You know it's true: The Watchmen 2 Thread

[Mystirious]

There should have been so much less of so much other stuff beside the gore in that story, along with the gore.

Truth

Also there should have been more Phillipus

 

[Lencho01]

http://gizmodo.com/5890905/dcs-new-...f-exclusive-before-watchmen-content/gallery/1

DC’s New Website Will Have a Bunch of Exclusive Before Watchmen Content

By Kyle Wagner Mar 6, 2012 12:00 PM

Digital comics are one of the most embraced parts of print publishing going digital, but for whatever reason, comic book publisher websites are consistent eyesores. DC's launching a new site to try to fix that, and it's going to bribe you to get there with exclusives on upcoming events like Before Watchmen, the controversial prequel to Alan Moore's masterpiece Watchmen. Here's a Gizmodo-exclusive peek at the new site.

The plan is to get butts in the seats with images like the one you see above, which is the first time you've seen the Before Watchmen cast together in official art. There will be a bunch more mini-exclusives like it in the next few days. As for the rest of the site, bigger-name characters will have their own "franchise page," with a list of comics they've appeared in, and DC's working to fill out the profiles of lesser-known faces in the universe. The coolest and most useful part is probably the creator index: The site uses over six years of publishing data to set up an "IMDB of DC Comics" of sorts for writers, artists, and other creators, so you can find and buy any book the creator has worked on.

It's a good start, and we hope DC follows through and gets everything fleshed out like it plans to right now. A DC-backed, fully-encyclopedic resource for its comics would be a hell of a thing. The site isn't live just yet, but it'll be up later today. [DC Comics]

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

[Lencho01]

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/03/08/dc-comics-new-website-design/

Mar 8th 2012 By: J. Caleb Mozzocco​

DC Gets a New Website, Fans Get a New Look at 'Before Watchmen'​

Spoiler

The DC Universe, its heroes and their costumes apparently weren't the only things that DC Entertainment had in the works for a reboot over the past several months -- the DC Comics website has also gotten a makeover. Chief among the new reveals is a look at some Before Watchmen promo art, though the official site redesign will probably ring much less controversial among fans.​

The company announced the overhaul of the site-along with those for VertigoComics.com and MADMagazine.com-in a press release yesterday, noting that the intent was to offer fans "Exclusive new content, integrated community and social media features, and in-depth character franchises," and also including "key navigation areas for movies, TV, games, shopping and community."​

Perhaps of greatest interest to DC fans is that the site will now allow commenting through Facebook and Twitter. The publisher's site has been without any sort of commenting feature for some time now.​

To entice readers, fans and online rubberneckers to check out the publisher's new online digs, one piece of new content time for release with the update of the site is a new piece of promotional art related to their most controversial upcoming project.​

Artist Lee Bermejo has a new Before Watchmen image, "the first group image of the BEFORE WATCHMEN characters," according to the press release.
​

Spoiler

Additionally, Watchmen has its own "franchise hub" now, and an entry in the company's small but presumably growing "characters" section, which discusses the original graphic novel itself rather than the ensemble cast.

There's much more that's new at DC Entertainment's trio of sites, so go poke around and see what you think. And say, you can now let DC know exactly what you think, thanks to the new interactive features...!​

[Via DC Entertainment]​

 

[Panthro]

The artwork is certainly epic.

 

[3rdstone]

The artwork is certainly epic.

I agree, and of course I'll have to check this out although I belong to the rest of those who think Watchmen should be left in peace. But a story including Minutemen is far better in that matter IMO, instead of a sequel to the actual Watchmen story.

I think that Darwyn Cooke image really made me consider reading it (yes, a little, little due to the fact that he knows how to recreate the "pointy women" ideal of the 50:s ).

 

[Mystirious]

I'mma be buying the Minutemen comic book for Silhouette

Bad ass lesbian heroine = a happy Mystirious

 

[O'Haire]

Bermejo posted the black & white version of the pic in his blog...

Spoiler

 

[Lencho01]

http://io9.com/5899936/how-do-you-write-watchmen-comics-without-alan-moore-darwyn-cooke-fills-us-in

How do you write Watchmen comics without Alan Moore? Darwyn Cooke fills us in

By Cyriaque Lamar Apr 9, 2012 8:00 AM

Come June, DC Comics will release Before Watchmen, a series of comic book prequels to author Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons' classic superhero deconstruction Watchmen.

The thing is, neither Moore nor Gibbons are involved with this project, and Moore just happens to be outspokenly against it. This leaves some of the comic industry's biggest heavyweights, such as Eisner Award-winning writer/illustrator Darwyn Cooke, to tackle Before Watchmen's scripts and art.

Cooke — who's gained substantial acclaim for such retro-tinged reads as DC: The New Frontier and his graphic novel adaptations of Richard Stark's Parker novels — will be on creative chores for two Before Watchmen miniseries. He's writing and drawing the backstory of the flamboyant World War II-era superheroes the Minutemen and scripting the early adventures of the martial artist vigilante Silk Spectre.

io9 spoke with Cooke about crafting a project many comic fans thought would never, ever happen. Also, check out an exclusive first look at artist Amanda Conner's (Power Girl, The Pro) psychedelic cover for Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre #2.

How and when did you decide to work on Before Watchmen?

Darwyn Cooke: I can remember being approached a few years back by [DC Comics Co-Publisher] Dan DiDio. My initial response was "absolutely not." The reason for that was simple — I consider Watchmen a magnificent book, and I just didn't see doing anything that could live up to it, especially after all of this time. Dan did his best at that point to get me on board. He let me know he wanted me to handle the Minutemen, but I just couldn't see it, so I passed.

When you do this stuff for a living, ideas come through your head day in and day out. It was close to a year later, I suppose, the idea for the Minutemen fell into my head. I sat down, plotted a treatment, and it really got me excited. There was something there I could bring to the party, but it didn't contradict anything Alan and David had done. It fit perfectly into the scenario they had set up for these characters, so I contacted Dan and told him, "Count me in."

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And how did you end up writing Silk Spectre?

That was a slightly different process. I was fairly certain that my only involvement would be with the Minutemen. Dan was very happy with where that was heading and wanted me to look into taking on the other characters. I really didn't want to do that. I thought I had enough on my plate. He mentioned Nite Owl and Silk Spectre to me. When you're dealing with a piece of work as brilliant as Watchmen, you're looking for areas where the story wasn't focused on.

I started to think about how most of what we see of [Laurie Juspeczyk, Silk Spectre's civilian identity] is a reflection through the eyes of the men she's with. I started thinking about how neat it would be to look at Laurie just as a person. And coming up against the limitations of my abilities, I realized I couldn't pull that off myself convincingly.

I went to Dan with my idea and I said, "I'm prepared to write this, but only if Amanda Conner will draw it." I made Amanda a condition of [this project] — that bounced it back into Dan's court, and luckily Amanda was enthusiastic about it. She's doing the work of her life on this book.

Your Minutemen art we've seen so far definitely evokes that
1940s-1960s aesthetic of your other work. Could you talk about some of the design cues that informed Minutemen?

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The Minutemen's story takes place in the past. I've had a certain amount of experience with stories like that. It's very important to be as authentic as possible to the era in order to immerse the reader. The world we live in has definitely crossed a threshold. I was on a panel with Amanda last month, and I was describing a scene in which [the character] Parker is in a phone booth. Amanda jokingly said, "What's a phone booth?" I looked out to the audience, and I could see some of the younger audience members trying to figure out what a phone booth is.

Most of my design cues come straight out of the era. I make sure I'm evoking that in a seeming way, but in a stylized fashion. That entails a lot of kooky stuff, I get right into the weeds with it. I think, "It's 1940. These guys are all in costume, but polyester wasn't invented yet and spandex isn't available. They're wearing wool, like old hockey jerseys. And their logos would look like old crests on felt." Once you get into those kinds of details, it can go on forever.

Did you ever test a wool superhero costume for verisimilitude's sake?

I know a few people who are into that, but it's really not my bag. But in terms of a character exercise, that sort of stuff is essential. One of the challenges of The Minutemen was that they were designed to look gaudy and — in a couple cases — a little silly. The question was, "How do you make this look functional and real while staying inside Dave Gibbons' design parameters?" You begin examining details like, "Nite Owl's hoodie, that could actually be brown leather."

Each of these books have a very different creative pedigree. Were you involved in any sort of Watch-confabulation with the other writers and artists?

We had a summit meeting for the project. I've never been to one of these things, but they happen all the time apparently. We all began discussing the characters we working on, and it became clear very early on that we were ready to tackle different angles of this world.

And while we were looking for a certain unity to the books, what we came to is that each book's complete uniqueness is the glue that holds them together. That's maybe the best creative reflection of the world Alan and Dave created. I'm privy to seeing the work now, and it in no way feels like eight event-driven books that are all locked together. It feels like eight separate statements — that's what binds them together. They do overlap and refer to each other to a degree, but not in a story-dependent way.

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This might be a stretch given Alan Moore's feelings about this project, but did you consult either Alan or Dave when tackling Before Watchmen?

No. But to be quite honest, there's so much transcribed conversation out there that it's easy to tap into the creative intent. I've never met Alan. I know he enjoyed me for a peer. I heard that once from a dependable source, and I think that's wonderful. I have met Dave. He's one of the true gentlemen of the business and an incredible talent. I do know that it's silly to think this way, but I'm assuming, one way or the other, they'll look at Minutemen. I'm just trying to do my best work and hope they don't think it's terrible.

Before Watchmen: Minutemen is out June 6, and Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre #1 is in stores June 13.

 

[Mystirious]

Minutemen is something I'm planning to check out but i doubt I'll be buying any others

 

[Lencho01]

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/04/16/before-watchmen-the-new-frontiersman-advertising/

Apr 16th 2012 By: J. Caleb Mozzocco

DC to Push 'Before Watchmen' with 'New Frontiersman,' TV Ads and More

DC announced several new comics at this weekend's Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, but the project that seemed to be getting the biggest promotional push -- with a viral marketing campaign, new preview art and even news of TV advertising -- was one they had already announced months ago: The controversial Before Watchmen suite of seven prequel miniseries.

The publisher put together a paper issue of the New Frontiersman, the fictional right-wing newspaper that Rorschach reads (and ultimately sends his war journal to) in the seminal 1987 graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.

You can read the front page of an issue online, where you'll see it's cover-dated 1977 (Say, that is before Watchmen!) and find a couple of articles referencing characters and events from the comic. There's an article entitled "Who Watches The Watchmen?," a blurry photograph of Rorschach and another article by Seymour Smith, a minor character who appears in the final pages of the book.

Clicking on highlighted words will open up hidden links, one of which will reveal a smattering of interior art from the prequel books, and another of which opens the New Fronteirsman Twitter account. Rather than being in character -- Twitter didn't exist during Watchmen, let alone before it -- they have so far been using it to promote the convention activities pertaining to the books.

​

These included Saturday's "DC All Access-Special Edition: Before Watchmen" panel attended by Co-Publisher Dan DiDio, Senior Editor Will Dennis and a half dozen of the involved creators (or "the iconoclastic BEFORE WATCHMEN creators," as DC's Source blog refers to them) including the polarizing J. Michael Straczynski.

According to Comic Book Resources' coverage of the panel, it seemed to be a remarkably friendly one, and if there was any negative reactions or hostile questions from the audience, they didn't make it into the article.
CBR staff writer Steve Sunu wrote:

Dan DiDio kicked off the panelist discussion, detailing the reasons for bringing a Watchmen prequel to the stands. "We believe they still had stories that could be told," said DiDio. "We've done several things, but the reality is that we found out people want to see more 'Watchmen' material."

"I'm happy to say that every single person sitting on this stage right now was the top of the wish list," he continued, saying he had "complete faith" in executing the series. DiDio also said he expected "more of a negative reaction" to the initial announcement. "What happened was incredible. Everyone I talked to was excited about it," saying "all the concerns went away" when people heard about the creative talent.
​

Straczynski apparently took the opportunity to once again compare Moore's usage of public domain characters from 19th century literature invented by long-dead men in League of Extraordinary Gentleman and Lost Girls to Straczynski's writing of the DC-owned, Moore and Gibbons-created Watchmen characters over the still-alive Moore's objections.

Reports Sunu:

Straczynski addressed the online criticism of Alan Moore and said he got it on an emotional level. "Alan Moore is a genius. No questions," said Straczynski. "On the other hand, he's been using characters like the Invisible Man, Peter Pan, Jekyl [sic] and Hyde in what one fan basically called fan fiction-in ways their original creators probably wouldn't have approved of. ... You stand on a slippery slope when you use the moral high ground."

"Did Alan Moore get a crummy contract? Yes. So did everyone at this table. Worse was Siegel and Shuster, worse was a lot of people." The writer went on to credit Dan DiDio for pushing the project through, despite the fact that most would not touch it.
​

The Before Watchmen books (Rorschach, Minutemen, Comedian, Dr. Manhattan, Nite Owl, Ozymandias and Silk Spectre) begin shipping in June. As revealed at the C2E2 Diamond Retailer Summit, comic fans can expect to be reminded of the releases through both conventional channels as well as TV ads over the coming months.

[Via The Source/Comic Book Resources]

 

[Anubis]

I always read the title of this thread as "Girl you know it's true!"

 

[Sawyer]

I'd have to imagine that the "girl" in the title would be spelled with a U, though.

 

[Anubis]

That's just racist.

 

[Sawyer]

Don't you censor me!

 

[Project862006]

 

[Sawyer]

Bermejo's Rorshach? Cooke's Minutemen? .....
[YT]RP_NOuHMhsw[/YT]

 

[LOBO3315a]

I have to admit, I'm intrigued by the artwork.

 

[Lencho01]

http://collider.com/dan-didio-jim-lee-before-watchmen-interview/161077/

DC Comics Co-Publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee Talk BEFORE WATCHMEN at the L.A. Festival of Books

by Tommy Cook Posted:April 22nd, 2012 at 12:57 pm

There’s an undeniable irony to Watchmen – Alan Moore’s great critique of the comic superhero, which began as an appropriation of The Mighty Crusaders – now finding itself appropriated by a series of new artists (much to Moore’s chagrin) in the upcoming prequel Before Watchmen. The seven part series focuses on the principle characters of the comic – Rorschach, the Comedian, Night Owl, Ozymandias, Dr. Manhattan and Silk Spectre – before the events of Moore/Gibbons’ magnum opus.

At the Los Angeles Festival of Books, DC Entertainment Co-Publisher’s Dan DiDio and Jim Lee were on hand to discuss the highly anticipated but divisive prequel at a panel called DC Entertainment Presents: Watchmen – It’s Not the End, It’s the Beginning. The panel and proceeding round table covered a gauntlet of topics ranging from DC’s relationship with creative artists to the financial realities of the comic industry (i.e. why a Watchmen prequel is a good thing) to just why the hell anyone would ever make a prequel to arguably the most beloved comic of all time. Alan Moore’s specter loomed large over the proceedings – with a series of very pointed questions over Moore’s falling out with DC and his lack of involvement (let’s be honest – outright disdain) with the resulting Watchmen film and now comic spin-offs. For the sometimes-heated conversation with DiDio and Lee, hit the jump.



Question: People on your own staff told you not to do this [in regards to a prequel to Watchmen]… Does that back and forth keep you honest?

DiDio: What happened was that when there was some conversation, rumors going around that we were actually going to do this. It was picking up some real speed to the point that a couple folks actually stopped and came into my office and said ‘Hey is this real?’ [And I would respond] ‘I can’t really say but if it was would that be a problem?’ I was more interested in the conversation, of where they saw problems. So therefore we went through it all. One of the things I’ve tried to say to a number of folks is that in a baseball game you don’t leave your best players on the bench. You have to go out with your best foot forward. The things that are most recognizable, that people want to see – so I felt that it was in the company’s best interest to go ahead with Watchmen.




Lee: During the market period of [the Watchmen movie] we sold about a million units. And at that point we assumed everyone who was a true comic book collector already had a copy of this trade so the vast majority of that new trade went to new readers and we’re always on the lookout for how do we expand our business… We felt that this would be a great opportunity for us to reach out to the new readers and see if we can convert them into long time readers. You want to lead with your best foot and give them a flavor of something they already know. All the creators on these books sought to match or outdo what was done in the original. I don’t think anyone is going ‘Oh if I’m only fifty percent as good [as the original] that would be great.’ These guys – they’re true artists.


DiDio: And we would not have gone forward if we didn’t think the talent was available to be perfectly honest. That’s actually one of the things that slowed us down. And the talent didn’t want to participate unless they felt they had a key story to tell. Darwyn Cooke was one of the first people asked and he turned me down because he didn’t know what to do with it. And then a year later he comes back and he knew how to make the story work. Then we’re off to the races.



Yesterday it was announced that Chris Roberson is no longer working on the ‘Fairest’ arc. [To Lee] As a creator, how do you reconcile what Robison had to say about DC’s stance on creator’s rights? Note: for those unfamiliar, Robison took to twitter saying that after his ‘Fairest’ arc and IZombie, he would never work for DC again. Much of his issues with DC stemmed from his umbrage with the upcoming release of Before Watchmen. After these comments were made, DC promptly let Robison go.

Lee: I don’t know the writer Chris and it certainly would have helped if I could have talked to him or if he had reached out to me. I didn’t know he felt that way so it was surprising to see that. It seemed odd to me as a creator, I would not publicly state I have a problem with the company that’s paying me to do work for them and I’m going to quit after I do this one project. It would seem wise to me to wait until you finished the project to voice that complaint. You have to imagine from our perspective, for our own internal morale, what does it say for a company to hire somebody who’s that vocally against our principles and yet we’re still paying them. From that standpoint, it doesn’t make any sense.


DiDio: As far as I’m concerned, he made a very public statement about not wanting to work with DC and we honored that statement.

As a creator, how do you reconcile Alan Moore’s disagreement with the project and movie?




Lee: It’s interesting because in the Chris example, he alluded to an article in Comics Alliance that goes on about how Alan Moore has been unjustly treated. In this piece of journalism, it only cites interviews Alan has given. People will listen if it’s polarizing and one sided enough. This is not a situation where we have taken things from Alan. He signed an agreement and yet he said ‘I didn’t read the contract.’ I can’t force him to read his contract. So there’s all these things that people don’t know and Alan has said that explicitly – there are all these things that mitigate or go into the analysis. It’s not as clear-cut as people want to make it seem… It’s not a situation where we’re using the characters and Alan’s not being compensated. For everything that’s been done for Watchmen from the books to the movie, money has gone his way. The right amount that he deserves based on the contract. So we have honored that part of the agreement. It is something that can definitely be debated but to say that there is clearly one side that is right, I will dispute that.


How did you guys decide the format of Before Watchmen? The miniseries – how long is it going to take to come out…

DiDio: I love weekly comic delivery. We deliver comics on a weekly basis to stores and I love the idea of having product there every week. That every week you have an expectation to go and a certain book is going to be there and hopefully other books will catch your interest while there.




Lee: Retailers love that.


DiDio: They really do. We want traffic into the stores so weekly seems the best way to do it… That’s the first piece of the puzzle. I had worked with Grant Morrison on Seven Soldiers of Victory and it was a really interesting process because Grant had created a style of storytelling that had seven different miniseries interlocking and interweaving but all coming out in different pieces. So we took a snapshot of what Grant did there and brought it over to the Watchmen book. Since we’re doing a prequel we have the challenge of featuring characters before they met so how do we make it feel like a team concept but they’re all still going to be individuals. We realized that Minutemen, Comedian and Ozymandias were lengthier storytelling. They went over a period of time. Minutemen [focuses on] the formation of a team, the Comedian is from the time of the Minutemen to his death. Larger story, more time covered. Ozymandias is about the plotting which is a much longer story. But the other ones are just snapshots of who these characters are. So they only wound up being four parts while the others were six. And then it was how do we roll this out. Also let’s be honest we have talent who are not the quickest of artists so we gave ourselves room for running time. But the way the schedule rolls out we have anywhere from five to seven weeks between books so now the artists can have more time and we hope to maintain consistency of art throughout the series.



With the original so rooted in the concepts of using ultimate violence to bring about peace – that was very reflective of The Cold War and of the 1980s. With the new stories was it tough to find a way to retain that same period setting and those same themes and make them relevant to the modern problems?

DiDio: The stories actually take place prior to that concept. And it really is much more character based, more so than on a world basis. What we’re really exploring are the individuals, about how they’ve grown and changed over the years, how they might of started off as focused and idealistic heroes and how they change their opinion of who they might be… There’s some really fascinating stories in there of just who they are. But it’s all character based because we didn’t want to approach that whole world building sensibility. We wanted to keep the focus on the individuals. That’s why Silk Spectre’s story is really a coming of age story and the Comedian is just he working his way through government and ultimately how he becomes who he is. It really gets into the psyche and personality of the characters and the goal was for it to remain consistent so it could be read as one unit. So you could read the prequel material and the original and feel that they are the same world but with different sensibilities. We made sure to make it feel different [by] changing the art styles… Each artist has his or her own style. Which is good because then each book operates on its own rather than beholding to a style that might be too rigid for the stories we are telling.



When you have all these different artists and creators and stories on one project, how do you approach the story as a cohesive whole?

DiDio: It’s hard to say that because I’m built to look at many characters as a whole even though they’re operating individually. I look to Superman next to Batman next to Green Lantern next to Aquaman and they’re all operating in the same world to me, even though they’re operating as completely different pieces. And that’s how I see Watchmen. They’re all plugging in on the same way. They’re all in the same world. They’re just their own beast.

Lee: It’s a triptych – three pieces of art that are meant to be viewed separately but can be put together as one. There were discussions early on how interwoven were these storylines going to be but people decided that it was more [important to focus on] tonality than direct storyline…

Before Watchmen hits comic stands in June.

 

[Mystirious]

The art certainly looks gorgeous

 

[Roose Bolton]

I like Jim Lee, he seems like he's one of the least *****ebags running DC.

 

[Mystirious]

I'm not a huge fan of his artwork but he seems like a nice person

 

[Lencho01]

Some more art...

http://www.buzzfeed.com/gavon/top-secret-look-at-before-watchmen

 

[Mystirious]

Poor Dollar Bill

If only he hadn't had a cape

 

[Sawyer]

Aww... young Laurie looks adorable.

 

[The Question]

I don't know how to feel about this.