If ever should I waver in my determination *not* to watch this flick, I'll hold
Moore's own words as a reminder.
-[ Received Mail Content ]--
Subject : [scifinoir2] Alan Moore, author of "Watchmen," reinvented the comic
book
Date : Sat, 07 Mar 2009 22:12:01 -
From : "ravenadal"
To : scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com
www.chicagotribune.com/features/booksmags/chi-0307-mooremar07,0,4692358.story
chicagotribune.com
Alan Moore, author of "Watchmen," reinvented the comic book
By Christopher Borrelli and Robert K. Elder
Tribune reporters
March 7, 2009
Over the past 30 years, author Alan Moore has almost single-handedly reinvented
the comic book, transforming its language, broadening its scope and deepening
its intellect. So, naturally, Hollywood has been poaching his stories for
years, the most egregious being the 2003 loud and dumb adaptation of his
otherwise highly literate "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen."
There also have been films based on his works, such as "Constantine," "From
Hell" and a glossy but tonally faithful version of "V for Vendetta"; both last
year's "The Dark Knight" and Tim Burton's original " Batman" owe a debt to
Moore's "Batman: The Killing Joke."
This weekend, however, we get director Zack Snyder's sprawling adaptation of "
Watchmen," Moore's most celebrated creation. Initially a 12-issue series with
artist Dave Gibbons, the collected volume has become one of the most acclaimed
graphic novels ever, hailed by Time magazine as one of the best 100 novels of
the 20th Century. It's about aging superheroes, nuclear politics and social
engineering.
That said, Moore has sworn off movie profits inspired by his books; he recently
told the Los Angeles Times that he is opposed to movies based on his work.
About "Watchmen" he said, "I will be spitting venom all over it for months to
come." As with most of his comics, Moore has insisted "Watchmen" is "inherently
unfilmable," heresy in this time of inevitable big-screen adaptation.
But he's right.
Comics are comics, period, with a language and tradition of their own. They are
unique and separate from other art forms, not merely a series of detailed
storyboards waiting to be translated into a film. Just as great literature is
no promise of a great movie, great comic books don't automatically make better
comic-book movies. Ask Frank Miller, Moore's American counterpart, whose Batman
tale "The Dark Knight Returns" was released around the same time as "Watchmen"
and became just as much of a classic. Though Hollywood has been good to Miller,
with faithful adaptations of "300" and "Sin City," Miller's own directorial
take on artist Will Eisner's creation, " The Spirit," released a few months
ago, was not only unfaithful, but also murderous to the original.
With Moore, the text matters. The page matters. The context matters.
At his best, Moore is a deconstructionist, ideally suited to an age when we're
so familiar with the history and spandex and capes that mark the superhero form
that we prefer to go straight to the deconstruction. Moore tears apart iconic
scenarios and cliches to rebuild and rework, as he did with "Top 10," a
1999-2001 comic-book series about super cops in a city where everyone from the
prostitutes to the hot dog vendors are super, and therefore, no one is.
Likewise, "Tom Strong," another millennial series, was a thinly veiled work of
" Superman" criticism, about a strong man tone deaf to his actions, told in the
earnest voice of early comics.
Not that Moore is squarely rooted in superhero boots. "From Hell," his Jack the
Ripper opus, created from 19991 to 1996, is impossible to digest fully on a
first reading. It is a doorstop of a black-and-white narrative and not the
mystery you expect; it is less curious about the identity of the killer than
the why and how of his acts. A signature of Moore's work is how attuned it is
to the paranoia peeking from behind the most upstanding facade, and how it
treats the most monstrous.
But there's also a British cheekiness about Moore, 54, who claims to be a
recluse. There's a playful fussiness to him that, at worst, comes off like a
teenage affectation—the muddled philosophical arguments driving the story of
muddled anarchists in "V for Vendetta," for instance. He is also a cultural
treasure chest, spilling over with connections that mash up a century of
literature to create something new that honors the old.
"The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," which finds Mina Harker (of Bram
Stoker's "Dracula") teaming up with the Invisible Man and Captain Nemo, has
nods to contemporary relevance, detours into Orwellian London, but never
forgets the simple exhilaration of a Victorian adventure.
The quintessential Moore, of course, remains "Watchmen," about which much ink
has been spilled and no less than three new books have been released that are
tied to the film adaptation: "Watchmen: The Art of the Film" and
