It's funny because it's sad.
Возможно вы не слышали, но неделю назад вышел первый номер одной из минисерий абсолютно непримечательного ни историей создания, ни морально-этической сомнительностью, ни сомнительностью художественной проекта DC Comics.
Я, разумеется, говорю о "Before Watchmen: Minutemen" #1.
Шутки в сторону: человек, обменявшийся со мной хотя бы парой слов на эту тему, отлично знает, что я думаю про... это. Те, кто ещё не в курсе, могут попытать удачу, но предупреждаю: у меня уходит примерно 0,67 минуты. чтобы перейти на повышенные тона и ещё столько же, чтобы начать вслух всерьёз желать всяческих жизненных неурядиц людям, которые для кого-то всё ещё являются любимыми авторами. Возможен кэпслок.
Но, как бы то ни было, это История. Теперь - в особенности.
На всякий случай в качестве пролога - краткое изложение проблемы от USA Today: 'Watchmen' prequels stir a debate
Часть первая: объяснения и оправданияЧасть первая: объяснения и оправдания
WATCHING DARWYN COOKE: Writer-artist respects the dissenters — but ‘Before Watchmen’ was too challenging to pass up - Дарвин Кук о том, почему.
This was an enormous challenge for me, and I took it knowing I was just as apt to fail. But it puts me out there, and that’s the only way to be going after something like this. And frankly I appreciate being a part of the things where the challenge is great.
MTV Interviews Before Watchmen Creators About Alan Moore – With A Few Bleeding Cool Retorts - видео-интервью с участниками проекта вместе с едкими комментариями автора статьи.
As for judging it before its completed, the quality of the work isn’t at issue here. For some, no matter what the qualities of the work, couldn’t the creators have made similar work of high quality using their own character, or characters over whom there is less controversy?
...
Warner Bros have still not confirmed any plans to create a prequel to the closest film equivalant of Watchmen, Citizen Kane, nor that it will star Shia LaBoef. Though they do have all the rights, unequivocably, so it’s only a matter of time before we get Before Citizen Kane. After all, it’s what’s best for the characters…
Часть вторая: общие размышленияЧасть вторая: общие размышления
Who Watches the Watchers of Before Watchmen? - попытка разграничить претензии этические и эстетические, точнее, выявить их соотношение.
There’s a benefit to society from letting creators mess with the creations of others, but there’s also a benefit from postponing such messing in favour of some length of copyright. So even though Moore has done Carroll wrong, what he’s done is nevertheless morally okay because that harm is outweighed by a greater good. And contrariwise for what DC is doing now
...
Of all the *cough* artists involved, Brian Azzarello and Jae Lee are the only ones I’d personally piss on if they were on fire; many of the rest of them I’d only piss on if they weren’t on fire.
Not Dan Didio, though. He seems like the kind of guy who’d be into that.
...
In the real world, with the line-up we’ve in reality got, there’s essentially zero chance that Before Watchmen will be as good as Watchmen. Hell, there’s essentially zero chance that Before Watchmen will be as good as The First American.
But imagine — just imagine — that it was probably going to be good. Maybe even great. How loud would our denunciations be then? How many of us would still boycott?
...
In other words: while we’re all basking in the warmth of our moral outrage — and I’m there basking too, man, that one place in the sand where there’s just one set of footsteps and it looks like I just nicked off to do my own thing? that’s where I stopped to carry you I LOVE YOU GAIZ!!! — while we’re all there basking, let’s also take a reality check. The reason it’s so easy for us to think DC management are arseholes for publishing Before Watchmen, the reason it’s so easy to think the *cough* artists are arseholes for making it, and the reason it’s so easy to think the readers are arseholes for buying it — that’s not because we are not, ourselves, also arseholes.
We’re just arseholes who, this time, got lucky.
Любопытно вот что: для автора и его условного круга в силу эстетических предпочтений описываемая дилемма является чисто теоретической - им "повезло". Но для людей с вкусами несколько отличными (вкусы эти и вынесенные на их основании оценки - повод для отдельного разговора), тех, кого авторы приквелов в принципе с в широком смысле слова эстетической точки зрения устраивают, и кого теперь уже устраивает и то, что оказалось на прилавках неделю назад, это вопрос вполне себе реальный и актуальный. И отвечают на него в основном именно так, как косвенно предположил в своей статье Джонс.
Часть третья: отзывы положительныеЧасть третья: отзывы положительные
Большинству уже вышедший комикс нравится - кому-то однозначно, кому-то с несущественными оговорками, но в общем и целом...
Before Watchmen: Minutemen #1
If you were planning on buying just one of the "Before Watchmen" comics, "Before Watchmen: Minutemen" #1 seems like a good choice to make. Cooke's an immensely talented comic creator and this comic is no exception to that rule.
Before Watchmen: Minutemen #1 Review
While I’m not ready to say that this miniseries will go down in history as a masterpiece that achieves the same level of quality and depth as the original Watchmen (it’s far too early to make such proclamations, even if it were to turn out that way), I am more than comfortable saying this is certainly one of the better comics in recent memory and a way to start the summer. If Cooke can keep up this level of quality, this will certainly be one to watch.
Некоторые авторы рецензий и отзывов доходят до того, что они жалеют несчастных, из-за какой-то дурацкой истории четвертьвековой давности не желающих доставить себе истинное удовольствие.
The first chapter of Before Watchmen suggests the project might transcend the controversy:
A lot of Moore’s literary sophistication gets lost in the transition, but it’s been replaced with the unique creative energy inherent in a story told by a singular writer/artist.
...
Minutemen #1 feels like DC’s first major effort to create a piece of art in its post-New 52 climate, and it’s unfortunate that the behind-the-scenes politics will prevent a lot of people from checking out this stunning new work from one of the industry’s best.
Before Watchmen: Minutemen #1 Review Darwyn Cooke delivers the goods in the debut of Before Watchmen.
Because when it comes right down to it, the comic that you hold in your hands should stand on its own as an entity.
Whatever your opinion on the behind-the-scenes controversy of Before Watchmen, the fact remains that Minutemen #1 is a gorgeously crafted comic book.
Like I said in my first impressions piece, if you’re dead-set against Before Watchmen existing in the first place, I don’t think even this fantastic issue will do anything to sway you. But I promise, you’re missing some damn fine comic book work from one of the best cartoonists alive. I’m thrilled about the quality of this book
BEFORE WATCHMEN: SILK SPECTRE #1
If the rest of the BEFORE WATCHMEN offerings are as good as this issue, even the naysayers or Alan Mooreinites will not be able to ignore this series. If they do, they are only hurting themselves.
А некоторые говорят... очень интересные вещи.
"Minutemen #1"
This book is precisely what was most missing from Watchmen, which was an exploration of the heroic ideal at its flashpoint, and how it would go on to change the world around it.
Я не опущусь до кэпслока, я не опущусь до кэпслока, янеопущусьдокэпслока, я не... уфф, всё, отпустило, продолжаем.
Часть четвёртая: отзывы отрицательныеЧасть четвёртая: отзывы отрицательные
…And the Superhuman Review – Before Watchmen: Minutemen #1 - хорошо, вот это отрицательным отзывом можно назвать только в сравнении с уже процитированным
I haven’t read the Sourcebook, but, reading this issue, I have to say, if I wanted a breakdown of characters like this, I probably would have. It read very much like a sourcebook. No plot, just character bios basically. An underwhelming start to this whole project to say the least.
...
What’s funny is that, as the start of almost any other series, this would merely be a mediocre first issue, but, because it’s the first comic we’ve seen of this particularly project, it’s especially disappointing to me. THIS is the first thing that DC wants to put out to show off how awesome the whole Before Watchmen project is going to be? This Watchmen Who’s Who disguised as a comic book? It’s a little puzzling, honestly — and something I’ve long seen as a problem with first issues of comics in general.
Before Watchmen - а вот тут отзыв именно отрицательный. И притом очень хорошо написанный.
Цитат настолько много, что они под собственным катом.But DiDio’s argument is, and always has been, that we should judge these prequels as a piece of art.
Which is odd, because the rationale for their existence is precisely the argument that art doesn’t matter.
...
They’re saying to us “Ignore the morality of taking a self-contained work that revolutionised the industry we work in, and for which we managed to con the rights out of its creators, and creating inferior knock-offs that cheapen the original work while deeply upsetting the man to whom we owe our livelihood and our industry’s continued existence. IS IT A GOOD FUNNYBOOK OR NOT?”
...
...Gibbons’ financial future and artistic legacy is entirely wrapped up in the decisions that DC makes about Watchmen, in a way that Moore’s isn’t. And one might well believe that when everything about your creative and financial life is in the hands of a company that is acting like a psychopath, the choice you make is to do whatever it takes to keep them happy.
...
There’s a possibly-apocryphal story (aren’t they all?) that several years ago Alan Moore asked DC Comics (as they then were) to stop sending him comp packages — the packages of free comics they send all their writers — because he didn’t like the company and didn’t want to read their comics. The person he spoke to said “I know you don’t like them, but I’m going to keep sending you just one. You’ll see why.”
The comic that was sent was Darwyn Cooke’s The New Frontier.
Moore said “Okay, you can keep sending me that one
Cooke is, as an artist, the utter opposite of Moore in every way, but he’s the only person involved in this who has anything like the talent that Moore does. DC are putting their best foot forward with this.
...
The whole thing seems determined to say “DC has other great comics that aren’t Watchmen“, in the hope that by making Watchmen seem less special it will seem less disgusting when they make tenth-rate knock-offs.
...
Most of the comic is a ‘homage’ to Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s Batman: Year One, in look and feel, which sort of makes sense since this is more-or-less Nite Owl: Year One.
The problem is that this means that this comic is now inviting comparisons with three acknowledged classics of the medium and genre, when it can’t even stand up to comparison with any one of them.
...
These little bits show us aspects of the characters that were already there in Watchmen, but with a hammering lack of subtlety that reads as if Cooke had never heard the phrase “show, don’t tell”. Worse, they do nothing else — we’re expected just to be happy to see these characters again. Which would be OK if the characters weren’t obvious ciphers.
...
Even if you’re the kind of sociopath who dominates the discourse in modern comics fandom, who thinks that the people who write and draw the comics you read are of no importance compared to the trademarks and the multinational companies that own them, who thinks (and I’ve seriously seen this opinion stated by people who intended it to be taken seriously) that Geoff Johns is a better writer than Moore because he allows action figures to be made of his characters, you’ll still find nothing worthwhile in here. Cooke’s art is always good, but without any kind of a workable story to tell, there’s nothing much for his characters to do, and it degenerates into lifeless poses, with nothing to say about anything.
Часть пятая: картинка про чувство виныЧасть пятая: картинка про чувство вины
Часть шестая: издевательскаяЧасть шестая: издевательская
Beyond Watchmen - где приквел, там и сиквел, так?
The first thing to say is just how beautiful it looks. The 400 page graphic novel sits comfortably on the shelf next to the original. Indeed, because the black-on-yellow spine reads only ‘BEYOND’, it has to sit next to the original to spell out the full title.
...
It was obvious from various ‘off the record’ discussions DC people have been having wih the fan press that there were some at the company who thought that it would be controversial to have a six page – and it has to be said graphically explicit – gay sex scene featuring two of the best-loved and most iconic characters from ‘Watchmen’. But it’s 2012, we’re all grown ups now, and in the end the scene perfectly reflects the wider themes, and imagery, of the story.
And that sums up ‘Beyond Watchmen’. However far they take it – and this is a book that lives on the edge, sexually, politically and in terms of some quite breathtaking violence – it never seems gratuitous. It’s as shocking now as the original was then, but every step it takes moves the comics medium forward.
...
But what starts out as a story that seems to be a sly commentary only on Moore and the comics industry quickly broadens out into something altogether more impressive. The Silk Specter chapter says more about feminism in the internet age than a thousand magazine articles. The meat of the story is a savage attack on post 9-11 ethics that never takes the cheap route, never sensationalises the material.
...
It’s not perfect. I would have liked to have seen more fight scenes and a little less of Dan Drieberg trying to get his sons to respect their Jewish heritage. I didn’t understand the Van Zorn plotline at all. The Owlship is very slightly the wrong shade of brown, and that took me out of the story. But these are just niggles, when you consider that – like Moore – ‘Beyond Watchmen’ exposes the flaws with the modern political system but – unlike Moore – comes up with answers, ones that would manifestly work. This is a comic that solves the grand unified theory of physics in a throwaway line and provided a blueprint for resolving the Palestinian issue that both sides have already adopted in real life, after all.
Ну вот как-то так.
Бонус: Мур, Гиббонс, Нил Гейман и очень старое интервьюБонус: Мур, Гиббонс, Нил Гейман и очень старое интервью
A Portal to Another Dimension: Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and Neil Gaiman - восемьдесят седьмой, и помидоры ещё цветут...
ВыдержкиSo I started mapping out a few ideas, and originally it was just a murder mystery, “Who killed the Peacemaker,” and that was it. We sent all this stuff to Dick Giordano and some of it was extreme. We were going to treat the Question as a lot more extreme than he’d been treated before. Dick loved the stuff, but having a paternal affection for these characters from his time at Charlton, he really didn’t want to give his babies to the butchers, and make no mistake about it, that’s what it would have been.
...
The thing was that with Watchmen if you read that original synopsis it’s the bare skeleton. There’s the plot there, but it’s what’s happened since then that’s the real surprise because there’s all this other stuff that’s crept into it, all this deep stuff, the intellectual stuff. [Laughs.] That wasn’t planned. The thing seems to have taken on an identity of its own since we kicked it off, which is always nice.
...
I was looking at some of the original sketches the other day, and many of our first ideas have made it through. The ads that DC have run for the Watchmen come from little doodles Alan did on the day that we spent together, and they are just copies of what we ended up with. The whole look and design of the book with the clock going round and everything is our primal instinct with very little compromise.
...
Subsequently, it was Alan’s idea to take it a bit further and make each cover the first panel of the story, and that’s a really strong idea as well. The way that we rationalize it to ourselves is that it’s a crossover. The cover of the Watchmen is in the real world and looks quite real, but it’s starting to turn into a comic book, a portal to another dimension. This is the kind of thing we think about while we’re doing it.
...
I know that a lot of people don’t seem to recognize the amount of work a colorist does. That has been changing recently what with people like Lynn Varley, who are obviously really wonderful colorists, and John is in that category as well. In most comics the colorist will say, “Okay, here’s Superman — his cloak’s red, his costume’s blue, and his boots are red,” and he’ll go through the whole issue first and colors Superman’s costume making sure that it’s the same color the whole way through. What John does is go through and say, “OK, this is Rorschach — his coat’s a sort of off-brown, but if he’s in a bar and there’s red lights in the bar, it’s going to be a different color. If he’s out in the street and there’s sodium lamps or just moonlight, it’s going to be a different color,” and so the color of the characters’ costumes change according to what lighting they’re in, which is much more emotional and much more atmospheric than very straight plastic color all the way through.
...
John colored the cover and colored it really warm and cheerful, and it looks really nice. And Dave was saying, “Look, this is a bit of a bleak issue. Why have you colored it warm and cheerful?” And [John] said, “Well, that’s my plan. It starts off really warm and cheerful, so you color them that way, and on page five we make it a bit darker, and on page seven darker still, and it’s like the lights are going down the entire issue, so when you get to the end it’s really dark and really black.” Emotionally, John is using the colors to really take the readers down, which is really clever. That’s the kind of thinking that we’re trying to do with the art and the story, and it’s real nice that John is trying to put the same thing through with the coloring.
...
There aren’t really any fascist superheroes in Watchmen. Rorschach’s not a fascist; he’s a nutcase. The Comedian’s not a fascist’ he’s a psychopath. Dr. Manhattan’s not a fascist; he’s a space cadet. They’re not fascists. They’re not in control of their world. Dr. Manhattan’s not even in control of the world —he doesn’t care about the world. I think that while people expected that, we’ve not investigated the idea of superheroes as fascists the same way that Frank [Miller] has in Dark Knight, or the same thing they’ve done in Squadron Supreme. It wasn’t really our intention. Our intention was to show how superheroes could deform the world just by being there, not that they’d have to take it over, just their presence there would make the difference.
Я, разумеется, говорю о "Before Watchmen: Minutemen" #1.
Шутки в сторону: человек, обменявшийся со мной хотя бы парой слов на эту тему, отлично знает, что я думаю про... это. Те, кто ещё не в курсе, могут попытать удачу, но предупреждаю: у меня уходит примерно 0,67 минуты. чтобы перейти на повышенные тона и ещё столько же, чтобы начать вслух всерьёз желать всяческих жизненных неурядиц людям, которые для кого-то всё ещё являются любимыми авторами. Возможен кэпслок.
Но, как бы то ни было, это История. Теперь - в особенности.
На всякий случай в качестве пролога - краткое изложение проблемы от USA Today: 'Watchmen' prequels stir a debate
Часть первая: объяснения и оправданияЧасть первая: объяснения и оправдания
WATCHING DARWYN COOKE: Writer-artist respects the dissenters — but ‘Before Watchmen’ was too challenging to pass up - Дарвин Кук о том, почему.
This was an enormous challenge for me, and I took it knowing I was just as apt to fail. But it puts me out there, and that’s the only way to be going after something like this. And frankly I appreciate being a part of the things where the challenge is great.
MTV Interviews Before Watchmen Creators About Alan Moore – With A Few Bleeding Cool Retorts - видео-интервью с участниками проекта вместе с едкими комментариями автора статьи.
As for judging it before its completed, the quality of the work isn’t at issue here. For some, no matter what the qualities of the work, couldn’t the creators have made similar work of high quality using their own character, or characters over whom there is less controversy?
...
Warner Bros have still not confirmed any plans to create a prequel to the closest film equivalant of Watchmen, Citizen Kane, nor that it will star Shia LaBoef. Though they do have all the rights, unequivocably, so it’s only a matter of time before we get Before Citizen Kane. After all, it’s what’s best for the characters…
Часть вторая: общие размышленияЧасть вторая: общие размышления
Who Watches the Watchers of Before Watchmen? - попытка разграничить претензии этические и эстетические, точнее, выявить их соотношение.
There’s a benefit to society from letting creators mess with the creations of others, but there’s also a benefit from postponing such messing in favour of some length of copyright. So even though Moore has done Carroll wrong, what he’s done is nevertheless morally okay because that harm is outweighed by a greater good. And contrariwise for what DC is doing now
...
Of all the *cough* artists involved, Brian Azzarello and Jae Lee are the only ones I’d personally piss on if they were on fire; many of the rest of them I’d only piss on if they weren’t on fire.
Not Dan Didio, though. He seems like the kind of guy who’d be into that.
...
In the real world, with the line-up we’ve in reality got, there’s essentially zero chance that Before Watchmen will be as good as Watchmen. Hell, there’s essentially zero chance that Before Watchmen will be as good as The First American.
But imagine — just imagine — that it was probably going to be good. Maybe even great. How loud would our denunciations be then? How many of us would still boycott?
...
In other words: while we’re all basking in the warmth of our moral outrage — and I’m there basking too, man, that one place in the sand where there’s just one set of footsteps and it looks like I just nicked off to do my own thing? that’s where I stopped to carry you I LOVE YOU GAIZ!!! — while we’re all there basking, let’s also take a reality check. The reason it’s so easy for us to think DC management are arseholes for publishing Before Watchmen, the reason it’s so easy to think the *cough* artists are arseholes for making it, and the reason it’s so easy to think the readers are arseholes for buying it — that’s not because we are not, ourselves, also arseholes.
We’re just arseholes who, this time, got lucky.
Любопытно вот что: для автора и его условного круга в силу эстетических предпочтений описываемая дилемма является чисто теоретической - им "повезло". Но для людей с вкусами несколько отличными (вкусы эти и вынесенные на их основании оценки - повод для отдельного разговора), тех, кого авторы приквелов в принципе с в широком смысле слова эстетической точки зрения устраивают, и кого теперь уже устраивает и то, что оказалось на прилавках неделю назад, это вопрос вполне себе реальный и актуальный. И отвечают на него в основном именно так, как косвенно предположил в своей статье Джонс.
Часть третья: отзывы положительныеЧасть третья: отзывы положительные
Большинству уже вышедший комикс нравится - кому-то однозначно, кому-то с несущественными оговорками, но в общем и целом...
Before Watchmen: Minutemen #1
If you were planning on buying just one of the "Before Watchmen" comics, "Before Watchmen: Minutemen" #1 seems like a good choice to make. Cooke's an immensely talented comic creator and this comic is no exception to that rule.
Before Watchmen: Minutemen #1 Review
While I’m not ready to say that this miniseries will go down in history as a masterpiece that achieves the same level of quality and depth as the original Watchmen (it’s far too early to make such proclamations, even if it were to turn out that way), I am more than comfortable saying this is certainly one of the better comics in recent memory and a way to start the summer. If Cooke can keep up this level of quality, this will certainly be one to watch.
Некоторые авторы рецензий и отзывов доходят до того, что они жалеют несчастных, из-за какой-то дурацкой истории четвертьвековой давности не желающих доставить себе истинное удовольствие.
The first chapter of Before Watchmen suggests the project might transcend the controversy:
A lot of Moore’s literary sophistication gets lost in the transition, but it’s been replaced with the unique creative energy inherent in a story told by a singular writer/artist.
...
Minutemen #1 feels like DC’s first major effort to create a piece of art in its post-New 52 climate, and it’s unfortunate that the behind-the-scenes politics will prevent a lot of people from checking out this stunning new work from one of the industry’s best.
Before Watchmen: Minutemen #1 Review Darwyn Cooke delivers the goods in the debut of Before Watchmen.
Because when it comes right down to it, the comic that you hold in your hands should stand on its own as an entity.
Whatever your opinion on the behind-the-scenes controversy of Before Watchmen, the fact remains that Minutemen #1 is a gorgeously crafted comic book.
Like I said in my first impressions piece, if you’re dead-set against Before Watchmen existing in the first place, I don’t think even this fantastic issue will do anything to sway you. But I promise, you’re missing some damn fine comic book work from one of the best cartoonists alive. I’m thrilled about the quality of this book
BEFORE WATCHMEN: SILK SPECTRE #1
If the rest of the BEFORE WATCHMEN offerings are as good as this issue, even the naysayers or Alan Mooreinites will not be able to ignore this series. If they do, they are only hurting themselves.
А некоторые говорят... очень интересные вещи.
"Minutemen #1"
This book is precisely what was most missing from Watchmen, which was an exploration of the heroic ideal at its flashpoint, and how it would go on to change the world around it.
Я не опущусь до кэпслока, я не опущусь до кэпслока, янеопущусьдокэпслока, я не... уфф, всё, отпустило, продолжаем.
Часть четвёртая: отзывы отрицательныеЧасть четвёртая: отзывы отрицательные
…And the Superhuman Review – Before Watchmen: Minutemen #1 - хорошо, вот это отрицательным отзывом можно назвать только в сравнении с уже процитированным
I haven’t read the Sourcebook, but, reading this issue, I have to say, if I wanted a breakdown of characters like this, I probably would have. It read very much like a sourcebook. No plot, just character bios basically. An underwhelming start to this whole project to say the least.
...
What’s funny is that, as the start of almost any other series, this would merely be a mediocre first issue, but, because it’s the first comic we’ve seen of this particularly project, it’s especially disappointing to me. THIS is the first thing that DC wants to put out to show off how awesome the whole Before Watchmen project is going to be? This Watchmen Who’s Who disguised as a comic book? It’s a little puzzling, honestly — and something I’ve long seen as a problem with first issues of comics in general.
Before Watchmen - а вот тут отзыв именно отрицательный. И притом очень хорошо написанный.
Цитат настолько много, что они под собственным катом.But DiDio’s argument is, and always has been, that we should judge these prequels as a piece of art.
Which is odd, because the rationale for their existence is precisely the argument that art doesn’t matter.
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They’re saying to us “Ignore the morality of taking a self-contained work that revolutionised the industry we work in, and for which we managed to con the rights out of its creators, and creating inferior knock-offs that cheapen the original work while deeply upsetting the man to whom we owe our livelihood and our industry’s continued existence. IS IT A GOOD FUNNYBOOK OR NOT?”
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...Gibbons’ financial future and artistic legacy is entirely wrapped up in the decisions that DC makes about Watchmen, in a way that Moore’s isn’t. And one might well believe that when everything about your creative and financial life is in the hands of a company that is acting like a psychopath, the choice you make is to do whatever it takes to keep them happy.
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There’s a possibly-apocryphal story (aren’t they all?) that several years ago Alan Moore asked DC Comics (as they then were) to stop sending him comp packages — the packages of free comics they send all their writers — because he didn’t like the company and didn’t want to read their comics. The person he spoke to said “I know you don’t like them, but I’m going to keep sending you just one. You’ll see why.”
The comic that was sent was Darwyn Cooke’s The New Frontier.
Moore said “Okay, you can keep sending me that one
Cooke is, as an artist, the utter opposite of Moore in every way, but he’s the only person involved in this who has anything like the talent that Moore does. DC are putting their best foot forward with this.
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The whole thing seems determined to say “DC has other great comics that aren’t Watchmen“, in the hope that by making Watchmen seem less special it will seem less disgusting when they make tenth-rate knock-offs.
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Most of the comic is a ‘homage’ to Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s Batman: Year One, in look and feel, which sort of makes sense since this is more-or-less Nite Owl: Year One.
The problem is that this means that this comic is now inviting comparisons with three acknowledged classics of the medium and genre, when it can’t even stand up to comparison with any one of them.
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These little bits show us aspects of the characters that were already there in Watchmen, but with a hammering lack of subtlety that reads as if Cooke had never heard the phrase “show, don’t tell”. Worse, they do nothing else — we’re expected just to be happy to see these characters again. Which would be OK if the characters weren’t obvious ciphers.
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Even if you’re the kind of sociopath who dominates the discourse in modern comics fandom, who thinks that the people who write and draw the comics you read are of no importance compared to the trademarks and the multinational companies that own them, who thinks (and I’ve seriously seen this opinion stated by people who intended it to be taken seriously) that Geoff Johns is a better writer than Moore because he allows action figures to be made of his characters, you’ll still find nothing worthwhile in here. Cooke’s art is always good, but without any kind of a workable story to tell, there’s nothing much for his characters to do, and it degenerates into lifeless poses, with nothing to say about anything.
Часть пятая: картинка про чувство виныЧасть пятая: картинка про чувство вины
Часть шестая: издевательскаяЧасть шестая: издевательская
Beyond Watchmen - где приквел, там и сиквел, так?
The first thing to say is just how beautiful it looks. The 400 page graphic novel sits comfortably on the shelf next to the original. Indeed, because the black-on-yellow spine reads only ‘BEYOND’, it has to sit next to the original to spell out the full title.
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It was obvious from various ‘off the record’ discussions DC people have been having wih the fan press that there were some at the company who thought that it would be controversial to have a six page – and it has to be said graphically explicit – gay sex scene featuring two of the best-loved and most iconic characters from ‘Watchmen’. But it’s 2012, we’re all grown ups now, and in the end the scene perfectly reflects the wider themes, and imagery, of the story.
And that sums up ‘Beyond Watchmen’. However far they take it – and this is a book that lives on the edge, sexually, politically and in terms of some quite breathtaking violence – it never seems gratuitous. It’s as shocking now as the original was then, but every step it takes moves the comics medium forward.
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But what starts out as a story that seems to be a sly commentary only on Moore and the comics industry quickly broadens out into something altogether more impressive. The Silk Specter chapter says more about feminism in the internet age than a thousand magazine articles. The meat of the story is a savage attack on post 9-11 ethics that never takes the cheap route, never sensationalises the material.
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It’s not perfect. I would have liked to have seen more fight scenes and a little less of Dan Drieberg trying to get his sons to respect their Jewish heritage. I didn’t understand the Van Zorn plotline at all. The Owlship is very slightly the wrong shade of brown, and that took me out of the story. But these are just niggles, when you consider that – like Moore – ‘Beyond Watchmen’ exposes the flaws with the modern political system but – unlike Moore – comes up with answers, ones that would manifestly work. This is a comic that solves the grand unified theory of physics in a throwaway line and provided a blueprint for resolving the Palestinian issue that both sides have already adopted in real life, after all.
Ну вот как-то так.
Бонус: Мур, Гиббонс, Нил Гейман и очень старое интервьюБонус: Мур, Гиббонс, Нил Гейман и очень старое интервью
A Portal to Another Dimension: Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and Neil Gaiman - восемьдесят седьмой, и помидоры ещё цветут...
ВыдержкиSo I started mapping out a few ideas, and originally it was just a murder mystery, “Who killed the Peacemaker,” and that was it. We sent all this stuff to Dick Giordano and some of it was extreme. We were going to treat the Question as a lot more extreme than he’d been treated before. Dick loved the stuff, but having a paternal affection for these characters from his time at Charlton, he really didn’t want to give his babies to the butchers, and make no mistake about it, that’s what it would have been.
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The thing was that with Watchmen if you read that original synopsis it’s the bare skeleton. There’s the plot there, but it’s what’s happened since then that’s the real surprise because there’s all this other stuff that’s crept into it, all this deep stuff, the intellectual stuff. [Laughs.] That wasn’t planned. The thing seems to have taken on an identity of its own since we kicked it off, which is always nice.
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I was looking at some of the original sketches the other day, and many of our first ideas have made it through. The ads that DC have run for the Watchmen come from little doodles Alan did on the day that we spent together, and they are just copies of what we ended up with. The whole look and design of the book with the clock going round and everything is our primal instinct with very little compromise.
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Subsequently, it was Alan’s idea to take it a bit further and make each cover the first panel of the story, and that’s a really strong idea as well. The way that we rationalize it to ourselves is that it’s a crossover. The cover of the Watchmen is in the real world and looks quite real, but it’s starting to turn into a comic book, a portal to another dimension. This is the kind of thing we think about while we’re doing it.
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I know that a lot of people don’t seem to recognize the amount of work a colorist does. That has been changing recently what with people like Lynn Varley, who are obviously really wonderful colorists, and John is in that category as well. In most comics the colorist will say, “Okay, here’s Superman — his cloak’s red, his costume’s blue, and his boots are red,” and he’ll go through the whole issue first and colors Superman’s costume making sure that it’s the same color the whole way through. What John does is go through and say, “OK, this is Rorschach — his coat’s a sort of off-brown, but if he’s in a bar and there’s red lights in the bar, it’s going to be a different color. If he’s out in the street and there’s sodium lamps or just moonlight, it’s going to be a different color,” and so the color of the characters’ costumes change according to what lighting they’re in, which is much more emotional and much more atmospheric than very straight plastic color all the way through.
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John colored the cover and colored it really warm and cheerful, and it looks really nice. And Dave was saying, “Look, this is a bit of a bleak issue. Why have you colored it warm and cheerful?” And [John] said, “Well, that’s my plan. It starts off really warm and cheerful, so you color them that way, and on page five we make it a bit darker, and on page seven darker still, and it’s like the lights are going down the entire issue, so when you get to the end it’s really dark and really black.” Emotionally, John is using the colors to really take the readers down, which is really clever. That’s the kind of thinking that we’re trying to do with the art and the story, and it’s real nice that John is trying to put the same thing through with the coloring.
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There aren’t really any fascist superheroes in Watchmen. Rorschach’s not a fascist; he’s a nutcase. The Comedian’s not a fascist’ he’s a psychopath. Dr. Manhattan’s not a fascist; he’s a space cadet. They’re not fascists. They’re not in control of their world. Dr. Manhattan’s not even in control of the world —he doesn’t care about the world. I think that while people expected that, we’ve not investigated the idea of superheroes as fascists the same way that Frank [Miller] has in Dark Knight, or the same thing they’ve done in Squadron Supreme. It wasn’t really our intention. Our intention was to show how superheroes could deform the world just by being there, not that they’d have to take it over, just their presence there would make the difference.
@темы: Alan Moore, DC, Dave Gibbons