When Alan Moore created his Watchmen series in the 1980s, he aimed to satirize and deconstruct the idea of heroes, so it's no surprise that the author has been outspoken about his discontent with the explosive popularity of the superhero genre in recent years.

In an interview with The Guardian, the Watchmen creator clarified past comments about the "infantilizing" effect that these movies have had on society, and said in no uncertain terms that he was done with comics and the "unbearable" industry.

"I'm definitely done with comics. I haven't written one for getting on for five years. I will always love and adore the comics medium but the comics industry and all the stuff attached to it just became unbearable," he told the publication.

So unbearable, in fact, Moore told IndieWire in 2020 that he found superhero films "grotesque" and hadn't seen one since 1989's Batman.

"I don't watch any of them. All of these characters have been stolen from their original creators, all of them...if you try to make them for the adult world then I think it becomes kind of grotesque."

Moore Explains 'Worrying Implications' of Superhero Genre's Popularity

Despite a long, successful career as a comic creator, Moore is deeply critical of comics being seen as for adults. The author, 68, says that the huge rise in popularity of comics adapted for adults on the big screen has serious implications for modern society.

"I said 'round about 2011 that I thought that it had serious and worrying implications for the future if millions of adults were queuing up to see Batman movies. Because that kind of infantilization—that urge towards simpler times, simpler realities—that can very often be a precursor to fascism," he said, highlighting that the superhero films hit an all-time high during Donald Trump's rise to presidency.

Related: Watchmen Creator Alan Moore Thinks Superhero Movies Are a Blight to Cinema

"Hundreds of thousands of adults [are] lining up to see characters and situations that had been created to entertain the 12-year-old boys—and it was always boys—of 50 years ago. I didn't really think that superheroes were adult fare."

Though he is vocal about his criticisms of comics and their film adaptations, Moore doesn't shy away from his share of the blame for creating Watchmen.

"I think that this was a misunderstanding born of what happened in the 1980s—to which I must put my hand up to a considerable share of the blame, though it was not intentional—when things like Watchmen were first appearing. There were an awful lot of headlines saying 'Comics Have Grown Up'. I tend to think that, no, comics hadn't grown up. There were a few titles that were more adult than people were used to. But the majority of comics titles were pretty much the same as they'd ever been."

"It wasn't comics growing up. I think it was more comics meeting the emotional age of the audience coming the other way," he added.