It's official: Before Watchmen comics this summer
By
Agonus,
Posted on: 2012-02-01 04:42 in Comic and Hero-Villain Culture
Slowly but surely some cover art is being released at various websites.
Here is what we have so far:
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Hmmm I can't decide if this is a masterstroke or the worst idea ever...I guess only time will tell.
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Even at its best, the series can only aspire to be high-grade fan fiction.|
Originally Posted by Night_Hornet
Hmmm I can't decide if this is a masterstroke or the worst idea ever...
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Although DC has enlisted its top-shelf talent in this enterprise, the roster doesn't include their current golden boy, Grant Morrison. As it turns out, he declined their offer:
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| No, they asked me to do that, and I said, Why would you want a sequel to Watchmen? [Laughs] No, I mean, cmon. Watchmen is actually perfect in its construction. I mean, not necessarily in other areas, obviously, but as a story its complete, its utterly circular, and theres absolutely no need for anything else in it. |
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| I tend to take this latest development as a kind of eager confirmation that they are still apparently dependent on ideas that I had 25 years ago. {...} As far as I know, there werent that many prequels or sequels to Moby-Dick. |
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LMAO! That cover got me. Still, no interest whatsoever in Watchmen, but dang if that one isn't hilarious.
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Originally Posted by BlackSun17
Slowly but surely some cover art is being released at various websites.
Here is what we have so far: |
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Bless him. I haven't always cared for what I've read of his stuff but it often seems his heart was in the right place at any rate; this just confirms that for me. And Alan Moore's comment made me laugh.
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Originally Posted by TrueGentleman
Although DC has enlisted its top-shelf talent in this enterprise, the roster doesn't include their current golden boy, Grant Morrison. As it turns out, he declined their offer:
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Apparently DC doesn't understand the concept of a graphic novel being self-contained. But good on Morrison for realizing yes, it is perfect as it was. You don't need to add to it, at all.
This is just DC seeing if they can sucker the fanboy audience.
S.
Part of Sister Flame's Clickey-Clack Posse
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It's a corporation looking to cash in on something that was wildly popular just a few years ago. That's why you can buy shower curtains with the Mona Lisa on them and why there have been at least three more Rocky movies than there should have been.|
Originally Posted by SuperOz
Apparently DC doesn't understand the concept of a graphic novel being self-contained. But good on Morrison for realizing yes, it is perfect as it was. You don't need to add to it, at all.
This is just DC seeing if they can sucker the fanboy audience. S. |
Is this a good idea? No, probably not, but people make mistakes, and remember, corporations are people too.
(Sometimes, I wish there could be a Dev thumbs up button for quality posts, because you pretty much nailed it.) -- Ghost Falcon
This reminds me of a line by Conan O'Brien when he was taking over "Late Night": "Instead of a Top Ten List, we're going to do a Top Thirty. It won't be as funny but there will be more of it."
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Also, don't discount the possibility that it's the worst idea ever, but something good might still come of it. (I'm not sure what that would be, mind you, but it is a possibility.)
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Originally Posted by Night_Hornet
Hmmm I can't decide if this is a masterstroke or the worst idea ever...I guess only time will tell.
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Originally Posted by Vox Populi
This reminds me of a line by Conan O'Brien when he was taking over "Late Night": "Instead of a Top Ten List, we're going to do a Top Thirty. It won't be as funny but there will be more of it."
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Grabbed the other two covers for everyone to see:
Go Team Venture!
Crimson Corsair for me, but that's a big maybe. It was only a matter of time for DC to finally get this off the ground though. Last I knew, the Watchmen trade was still a consistent high seller, but save for Rorschach and Nite Owl, I doubt this will do any better than say, Stan Lee's reimagining of DC.
Tales of Judgment. Also here, instead of that other place.
good luck D.B.B.
I have no problem with it. If they are good then they are good, if they are bad then they are bad. It's not like Watchmen is sacred, it's just a good graphic novel.
I do love Moore's statement though. It's true that using characters he created is unoriginal. After all he is such an Extraordinary Gentleman I'm sure he would never think of something so unoriginal as using characters created by somebody else. And he definitely wouldn't ever think of writing a comic that used comic book superheroes created by somebody else.
Don't count your weasels before they pop dink!
While I do admire the collection of talent they've gathered to work on this, I can't help feeling that its utterly unnecessary. Watchmen is a perfectly contained story unto itself. I get that DC wants to cash in on all those of us who will probably let our curiousity outweigh our good sense. Its a good business move, if not a good creative move.
And I can't feeling that Alan Moore is somewhere in a dark, dank basement working out an evil revenge incantation involving semen and poop.
�Life's hard. It's even harder when you're stupid.� ― John Wayne
�Just think of how stupid the average person is, and then realize half of them are even stupider!� - George Carlin
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It's a different situation. Lein Wein assigned Moore to work on Swamp Thing. Later, he was told he could do whatever he wanted with series once Wein was out as editor. Even with the Killing Joke, Moore didn't waltz into DC and ask to write a Batman book, Brian Bolland requested Moore specifically.
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Originally Posted by Mandu
I do love Moore's statement though. It's true that using characters he created is unoriginal. After all he is such an Extraordinary Gentleman I'm sure he would never think of something so unoriginal as using characters created by somebody else. And he definitely wouldn't ever think of writing a comic that used comic book superheroes created by somebody else.
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"I saw my advantage and took it. That's what heroes do." - Homer Simpson.
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...which will probably work.
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Originally Posted by Ultraamann
And I can't feeling that Alan Moore is somewhere in a dark, dank basement working out an evil revenge incantation involving semen and poop.
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In the first place, the characters in the original LoEG books are all public domain (or heavily concealed in allusion) - their creators haven't exactly expressed any opinions about their usage. In the second place, these days Moore loves employing old characters and tropes as metacommentary on the genres in which he's writing, so naturally he recycles obscure figures or creates analogs.|
Originally Posted by Mandu
I do love Moore's statement though. It's true that using characters he created is unoriginal. After all he is such an Extraordinary Gentleman I'm sure he would never think of something so unoriginal as using characters created by somebody else.
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Since Watchmen was already in part a metacommentary on both the superhero genre and Charlton Comics characters that DC owned but didn't want Moore to use, what's left for this batch of writers to do with it? Will they just offer up more of the same from the flashback sequences in the original series, or will they reconstruct Moore's deconstruction by portraying the Watchmen characters as uncomplicated heroes? Either way, there's no creative integrity involved, especially when the writers and artists have proved more than capable of successfully coming up with their own original work.
EDIT: Leah Moore, a comics writer and Alan's daughter, makes a sharp observation:
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| Why not do NEW ogn's {original graphic novels} from the Before Watchmen creators, or better yet by fresh talent. Use the budget to find the *next* watchmen instead? |
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What's integrity?
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Originally Posted by TrueGentleman
EDIT: Leah Moore, a comics writer and Alan's daughter, makes a sharp observation:
I could almost sympathize if any of the Before Watchmen collaborators were new to the industry and needed to establish themselves with a high-profile project. Instead, I can't think of a reason besides a hefty paycheck for them to be involved. |
I would hardly call Watchmen "perfect in its construction", but it also doesn't need supplementary works. And I stopped taking Alan Moore seriously after he claimed that he and Frank Miller had killed the superhero genre back in the 80s.
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Given the amount of comics with the word "Death" or "Blood" in the titles during the early 90s, they definitely came pretty close.
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Originally Posted by Venture
I would hardly call Watchmen "perfect in its construction", but it also doesn't need supplementary works. And I stopped taking Alan Moore seriously after he claimed that he and Frank Miller had killed the superhero genre back in the 80s.
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I really don't see what the big deal is. DC owns the right to Watchmen, they can do what they want with it.
If done right, it'll be a big hit. If done right, there will still be people who complain about it 
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I am of two minds.
I can't imagine that it will be very good on the one hand.
On the other, I don't think that Moore's objections should really be much of a factor.
Does anyone honestly think that L Frank Baum or J M Barrie or Lewis Carroll would have approved of what he did to their creations in Lost Girls?
Is it any more ethical to use public domain characters in ways their creators would not have approved of than it is to use characters created under Work For Hire that are owned by DC Comics?
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How quickly we forget that Watchmen was supposed to be a win for creators rights, since Moore and Gibbons were supposed to retain the ownership of their characters in a deal closer to what authors can expect from standard trade publishing.|
Originally Posted by BrandX
I really don't see what the big deal is. DC owns the right to Watchmen, they can do what they want with it.
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Here they are discussing this at a panel at Londons UK Comic Art Convention, September 21, 1986the very month their first issue came out (source: The Comics Journal #116, July, 1987):
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From the audience: Do you actually own WATCHMEN? Alan Moore: My understanding is that when WATCHMEN is finished and DC have not used the characters for a year, theyre ours. Dave Gibbons: They pay us a substantial amount of money Moore: to retain the rights. So basically theyre not ours, but if DC is working with the characters in our interests then they might as well be. On the other hand, if the characters have outlived their natural life span and DC doesnt want to do anything with them, then after a year weve got them and we can do what we want with them, which Im perfectly happy with. Gibbons: What would be horrendous, and DC could legally do it, would be to have Rorschach crossing over with Batman or something like that, but Ive got enough faith in them that I dont think theyd do that. I think because of the unique team they couldnt get anybody else to take it over to do WATCHMEN II or anything else like that, and weve certainly got no plans to do WATCHMEN II. |
Seven limited series, all set...before Watchmen.
USA Today has an article about it.
But Bleeding Cool has better info, and more pics.
The books are:
Rorschach by writer Brian Azzarello and artist Lee Bermejo
Comedian by Azzarello and artist J.G. Jones
Minutemen by writer/artist Darwyn Cooke
Silk Spectre by Cooke and artist Amanda Conner
Nite Owl by writer J. Michael Straczynski and artists Joe and Andy Kubert
Dr. Manhattan by Straczynski and artist J.G. Jones
Ozymandias by writer and original Watchmen editor Len Wein with art by Jae Lee
DC has thrown a heck of a lot of talent at this. My gut reaction still says that this is totally unnecessary. This will be a major topic of conversation this summer...will be very interesting to see how comic retailers order and how the comic-buying public will respond to a series of prequels to a story that is 25 years old.
Go Team Venture!