Pajiba

Apparently a significant part of the Dr. Manhattan storyline will be that time he and Silk Spectre watched Quest for Fire.

Had a long and geeky discussion with a friend over this yesterday:

Watchmen is a brilliant piece of writting. It is virtually unmatched in scope, complexity of thought, innovation and delicious pulpy goodness. It's Moore at the top of his game. It's one of the best comic books ever written.

It should be respected.

However respecting a piece of art doesn't mean you shove it in a box somewhere and sanctify it. A person can show their respect for art by responding with intelligent criticism. They can show their respect by mimicing it, or trying to improve upon it from a fresh and unique perspective (even if they fail). A person can appreciate art by simply revisiting it every so often just to enjoy it with new eyes (I read the story differently at 30 than I did at 15).

Now, clearly DC is trying to earn a dime off of this. From a business perspective they're approaching this from a desire to keep their intellectual properties fresh and relevant. I get it. Hopefully however, from a creative perspective the people involved with revisiting these characters will do so with the respect they deserve. Hopefully the writers and artists will strive to produce these books with the same careful story-telling that Moore injected it with 30 years ago (or whenever).

My only concern is that by diluting the core story, we open the doors for the characters to become watered down with each new incarnation to the point that they become meaningless. I'd hate to see a Watchmen Saturday morning cartoon series in 20 years.

Am I the only one who saw the New 52?

No. Just no.

Thanks for this, SLW. I would have rambled on and on for weeks about this, but you boiled it down quite nicely.

The best thing about this is that none of these creators are slouches. Azzarello on Rorschach and the Comedian? Amanda Conner and Darwyn Cooke on Silke Spectre and Minutemen? Hopefully "Rising Stars" Straczynski and not "Grounded" Straczynski on Dr. Manhattan and Nite-Owl? Adam Hughes! These have the potential to be incredibly entertaining books, even if they don't live up to the original, which, not coincidentally, was also based on previously created characters.

I'm not saying this is a good idea, I'm just saying it's not inherently a bad one.

Bert, yeah he's got his own series but when DC announced this to all the news sites they gave them only one piece of artwork each. The one that got Rorshach decided for some reason to crop it all to hell.

The full picture is floating around now. I saw it on Bleeding Cool.

Oh THAT atom? That bastard still owes me money.

I'm about with RobP and superasante here. I've always held "Watchmen" in the highest of esteem since Damon got me to read it after leaving for college. It's had a big impact on my outlook ever since, and at 43 years old I still collect and read comics...mostly DC titles...and would like to think that "Watchmen" influenced my decision to keep reading in no small measure.

I see no reason why there not different aspects (in this case, prior stories) that cannot be well produced by skillful writers aware of their source material. It'd be good to remember, though, that nearly everyone in the current comics industry holds "Watchmen" up as high as I and most other comics ubernerds do. As such, to set any lesser talents in the scripting, paneling, inking, editing and finishing such comics would be a dis-service to (literally) millions.

Frankly I'll be happy with one good Nightowl-Rorschach team story. It doesn't have to be GREAT...just *good*.

Here's hoping for good...

Nick - If I may be facetious for a moment, yes, I believe there were a couple. One is in the Prado museum in Spain (done by one of Leonardo's apprentices).

Do comic book writers not own their work?

The way I understand it, Alan Moore owns nothing that made him famous.

If you have the time, look up some backstory on some of the oldies and the copyright/ownership issues around them - Superman, Captain Marvel, Miracleman, etc. It's interesting and sad.

@Lauren: The specific stories themselves are interesting, but the short answer is: If you write/draw for Marvel or DC Comics, anything printed/published under their banner is owned by them and the creators are simply paid a salary or a page-rate. It's called Work-for-Hire. Some publishers do allow their creators to retain copyrights or some level of ownership (specifically Image, Dark Horse, and Red 5), but they don't make near the living -- generally speaking -- that artists for the Big Two (Marvel/DC) make.

The trick, I think, that most comic pros have learned over time is: Pay your bills with work-for-hire and save your best ideas for independent or self-publishing. Anyone can do the latter (see me!) and not make a dime for years, but to earn a liveable wage you've gotta work on Wolverine and Batman and the like. It's great work if you can get it, but you'll never own it. It's just not in their contracts.

So, even though Alan Moore "created" the Watchmen (with Dave Gibbons and an assist from the entire line of Charleston Comics characters), he wrote it for DC to be published by DC. Thus, DC owns the rights and Moore's only recourse is to whinge like a silly prat. Which he does exceedingly well.

Well, if you only had 12 issues of Preacher, you might not have liked it as much.

I think one reason for doing new Watchmen, which no one ever mentions, is to protect trademark. I believe it's "use it or lose it". No one used "Captain Marvel" for 15 years, then it was used by a different company, so now the original character can't be published under that name. And I think that's why they'll keep using character names even if the new character is nothing like the previous character (e.g. Sandman).

You know what could use a sequel? The New Testament. We had the Old Testament, then the New Testament. It's been 2000 years - I think there'd be a huge market for Testament III (can't think of a catchy subtitle though).
(Maybe the Quran should have been retitled in Western countries as Testament III, maybe we'd all get along better).

I couldn't give a fuck. I just want someone to finish Top 10 and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen before I die.

I'll welcome anyone's good work.

Can't wait.