Oy vey.



















DC Plans Prequel to Watchmen Series

Guess how Alan Moore feels about it?

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.

This zinger is true. Also true: it's pretty likely this money-making measure will turn out meh. But, at the same time, I'm over "no one can touch my sacred cow" and "I had to hand over my firstborn when I signed those contracts."

Alan Moore was gifted to be sure -- Watchmen is genius -- and I'm thankful that genius was recognized, but sadly, this is the way it is for artists, especially when they are first starting out. How much literary and visual work have my friends signed away, sometimes after doing it FOR FREE, just to get their work seen? Yet these are also the folks I know who have found success.

I'm not saying these practices are okay, and I definitely don't mean to blame the victim -- it's more like 80/20 for me. In a lot of ways I appreciate Moore's protests of mainstream publishers' predatory and some would say unethical modus operandi; at least when prompted for a grouse he not only cements his place within the comic canon but reminds us of the realities of being any kind of artist. But business is business, and he's famous because of those contracts -- they afforded him the place in said comic canon he occupies now. When one chooses to play the game there comes a time to let your great work stand, and then let the inevitable go.

Or, if you're going to dine with the devil, best to use a long spoon.