superhero alias of wealthy heir Byron Lewis in Alan Moore’s graphic novel Watchmen.  His main schtick is to glide on the large wings attached to the back of his costume.  In the graphic novel, Mothman succumbs to his own fear and self-loathing, becoming a crippled alcoholic.  By the end of the story, he is a confused wreck of a man.  It’s unclear what Moore’s inspiration for Mothman in the Watchmen graphic novel was, exactly, but having a mentally unstable character who shares his name with one of forteana’s most famous mind-bending monsters seems like a heck of a coincidence--especially for Alan Moore, an author with a pronounced interest in the unexplained.