On Alan Moore & Before Watchmen

If you personally think Moore & Gibbons have been screwed over by not getting the WATCHMEN rights back by now, I respect that. If it leads you to want nothing to do with the BEFORE WATCHMEN project, I respect that.

If you think that WATCHMEN was a perfectly contained story that having more work done on ruins and feel the need to protest BEFORE WATCHMEN on that basis, you completely lose me. Prior to the relationship souring, Moore added more story via the RPG supplement and indicated he could be interested in doing a Minutemen story. But, beyond that, one's own personal entertainment preference is NOT reasonable basis to demand a story not be printed and condemn those involved (as publisher, creator or consumer). But if that opinion leads you to want nothing to do with the project? I respect that.

If you condemn the whole thing because the creators should be working on something of their own creation (which is not inherently tied to the ethical argument), you've lost me. If that is why you want nothing to do with the project? Whatever works for you.

If your argument is ethical (creator rights), rant on. If you consume any of the works where other creators are considered as having been screwed (much of the Marvel & DC libraries), you look a little silly.

Moore Should Have Known Better...Maybe

Each time Rich Johnston trots out talk of the WATCHMEN contract, I get a reader (I know, I was shocked that I still had any, too) pointing out to me that some of his statements about graphic novels in print are false.

To wit:

No one has ever cited that Marvel collected the Dark Phoenix Saga in trade in 1984 (wikipedia is wrong about the first version; the first was in '84 with a Sienkevich cover). And that went into multiple printings. Marvel also released their "graphic novels" (Death of Captain Marvel, etc.) to bookstores, and those had more than one printing. In the '70s and early '80s, Marvel did a number of bookstore books (Origins of Marvel Comics, Son of Origins, Bring on the Bad Guys, etc.).

By the time Watchmen came out in September of 1986, Marvel had done upwards of 22 of the Marvel Graphic Novels. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Graphic_Novel
DC put out its first collection of RONIN the same month that Watchmen ended.

So, there were graphic novels in print and previously serialized monthly works that were put into continuously reprinted trade 1-2 years before WATCHMEN saw publication.

I'm not necessarily saying Gibbons and Moore went into this with eyes wide open, but that half the shutting would be due to their own lack of observing the market. I still don't like the deal and think that rights should revert to them, but I no longer have as solid an objective case for it as I once used to.

If You're In The City That Never Sleeps...

I'm sure there are worse ways to waste an afternoon. Little heavy on the movie stuff for my tastes, but still possibly worth the trip if I was still living in north NJ.

New Watchmen Trailer