Tag: before watchmen

The comic book Watchmen, penned by Alan Moore and drawn by artist Dave Gibbons, is one of the most revered books in DC Comics' nearly century-spanning catalogue.  However, their treatment of the work's creators has...

This morning, the world learned that Darwyn Cooke is undergoing palliative care after a "bout with aggressive cancer."

If the people who commissioned really wanted to pay tribute to Watchmen," perhaps they could have tried to reproduce the circumstances of its birth: giving gifted writers and artists the latitude to make...

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OuU2-J4QPw?feature=player_embedded&w=640&h=360] If you support comics creators rights, you may want to avoid Time Square for the next few days. The NY Post has the exclusive news that DC will be running an ad for...

By Steve Morris Fan Expo Canada unfolded across this weekend, bringing all sorts of unwashed comic creators to Toronto. And with them came all sorts of pictures and words which, when assembled into coherent form,...

Here in the world of what is laughably called "pop culture journalism" we're all used to a certain breathless acceptance in talent interviews. Staying competitive means getting exclusives and getting exclusives means playing ball. Tough questions are rarely asked, and confrontation is the greatest sin of all. So when you read Watching Watchmen: A Classic Comic’s Classless Return at the Daily Beast, you have to either wince or gasp as things spin out of control.

A while ago, a few very select comics press outlets were invited to the NY and Burbank offices of DC Comics to look at the pages of the BEFORE WATCHMEN prequels. Of course, only the tip top of the comics media were allowed in: MTV Geek, IGN, CBR, , Comicvine, and 670 The Score Chicago Sports Radio. We call shenanigans! Anyway, caveats were entered, impressions gleaned. Writers were not allowed to actually discuss plot points but rather give overall thoughts and gestaltic reactions.

Alex Zalben has a fine write-up on MoCCA's ‘To Run A Comic Shop’ panel, which included Tucker Stone of Bergen Street Comics, Gabe Fowler of Desert Island, Robert Conte of Manhattan Comics and Brooklyn Comics, Thor Parker of Midtown Comics and moderator (and former retailer) Alex Cox, currently of the CBLDF. As usual that's a very smart, modern lineup of merchants, and sure enough there was some interesting talk. For instance, some stores actually frown on cell phones when they are used to order comics online—using the brick and mortar store as a showroom of sorts:

My—hopefully—last post on Before Watchmen and Alan Moore and the role of the comics creators.

Last week, BuzzFeed, the hugely popular "viral" media site, went on a photo tour of DC's offices, including a slideshow that we now can't find that included shots of publicity VP David Hyde's office. Which was ironic, since early last week it was announced Hyde was leaving DC. Well apparently, while on that tour someone held open the ultra-secret notebook of Watchmen art, which was handcuffed to Bob Wayne's wrist at the retailer summit week before last.

Whether you think the original WATCHMEN is akin to Moby Dick—as Alan Moore opined—or the Bible, as J. Michael Straczynski thought, it is definitely something—DC's bestselling graphic novel of all time[*], a beloved classic taught in schools, one of Time's Best 100 novels of the last 100 years, the book that defined grim and gritty. You name it. Like all great works, it's multifaceted. So doing a "Scarlet" on it brings up every argument over whether comics are literature or licensing. You wouldn't get much argument that Watchmen is literature and Moore is a literary figure. But there's also the obsessive need of devotees to get MORE -- there's a reason why 12 volumes of the J.R.R. Tolkien's jumbled, confused notes and scribblings were published as hardcover books. Once you enter a beloved fictional world you don't want to leave -- even if your hosts are yawning and looking longingly at their pajamas.

Over at his blog, Adam Hughes has posted his thoughts on drawing Dr. Manhattan for BEFORE WATCHMEN: