‘Watchmen,’ a TV hit for HBO, was ’embarrassing’ for the comic’s creator Alan Moore – but not a lot of others.
A month after a TV show about superheroes inspired by comic books was named a hit, there was a backlash against the show. It was the first time that critics had ever declared a new TV show a ‘disaster’ so quickly. In the following year, two comic books hit the newsstands with reviews calling them ‘disappointing’ and ‘an embarrassment’ – more often than not, with negative terms including ‘crass’ and ‘obnoxious’
The book is the first of a planned 20 -for a TV-broadcast series due to air in 2010, when the comic is scheduled to return to a weekly schedule.
The first issue of the graphic novel series is scheduled for release on December 26.
‘I love comics and I love TV,’ said ‘Watchmen’ writer and artist Alan Moore.
‘It’s sort of like, “Wow… the future is just around the corner.” So the point of this book is to try to get at the future of the comic book medium and how it’s going to evolve itself to meet demands.
‘I just kind of want to put out a new comic book every year or so – and then a new movie franchise,’ he said. ‘What I’m getting at is to make a comic book for the whole generation of kids in this country who’ve never seen a comic book before, and I want to give them something they can hold in their hands and say, “I don’t know what this is, but I want to read it.”‘
The TV show of his creation will air on HBO on November 19.
Moore said the controversy over the show’s name has been ‘the great equaliser’ for him.
‘I’ve had a lot of fun arguing with the critics, which is a nice change to do between script and scripts. I’m having lots of fun doing that, so I’m glad it’s helping out.’