Watchmen

Dimrill · **Posted:** Wed May 28, 2008 15:35

Rodafowa wrote:

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but there was another Iron Man backup story in Transformers that I'm 75% sure wasn't the 2020 vintage. He was fighting Doctor Octopus and there was one panel in particular that showed the Doc yanking Iron Man's breastplate off with his tentacles that has thoroughly traumatised me as a child. I know nothing else about it. Does anyone else recall this / have any details about it?

Yes! I had this too! Transformers was manky pants to me, but by gum that was an excellent Iron Man.

CraigGrannell · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 1639

If anyone wants for postage only (which shouldn't be a huge amount via Standard Parcels), a chap on 2000 AD Review is offering Progs 1414–1566 of 2000 AD and/or Judge Dredd Megazines 228–265. For anyone interested in recent 2000 AD, that's a decent offer. The thread is here—see the last post for the chap to talk to (Aaron A Aardvark).

CraigGrannell · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 1639

By the way, for anyone wanting to get back into 2000 AD, the 'jump on' issue's out now.

Also, I'm told if you grab SFX No. 171 from Asda you get the issue free, with a variant cover.

Curiosity · **Posted:** Thu Jun 05, 2008 10:59

Craig, why is WWE wrestler 'The Undertaker' on the front cover of 200AD?

CUS · **Posted:** Thu Jun 05, 2008 11:00

CraigGrannell wrote:

By the way, for anyone wanting to get back into 2000 AD, the 'jump on' issue's out now.

Aha, cool. I had been considering that so, cheers!

CraigGrannell · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 1639

Curiosity wrote:

Craig, why is WWE wrestler 'The Undertaker' on the front cover of 200AD?

Defoe was late for the photo-shoot, so 2000 AD needed a lookalike to stand in at the last minute.

Sheepeh · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 2320

My little sister has picked it up for me, will see her Saturday evening. Hopefully she's got the right one and not the one before it as she got it yesterday...we will see!

CraigGrannell · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 1639

It's unlikely she'll have got the wrong one—sub copies landed on Saturday, and news-stand issues have been around since Monday in most places.

Sheepeh · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 2320

Aceybongos.

I'll have a read over the weekend and see what I think

Curiosity · **Posted:** Tue Jul 15, 2008 16:46

Curiosity wrote:

Well, I added on the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to my Amazon order.

I'll let you know how I get on with it.

Most of my response to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was, 'meh'.

I liked 'Watchmen' as it was both exciting and epic. The characters were all drawn carefully (as in getting to know them, not penmanship), and you got to know backgrounds and stories for them and you identified with them to a greater or lesser degree. The 'shades of grey' in it really worked for me, with regards to moral ambiguity. It also had this incredible story that linked in with so many things, and wasn't predictable.

TLOEG to me, missed the mark in so many ways. I didn't really like or get particularly involved with any of the characters. The closest I came was to liking Griffin.

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

I liked how he was using his powers quite terribly before he was recruited. Actually, I'm going to write the rest in this spoiler tag as I will comment on the plot a bit.

Jekyll/Hyde was kind of dull to me, and went from unreasoning beast to quite reasoned large hulking person who is very much on their side for no apparent reason. Nemo did practically nothing other than offer a deux ex machina every time they were stuck... ("A flying machine? Nobody has ever seen one, and this will make Person X invincible... oh no, wait, I have one here in my cupboard, along with a couple of machine guns that I neglected to mention until we needed to kill loads of people at once!")

Quartermain was even fairly dull. A flawed character turned into a boring hero who was pretty rubbish at just about everything.

The story, too, didn't excite me much. The most interesting things in it, to me, were Sherlock Holmes at the waterfall, The Chinese Doctor, and Moriarty's role in the intelligence servie... yet none were featured much. I know that the whole thing is shot through with literary references, but going through spotting them is significantly less rewarding, IMO, than actually reading something interesting.

The basic plot, though, was very, very basic. Group forms. Go to get special magic weapon. Get it. Give it to villains by mistake. Get it back again. Whilst you can argue that is a simplified version... it's not that simplified, and I was upset when the book ended so quickly (as it had a bunch of 'extra content' lurking at the back that I was hoping was more story... I HATE it when books do that).

All said, I didn't hate it. I'd read a second one if someone handed it to me, but I certainly wouldn't pay much for it. It's a good bit of fun, but if you read it expecting something even in the same genre as 'Watchmen' you're probably going to be disappointed.

It's a bit like, say, you read the Lord of the Rings trilogy and love it, and then someone hands you one single book from the middle of The Mallorean by Eddings. It's not a bad book per se, but it's nothing like you were expecting, and seems somehow incomplete.

Dr Lave · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 5979

If I cut you open I would find coal.

Curiosity · **Posted:** Tue Jul 15, 2008 17:08

Lave wrote:

If I cut you open I would find coal.

...and that would make me a more interesting character than half of the cast of TLOEG.

Cras · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 49232

Curiosity wrote:

It's a bit like, say, you read the Lord of the Rings trilogy and love it, and then someone hands you one single book from the middle of The Mallorean by Eddings.

Wait, what? She's blind, and she's being led around by a guy who can't talk?! What kind of moron came up with that idea?!?

MrChris · **Joined:** 1st Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 30498

Craster wrote:

Curiosity wrote:

It's a bit like, say, you read the Lord of the Rings trilogy and love it, and then someone hands you one single book from the middle of The Mallorean by Eddings.

Wait, what? She's blind, and she's being led around by a guy who can't talk?! What kind of moron came up with that idea?!?

Note to pedants: Yeah, yeah, yeah - near enough, ok?

DBSnappa · **Posted:** Tue Jul 15, 2008 17:23

CraigGrannell wrote:

Strontium Dog: Another 2000 AD effort,

Didn't Strontium Dog originate in Starlord?

CraigGrannell · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 1639

DBSnappa wrote:

Didn't Strontium Dog originate in Starlord?

Yup. It joined 2000 AD when Starlord was canned.

Rodafowa · **Posted:** Tue Jul 15, 2008 17:26

Curiosity wrote:

I liked 'Watchmen' as it was both exciting and epic. The characters were all drawn carefully (as in getting to know them, not penmanship), and you got to know backgrounds and stories for them and you identified with them to a greater or lesser degree. The 'shades of grey' in it really worked for me, with regards to moral ambiguity. It also had this incredible story that linked in with so many things, and wasn't predictable.

This is why I'm not expecting much of the film version of Watchmen. Hollywood has certain ideas about what a big budget superhero film consists of, and Watchmen doesn't fit any of them.

Example - the climactic fight with the supervillain at the end. Every superhero film in history's ended this way. Do you think that they'll let Watchmen be any different? How unbelievably terrible is that going to be?

DBSnappa · **Posted:** Tue Jul 15, 2008 17:41

CraigGrannell wrote:

DBSnappa wrote:

Didn't Strontium Dog originate in Starlord?

Yup. It joined 2000 AD when Starlord was canned.

Good job, otherwise Mek Quake smash :DD

I actually have all of Starlord and most of 2000AD from when it joined, up until about episode 400 or so IIRC. None of them are in pristine nick unfortunately.

CraigGrannell · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 1639

After some cunning eBay buys and a healthy dose of luck, I've got every 2000 AD and Starlord now, most of which are in decent nick. I keep planning on a big re-read one of these days, but time appears a bit short right now.

DBSnappa · **Posted:** Tue Jul 15, 2008 18:17

CraigGrannell wrote:

After some cunning eBay buys and a healthy dose of luck, I've got every 2000 AD and Starlord now, most of which are in decent nick. I keep planning on a big re-read one of these days, but time appears a bit short right now.

Jeepers, I bet. Starlord only ran for 22 issues plus a summer special (ah, those were the days) but 200AD must be close on a couple of thousand issues by now if it's still weekly!

DBSnappa · **Posted:** Tue Jul 15, 2008 18:19

I should also mention that it was 2000AD that taught me to draw, as well. I think it was copying certain characters as a kid that developed my oft neglected drawing ability.

What was that story about the WWII nazi infantry that were also werewolves and vampires? I loved that one.

CraigGrannell · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 1639

I'm guessing you're thinking about Fiends of the Eastern Front, which actually got a sequel (finally) in the Judge Dredd Megazine not that long ago. As for 2000 AD, issue 1595 came out this weekend, and aside from at the end of December it is indeed still weekly.

Deano2099 · **Joined:** 12th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 148

Watchmen could be good, but it'd need entirely gutting and rebuilding to be a commentary on superhero films, rather than comics. And I very much doubt that will happen.

DBSnappa · **Posted:** Wed Jul 16, 2008 8:58

CraigGrannell wrote:

I'm guessing you're thinking about Fiends of the Eastern Front, which actually got a sequel (finally) in the Judge Dredd Megazine not that long ago. As for 2000 AD, issue 1595 came out this weekend, and aside from at the end of December it is indeed still weekly.

That's the story. I so SO wish you hadn't linked to a website that sells repackaged 2000AD strips though :DD

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32619

Deano2099 wrote:

Watchmen could be good, but it'd need entirely gutting and rebuilding to be a commentary on superhero films, rather than comics. And I very much doubt that will happen.

I so badly want it to be excellent though. They recently released this publicity shot:

...which is so great it gives me shivers. Who knows? Maybe they'll pull it off somehow. It's a bastard of a thing to write the screenplay for but harder things have been adapted and rocked (LA Confidential, for example).

CraigGrannell · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 1639

DBSnappa wrote:

That's the story. I so SO wish you hadn't linked to a website that sells repackaged 2000AD strips though :DD

Buy them all! The Strontium Dog books are particularly good, and Sláine: The Horned God showed up the other day, and is the best version of that collection for sure.

Ian Osborne · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 424

Yeah, The Horned God is Slaine's high water mark. A fantastic yarn, and the new trade paperback is very well packaged too.

tossrStu · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 1326

TRAILER NEWS!

Official debut is tomorrow at 5am on Empire's website or 9pm PST tonight if anyone's going to see The Dark Knight in the US.

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=22942

However Empire accidentally let the pre-prepared news item appear on the site early:

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=22949

The trailer has since been pulled but it's all over YouTube now:

Dr Lave · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 5979

Fuuuuuuuuccccckkkkkkk.

It's a little to dark and computerised and not 'boring 80''s enough. But fuck thats good isn't it?As in, not a train wreck.

To have got this far and not be a train wreck. Oh my.

Dr Lave · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 5979

Wow they are taking it down quick.
Here's another copy:

http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/watchmen%2Btrailer/video/x65tqi_watchmen-trailer_news

NervousPete · **Posted:** Thu Jul 17, 2008 22:50

It wasn't until I saw the sand palace rising out of the surface of Mars until I was completely sold. It's going to be epic. Phew.

Plissken · **Posted:** Thu Jul 17, 2008 22:56

I've downloaded a HD version. It looks awesome...

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32619

nervouspete wrote:

It wasn't until I saw the sand palace rising out of the surface of Mars until I was completely sold. It's going to be epic. Phew.

Yeah, that sold me too. Also: Ozymandias clobbering the assassin with the pole -- that was so accurate to the comic it hurt.

Oh, and Dr Manhatten appeared in the cafetieria.

Vietnam with the Comedian and the flamethrower looked a little clean though.

Damn, I'm going to have to freeze frame through it. Also apparantly: they have resisted all efforts to change the ending.

The Rev Owen · **Posted:** Thu Jul 17, 2008 23:49

That looked awesome.

I still don't see how a Watchmen movie is possible and fear they may have taken the "like the comic" shots out of the movie to appease the fanboys.

But it still looked awesome.

tossrStu · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 1326

Plissken wrote:

I've downloaded a HD version. It looks awesome...

This one?

http://movies.apple.com/movies/wb/watch ... _h720p.mov

Oh my! :droool:

Trousers · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 3073

Not in enough PWEI in the soundtrack.

Otherwise Excellent.

MrChris · **Joined:** 1st Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 30498

So when's this due out, then?

YOG · **Posted:** Sat Aug 02, 2008 21:17

How many Watchmen does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

None. I did it thirty-five minutes ago.

Trousers · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 3073

Klatrymadon wrote:

How many Watchmen does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

None. I did it thirty-five minutes ago.

Of fuck I find that so funny I think I might be a massive nerd.

No wait I am. That's ok then.

YOG · **Posted:** Sat Aug 02, 2008 22:11

I was fully expecting a forumbot to perma-ban me.

In other news, I've just read that My Chemical Rubbishmance will be submitting a Bob Dylan cover to be used on the credits. Mercifully, this is the only new 'licensed' tune that'll appear in the film.

CUS · **Posted:** Sat Aug 02, 2008 22:36

All Along the Watchtower?

GovernmentYard · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 5318

MCR might suit it well, you never know. The director is savvy.

For my money, the trailer tells me they've licked it visually, as for how well they adapt it, well, Lord of the Rings called for smoe creativity and this will too. I'm not worried about the ending - Titanic didn't exactly end happily ever after... Hollywood can stomach it.

I think this will be a great movie, even if it is not a plot-perfect adaptation. Look at any movie adapted to graphic novel - always some loss and gain here and there. I'm optimistic that the spirit will remain, though.

YOG · **Posted:** Sat Aug 02, 2008 23:00

Things look to be the other way around to these eyes. It looks as though it could be entirely plot-perfect, but the visual style's way off. Oh well, we'll soon see!

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32619

That joke is teh awesomest. Ironically, it means so little out of context it probably doesn't even count as a spoiler either.

YOG · **Posted:** Sun Aug 03, 2008 16:50

Oh aye, I just took it to be the standard joke format around here.

Rodafowa · **Posted:** Mon Aug 04, 2008 8:59

Goatboy wrote:

I think this will be a great movie, even if it is not a plot-perfect adaptation. Look at any movie adapted to graphic novel - always some loss and gain here and there. I'm optimistic that the spirit will remain, though.

How many actual graphic novels have been adapted to the big screen, though? From Hell, League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen (total disasters) V For Vendetta (looked great, missed the point) and Sin City (practically a panel-for-shot remake of pretty vacuous source material) are the only ones I can think of other than 300 and Ghost World, neither of which I've read.

I mean, if I'm wrong and there're a bunch of massively successful graphic novel adaptions out there, sing out. But it seems that that they've got a lower hit-rate even than "regular" comic-book films.

Plissken · **Posted:** Mon Aug 04, 2008 9:11

Rodafowa wrote:

How many actual graphic novels have been adapted to the big screen, though? [...]League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen (total disasters)

As an adaptation, I thought it was worse than useless. But then it had virtually nothing from the source material. As a piece of high budget movie making, I quite like it. Connery phones in his performance, but Dorian Gray is a cool mofo "What are you? ""I'm.... complicated". And Peta Wilson... *growls*

Quote:

Sin City (practically a panel-for-shot remake of pretty vacuous source material)

Never read the source, but I adore the film. I love film noir type stuff anyway and I thought that mixed with the superb visual style, it was awesomesauce.

MrChris · **Joined:** 1st Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 30498

Plissken wrote:

Rodafowa wrote:

How many actual graphic novels have been adapted to the big screen, though? [...]League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen (total disasters)

As an adaptation, I thought it was worse than useless. But then it had virtually nothing from the source material. As a piece of high budget movie making, I quite like it. Connery phones in his performance, but Dorian Gray is a cool mofo "What are you? ""I'm.... complicated". And Peta Wilson... *growls*

Indeed. I'm not sure the graphic novels would have translated too well directly into film anyway.

However, I do like what they did with the film - although I appreciate this puts me (and, it seems, you) in a very small minority.

Oh - and Connery's been phoning his performances in since the early 80s. The lazy sod. He's too busy being ostentatiously Scottish and patriotic from the comfort of his American home.

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32619

Mr Chris wrote:

[However, I do like what they did with the film - although I appreciate this puts me (and, it seems, you) in a very small minority.

I think it was somewhat underrated too. I was lead to believe it was just horrendous, but I thought it actually had a few bits that were pretty good. It was a mess though.

Empire did a four page article last year about what a tortured shoot and edit process it went through that made it sound like it could have turned out far worse!

DBSnappa · **Posted:** Tue Aug 19, 2008 16:24

Those bastards at Fox have got a copyright infringement granted and are attempting to get an injunction blocking the release of the Warner's film >:(

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Watchmen
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