"It was twenty years ago today....."
Has it really been 20 years since the first issue of Alan Moore's 'Watchmen'? Time has flown and crawled through these past two decades for Daddy. I believe I have made no secret of my love for great comic books and this one is on the short list of greatest ever written. Thanks to Mr. Moore comics have never been the same, for better or worse, after his insightful and poignant look at what we never knew about super heroes. Many have imitated but never duplicated the exhaustive and thorough look at the genre that we were afforded lo those many years ago. It' a shame that a sequel will never happen and, for that matter, that the movie has been bounced to so many different writers and directors for so many years that we may never see it come to wide-screen fruition. Please, pick up the graphic novel and READ IT. Daddy wouldn't lie to you.
4 comments:
Was just ranting to a mate last night about how the film of Neil Gaiman's Mirrormask got virtually zero exposure over here, despite it doing a cracking job of translating Gaiman's graphic style onto the screen. I tracked it's progress during it's making for over a year, but I never got to see it on the big screen, 'cos it only showed at a couple of 'art-house' cinemas across the other side of the country, so I had to be content with downloading a copy. Did it do OK on your side of the water ?
Yes, Watchmen was awesome - and it's too long since I lost my copy; maybe I should treat myself...?
Mirrormask received no play outside of a small theatre in L.A. as far as I remember. My good friend hooked me up with the dvd and I am very grateful. I always enjoy when Gaiman works in any capacity with Dave McKean. There's a 20th anniversary edition of Watchmen that looks simply awesome and as soon as I have $75 to spend on a comic (my 2 boys rarely let that ocur) it will be mine....all mine!!!
DaddyRich
I bought and loved the Watchmen in comic book format as it came out and I really hope that the movie never happens. Alan Moore has said he doesn't want his books turned into movies and I can't blame him. love the site.
Consider the context. This was during the heydays of Reaganism and Thatcherism, when it seemed like there weren't enough secret police to go around...unless you went the STASI route of East Germany and turned half the nation into snitches. And yes, it does as well make a commentary on the political correctness of the age, while also alluding (as through a scanner, darkly) to the Handicapper General of Vonnegut and the idea that superior beings cannot be tolerated among the average for their sheer intensity of existence. And so we were verging on immanent Fascism with a friendly face (very similiar to that of Norman Spinrad's classic '60s augury, "The Iron Dream") when Moore went the way of Rod Serling. "The Twilight Zone" only came about because Rod was so censored by advertisers and network blue-pencils that he gave up legitimate drama and decided that, if couldn't have his morality plays in the real world, he'd couch them as fantasies, in which no one could object.
My, i have gone on a while and have yet to see my point...
Oh well, some other time...
Thanks a bunch!
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