Alan Moore still hates Hollywood

[Felon]

OK, just read the article, which is not really an interview so much as it is a handful of sound bites in a context packaged by the author to come across a certain way.

I think Moore is eccentric to say the least, but there is little doubt that he's right about comic companies existing primarily to create IP's for other markets--markets that are actually designed to be profitable. The comics are basically "loss leaders". And that sucks, because that approach has made comics into these overpriced, glossy things that only the most hardcore fan still follows.

 

[Darth Shoju]

I'm hoping this time around he started his own company and be his own boss, yes?

I don't think he took it to that extent, but I don't think he has anything to worry about either. I doubt you'll see him working for someone he doesn't want to work for again.

 

[Klaus]

Okay. The guy ain't just blowing smoke, then. I'm a convert for the "The guy has a right to complain" camp.

Bah. He still plotted a 6-issue miniseries that his daughter is writing for ... wait for it... DC Comics.

 

[Ranger REG]

OK, just read the article, which is not really an interview so much as it is a handful of sound bites in a context packaged by the author to come across a certain way.

I think Moore is eccentric to say the least, but there is little doubt that he's right about comic companies existing primarily to create IP's for other markets--markets that are actually designed to be profitable. The comics are basically "loss leaders". And that sucks, because that approach has made comics into these overpriced, glossy things that only the most hardcore fan still follows.

I thought it was like that in the beginning of the industry. Only once in a while you find a few good stories, such as The Watchmen or Maus.

 

[Felon]

I thought it was like that in the beginning of the industry. Only once in a while you find a few good stories, such as The Watchmen or Maus.

Not sure what you mean. Of course, comics were originally lowbrow fare for young boys and teenagers (and notably, American soldiers in WWII). They eventually started appealing to a mature audience during the seventies and eighties, but it wasn't until the nineties that publishers went nuts with expensive productions values, and they weren't considered lucrative movie IP's until relatively recently (basically, after X-men scored at the box office).

Apparently, the genie's out of the bottle and we won't see a return to sanity any time soon. Can't help but note how popular manga has become printed in simple black-and-white.

 

[Desdichado]

Of course he has a right to complain. To suggest otherwise would be absurd.

Conversely, the rest of us have the right to think he's a self-righteous jerk for the way in which he's doing it.

But, as you suggest, Alan Moore has the right to be a self-righteous jerk if he wants to.

[size=-2]And I thought the V for Vendetta movie was terrible. Absolutely atrocious. I didn't enjoy it at all. Speaking of self-righteous, preachy and yet strangely facile at the same time... plus, it was a clunky and poor narrative, with a very long flashback sequence about characters we don't care about taking a sizeable chunk out of the middle of the movie and a completely ridiculous and absurd ending. I actually think Moore's criticism of that movie was spot on, whether he know it from watching the movie or reading reports or drafts of the screenplay, or however else he knew it.[/size]

 

[Desdichado]

and they weren't considered lucrative movie IP's until relatively recently (basically, after X-men scored at the box office).

Apparently, the genie's out of the bottle

Blade was what let the genie out of the bottle, actually. By the time X-men came along, comic book movie adaptations were all over the place.

Plus, didn't Spiderman predate X-men anyway? Or come out the same summer anyway?

 

[Ranger REG]

Can't help but note how popular manga has become printed in simple black-and-white.

B&W too simple for you?

Meh. IMHO, not every art have to be colorized.

 

[Ranger REG]

Blade was what let the genie out of the bottle, actually. By the time X-men came along, comic book movie adaptations were all over the place.

Plus, didn't Spiderman predate X-men anyway? Or come out the same summer anyway?

Spider-Man came out some time after the 9/11. I remembered they had a promo trailer that featured the WTC (obviously shot before), but were removed due to sensitivity of the situation.

X-Men came out around 2000, if not before.

Can't be helped. It takes one good superhero movie to get everyone on the bandwagon. The same could apply to LOTR leading the fantasy film trend.

 

[Darth Shoju]

Just because I'm bored:

Blade (1998)
X-Men (2000)
Spider-Man (2002)

While the argument could be made that Blade kicked in the doors for comic book movies, how many people knew he was a comic book character at the time? Was he even in a monthly series then? I'm pretty sure his series was dead and got resurrected after the success of the movie.

I'd say Blade helped to restore Hollywood's faith in comic properties after the disaster of the later Batman movies. However, I'd say X-Men and Spider-Man were the movies that made the general viewing public aware of how compelling comic book characters can be.