watchmen

From this article, spotted on the Twitter:

“However, DC comics co-publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee said, ‘Watchmen is the most celebrated graphic novel of all time. Rest assured, DC Comics would only revisit these iconic characters if the creative vision of any proposed new stories matched the quality set by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons nearly 25 years ago, and our first discussion on any of this would naturally be with the creators themselves.’”

1. Did DiDio and Lee say it simultaneously, in harmony? Did they sing it to the tune of “Money” from Cabaret?

2. Is this the first public statement that DC would be willing to do new Watchmen stories, whether or not Moore and Gibbons are involved? Because, dude, I’ve got one comic book story in me, and that story is Watchmen 2: Seymour Rising.

But seriously, if there were other statements along those lines in the past, I don’t recall them. Mostly I seem to remember “oh, we wouldn’t cheapen the original with spin-offs” or “if Moore and Gibbons ever want to come back, sure.” But this is the first time they said they’d be more to happy to publish Watchmen Two-in-One #1, Batman and the Comedian, by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis, which I realize they didn’t actually say as such, but I think we can read between the lines, there.

Johanna Draper Carson had commented on her Twitter thingie about it, to which I responded, essentially, that if the Watchmen movie hadn’t killed sales on the graphic novel to the point that DC felt it was necessary to rebuild interest in the series via new material, that we’re probably safe from non-Moore/Gibbons follow-ups. Of course, that doesn’t mean it will never happen, but I think the time for it to happen was during the movie’s lifespan. Of course, we are talking about the comics industry, where barn doors are always closed after the horses have escaped, so new Watchmen material being produced years after its chance at getting as large a potential audience as possible wouldn’t surprise me.

Speaking of Alan Moore, guess who wasn’t mentioned once in this week’s Marvelman Primer? The one mention of Moore’s 1980s revival of the character is a passing mention from a full-page plug for Marvel’s 1950s Marvelman reprint projects:

“If you only know him from his dark, deconstructionist ’80s revival, then you don’t know Marvelman!”

Of course, that ignores the fact that the “dark, deconstructionist ’80s revival” is the Marvelman work most people are primarily curious about. The reprints of the ’50s stories are amusingly entertaining, granted, but it feels like treading water until the details are sorted out with getting those ’80s stories back in print.

Back to Moore…there are plenty of opportunities to bring him up, by the way: there’s a discussion of British comics publishing which mentions Warrior, the magazine where Marvelman’s revival originally appeared, but is not mentioned in the article at all. There’s another history specifically of Marvel’s forays into British comics, which cites their Captain Britain series and mentions creators such as Steve Parkhouse, Chris Claremont, Paul Neary and John Stokes, but does not mention Moore, who wrote what are probably the best-known and most sought-after of the UK-edition Captain Britain comics.

I have no idea how far along, if at all, Marvel is regarding the rerelease of the ’80s Marvelman work. If the answer is “not very,” then I suppose it’s in their best interest to deemphasize that particular run for the time being, especially if they have new material in the works of a different revival of the franchise. But the ’80s comics are very noticeable in their absence from a publication intended to be an overview and introduction to these characters, particularly when the detailed historical articles gloss right over their publications and the writer behind that relaunch.

Or maybe nobody else cares any more, Marvel feels no obligation to cater to that handful of folks who recall some short-run Marvelman series from 25 years ago, and only big ol’ nerds like me are getting all worked up about it. That too is a possibility.

(NOTE: There may be spoilers for some plot elements of Watchmen, in case you haven’t read the book or seen the movie.)

So I was contacted by some folks over at Wizkids Games, asking me if I’d be interested in a review copy of the Watchmen Heroclix set. Well, most of you folks know how amused I am by the various permutations of Watchmen ephemera, so how could I say no?

And there it was, sitting on my porch waiting for me only a day or so later. The packaging is quite impressive, standing a good fourteen inches tall:

Making the Watchmen clock symbol resemble a Heroclix base was pretty clever, I thought. You can’t tell in the photo, but in the black part of the packaging are dark gray images of clock gears falling.

Pop the sucker open (it has a magnet-sealing flap, which is appreciated), and here’s what you see inside:

Contrast adjusted to increase visibility…I’m no expert photographer, sadly. But the box makes a nice display for the figurines, which are firmly lodged into their packaging slots and not just rattling around in there. There are also clear plastic lids that cover each tray (removed in the above photo to prevent getting a reflection of my mug glaring back at you), so you can just prop this up somewhere and display your figures without worrying about dust or pet dander or what have you.

Now, the figures themselves…there are twenty-five different pieces, with five of those pieces featuring two characters. Sculpts look good, though as can be expected the larger pieces have better sculpts and nicer paint jobs…but they all look fine (with some quibbles, noted below). But all the characters are easily identifiable, and there is a good variety of poses. Since folks are going to ask, here’s the list:

Big Figure (sculpted with a beard and mustache, which he doesn’t have in the comic, but does in the movie)

Bubastis

Captain Metropolis

The Comedian (sporting his flamethrower)

The Comedian (1940s) (crouched down one knee, lit stogie in mouth)

Dr. Manhattan (“hovering” in his lotus position, a giant gear behind him, representing the scene on Mars)

Dr. Manhattan (‘Nam era – double-sized figure, translucent blue plastic)

Hooded Justice (most of the figures have the usual googly-eyes that nearly all Heroclix figures have, but it really works well on this piece…that’s some angry, piercing glare H.J. has)

Knot Top

Knot Top Leader

Larry and Mike (Big Figure’s henchmen)

Mask-Killer (Ozymandias in the outfit he was wearing when he killed the Comedian)

Moloch the Mystic (in his prime, with golden cape and turban)

Nite Owl II

Nite Owl II (Cold Weather Gear) (very attractive piece, with the costume painted in a shiny silver)

Ozymandias (in costume)

Rorschach

Silk Spectre I (the molded stocking straps make the legs’ sculpts look a bit awkward…there’s a sentence I wasn’t expecting to type today)

Silk Spectre II (posed in a fighting stance on a series of steps)

Walter Kovacs (carrying a “The End Is Nigh” sign)

And the double-figure pieces:

Comedian and Nite Owl II (Nite Owl crouched with a hand weapon, Comedian aiming his rifle)

Nite Owl II and Rorschach

Ozymanias and Bubastis (Ozy seated in his chair, one hand on Bubastis’s head as she lays curled around the chair)

Silk Spectre II and Dr. Manhattan (Manhattan is “floating” behind Silk Spectre…feet are on a black post which matches the base)

And then there’s this piece, which I can actually give you an image for since it’s on the paper wrapping of the package:

Intrinsic Field Experiment 15:

This is an interesting and visually striking piece (that blue plastic into which the skeleton is embedded is translucent)…if I’m reading the rules card correctly (and keep in mind I’m not a Heroclix player) it appears this piece can give a friendly character a Dr. Manhattan-esque power, like teleportation, or destroying other pieces on the gaming field. As this particular effect is used, the piece’s dial is turned a certain number of clicks (the more powerful the power, the more clicks turned) until (again, if I’m reading this right) Dr. Manhattan himself is “invoked” and enters the game, whereupon he presumably ruins everyone’s day.

I mentioned a rules card…each piece gets a card, giving a brief explanation of who the character/s is/are, their point values, and their specific abilities. (The bio for Nite Owl says he was “forced into impotent retirement,” which is kind of a brilliant summation.) Some of their abilities are given special names, like Rorshach’s Flurry ability being referred to as “Give Me Back My Face,” which is all kinds of hilarious. The Comedian’s Ranged Combat Expert skill is called “Dallas, 1963,” which…uh. And according to the Dr. Manhattan card, “the powers of Dr. Manhattan can’t be countered,” so there you go.

Also, the rules cards refer to the main characters by the team name “The Watchmen,” which may stick in the craw of the graphic novel purists (since the “team,” such as it was, is never actually called that, but, hey, you’ll live. Besides, for game purposes, they gotta be collectively referred to somehow, so “The Watchmen” will just have to do.

Now, as I said, I am not a Heroclix player. I don’t know how good these pieces are in terms of gameplay. As a Watchmen fan, I’m reasonably entertained by these figurines, and I like that the packaging is designed for easily displaying them. But for playing…sorry, no real idea. I’d think that Dr. Manhattan would be bit of an unbalancing factor since, when you get right down to it, this is really the only character with superpowers in the Watchmen milieu, but I think it’s safe to say this has been taken into account by the designers. Anyway, if any of you folks out there have specific questions about this set, go ahead and let me know in the comments and I’ll try to answer. If they are detailed gaming questions, use small words and talk me through it, and I’ll do my best.

So, to sum up: neat souvenir for Watchmen fans, though a bit dear (it appears to retail between $60 to $80, which is about right for the number of figures you’re getting, considering usual retail prices on Heroclix booster packs), but alas, no real idea how it adds to the game beyond simply giving you new characters and powers to throw into the mix. But maybe that’s enough.

About the title of this post: I do so love Seymour and his position in the story, since he’s the one that could potentially undo everything everyone’s worked for. A Heroclix figure featuring Seymour could, I think, have the ability of undoing a previous turn, or something. I don’t know…would that work in the game? Let me know, pals.

There is a 14-inch Dr. Manhattan figure planned, but I do hope there are future sets of the regular figures, just to fill out the rest of the characters: Rorschach’s psychiatrist, the two Bernies, the original Nite Owl, the remaining Minutemen, the detectives…and maybe another one of those giant Heroclix statue pieces with Ozy’s space squid. A boy can dream.

During my Christmas shopping excursions, I’ve been sorta looking at various stores’ DVD selections trying to spot the Watchmen: Ultimate Cut DVD set since, if I’m going to buy the thing, I’m going to want the whole enchilada. And I have yet to see it in an actual store anywhere. I realize I can buy it online, and probably will end up doing so, but mostly I just find it curious that nobody seemed to carry it, or carried so few copies that they already sold out and haven’t bothered to reorder. Or, of course, it could be a huge hit and stores just can’t keep it in stock…but that doesn’t seem terribly likely.

The version of the movie I’ve seen the most is the single disc “Theatrical Cut” version, mostly at low, low “please, for the love of God, take these off our hands” prices. Some stores had stacks of them, which possibly could account for the lack of stocking of the Ultimate Cut.

I have seen a few copies of the two-disc “Directors Cut” here and there, and as it came out at the same time as the single-disc version, this seems to be the version people wanted and the reason why the single-disc ended up being a shelf-warmer. I realize some people don’t care about special features and deleted scenes and all that stuff, but if you had to choose between the single disc version and the double disc which has extra stuff embedded in the film itself, that’s a little different. ‘Course, I know some think any extra run-time on the Watchmen flick is no bonus at all, but they’re not likely to be buying any of these. And it doesn’t have as much extra material as the Ultimate Cut anyway.

I happened to spot this version at Best Buy, which appears to be an exclusive edition of the Director’s Cut packaged in…um, a Rorschach head complete with a cloth mask. I put a wee little picture of it to the side, there, but you can see a great big picture of it right here. It’s just a tiny mask which you can’t remove and wear, I think, which is probably just as well.

I haven’t really looked at the stock on the Blu-Ray edition of Watchmen since I’m still using plain ol’ DVDs because I’m a dinosaur. Please do not mock my tiny brain or useless forearms.

I can report that the actual Watchmen graphic novel appears to be selling again…of course, not nearly at the levels it was before the pre-film excitement started and the local demand for Watchmen was really oversaturated. But that we’re moving any copies at all is a bit encouraging. I even had a collector express interest in the original issues, which is something that hasn’t happened in a while.

Also, there’s a part of me that wishes the Watchmen film had been an enormous hit, enough so that a sequel would have been inevitable, and that even possibly new comic book follow-ups and tie-ins would have been published. Because really, the fanguish that would have caused would have been epically awesome.

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Speaking of movies, the film I can’t wait to see is Sherlock Holmes, because 1) you had me at “new Sherlock Holmes movie,” and 2) it’s Robert Downey, Jr. as Sherlock, which promises to be fantastic. I suspect some…liberties will be taken with the interpretations of the characters and the sorts of situations they’ll find themselves in, but after over a century’s worth of Sherlock pastiches and parodies, what’s one more?

And I haven’t made it to Avatar yet simply because I haven’t had the time. But I have to say, it does look pretty, but I’ve been hearing some pretty dire things about it story-wise. What say you, internet pals?

While there were several things in the Watchmen that were changed from the comic, most didn’t bother me a whole lot. Particularly in the first half of the film, where most of the changes were done to streamline the story to keep the narrative under the three hour mark. And that’s fine.

But a couple of things did bug me quite a bit, like altering Rorschach’s final speech to the psychologist (a gutwrenching piece in the original), or Dr. Manhattan’s speech to Laurie about changing his mind about humanity (close to the original, but somehow simplified, “dumbed-down,” and less convincing), but the one omission that bothers me the most? Leaving out the final confrontation between Adrian and Manhattan:

The filmmakers at least recognized that the “nothing ever ends” line should be in the film, but as I complained last time, giving the line to another character to relate as something Manhattan “might say” sure undermines its impact.

Anyway, that was the one thing that really bothered me the most. Yes, more than changing the actual climax of the film, which I’ve already gone on about in that old review of mine. Sometimes the new ending bothers me, sometimes I get what they were trying to do…I have mixed feelings about it. But, eh, I’ll deal.

Also, not enough Seymour.

So, did any of you folks rewatch the Watchmen movie in its DVD release? Did you alter your opinions on the film at all?

Watching the Watchmen film via Netflixxed DVD…turns out Netflix doesn’t have the half-hour longer “director’s cut” edition, so if I want to watch it, looks like I’ll have to buy it. Or wait for the Ultimate Edition that will have the all the stuff from the director’s cut, plus the Tales from the Black Freighter cartoon interwoven into the film, instead of having it in the standalone “what the hell does this have to do with Watchmen?” edition.

Anyway, here’s my original review, and if you folks follow my Twitter feed, you’ve seen a few of my reactions to the rewatching.

On the plus side: the whole sequence with Dr. Manhattan’s origin translates well, and I quite like the musical score for this portion of the film. And I still enjoy the portrayal of Rorschach.

On the…well, maybe not so much “negative” as it is “curious” – Manhattan dropping the “I can’t see the future because there’s probably going to be a nuclear war” problem into the narrative at the beginning of the film doesn’t feel right to me. I realize that they’re trying to emphasize the imminent danger of war looming over the world, but I’m pretty sure they’d established this fairly well even without moving this line forward in the story.

Also, giving Dr. Manhattan “psychic vision touch” to help trigger Laurie’s flashbacks seems a bit unnecessary. And that they never really justified why exactly Manhattan was toolin’ around in the altogether. Yeah, okay, we know that he wears progressively less clothing the more inhuman he becomes, but does that come across to anyone not familiar with the book? It doesn’t seem like there’s enough in-film material to establish that.

At one point on my Twitter, I say “The Watchmen movie is like watching a comic book version of the original story,” which seemed to strike a nerve with a few folks. Well, okay, with two people. But I think I was struck about how unsubtle and, frankly, dumbed-down this version of Watchmen is. That might just be an artifact of the director’s translation of the comic to film, where most things that seemed thoughtful and witty on the page just became sort of garish and foolish once you have real people in costumes acting it out on screen. And the decision to ramp up the sex and violence to make it seem more “mature,” I guess, just comes across like the “comics aren’t just for kids anymore” mantra of desperation that it is.

To reemphasize, I don’t hate the film. Again, to quote my Twitter, “I do like the WATCHMEN movie as an interesting but failed experiment in adaptation,” and I stand by that. I liked it more than I didn’t like it, and as I said in my previous review, it’s a fitting companion, but certainly no replacement, for the original story.

I’m only halfway through the rewatching, so my opinion may yet change…the film’s real problems seem to set in during the second half of the film, as I recall, so I may have a few more annoyances to pass along here. Consider yourself warned.

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So remember that time when extradimensional demonic entity Trigon seduced the woman who would eventually become Raven’s mom by taking the form of Danny Elfman?

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Not Blog X, which I’ve mentioned several times before for its ongoing and compelling examinations of ’90s X-Men comics, has since moved on to another kind of mutant: that being the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

And not just any Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles…the Archie Comics Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I’ve written briefly before about the peculiarity of the Archie TMNT series, so I’m looking forward to Not Blog X’s new direction.

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Running faster than the speed of light flattens Superman’s head:

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One of my favorite webcomics is With Gusto, who has fun with old advertising images and clip art:

Go check it out…tell him I said “hey.”

images from Tales of the New Teen Titans #2 (July 1982) by Marv Wolfman, George Perez & Pablo Marcos, and Flash: Rebirth #3 (Aug 2009) by Geoff Johns & Ethan Van Sciver

Okay, I know everyone’s probably sick of hearing about the Watchmen flick by now. But let me just throw out a few thoughts about the film, and we’ll see where we go from here. I know I’m forgetting something, so I may do a follow-up at some point.

SPOILERS begin after the first pic, end after the second.

• Overall, the look of the film is pretty much dead on. All the characters look right, all the sets look right, a number of the scenes are laid out to look like how they were presented in the comic. In fact, the adaptation of the story to film is pretty faithful, at least through the first half, allowing for some omissions and streamlining of the story. As I was watching, I was thinking to myself “okay, that was issue #1” (a few minutes pass) “okay, there was issue #2” and so on.

  In the second half of the movie, I had the impression that things were getting a little more compressed/streamlined, a few more little things were getting changed around, not always for the better. I have a specific example in mind that I’ll bring up near the end of the “review” here.

• I admit it: I was bothered that the team actually referred to themselves as “The Watchmen.”
• This film sure felt like “cut scenes ahoy,” didn’t it? The director’s cut is going to be like seven hours long.
• Things that appeared to bother other people that didn’t really bother me all that much:

  1. The costumes, particularly for the older team, looking just a little too goofy, a little too much like the live action Tick series. Well…yeah, they’re supposed to look gaudy and sorta goofy looking. That’s pretty much how they looked in the comics, too.

  2. The “slow motion” effects in the fight scenes. It wasn’t all that distracting to me. In fact, I thought the fight scenes were pretty effective.

  3. Dr. Manhattan’s penis. Yeah, so it was a penis. Big whoop.

  4. The music. I don’t know that we’ve had a superhero movie in recent memory that used so many songs from popular culture. Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, even Nena with “99 Luftballons.” This movie certainly didn’t sound like any other superhero flick. Maybe they were songs we’ve all heard a million times before, but…hell, I can handle a million and one. (And perhaps this was a commentary on the overuse of said songs, by cramming them all together into one soundtrack? If so, that’d be one of the very few, if any, overt instances of the film commenting on itself, following in the self-commentary of the source material.)

• Okay, how awesome was Matt Frewer as Moloch? Okay, he wasn’t in the film very much, but I thought he did a good job. Plus I just plain like Matt Frewer. I even watched his short-lived sitcom Doctor Doctor. You remember Doctor Doctor, don’t you? Sure you do.
• The sex scene: okay, we get that Dan got his mojo back after tooling around in the costume. And perhaps the sex scene made a counterpoint to the excess of bloody violence in the film. But…well, as a customer put it, “that was a whole lot of thrusts we had to watch onscreen.” Someone somewhere in the MPAA was keeping a count and making sure this film didn’t cross over in the X territory.
• Kid Chris noted this, and he ain’t wrong: why is Ozymandias’ genetically altered lynx Bubastis in the film? In the comic, Bubastis’ main purpose is to demonstrate the current level of genetic engineering available to Ozymandias, foreshadowing the alien creature construct from the original ending.
• And speaking of the changed ending: the new ending, with Ozymandias destroying cities around the world and making it look like Manhattan did it, in order to get the world to pull back from world war and unite against a common enemy, didn’t sit quite right with me for one reason. Manhattan was known to be American, and long associated with the U.S. military. It seems to me the rest of the world would be awfully pissed at the U.S. for losing control of their weapon, rather than wanting to buddy up with them against a renegade superhero.

  Now, I suggested this to a few internet pals via the e-mail, and they had a lengthy debate why this would or would not be the case. I personally thought having the alleged threat be completely “outside” would be more conducive to the kind of worldwide joining together established in the story’s ending, leaving no room for recriminations or accusations how the world situation is the U.S.’s fault. But it was pointed out that with either ending, this sort of unification was likely to be shortlived anyway. Or that the need to behave with a vengeful Manhattan supposedly watching would override any desire to retaliate against the U.S. Or, you know, whatever…there are plenty of good arguments on either side of why either plan would work/wouldn’t work. Basically the plan of choice works because the people making this story want it to. The end.

  Anyway, despite all that, it really didn’t bother me all that much. Just thought it was worth thinking about.

• One other aspect of the ending that bothered me was the “nothing ever ends” line being given to Laurie to say as “something that Jon would say” rather than having Manhattan actually deliver the line to Ozymandias as he does in the book. Sorta undermines the impact.
• Oh, and Nite Owl doing the “NOOOOOOO!” thing and falling to his knees, near the end there…? Really, movie, that’s what you want to do? You sure?
• And this isn’t really specific to the film, but it just sort of dawned on me as I left the theatre and can’t believe I hadn’t thought about this before. So, the clock motif that repeats itself throughout the story, with the minute hand always stuck at just before twelve? It occurs to me that the hydrogen symbol on Manhattan’s forehead is yet another repeat of that motif, only with the “hand” (as it were) at the twelve o’clock position. At least, there’s nothing in the “clock’s” face visible as a distinct minute hand, so if we’re going to extend the clock symbolism, it would read as both hands being straight up at 12.

  Thought that was a bit interesting. And, as Kid Chris mentioned to me when I brought this up to him, this particular bit of symbolism has more resonance in the film version than the comic version, given the altered ending.

  EDIT: Well, I feel dumb. One of my readers has an equally valid, if not superior, interpretation.

That may have sounded like I disliked the movie more than I did. And no, I didn’t hate the movie. It was entertaining enough, and if Watchmen was going to be made into a film, by hook or by crook, this film is at least reasonably acceptable. I don’t know if it’s going to convince anyone new to the property that the source material is, in fact, “the most celebrated graphic novel of all time” unless they go and check out the book itself. But the film stands as an interesting novelty, a sidebar to the graphic novel rather than any kind of replacement…not that anything really could replace the graphic novel, mind you.

Well, maybe that Watchmen driving game I hoped for a while back, but that’s pretty much it.

El Gorgo #2, the world’s only comic about a luchador gorilla scientist, is now out in stores…and also available as a free download from the official site in a variety of formats. However, I do recommend buying your own copies because, c’mon, you want to be seen strolling around town with a copy or three of this comic tucked under your arm. Men will cower, women will swoon!

Seriously though, this comic is a lot of fun. It’s an unpretentious, unabashedly goofy comic book that evokes the silliness of the Silver Age while still forging its own enjoyably peculiar path. El Gorgo is highly recommended!

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Also, I’m selling a variety of items on the eBay to meet some expenses, with a few of those auctions ending this evening. If you want to help a pal out, and get some actual merchandise that I personally have touched with my own filthy, filthy hands, then please feel free to bid!

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The first of DC’s “After Watchmen” dollar book promotions is due out this week, featuring issue #21 of Saga of the Swamp Thing. I’ve already discussed my thoughts on how this particular promotion will do, but I am curious to see how the Watchmen graphic novel will do this week, now that the film has been released and, traditionally, any sales bump that comics made into movies may have experienced tend to dissipate right about now. We did move an awful lot of copies over the weekend, which was a bit of a relief as, due to a reordering mix-up (and the fact that reorders over the last few weeks have been delayed due to Diamond moving warehouses), I accidentally doubled the number of copies I’d actually wanted for the movie’s opening. Thankfully that worked out, due to a combination of some increased demand over the last few days and the fact that I set up a small display of the books by the register for impulse sales.

Once Watchmen burn-out has set in, I expect the sales to drop like a stone on these things, but the real trick is whether or not that drop is temporary. Watchmen has always sold well, to the point where I kept thinking “okay, that’s it, everyone’s read Watchmen by now,” but then we’d sell more. It’s truly a perennial seller, still moving copies long after sales on flash-in-the-pan “hot” books like Civil War have dwindled down to relatively nothing. I’m hoping Watchmen will eventually recover from the post-movie dip, like Hellboy did for us after its films, and not simply continue to languish on the shelf like, say, Sin City or League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.*

Of course, if sales on Watchmen are still up, up, up this week too, I’m not going to complain about being wrong. But eventually the movie-inspired sales bump will go away, and the question remains if and when the book will recover. I suppose it depends if the book’s reputation remains “greatest graphic novel ever” or if it transmutes to “oh, yeah, I saw that movie…boy, that was stupid.”

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I’ve been meaning to link to this and just never got around to it, but so long as I’m talking about sales: Johanna compiles and examines Archie Comics’ sales for 2008. And I’m not just linking because I helped a little. (Very little!) The numbers are somehow both surprising and yet not totally unexpected, and you should go take a look.

* I should note the fact that Hellboy is still a Going Thing helps counter the impact of the movies. League is showing some stirrings of life in trade sales again, as a new installment approaches. If Sin City were to have a new series, its backlist might start moving again, too.

However, none of this bodes well for Watchmen, which won’t have any kind of follow-up installments. Presumably.

Here’s a thought that crossed my mind the other day: it occurs to me that selling Tales of the Black Freighter (the pirate comic embedded in Watchmen) as a separate story is like taking the choruses out of Greek tragedies and presenting those as standalone narratives.

Your thoughts, internet pals?

So, in just a couple of days, Seymour-Mania will be sweeping the nation!

The unsung hero of Watchmen, the moral center of the story, the steadfast witness to history, the indefatigable champion of the common man, unbowed even in an unpleasant work environment, undefeated even in the face of disaster. SEYMOUR ENDURES.

Seymour Fever! Catch it!

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Also, this is allegedly going to be in our Diamond shipment today:

I’m not going to believe it until I’m actually holding it in my hands. And maybe not even then. I may just chalk it up to some delusion induced by consuming too many Diet Cokes.

When I went looking for a pic of the cover, I saw this on the official Marvel Comics site:

Heh.

And yeah, yeah, I know, you don’t need to explain banner ad placement details to me. Just enjoy it for what it is. Reminds me a bit of when you used to see some toy or candy ads with DC heroes in a Marvel comic, or vice versa.

Or maybe it reminds me a little of the greatest Pizzazz cover of all time. Well, okay, it really didn’t remind me of that, but I’m always looking for an excuse to bring up that cover again.