From an interview for Fusion by Andy Diggle.

Alan Moore: I would like to do a work about magic. This is born of my recent interest in the subject. It strikes me that the history of magic - whether one has any belief in the actual concept itself or not - no-one can deny that the history of magic is fascinating and filled with incredible characters. These occultists, these lunatics, frauds, maniacs... it's a colourful cast, and it touches upon some very surprising areas.

I've also thought of maybe structuring it so that there are three or four strands to the book, with one of them maybe being a history of magic, told in a documentary comic strip style; one of them maybe being a personal autobiography in comic form, about my own experiences, or apparent experiences, with magic. Which I think would be like... Harvey Pekar meets Doctor Strange. Another strand would be maybe purely a theoretical strand, explained in comic form. It would be the theory and science, as perceived by me, of magic. And maybe I'll work these three things together into some sort of Grand Grimoire, a comic-book grimoire.

I've got ideas about what the comic strip is, that have developed over the last few years. I've always understood that the comic-strip is apparently the form that is most useful for presenting information in a way that's likely to be absorbed and remembered. But it only struck me recently a possible reason why this might be. Maybe the word is the unit of currency of the left brain, maybe the image is the unit of currency of the pre-verbal right brain. Maybe part of the reason for the efficacy of comics is the fact that they simultaneously engage both lobes. You're firing on both cylinders. Now that strikes me as an interesting principle, and one that could stand some application to magical subject matter - which is very much about the interaction between the rational left lobe of the brain and the magical right lobe of the brain. The right lobe is the dark side of the brain, we know nothing about it. It seems to be the seat of the unconscious, the underworld if you like.