Alan Moore on “Watchmen” & Writing
It makes my fingers ache when I think about how long it must have taken to transcribe Daniel Whiston’s interview with Alan Moore (Watchmen, V For Vendetta), but it’s well worth a read for anyone interested in the legendary scribe’s approach to the craft of writing. Moore addresses his work on various prominent and a few, well… slightly less-prominent projects, including the "cleverness" of Watchmen.
Watchmen was kind of clever – I was going through one of my clever periods – probably emotional insecurity, I thought: “People will laugh at me ‘cos I’m doing superhero comics. I’d better make ‘em really clever, then no-one will laugh”. (laughter)
So we’ve got all this sort of thing with the metaphor of the clock face, and yes it is a kind of clockwork-like construction – a swiss watch construction – where you can see all the works of it. Different areas where the text reflects itself, different levels – I was showing off.
But you’ll need all of those elements. They don’t all have to be tied up as fussily as that – in fact, I kind of decided after Watchmen that there was no point ever doing anything like that ever again, because having done it once, it would have been silly to have taken it further and done something more complex, when it’s already this sort of elaborate wedding cake of a comic book – you don’t want any more icing on the top.
(via journalista)
Writer and producer Jane Espenson has written, or co-written, episodes of some of the most popular and successful TV shows in recent memory. From her first writing work on Star Trek: The Next Generation through stints on the hugely popular Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and Angel, to one of the most celebrated series currently on TV, Battlestar Galactica, Espenson’s career is certainly one which fans of quality writing, humor and storytelling can appreciate.
As The Dark Knight breaks more box-office records (with its accompanying Watchman trailer leading to orders for the original book jumping up near the top of the Amazon charts) and Hollywood relocates to San Diego for the coming four-day weekend that used to be known primarily as Geek Prom, it’s clear that comics continue to affect the wider culture as never before. Two recent examples of this seepage and mingling have reared their heads in the world of toys and politics – respectively, as reported here on ComicMix and lots of other places, Mattel’s decision to release a special-edition 
There’s far too much to see, do, find and run like hell away from during San Diego Comic-Con, so I always enjoy finding notable, specific lists of panels, projects and events that focus on the subject matter that most piques my interest. Over at The Comics Reporter, Tom Spurgeon has highlighted 
Blockbuster.com has been my preferred movie-by-mail service for more than a few years now, so it was a nice surprise to see them calling out an impressive number of 
The summer of change continues for Image Comics. Earlier, Erik Larsen stepped down as publisher, turning the reins over to Eric Stephenson. And now Robert Kirkman has signed on as a partner at the company.
You know superheroes are dominating Hollywood when the movie trade Variety features an 
