Don Murphy: “Alan Moore is a hypocrite and a liar”
Don Murphy, Hollywood producer behind films such as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, From Hell, and Transformers has a few choice words for comic book master scribe Alan Moore. Both From Hell and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen were films based on Alan Moore comics.
From AV Club:
Alan Moore is a hypocrite and a liar.
–He took a million dollars from Fox for League- he did not HAVE to do so
–He claims that he never saw League so why does he get to comment on the merits of it? YOU can say what you want to- but he never saw it
–He has made over $3 million dollars on the increased sales of the Watchmen hardcover due to the film- he isn’t returning that money
–He sold the rights to Watchmen in 1988
–He attacked V for Vendetta back when it came out- after he had sold those rights
He is an old man who smokes too much hash and prays to a lizard god. Don’t buy his bullshit.
I nearly spit hot tea all over my monitor when I read that last line.
Murphy does have a point. Moore has made a massive amount of money from the movies he supposedly hates so much. Movies he claims he’s never watched.
Photo by Craig Grobler.
I always figured Swamp Thing stunk, but not like wet ink
I stopped by Borders today after work and was perusing the graphic novel section when I found two copies of the new hardcover Saga of the Swamp Think, Book 1. It contains the first eight issues (#20 – #27) of writer Alan Moore’s 44 issue run on the series.
I picked up a copy. The jacket cover felt tacky. I then noticed the distinctive scent of ink. I took a piece of white paper that I had on me and rubbed it across the jacket cover. The white paper turned green.
The ink was still wet.
I really wanted to buy this book, but not if it reeks of the smell of wet ink. It’s not like the smell will eventually just go away. If I’m not mistaken, the ink is ultraviolet (UV) ink. It’s the type of ink they use in high-speed color printing. UV ink does not cure unless it is exposed to UV light. If it wasn’t UV ink, it would surely have dried sitting on the shelf at Borders.
Also, doesn’t DC Comics shrink-wrap their hardcover books? These two copies, obviously, were not in shrink-wrap.
I don’t know if this stinky, tacky ink problem is true with every copy of this book, or if it is unique to the two copies at my local Borders. I hope it’s not a problem with all of the copies. It’s on my list of things I want to read.
Update: I happened to be back over at Borders today and I gave the books a second look, or should I say smell. The wet ink is definetly on the slipcover, not the actual book. I took the slipcover off and moved the book away from it. The smell is so strong that yesterday I couldn’t tell where it was coming from.
Judge rules 20th Century Fox owns rights to ‘Watchmen’ movie
A federal judge in Los Angeles has announced that he intends to rule that 20th Century Fox indeed owns a copyright interest in the Warner Brothers movie, Watchmen. The movie, directed by Zack Snyder, is based on the DC Comics epic graphic novel of the same name.
Watchmen was published in 12 issues from 1986 and 1987. It was written by acclaimed comic book writer Alan Moore and drawn by artist Dave Gibbons. Most comic book fans believe that it’s the greatest graphic novel ever published.
20th Century Fox’s claim to Watchmen stems from the fact that it purchased the rights to a Watchmen movie in the late 1980’s for producer Lawrence Gordon. 20th Century Fox ultimately declined to make the movie for themselves. Gordon then later shopped the movie around with different movie studios before coming to an agreement with Warner Brothers.
Warner Brothers also owns DC Comics.
The movie is scheduled to be released sometime in March. I’m guessing that Warner Brothers will end up having to pony up a bunch of money to secure the rights from 20th Century Fox.
Second chapter of the Watchmen motion comic released
The second chapter of the Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s graphic novel Watchmen “motion comic” is now up in the Apple iTunes store. I watched the first chapter in July and I’ve been waiting for the next one ever since. At this pace, the 12th and final chapter wont be coming out until the upcoming movie is on HBO.
If you’re not familiar with these motion comics, you should really check them out. I could try to describe them, but it would be much better if you watched one for yourself. You can watch them on either a video iPod, computer, or a TV via an Xbox 360. Update: I just tried to watch it on my TV and it won’t play. It shows up in my Xbox 360 video library, but it wont play. I watched the first episode (twice) on my iPod.
The ‘Watchmen’ trailer
The official trailer for the Watchmen movie is up over at Apple’s official movie trailer site. It looks like this movie is going to be as great as I have been hoping it would be. Seriously, I think Alan Moore will even have a hard time watching this and feeling pesimistic about it’s potental.
BookScan’s top-20 graphic novels for the month of April
ICv2 has posted the BookScan numbers for April. Unlike those top-300 lists that ICV2 also posts that show how many comic books “sold” in any given month, the BookScan numbers actually show what consumers are buying. The top-300 lists only show what comic book retailers order weeks or months before the books are released.
Here is the top-20 graphic novels for April:
- NARUTO VOL. 28
- VAMPIRE KNIGHT VOL. 4
- FRUITS BASKET VOL. 19
- BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE
- HANA-KIMI VOL. 23
- DEATH NOTE VOL. 1
- VAMPIRE KNIGHT VOL. 1
- FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST VOL. 16
- DEATH NOTE HOW TO READ VOL. 13
- NARUTO VOL. 27 W/ STICKER
- DEATH NOTE VOL. 2
- NARUTO VOL. 26
- WATCHMEN
- VAMPIRE KNIGHT VOL. 3
- FAIRY TAIL VOL. 1
- VAMPIRE KNIGHT VOL. 2
- NARUTO VOL. 1
- I.O.N
- THE BEST OF POKEMON ADVENTURES: RED
- TAIL OF THE MOON VOL. 10
All but two of these books are Japanese Manga. From the ICv2 article:
The biggest “new” American title on the list was Batman: The Killing Joke, a new hardcover edition of the Alan Moore and Brian Bolland story.
I’m not so sure I would describe either one of these as being “American”. Both books are from English writer Alan Moore and two English artists; one (Watchmen) being Dave Gibbons and the other (Batman: The Killing Joke) by an English artist who’s name I will not mention on this blog ever again.
I guess you could argue that since Watchmen and Batman: The Killing Joke are published by DC Comics and DC Comics is headquartered in the United States, both books technically are American. The only problem with that logic is the Viz Media — the publisher that published 16 out of the 20 books on this list — is headquartered in San Fransisco. It is not a Japanese company.
On a side note, I actually contributed to this list. Last month I bought my first ever Manga book, Death Note Vol. 1. I haven’t read it yet. I had one of those 25% off coupons from Borders and I didn’t want it to go to waste. I didn’t see anything in the comic book section that looked interesting, so I decided to buy a Manga book. I then promptly forgot all about it. I didn’t remember buying it until I read this list.
Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie get married
Comic book writer Alan Moore and long time significant other comic artist Melinda Gebbie were married this past weekend. Not only did fellow comic writer Neil Gaiman introduce these two, he took this picture.
I hereby declare this to be the coolest wedding photo ever.
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