In a move that Alan Moore calls “completely shameless,” DC Comics has announced plans to publish Before Watchmen, a prequel franchise that will expand on the back stories of the characters introduced in Watchmen, which is the best-selling graphic novel of all time. “I tend to take this latest development as a kind of eager confirmation that they are still apparently dependent on ideas that I had 25 years ago,” Moore told ArtsBeat. “I don’t want money. What I want is for this not to happen.”
Meanwhile the miniseries’ original illustrator, Dave Gibbons, had a more measured response to the news. “The original series of Watchmen is the complete story that Alan Moore and I wanted to tell,” he said in a statement. “However, I appreciate DC’s reasons for this initiative and the wish of the artists and writers involved to pay tribute to our work. May these new additions have the success they desire.”
“What we’re doing is filling in a lot of the blank spaces in a story that has already, to some degree, been told,” Before Watchmen series editor Len Wein explained to Underwire over email. “There were still a lot of gaps in the histories of Watchmen’s characters, and events only mentioned in passing or touched on briefly in the original story. We’re filling in those gaps in the most creative and inventive ways we can… I think reboots are almost mandatory in an industry that has existed for over three-fourths of a century now. The need to inject new blood, new ideas, new approaches, is the only thing that keeps our readers coming back for more.”
What do you think of the concept behind the Watchmen reboot? Do you plan on checking out these prequels when they hit stores this summer?
The Occupy movement has garnered plenty of support from the arts community over the past few months, with musicians ranging from Jeff Mangum to Third Eye Blind serenading protesters and petition sites like Occupy Writers and Occupy Musicians popping up. Now, cartoonists are also declaring themselves, via Occupy Comics. The project is a refreshing alternative for comics fans who weren’t thrilled with Sin City author Frank Miller’s anti-Occupy rant last month, and the list of participating artists already includes such big names as Alan Moore, David Lloyd (designer of the Occupy-appropriated Guy Fawkes mask), Molly Crabapple, Douglas Rushkoff, Charlie Adlard, and Shannon Wheeler. Occupy Comics’ aim is to compile a book-length anthology “intended to be a time capsule of the passions and emotions driving the movement” and has already raised over $21,000 on Kickstarter to fund the project. All proceeds will, of course, go to the occupiers. If you’re interested in donating, make sure you do it soon — the Kickstarter clock runs out in about two days.
The indispensable text for beard owners and lovers alike, Poets Ranked by Beard Weight, was published earlier this month, elucidating the various weights of poet beard (and thus, of course, poet) through an arcane system of magic and analysis. Though in our many studies we’ve found that on the whole, poets’ beards are heavier than their novelist equivalents, we felt that limiting the field to masters of verse was tantamount to cruelty, and so have applied Underwood’s theories to a handful of prose writers and a playwright or two, so that they might feel included. Click through to see our list of authors ranked by beard weight, all using UPI. That is: ”Underwood’s Pogonometric Index, plotted by means of numerical values designating “poetic gravity” and relative “beard weights,” yields readings ranging from zero to a positive value of sixty. The normal range for the average individual is ten to twenty-four. For exceptional individuals, it can run to a value of forty and above.” Yes, it’s a very precise system.
Art Spiegelman’s MetaMaus: A Look Inside a Modern Classic hits shelves this week, and being huge fans of Spiegelman (and particularly Maus) we couldn’t be more excited. First published twenty-five years ago, Maus has become a modern classic, though it is at times a difficult and disturbing novel. MetaMaus delves into the history of the book with hundreds of pages of answered questions and supporting information and is sure to satiate any fan — at least for a while. If you’re anything like us, you’ll need something to keep your graphic novel kick going when you come up for air, so we’ve put together a list of some of our favorite disturbingly brilliant graphic novels, including the famous Maus. Click through to see our picks, and let us know if we’ve missed any of your favorites in the comments.
Steampunk’s distinctive blend of Victorian age sci-fi/fantasy and steam-powered modern technology has shed some of its geeky connotations in recent years with unexpected mainstream recognition. Emerging from literary origins in the ‘80s, the movement’s artistic subculture has since taken on music, art, movies, fashion, and DIY gadgetry — all in the name of dark, neo-Victorian fun. But with Dexter Palmer’s buzzed steampunk-inspired alternate reality The Dream of Perpetual Motion out this week, there’s no indication that the original literary movement has lost any of its, ahem, steam. To get caught up on the action, be sure to check out these essential steampunk books.
In honor of National Beard Month (and Movember, though we’re focusing on actual beards — get your mustachioed fix here), men all over the US are growing out their facial hair. Since we can’t grow our collective beards on the internet, we are celebrating with our list of the fifteen scariest (and famous!) beards of all time — not that we’re pogonophobes! Oh no, more like geniophobes.
For your listening pleasure as you peruse, please download “Beard Lust” by Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head.
TwentyFourBit reports that comic book god Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta and From Hell) will collaborate with Gorillaz on a followup to Damon Albarn’s 2007 opera, Monkey: Journey to the West. In exchange, the band will curate a few pages of Dodgem Logic, Moore’s new bi-monthly magazine.
Moore explained the mutually-beneficial deal in an interview with MustardWeb: “[Gorillaz] came down to Northampton last week because we’re planning for me to do the libretto on their next opera project. Being an opportunist, I of course asked them if they’d be prepared to contribute some pages to Dodgem Logic. Rather than just doing an interview with them, I thought it would be interesting to hand over a few pages for them to curate.”
out this week, there’s no indication that the original literary movement has lost any of its, ahem, steam. To get caught up on the action, be sure to check out these essential steampunk books.
