Watchmen prequels now official and announced

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

Thanks, Prof.

Moore is pretty good at falling out with people, so I can't really ascribe this rift to any particular fault of Morrison's, much as I would tend to side with the beardy one. Creative differences, pure and simple.

However, Arkham Asylum is absolute crap (and it's only that good because of McKean's fantastic artwork).

[Michael V. Bramley]

I think The Gutters summed up the Watchmen prequels better than anybody with today's comic;  http://www.the-gutters.com/

(I also had my own long winded winge about it here; http://www.hadroncolliderscope.com/wp/2012/01/blog/watchmen-2-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-caring-and-just-let-the-corporations-suck-the-jelly-from-my-idols-bones/ about three days before they even announced it.)

To summarize; it's not the end of the world and it's not the end of Watchmen as a piece of art, but it IS pretty unfair to Moore and I'm not gonna read it.

[Tiplodocus]

The Doc Manhattan/Silk Spectre one looks like it might have dirty bits in it so I'll buy that one.

[TordelBack]

Tcch, I think your February attic buddy has you all flustered.

[Colin_YNWA]

I was in two minds whether or not to post this, as it may well just stir up bad feeling again, (just look at the comments on Bleeding Cool just after some snippets of it appeared there) BUT having read only the first couple of pages there's no denying its very interesting, so what the heck.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/03/13/if-dc-want-to-soil-themselves-in-public-and-kill-the-reputations-of-a-number-of-otherwise-possibly-halfway-decent-writers-and-artists-then-im-certainly-not-going-to-stop-them-and-i-shall-take/

Alan Moore has opinions, the Internet argues... most it always be so?

[PreacherCain]

Everyone's opinion will remain exactly as it was before.

I do think it's interesting that DC doesn't actually own the copyright to Watchmen however. Am I correct in saying it still belongs to Moore/Gibbons but DC has the right to publish the original series? Meaning these prequels are copyright infringement?

[TordelBack]

I read the whole interview, and it made me quite sad.  I think I understand Alan's standpoint better than I have previously, but I mainly ended up just feeling terribly sorry for the man.  I also find myself agreeing completely with him on the subject of what makes the Watchmen prequels so ill-advised, however seductive they may appear.

I think it might do Alan some good to read a bit more broadly in the comics undergrowth - the tights-and-capes guys may have stagnated in the way he describes, failing to move in the literary or even creative directions he alludes to, but there's a lot of other great stuff that's been done in the last 25 years, far beyond the usual suspects dredged up of DKR and Maus. 

I'd hope he'd be able to take some heart from the fact that it's not all juvenilia and corporate IP farming out there.

[PreacherCain]

His comments about the dearth of talent/originality is squarely aimed at Marvel/DC and superhero comics. He's spoken of non-mainstream comics a couple of times, most recently Craig Thompson. I'm sure he likes his daughter's comics too 

A lot of people seem to be focusing on that more than anything else which is disappointing. Comic fans are odd and seem to take a lot of this stuff way too personally. Why not concentrate on the main point he makes repeatedly throughout the interview: the Big Two's business model is entirely self-destructive and that's why their sales are shit and getting shittier. It's the way they do business.

Comics must be the only business in the world that punishes its most successful and profitable creators.

[TordelBack]

His comments about the dearth of talent/originality is squarely aimed at Marvel/DC and superhero comics. He's spoken of non-mainstream comics a couple of times, most recently Craig Thompson.

Yes, but in that interview he states that he doesn't read comics anymore, so it's understandable why the reader might form the impression that he doesn't read comics anymore, and thus that his view of current comics might be somewhat restricted.

Re-reading my own comment, I can see it might look like I was being snidely patronising or dismissive in saying I feel sorry for Alan: it wasn't meant that way, I genuinely do feel sorry for the situation he finds himself in, particularly with respect to fellow creators whose rights he has so vigorously defended and whose careers he has contributed to.  I agree almost entirely with his views on the Big Two.

[PreacherCain]

His comments about the dearth of talent/originality is squarely aimed at Marvel/DC and superhero comics. He's spoken of non-mainstream comics a couple of times, most recently Craig Thompson.

Yes, but in that interview he states that he doesn't read comics anymore, so it's understandable why the reader might form the impression that he doesn't read comics anymore, and thus that his view of current comics might be somewhat restricted.

I do always read that as he doesn't read comics from The Big Two, just cos' I've seen pull quotes from him on a couple of non-mainstream books over the years but yeah, it's is a fair point that he's seemingly contradictory. Even if it is a contradiction or he's not clarifying every thing he says, I do think a lot of people are focusing on this small point of his and using it to dismiss everything else. Maybe he figures if it WAS that good, it'd be selling incredibly well and he'd be hearing about it in other areas rather than just comicdom. In which case, he has a point Some US creators are taking it really personally yet their reaction makes it clear Moore still carries a lot of weight in comic book circles.

I didn't read your initial comment as dismissive either by the way and I'm 100% in agreement with you on your last point. What's even sadder is how it's driven such a wedge between Moore and numerous friendships (and yes, I do think his paranoia/bad blood got the better of him there. I get the impression he thinks this too maybe, he mentions it a few times)

I thought his little insights into how DC editorial is operating is interesting: the idea that the New 52 was pushed forward cos' they were worried about the legality of Before Watchmen. That does mesh with reality: New 52 was very rushed while it seems the work on the Watchmen prequels has been done and dusted for a surprisingly long time now. Also it appears to me that he seems to be more specifically talking about Brian Azzarello than anyone else; he does mention at one point that he liked Azzarello's Constantine run with Richard Corben and provided a "fulsome" pull quote for the collected edition (and deservedly so, it's a great story!) He mentions the Rorschach comic specifically and there's a few other lines in there too that suggest he's more hurt by his inclusion than some of the others.

The whole thing just points to how fucked-up the thinking of the Big Two really is. We could be living in a world where Alan Moore was still happily making comics. Maybe that could be one of their 52 bloody universes, eh?!

[WhitBloke]

I know this is an old-ish thread but after seeing this thing, I got to thinking...  Is it just me, or does that not look like one hell of a jaunty Rorschach?  I keep hearing the old Mister Men theme tune.
I just hope I don’t get the same tune in my head should I bother with the rest of the Before Watchmen stuff, though I'm now starting to expect it from the look of some of the tat in with the non-tat...

[The Cosh]

Ha! Yeah, he's definitely got a touch of Wallace about his gait. "It's the wrong trousers, Night Owl."

[JamesC]

He looks like he's about to click his heels!

[TordelBack]

Here's one to chill the blood.  Bleeding Cool have an interesting piece on DCs original plans for Watchmen prequels in the mid-80s (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/05/04/before-watchmen-nineteen-eighties-style/) - and then you reach the last line:

And quite specifically he confirms another anonymous ex-DC source that... Michael Fleisher would be offered Rorschach.

There's an alternative universe to ponder.  Maybe we would all have been spared so much torment, and maybe Rorshach would have ended up with a really big gun and dreadlocks.

He's certainly not the first man I'd go to to write new stories for existing properties...

[The Corinthian]

I'm surprised they didn't ask Mark Millar this time.

Is it just me or does that Barbara Kessel quote sound like the most sensible thing anyone's said about 'Before Watchmen' so far?