And I hope (hoping beyond hope, really) the movie is good, and I am (deep breath) OK knowing that it will most likely be a very different animal to be judged on its own merit and not on the original work, which is absolutely brilliant, and that judging the movie against the comic would be totally unfair and benefit neither myself or anyone with whom I would discuss the movie and my opinion of it, which will be based solely on the movie itself and not the comic.

Thanks for this column. It was great fun.

Also some people (not me) would probably rate more recent works such as Maus, From Hell, Jimmy Corrigan, Alice in Sunderland etc more highly than Watchmen.

Overall I think the standard of comics is much higher now than it was then so don’t get too sad. I think the lower standard of comics around them made Watchmen and TDKR stand out much more than they would today and that’s a good thing about today’s comics.

Good one!!

(BTW, in case anyone thinks my earlier comment was a slam on Watchmen – far from it. Clearly, it is the supreme masterpiece of the medium and I’ve read it a dozen times. I was pointing out that the storytelling art of the comic book hit it’s peak 20 years ago and that it’s very telling that a 20 year old story has not been dethroned.)

I can just see Mr. Reed thumping his head on his desk (or wall).

With the movie coming up, this would probably be a good time to do a revised version, since I haven’t touched them in over a decade; it would be helpful to be able to take advantage of hyperlinks, and some things would be a lot easier to research with Google available. (The information on the “last helicopter out of Saigon” image and G. Gordon Liddy have always bothered me for being unnecessarily sketchy.)

I re-read it recently and also found new things I hadn’t noticed before, ranging from subtle backstory (never realized Capt. Metrop and Hooded Justice were lovers) to “duh” moments (“Hey, the memoir’s also called ‘Under the Hood’ ’cause the guy writing it’s a mechanic”. The masks metaphor was never a problem, I’d just missed the painfully obvious car part all these years. Love when something silly like that hits you out of the blue).

A shame more comics couldn’t be as dense and smart as this classic.

Happy New Year.

Every time I’ve read Watchmen (once every few years or so since it came out), I’ve found something new within the pages. In fact, happily (and on something of a whim, feeling flush with Christmas cash the other day), I just placed an order two days ago for Absolute Watchmen. I look forward to poring over that one.

Congrats on a year’s worth of excellent work, Bill! (The holes notwithstanding. That gives us something to look forward to over the next couple weeks as they’re filled in.)

There is no way that one can faithfully adapt a 400 page graphic novel to a 2 (plus) hour film, so one must be creative in this.

If this was limited tv series (say 12 episodes for 12 chapters) with toned down scenes (like nudity and foul languages) it would be even more feasable. However, passing the censor board might be even questionable considering the materials that Moore have been writing about.

At any rate, this is the 21st century, one must have an open mind.

BTW, I’m in complete agreement with you about Watchmen being unfilmable. I don’t understand the need to constantly move stories between art forms as it so often goes wrong.

Congrats!