64Digits

Where My Comic Nerds At?

Posted by mr8bit on Oct. 8, 2012, 6:27 p.m.

And I'm not talking manga! Just the pure left-to-right style superhero stuff. Let's discuss…

Before Watchmen

I hear a lot of chatter from the pro-Moore camp about how crappy this series is. The thing is: MOST of these jerks haven't even read any of them. They just take Moore's bitching and moaning as some kind of expression of artistic purity (it's not) and decide to boycott the whole thing. Well these people are bigger assholes than Moore is because this series is fucking great.

I don't know what there is to complain about. Awesome art. Awesome writing. What more do you want? Just because some old douche bag wants to cry about the shitty contract he signed twenty years ago doesn't mean you should not read these. ESPECIALLY based on these three factors:

1) Moore built his OWN career by writing other people's characters. Hello, Swamp Thing. Now he's pissed that other people are using his characters to do the same thing? Well, that just makes him a big, hypocritical asshole. Besides…

2) They aren't even HIS characters. I mean, technically they are… but if there was no Blue Beetle than there would be no Nite Owl. Bottom line is this: he had help along the way. But now he claims complete, sole responsibility for the story. Fuck him! Especially because…

3) Moore totally ripped off The Outer Limits because he didn't know how to end his "masterpiece." The alien invasion at the end is IDENTICAL to a shitty old television show. Moore was called out on this before publication, but the bastard was just too lazy to come up with something original. But now, it's sacrilege to read Before Watchmen?! Are you shitting me, Alan Moore? You fucking Hobo Gandalf!

So anyways… if you are into comics and want to read some good shit, check out Before Watchmen. It's better than 98% of what's on the stand any given week.

I was going to write some more about the other comics now out that I dig, but this blog is getting a little long in the tooth. Next time I'll talk about the new TMNT series that IDW is publishing. And I promise I won't go on a rant. (Fuck Alan Moore.)

Comments

Rez 12 years, 2 months ago

Quote:

In my experience, comics are always about big, impossibly muscular men or busty, partially-clothed women, which to me always seem to be in the same style. When he worked at a bookstore, my brother would always bring home graphic novels and his room back home is filled with them now.

Yeah, image comics isn't a thing. And R. Crumb never existed.

Comics are really too broad of a category to judge like that, that's like saying all manga is about robots and teenagers.

Cesque 12 years, 2 months ago

Quote:

The guy practically built his career totally reinventing other peoples' work. Why shouldn't others have the same opportunity with his?

I'm probably the only one here, but I have always seen a pretty big gap between

1. introducing a character who's a clear reference to earlier work (in the case of Watchmen, that'd also be specifically for the purpose of deconstructing the whole idea, but that's beyond the point),

and

2. introducing a character who's an unlicensed use of a character from someone else's work despite the original creator's opposition to that (in attempt to capitalise on the success of the original, but that's beyond the point).

Hypothetically, if I ever produce something that would inspire someone else to create something in the same vein, rely the same themes, or even make a parody of some quality - that's great and I'll be extremely happy to see I've left some impact. But if they steal the characters, pair it with their own visions, and brand it as "new adventures of XYZ" - uh. Ripoffs are not equal.

pounce4evur 12 years, 2 months ago

Quote:

Comics are really too broad of a category to judge like that, that's like saying all manga is about robots and teenagers.

don'tpissofftheworldbyagreeingtothis,don'tpissofftheworldbyagreeingtothis…

Honestly, you sound like you're just whining about a lack of originality, but haven't you ever dreamed up a superhero comic or story? For that matter, have you ever tried to write any kind of story that has superhero qualities? No matter what you do, or say, or think, chances are it has been done before unless it's really so far off the wall that you're the first person who can do it legally or you're just a lot ballsier than other artists.

There's a lot of comic book characters on both sides of the fence (by that, I mean DC and Marvel) that look very similar, share superpowers, or have similar storylines. Some just made it a lot bigger than others, and some were waaaaaay earlier than others. I'd give you examples, but then I'd actually have to go pull up evidence and I'm the laziest person in this college right now…

mr8bit 12 years, 2 months ago

@Cesque:

I'm talking mainly about his work on Swamp Thing, Superman and Batman. NOT so much the fact that The Watchmen were originally from Charlton Comics. The entire comic book industry is based upon different writers spinning their takes on established characters. If the dude had a problem with that, then maybe he shouldn't have signed a contract with the biggest comic book publisher around.

Quote:

But if they steal the characters, pair it with their own visions, and brand it as "new adventures of XYZ"…

This literally describes 98% of the industry.

Cesque 12 years, 2 months ago

I should have probably added "P.S. I know fuck all about comics, so I'm just going with what I inferred from this blog and the Wikipedia article". I always assumed the franchises would somehow be licensed, like in every other sane industry.