Seeing as there’s been more talk on GWC about comics lately, why not spend a little time on Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen, the book that redefined the genre? Also, with Zack Snyder’s film version coming out next year, everyone should familiarize themselves with the source material before seeing the film. It’s a seminal piece of fiction, and its influence can be felt in so many things that are popular with this bunch, including Heroes, LOST, and basically every single comic to be written since it’s release in the 1980s. Neil Gaiman, with whom I’m sure everyone is at least passingly familiar, was both heavily involved in the book’s creation and heavily influenced by its creators.
Plus, Rorschach is just cool. I mean, check out that mask! Sweet.
I read about half of it going to re read it soon.
Do you think Alan Moore comics make better comic books than movies? Perhaps his penchant to go a bit too ‘larger than life’ plays better on the page and in the imagination than onscreen in a movie. Zack Synder might succeed where his predecessors failed. 300 was surprising much better and sufficiently faithful to the comic and the medium of comics than I ever thought a movie could be.
Sort of like the idea of a spandex crimefighting outfit doesn’t look silly, till you start cosplaying…
Most books make better books than movies. I think people just forget that because they’re “comic books.”
So I’ll put that down as a yes 
Well, yes. But there’s that whole minimum post length…
well, I thought the film version of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was godawful, but I liked V for Vendetta quite a bit. I haven’t read V for Vendetta, though. I know Alan Moore thinks his books make much better books than anything else, but he’s kind of a jerk. I forgive him for that, because he’s a genius.
I’m optimistic about Zack Snyder’s take on Watchmen. I thought he did a great job with his remake of one of my All-Time Top Ten Greatest Movies Ever Ever, Dawn of the Dead. Also, the recent Marvel films like Spider-Man, Iron Man, and the Incredible Hulk, have all used interesting techniques to more accurately translate the comic medium to the screen. In a perfect world, Terry Gilliam would have created a 12-hour Watchmen miniseries for HBO, but alas that deal has been dead for years. Still, Snyder should do very well. I usually tend to have more faith in a project like this when the man at the helm is a fan of the source material, and that’s certainly the case with this film.
But I also think, in general, that comic books make better comics than movies.
So, in answer to your question, yes.
Well…if we were going to test to see if the crüe could pull off a podcast based on a comic…Watchmen would be the one to try it on (or, in my opinion, Sandman).
Watchmen is a great choice!
Watchmen is one volume, so I’d go with that (and I say that as someone who actually owns a Death statue.)
I’m not entirely sure what to make of this. It’s a “motion comic” of Watchmen available free (chapter 1) on iTunes.
I’ve only seen about ten minutes so far, but it looks pretty faithful.
Just found this. Interesting to compare Alan’s Rorschach voice with the one in the above link.
I’ll add a big yes to doing The Watchmen next.
Its readily available and a great read.
Discussion of same would be the icing on the cake.
Uryon
I thought that they had abandoned the project, but it looks like they’re still doing the Watchmen motion comic.
Which, in my mind, is a stupid thing to do with a comic. It’s like a bad cartoon. Very bad cartoon.
I actually prefer it to truly bad animation. And it’s going to be more faithful to the original than the motion picture could hope to be. (Although, Lev over at Time says that it’s looking good so far.)
I beg to differ. I think they’re corrupting comics as a medium with that animated comics thing. The whole point of reading (reading! not watching!) comics as that the mix of pictures and text creates a new medium for transporting information, that you can look at the pictures first or read the text first, that you can focus on details when you want, can look at more than one panel at a time and all that creates a unique impression.
Whereas a movie is just a different medium with totally different rules. You’ve got to actively ADAPT the material to make it work as a movie and put some effort into it.
And yeah, we’ve all seen the Watchmen trailer and I strongly believe that it’s gonna be at least a good movie, maybe even a great movie.
It’s just a different adaptation.
And yeah, we’ve all seen the Watchmen trailer and I strongly believe that it’s gonna be at least a good movie, maybe even a great movie.
He’s seen 26 minutes of the movie, not just the trailer.