What say you about the Watchmen prequels?

J. Farrell · Post by **J. Farrell** » Sun Feb 05, 2012 12:33 am

I have little love left for DC after the last year or so. The only real surprise about this announcement was that it took them so long. I don't think they're screwing Moore and Gibbons; they're well within their rights to use these characters. I do think it's sad that this is pretty much the best they can do these days.

I like Watchmen quite a bit, although it's not the "best comic ever" in my opinion. I also very much like it as it is, with some mystery left in. The urge to explain the crap out of everybody's history is one that I'll never understand. Six issues of watching the long version of Rorshach's descent into madness feels unnecessary.

The book with the most promise of being something worthwhile on its own, for me personally, is Cooke's Minutemen series. I'll probably end up passing on all of it, though.

Gilgabob · Post by **Gilgabob** » Fri Feb 10, 2012 9:02 pm

There are some creators here I really respect but I will be more interested in these types of stories in a collected format so I'll be waiting a bit.

Paul Nolan · Post by **Paul Nolan** » Sun Feb 12, 2012 5:23 am

These comics will sell shed loads. They'll ALL be in the top 30 easily.

Also these aren't being produced for the comics. The comics is a nice added bonus. These are being produced so there can be more trades sat on bookshelves in book shops.

Personally I don't mind that they're are producing news stories. Who expects a series to only have one printing and then revert the copyright back to them. It sounds like originally Alan Moore signed the contract expecting the series to fail.

abysslord · Post by **abysslord** » Sun Feb 12, 2012 8:10 am

Paul Nolan wrote:Who expects a series to only have one printing and then revert the copyright back to them. It sounds like originally Alan Moore signed the contract expecting the series to fail.

I think it was because back then there was no way anyone thought a graphic novel would remain in print.

Alan Moore definitely argues the ethics behind the original contract he signed with DC Comics over the rights to the publication of Watchmen and V For Vendetta. They allowed the company to publish the work for a reasonable amount of time while it stayed in print. Which allowed for the series, and a possible collection if DC wanted to publish one. At the time, however, no trade paperback of any comic book work had remained in print, and none was expected to. Alongside The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen and V For Vendetta spearheaded that movement in the US market of keeping collections in print. And soon it was decided that this is what would happen, the books would stay in print, DC would control the multi-media rights that went along with that and they were not interested in renegotiating the contract given the new market conditions.

When DVD and the internet came along, Hollywood writers were able to strike in order to get the studios and broadcasters to negotiate rights that would reflect new markets. Alan Moore was not in a union, there is no union that represents comics writers, so he began a one man strike against DC Comics. When Neil Gaiman wanted to negotiate the Sandman deal, DC relented, giving him a share of a previously existing DC trademark. Possibly because they didn’t want a repeat performance. Indeed many creators, including those who will be working on Watchmen 2, have benefited from Moore’s stance.

That they can even work on Watchmen 2 is because DC refused to renegotiate the Watchmen contract back in the day.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/02/02/ ... -watchmen/