Big Numbers is an unfinished graphic novel by writer Alan Moore and artist Bill Sienkiewicz. In 1990 Moore's short-lived imprint Mad Love published two of the planned twelve issues. The series was picked up by Kevin Eastman's Tundra Publishing, but the completed third issue did not print, and the remaining issues, whose artwork was to be handled by Sienkiewicz's assistant Al Columbia, were never finished. The work marks a move, on Moore's part, away from genre fiction, in the wake of the success of Watchmen. Moore weaves mathematics into a narrative of socioeconomic changes wrought by an American corporation's building of a shopping mall in a small, traditional English town, and the effects of the economic policies of the Margaret Thatcher administration in the 1980s. Publication history The planned 500-page graphic novel was to be serialised one chapter at a time over twelve issues. The series was printed on high-quality paper in an unusual square format. The first two issues were produced by Alan Moore's self-publishing company Mad Love, with writing by Moore and artwork by Bill Sienkiewicz. However, the workload for the comic was intense, and Sienkiewicz stalled. By the time he backed out of the series, the third issue was still incomplete and rising overhead crippled the production. Kevin Eastman, creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, stepped in and attempted to have his company Tundra Publishing publish Big Numbers. Moore and Eastman asked Sienkiewicz' assistant, Al Columbia, to become the series' sole artist and Roxanne Starr to be its letterer. Columbia worked on the fourth issue but, for reasons which remain unclear, destroyed his own artwork and abandoned the project as well. Big Numbers #3 and #4 were never published, and the series remains unfinished. In 1999, ten pages of Sienkiewicz's art for Big Numbers #3 were published in the first (and only) issue of the magazine Submedia. In 2009, a photocopy of the complete lettered art for Big Numbers #3 surfaced on eBay. The purchaser contacted Moore, and with his permission published scans of the art on LiveJournal. History Moore announced the series as his popularity was at a peak. The success of Watchmen had made him a star writer. Moore wanted to move away from genre fiction; Big Numbers was to have no genre, and deal with themes of shopping and mathematics. Mad Love ran into a number of difficulties: the proceeds from AARGH! were donated