Alan Davis (born 18 June 1956) is an English artist and writer of comic books, known for his work on titles such as Captain Britain, The Uncanny X-Men, ClanDestine, Detective Comics, Excalibur, JLA: The Nail and JLA: Another Nail. Career UK work Davis began his career in comics on an English fanzine. His first professional work was a strip called The Crusader in Frantic Magazine for Dez Skinn's revamped Marvel UK line. Davis's big break was drawing the revamped Captain Britain story in Marvel Superheroes. At the time, he was working full-time in a warehouse in Corby doing work that included loading trucks. He initially had no interest in pursuing a career in comics, as he considered drawing to be a hobby. Due to his inexperience, Davis did not leave enough room for word balloons in the five-page first installment, so it had to be recut to six pages. Afterwards, Alan Moore took over writing duties on Captain Britain. Davis drew 14 issues of the monthly Captain Britain title, which was later reprinted in trade paperback. Davis and Moore formed a close working partnership as creators; they also created D.R. and Quinch for 2000AD. Later, Davis replaced Garry Leach on Marvelman in Warrior and yet again worked with Moore. He also drew the story "Harry Twenty on the High Rock" in 2000AD. American work In 1985 Davis received his big break in the United States when he was hired by DC Comics to draw Batman and the Outsiders, written by Mike W. Barr. Davis took over from Jim Aparo, who launched the direct market version of the title. His work proved popular enough for him to be assigned artistic duties on DC's flagship title Detective Comics in 1986, again with Barr writing. During the "Batman: Year Two" storyline, however, Davis encountered difficulties with his editor and left after the first issue of the four-issue storyline. The remaining three issues were illustrated by Todd McFarlane. In the story, which featured Joe Chill, the murderer of Batman's parents, Barr wanted Chill to have a large gun. He asked Davis to draw him with a Mauser with an extended barrel, similar to the one used by the Paul Kirk version of Manhunter. However, after Davis rendered Chill with this firearm throughout Detective Comics #575 and on its cover, he obtained copies of the pages for Batman #404 by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli,