AdamCrocker
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AdamCrocker has commented on a blogentry: Feeling Angry About Before Watchmen? A Few Quick Words on Why You Shouldn't
Feb 12, 2012 at 2:00pmSam; "and adam, it seems like you are saying that the book's acceptability with you deals with the creators and how they use the characters. and while i share your trepidation on what JMS is planning, how is it that you've already passed judgement on the rest of the books when they haven't even been released yet?" That's only part of it, but it's also due to the points raised by the House to Astonish blog entry I posted: WATCHMEN is a work that really doesn't lend itself to franchising the way Superman (who was explicitly designed for that sort of thing) does or Dracula (who wasn't but somehow various parties managed to find qualities in the character that you could work with...though literary characters like Dracula that do get reworked that way are pretty rare). I may not be able to condemn the quality of the project itself, but it simply strikes me as a flat-out bad idea given the proposed project. In any case, the point my earlier post was to draw a distinction between the kind of reusing of literary characters that Moore does in LOEG and how that is different from say...what's going on in BEFORE WATCHMEN or superhero comics. Hence why I choose Geoff Johns' sequel to CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. It's patently not the same and I'm quite baffled why people think it is. Again, Moore places old literary characters in new contexts to explore ideas different and somewhat askance to the original work like the notion of the hero or sexual imagination. Geoff Johns just dredges up old characters who are put through a series of stale (and clumsy) genre fiction exercises. Which is also another reason for my why I'm pessimistic about this project: it strikes me as utterly symptomatic of Marvel and DC's wider creative inbreeding that gave use Geoff Johns and the upcoming AVENGERS v. X-MEN crossover. Marvel is presenting the latter as something that has never happened before. The 1987 X-MEN v. AVENGERS mini notwithstanding, how is this different than any other superhero team v superhero team punch up that we've seen in the past several decades?
3 months ago
AdamCrocker has commented on a blogentry: Feeling Angry About Before Watchmen? A Few Quick Words on Why You Shouldn't
Feb 9, 2012 at 1:13pmBart; "2) The thing that leaves a bad taste in my mouth is the fact that indeed the deal made with DC was that the rights are reverted if the book is out of print for over a year and once DC noticed it was a hit, they just kept it in print indefinitely without ever reaching a new agreement with the creators. So basically they realised the deal for the creators was crap and gold for them and they never succeeded in re-negotiating a fairer deal for all involved. That is just wrong." Bart, that is probably the most intelligent and ethical examination of the original deal, and even one I certainly didn't consider when I generally come down on creators' side on this thing. Thanks for posting that.
AdamCrocker has commented on a blogentry: Feeling Angry About Before Watchmen? A Few Quick Words on Why You Shouldn't
Feb 9, 2012 at 1:07amSam; >> "It also makes no sense that a mash up is acceptable, but this is not. " Perhaps I didn't make myself clear the first time, but it's not so much about the mash-up per se as what Moore does with it. As I said there's a difference between the purposeful re-imagining that Moore does in LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN than say...Geoff Johns doing his CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS sequel where Alexander Luthor and Superboy Prime are clumsily plothammered into villain roles so we have DC's superheroes work through a bunch of tired cliches. And if LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN is a sequel to MOBY DICK and DRACULA, it's a rather unusual one in that it purports less to be a continuation of the original stories' events, tone, themes, etc., than it is reframing these familiar ficitional charaters in a very different story. Plus, JMS comments about what he wants to explore don't auger for the story. As for why I oppose this, well to quote Paul O'Brien: ?For god?s sake, why? "Even assuming Moore had no objections to the project ? and let it be noted, Dave Gibbons was presumably happy to have his endorsement in the press release ? the whole enterprise would still beg the question: who on earth wants to read prequels to Watchmen? Has anyone been demanding to see this?" http://www.housetoastonish.com/?p=1263 And there's the wider question of whether this is even the kind of work that it makes sense to franchise given how detailed it is in terms of exploring the characters' past, the finality of the ending, and really whether there are any franchisable elements to work with given the nature of the work.
3 months ago
AdamCrocker has commented on a blogentry: Feeling Angry About Before Watchmen? A Few Quick Words on Why You Shouldn't
Feb 4, 2012 at 1:04pmJason; Well arguably Moore did expect this given his previous criticism of mainstream comics publishing, but he's nonetheless disappointed and annoyed by this development. Also his own stance on the ownership of the characters has to be assessed in light of the fact that when the original contract had specified that the rights would revert to him and Gibbons if the book remained out of print for a year. And at the time that was made, comics remaining continously in print was an unusual development. (To say nothing about how his attitude was shaped by subsequent developments.) And with that said another point I wish to address is... "My issue is that while all of these creators have gifted us with high level original works, none of that original work has been within the mainstream DCU/MU. When was the last time the big 2 actually published a successful superhero comic that could hold its own against the archetypal characters of the Golden and Silver Ages?" Well why would they? Marvel and DC have made it utterly clear they are only interested in pushing pre-existing company owned properties in their mainline of comics. And in that line they even have trouble launching and selling titles focusing on lower tier characters. Arguably you could say that what this really calls for is fresh new ideas in mainstream comics, but the fact that DC seems to think you can write prequels to WATCHMEN - arguably a work totally unsuited for such a spinoff - suggests that neither publishing company really understands this.
AdamCrocker has commented on a blogentry: Feeling Angry About Before Watchmen? A Few Quick Words on Why You Shouldn't
Feb 4, 2012 at 11:00amCrap, my message got muddled with no paragraphs. Still trying to get an understanding of the comment system here.
AdamCrocker has commented on a blogentry: Feeling Angry About Before Watchmen? A Few Quick Words on Why You Shouldn't
Feb 4, 2012 at 11:00am<i>'Alan Moore said, "As far as I know, there weren?t that many prequels or sequels to ?Moby-Dick". I say, "That's rich coming from the guy that put Ishmael on the Nautilus.'</i> Though League of Extraordinary Gentlemen isn't a sequel to Moby Dick, or 2000 Leagues Under the Sea, or Dracula... ...it's a weird mash-up of these literary heroes that allows Moore explore the notion of the hero and the tropes of heroic fiction by calling the reader's attention to it through existing fictional characters. And often reimagining them in the process. But Before Watchmen? It's telling canon prequels in regards to a story that thoroughly explored the histories of the characters. Is there anything left to explore in that regard? Particularly when J. Michael Straczynski says he's going to answer the burning question as to how Dr. Manhattan walked into the testing chamber that gave him his powers in the first place? That was dealt in all of three panels in the original story with "oh, no I left my coat in there." And its really indicative of what a bad project this is and how emblematic it appears to be of mainstream comics' inbred creative thinking. Moore purposefully reworks old literary characters for new purposes while DC is dredging up a story that's not receptive to things such as prequels to do what...? (I mean besides sell comics.)
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