“Reprints?” This is like the most reprinted comic ever…oh, wait, you mean in regular comic format.
- And Chris thought he was joking.
So I was looking in the most recent issue of Comic Buyer’s Guide, and happened across a letter from a reader, who was wondering about DC Comics’ publishing strategies re: Watchmen, what with the new movie coming out an’ all. To wit:
“For Watchmen, there should be reprints of the original Alan Moore series or one-shots of each Watchman character by today’s hottest writers and artists. The only things I’ve seen from DC on this epic series are the trade paperback, the Absolute edition, and a Millennium Edition reprint of the first issue. And outside of Rorschach’s cameo in The Question some years back, nothing else. Why is that? I know Alan Moore wants nothing more to do with DC Comics, but, since they’re company-owned, why not showcase the characters in one-shots or Hypertime team-ups?”
Okay, I promise I’m not posting that excerpt from the letter to make fun of the guy. (Well, except for the Hypertime comment. That reference is a few years out of date.) Because, while on the face of it, it does seem ridiculous that new comics featuring the Watchmen characters would even be considered…I have to admit, I am at least a little surprised that DC hasn’t published new material based on the original mini.
I suppose a lot of it has to do with not wanting to dilute the perception, or the sales, of the original with new, and almost certainly inferior, material. And of course there’s not wanting to tick off Alan Moore or Dave Gibbons (more Gibbons, now, since it’s pretty clear hell will freeze over before Moore comes back to DC), and then there’s the possible fan backlash, and the attendant bad publicity, and so on.
But that letter shows that there very well may be a market for such things, now…people who don’t care, or even remember, the whole brouhaha involving Moore and Watchmen and DC…who just want new adventures of the characters, and aren’t interested in the creators behind them. A Batman/Rorschach team-up comic would find a pretty welcoming audience, I’d imagine. Hell, even I’d want to check it out, just for the sheer “what th–!?” factor.
I don’t expect any such thing to actually happen, of course…if it were to happen at any time, right now, with the movie adaptation on the horizon, would be the time for it. Though we have at least one or two more rounds of solicitations from DC Comics for books that would come out before or around the movie’s release date…there’s always a slim chance we’d have a shocking surprise. (“The NEW Birds of Prey #1…starring Silk Spectre!”)
We are getting new story material, of a sort…original Watchmen editor Len Wein is writing the script for the prequel video game (while noting in the interview that a sequel to the original story is very unlikely). And Gibbons has done a few new illustrations, for bookcovers or movie promos or what have you…not new story material, by any means, but still, they are new pics.
I suppose this is one of those times we should be thankful for comics’ general irrelevance in relation to Big Hollywood Promotion/Money-Making (aside from being R&D for new films). One memo handed down from Warner Brothers asking DC for more new Watchmen comics to capitalize on the film could be all it takes, Mike said cynically.
- Following up on the whole “triangle numbers” thing from yesterday…Tom reminds me that the triangle number did eventually get enclosed in a Superman shield-shaped pentagon. A quick glance at the books reveal that this happened, at least in Action Comics, with the March 2000 issue. So there you go, in case you were wondering.
- Speaking of my comments, JET asks
“So, just how long are you going to hold off commenting on the fact that your president-elect is a comics collector?”
Well, it’s neat, assuming it’s true. But I haven’t brought it up because, really, I don’t know what to add. I’ve not seen any pics of him kicking it on a beach somewhere, reading an issue of Conan. But if he gives a speech after he takes office, recommending the solution to the troubled economy is slabbing all of your professionally-graded comics…well, make space in the guesthouse, Steven, because I’m comin’ to Canada and movin’ in!
- Would you like to know what is the awesome? An eight-page preview of El Gorgo #2, that is what is the awesome. The first comment in reaction to that preview over there is “El Gorgo! you are fantastico!” — and there’s nothing I can add to that.
- PLEASE NOTE: one of my favorite writers on comics, a certain Andrew W., has moved from his old Blogspot digs to the new address of www.armagideon-time.com. No more freebie MP3 downloads (he explains why in his initial post, though you can probably guess the reasons), but it still remains some of the smartest writing on popular culture you’ll find. He gets my HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION…and you know me, I don’t like anyone, so you know that recommendation really means something.
