Watchmen is Overhyped (New Comics Thread)

[DCDave]

THERE'S NO ACCOUNTING FOR TASTE

[YojimboMonkey]

THIS THREAD SUCKS

[elpollodiablo]

THERE'S NO ACCOUNTING FOR TASTE

That's what I thought after I purchased the first few Transmet trades. The dude at the shop told me it was the only comic that came with a 100% satisfaction guarantee; ie, if you bought the first three trades and read em and wanted your money back, he'd give you your money back.

He did not give me my fucking money back, the jerk.

[DCDave]

What a cock.

[Greg Nog]

Watchmen is great!  The idea that Transmet is better is kind of hilarious.  As for whether Watchmen's overhyped, I guess that depends on who you're hanging around with.  Most of the people I know recommend it, enjoy it, but it's not like they're jizzing all over themselves to talk about it or anything.  It's just a good, solid story with a lot of historical value and some fairly terrible art.

[Andrew_TSKS]

I don't think Watchmen's art is terrible, but I definitely think Alan Moore's done better work. Promethea, for one. I would say From Hell but I haven't read most of it and right now just think it's probably amazing. I'll know someday.

Also, Transmet isn't Warren Ellis's best work. At this point I'm most into Fell, Doktor Sleepless, and Freakangels, but he's still writing all of them so I won't know for sure what I think until a few years have passed. Transmetropolitan is fun and I do like it quite a bit, but whoever said it is sometimes zany just for the sake of it is onto something. I felt the same way about Ellis's prose novel, "Crooked Little Vein".

[jebreject]

I actually just finished From Hell and think it's fantastic until the last book/chapter, wherein he is a little too obvious and tries a little too hard in driving home the point that Jack the Ripper ushered in the 20th century.

Watchmen is better.

And Dave, okay, even if you think Watchmen isn't as well-executed as people make it out to be, don't you think it's importance (regardless of whether you feel that importance is entirely deserved, I suppose) makes the hype understandable?

[DCDave]

Oh, absolutely.  I just don't think it's the BEST COMIC EVAR OMG.

[Greg Nog]

I don't think Watchmen's art is terrible, but I definitely think Alan Moore's done better work. Promethea, for one. I would say From Hell but I haven't read most of it and right now just think it's probably amazing. I'll know someday.

I love From Hell!  I'd say I like Watchmen a tiny bit better, though.  As for the art:  I just think it's all kind of stiff and uncreative and boring.

As far as Moore's best work:  Miracleman is my number one choice, hands down.  The Birth Caul might be next after that, although it's been so long since I've read it, I'm basing that judgement less on what I remember of the actual comic, and more on how I remember feeling after I finished it.

[davy]

the one time i picked up watchmen, i couldn't get into it.

that's not contributing anything particularly worthwhile to the discussion, but there you have it. another country heard from.

[Bernard]

I liked Watchmen a lot. I couldn't get into the art at first but eventually it clicked for me. I just finished League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (first two collected volumes, I don't know if there are more). It was fine. Hyde is the only character I really liked.

[Andrew_TSKS]

There's a third volume that is just coming out in paperback, called "The Black Dossier". Rather than collecting individual issues, it was written as an original graphic novel. There's apparently going to be a conventional Volume 3 issued as individual comics and then collected later, sometime next year I believe.

[girl]

Oh hey, I ordered a copy of Watchmen. Don't expect to hear feedback from me on it, since lately I've been buying books and not actually reading them. It should be here Wednesday.

[YojimboMonkey]

READ IT

[Wally]

The Watchmen is one of only three comic book series/thingys I've read in it's entirety. And I thought it was pretty neat.

[girl]

Yeah, I intend to read it, but the thing is, I'm not really fond of reading comics. It's funny, but somehow I feel like the pictures make the words go too slowly or something. It's sort of how some people can't watch foreign films with subtitles. You all made the story sound intriguing enough to make me want to try, though.

[jebreject]

you crazy dawg

[Andrew_TSKS]

When I got back into reading comics about 5 years ago, it took me quite a while to integrate reading the words and seeing the pictures, which is something that came very naturally to me as a kid--to take in both stimuli at once and therefore get the idea in my head of seeing these characters and reading what they're speaking at the same time. I'm not sure why those things became harder to do simultaneously (especially in light of the fact that I visualize, in intricate detail, everything that I read in a book. I mean, it's not only something that happens even if I don't try, it's something I can't turn off), but it took me a while to get it to work in my head again. Now, though, it works great again, just like it did when I was an 8-year-old comic geek.

So I guess what I'm saying is... keep reading stories in the graphic-arts format and it will become easier for your brain to be able to combine the words and pictures and read it all seamlessly.

[dieblucasdie]

Oh, Dave.  Must you continue down the knee-jerk contrarian road?  Are you bucking for a job at Slate or something?  Are you going to name the next food thead CHEESE SUCKS?  Or the next TV thread THE WIRE IS FOR HOMOS? 

[dieblucasdie]

Perhaps a "10 Reasons Why How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb is Better than OK Computer" thread in In the Earbuds? 

Anyway, did y'all see the new Watchmen posters that replicate the original comic posters?

[Andrew_TSKS]

Night Owl isn't fat enough. Grumble.

[Babar]

i like how they made silk spectre's costume more revealing

[dieblucasdie]

Night Owl isn't fat enough. Grumble.

In other pictures he seems about the same as in the comic.

[YojimboMonkey]

You got a link?  The only pics I've seen show him looking like a 28-year-old triathlete, not a paunchy middle-aged man.

[Almanzo]

Anyway, did y'all see the new Watchmen posters that replicate the original comic posters?

The one thing that I'm worried about (c.f. that Rorschach picture) is that I haven't seen the geodesic dome in any of the movie's material yet. And specifically not including it in that visual makes me think that they're just not putting it in the movie at all. It's no major issue for the plot or anything, but on a personal level, I always love seeing the dome in the comic panels, but both Moore's original script and Gibbons' final pencils both went out of their way to make sure that the dome is seen in the book as much and often as possible. I think it also really works to show how the whole timeline is subtly different; in a world where Dr. Manhattan is real, R. Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes are a viable and prominent architectural choice in urban planning. Outstanding.