That sounds kinky.
It’s all really important to the story. The big “Deluxe Edition” didn’t add any of that text. Those Under the Hood segments were originally there even as individual comics. (I still have the 12 original issues stowed away from when I was a teen.)
Edit: By the way, Moore wasn’t just deconstructing superhero comics with Watchmen, (although he very much was) he was also using the medium to say things about the art form itself. If you’re not really invested with the medium of comics, some of that stuff will fly right over. A really good addition to a Watchmen read for a comics newbie is Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud.
Not what I expected, but it has me hooked already.
I wonder what percentage of the audience knew that the Tulsa race riots actually happened, and they were at least as brutal as depicted in the show.
I like to think of myself as well-educated, and I hadn’t heard of it, I’m sad to say. I read that this was largely suppressed for a long time.
I have read about them sometime ago, but I had no idea at how intense and how serious it was. It was a good lesson to see, and look up afterwards.
Is Alan Moore onboard with this show?
Nope. Dave Gibbons is, and he’s credited as “co-creator” of the comic, as well as a consultant on the show. Alan Moore isn’t even mentioned, which is his preference from long ago.
Alan Moore was a great writer, but he generally doesn’t like carrying any of his stuff forward after he’s done with it.
He’s also kind of old and crazy these days. He may have been kind of crazy when younger, actually.
Miracle man had some elements of this, where Moore doesn’t even want his name on it, so it just says “the original writer”. Due to some complications with trademarks and copyrights and stuff.
(Highly recommend miracle man for anyone who likes Moore’s stuff though. Awesome comic.)
It does … but the interesting thing about Moore (and the deeply buried lede in that article) is that his entire career was built on playing with other people’s toys, in most cases without their permission. Including Watchmen, which was originally supposed to be based on Charlton comics characters DC had acquired; DC had Moore change the characters when they realized Moore was doing things to characters like Blue Beetle and Captain Atom that couldn’t easily be undone. (And not, it should be emphasized, because either Moore or DC cared about the original creators at Charlton thought.)
Miracleman? Based on the original Captain Marvel aka Shazam. Tom Strong? Based on Doc Savage. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? The characters are taken from a slew of different writers. From Hell? Based on history, of course, but even the plot twist there is based on a long-established Ripperologist conspiracy theory, not something Moore created. Etc. etc.
I generally lean towards “the wishes of the original creator should be respected” end of things - but Moore is the exception that tests that rule, both because what he did with other people’s toys was usually so great, and because, given his history of using other people’s toys, his “don’t touch my stuff!” tetchiness is so absurd.
Actually, Moore’s miracle man was based on the original miracle man, who was as you say, based on Captain marvel (who was in turn just a knock off of Superman).
It’s the confusion surrounding the copyright on the miracle man name that caused moore to pull his name from the comics when they were re-released.
That being said, while many of these comics drew inspiration from prior characters (rorschach as Mr. A, etc.) Moore’s contribution was really in deconstructing the notion of superheroes themselves. It’s that element which is, at least to me, what’s most interesting about his works.
Like, if you read the miracle man comics, while it uses a variation of the miracle man character, the actual story is incredibly far removed from anything that would ever have occurred in the original comics (with an interesting twist explained eventually).
The same with the watchmen. The story isn’t actually a superhero story.
I doubt people would consider Vincent van Gogh a pleasant person if he were alive today. Yet people continue to make millions of dollars off his paintings.
It is interesting that Moore is now in the place of “don’t touch my stuff” that the DC people were like when he was originally creating Watchmen.
In the case of Watchmen, there’s also the fact that DC screwed him out of a ton of money. The contract was written with a provision that the rights would revert back to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons when the story was “out of print” but when it blew up DC exercised their right to never let it go out of print, thereby keeping Alan and Dave from millions.
Dave has found other ways to make money off the creation. Many of those opportunities came from Alan Moore throwing DC the middle finger and walking away from both big publishers, leaving Gibbons as the only one of the two with an ongoing relationship to the work.
Surprisingly watchable. Didn’t have high expectations for this, but I’m on board with the story so far.
One question for those who are caught up - is the HBO series a sequel to the original comic/movie or is it a “re-imagined” modern take on the original story?
I watched the first two episodes so far and enjoying it - my memories of the original is hazy though and not sure if I should go back and watch the movie again before starting episode 3
It’s a sequel. The book (specifically because of its ending vs the movie) took place in like 1985 and this show takes place in 2019 after the book’s events.
Definitely a sequel, of the book. No so much of the movie.
If you haven’t read the book, I would say it helps having watched the movie compared to not having watched it. It’s mainly the ending that’s different, and the movie has all the major characters.
This is making me want to see them make a movie of “Miracleman”.
I’m eating crow for the past two episodes… they are really good. I HATED the first episode, but right now the show is on track for being pretty good, and the new characters and the reimagined old characters are good. As long as Lindelof doesn’t overreach and go apeshit with a mouthpiece on religion and God… I am ok with the great character backdrops… he excels at this since Lost… but his philosophy is so worn out. Really like the pharmaceutical Trillionaire character… so funny and interesting and mysterious… oh you Linedelof mystery box shit… you have me again.