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New Series By Watchmen, Wanted Creators Could Be Most Anticipated, Disappointing Comic Ever

The writer of Wanted and artist of Watchmen are aiming to create an all-new comic sometime next year, raising the hopes of fanboys and movie producers across the world. But will it be worth it? New comic site Bleeding Cool launched yesterday, by breaking news of the collaboration between Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons, which … Continued

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Watchmen’s First Day… Disappoints

Well, this wasn’t what we expected. According to initial estimations, Watchmen made less money in its first day than Zack Snyder’s 300, despite playing in more theaters. Has the backlash happened early? According to Exhibitor Relations, Watchmen made $25.1 million yesterday, including the $4.6 million from the Thursday night screenings, from 3,611 theaters; 300’s first … Continued

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A Gorgeous Look At The Making Of Watchmen

Your friends don’t have time to read Watchmen before seeing the movie? Give them a crash course. The Watchmen Film Companion explains everything, with concept art and making-of photos. A few more cool images, below. You can probably read The Watchmen Film Companion, from Titan Books, in an hour… if you don’t get distracted by … Continued

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Watchmen Proves The Cold War Is An Alien World

Watchmen, opening Friday, is a masterpiece of alienation. For a beautiful two hours and forty minutes, people freak out about nuclear holocaust – and you’re hard-pressed to care. I suspect that’s the point. Spoiler alert! A slight digression: Around 1993, I was taking a lot of international relations classes, taught in some cases by actual … Continued

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Bloggers Love Watchmen, But They’re On Their Own

The reviews of Zack Snyder‘s Watchmen are pouring in, and a pattern has developed. The movie blogs are proclaiming the film a new masterpiece, but the mainstream media is clutching its head and groaning. Writes the New Yorker’s Anthony Lane: The bad news about “Watchmen” is that it grinds and squelches on for two and … Continued

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9 Questions You May Have About Watchmen

You’ve seen the posters, the many trailers and featurettes and followed the lawsuit. But with Watchmen hitting screens on Friday, you may still be wondering what it’s all about. Let us try to help. We don’t want to spoil the movie for those of you who haven’t read the book, but there may be somethings … Continued

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What’s This About A Squid? (Spoilers, No, Seriously.)

Firstly, I’m not joking. There will be spoilers for the end of Watchmen here, and if you don’t want to know, turn back now. I’ve been very unspoily elsewhere, but this one is unavoidably filled with spoilers for the end of the story of both the comic and the movie. This is your last warning. … Continued

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Who’s The Giant Blue Guy?

That would be Dr. Manhattan. Yes, he spends a lot of the film naked; being transformed from an everyday nuclear scientist into what is essentially a glowing blue god with powers and perspective beyond those of normal human beings tends to make you less bothered about things like “clothing,” apparently. Manhattan – formerly Jon Osterman … Continued

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Why Was Watchmen Supposed To Be Unfilmable?

It really depends on what you mean by “Watchmen,” ultimately; can the core plot of Watchmen (Solving the murder of a superhero and the larger plot it unveils) be made into a movie? Of course. But can the full experience of the Watchmen comic be translated into a movie? Probably not. The problem is that … Continued

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What Is Tales Of The Black Freighter, Anyway?

Tales of The Black Freighter is a comic within a comic; a fictional comic that exists in Watchmen’s world that the reader occasionally sees panels from, telling a story that mirrors that of Ozymandias in the main story. Black Freighter’s pirate setting comes from Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ reasoning that superheroes – the dominant … Continued

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Why Is Watchmen So Important?

In terms of both creativity and commercial standing, it is almost impossible to overstate the importance of Watchmen; critically, the book won multiple awards both within and outside of the comic industry, including a Hugo Award in 1988 in the “Other Forms” category. It has been consistently cited as one of the first works to … Continued

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Who Are The Watchmen?

This is kind of a trick question. In the original comic, there isn’t actually a group of people who call themselves the Watchmen. The superheroes all belonged to teams called the Minutemen, named for Paul Revere’s militia during the American Revolutionary War, or the Crimebusters. The comic takes its title from the phrase “Who Watches … Continued

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What Is Watchmen?

Short version: Watchmen was a twelve-issue series of comics published by DC Comics between 1986 and 1987, written by Alan Moore and drawn by Dave Gibbons, that aimed to bring a new level of realism to superheroes. Longer version: Originally the result of Moore looking to revitalize characters purchased from the defunct publisher Carlton Comics … Continued

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What Happens If Watchmen Flops?

With less than two weeks to go before Watchmen opens, anticipation for the movie is at fever pitch… which only makes us wonder what will happen if the movie isn’t what everyone is waiting for. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t actually want the movie to fail, and actually expect it not to, at least … Continued

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Gibbons: Don’t Get Too Excited About Watchmen’s Giant Blue Penis

We grabbed a minute with Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons during last weekend’s NYCC, and talked Martha Washington movies, future Frank Miller projects and the reality of giant blue Manhattan dong. The talented Mr. GIbbons took us aside and told the world that whether they’re ready or not, they’re going to get big blue dong. Kind … Continued

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Martha Washington Goes To The Movies

With The Spirit under his belt and Buck Rogers waiting in the wings, will Frank Miller return to his own creations for a third attempt at movie direction? Watchmen’s Dave Gibbons says maybe. Doing promotional interviews for next year’s Watchmen movie, Gibbons hinted that there may be a movie in the offing for his co-creation … Continued

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What Were Alan And Dave Thinking When They Created Watchmen?

Click to viewA new book gives an amazing insight into the creative process behind Watchmen, the classic graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. And the more you see the different sketches and ideas that Moore and Gibbons tossed around, the more you see just how radically they were helping to reinvent the superhero. … Continued

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Watchmen’s Rorschach Was Almost A 1970s Flasher

If Dave Gibbons had gone with his original designs for Watchmen, the ground-breaking graphic novel he created with Alan Moore, then the psycopathic crime-fighter Rorschach would have had those ink blots all over his body. And he would have worn a big Prince-style trench-coat, the better to flash his body spots. And items that look … Continued

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Watchmen Movie Was Almost About The War On Terror

Click to viewLast night, it was finally New York’s turn to see the 25 minutes of Watchmen and get a chance to hear from director Zack Snyder and Watchmen’s artist, Dave Gibbons, about the heavy undertaking that is bringing the classic graphic novel to life on the big screen. But more importantly, Snyder shared with … Continued

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Watchmen DVD May Be Even Longer Than 3 Hours

While plenty of you seemed to be ready to spend three hours – or even more – in theaters watching Watchmen, co-creator Dave Gibbons let slip that an even longer version may be waiting for fans on DVD while speaking at an event this weekend. But the changes made to create the even-longer-than-the-Director’s-Cut edit of … Continued