WatchmenComicMovie.com Forum

http://www.watchmencomicmovie.com/101307-watchmen-rorschach-fashion.php

Alan Moores rolling around in his grave,and the guy ain't freaking dead yet.
Thanks to this new mens magazine using Watchmen to sell raincoats.
What does everyone here think about this,with the movie coming out im sure a toy line,t-shirts and every type of merch is gonna go along with it.I wouldnt be surprised if a sequel for both the comic and movie will be mentioned.
I personally hate it,I wish Watchmen would just stay a comic and nothing more,its more special that way.

In a perfect world, brother, we wouldn't have to have translations and adaptations. The work itself would be accepted as the masterpiece that it is and everyone could enjoy it for what it is.

Excluding Fight Club, of course, which was a much better movie than it was a book.

I'm just saying.

I agree that using Rorschach the way they did was a stupid move, and for precisely the reasons Vynson stated. So I don't see it as an advertisement. I see it as an example of what Rorschach may look like on the big screen. It makes the image much more palatable.

Second of all, I think you're overreacting to this. There has been no sequel buzz whatsoever (movie or otherwise) for 300, despite the pop culture phenomenon it was. There's no talk of a sequel to V for Vendetta either, though that did respectable business as well. This tells me that Warner Bros. (who distributed V for Vendetta, 300 and will distribute Watchmen) knows that a graphic novel without a follow-up shouldn't have a movie with a follow-up.

And a graphic novel sequel to Watchmen? Without Moore's blessing? Hell no. Not in a million years. I don't care what you think about Corporate America and their greedy, blundering ways, I refuse to believe that Warner Bros. and DC would do something so irresponsible, inconsiderate, avaricious and unbelievably outright stupid. Besides, they'd have to find someone to actually write, draw and color the damn thing. You want to find someone in the comic industry that would cross Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, Neil Gaiman (a good friend of Moore's, remember), and all their fans? You want to find someone that would piss off at least two-thirds of the comic book-buying community regardless of what work he turned in? Good luck.

But as for merchandise... well, we need something.

The Watchmen fandom has been going strong for 20 years now. The Transformers fandom has been going for roughly an equal amount of time. But the TF fans have multiple TV series, comic books, two movies (going on three) and thousands of toys. And what do we have? A book. It's a damn good book to sustain a fandom for 20 years, but it's just one book all the same.

In my opinion, it's time that DC and Warner Bros. gave us something in return for supporting the book and keeping its popularity strong for two decades. It's time that those who held the property helped ensure its longevity. The movie is a good start, but why stop there? Bring on the merchandise. If you love Watchmen, show it by voting with your wallet. There's money to be made, there's money to be spent and there are fans who would like to express their love for the graphic novel by wearing it on a T-shirt or displaying figures on a shelf.

And ostermansmark, you seem to be implying that a few action figures and a few coffee mugs would ruin the story and spirit of the graphic novel. It wouldn't. Making a sequel to the movie or graphic novel, answering the question of what Seymour does with the journal, that would be ruining the story.

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This is truly a madhouse. And I'm the lunatic running it. I've spent three years wondering if I should be proud or ashamed.

The spread doesn't bother me one bit. Would Alan Moore really be pissed, or would he laugh. I mean its funny, no? As you can tell from the tone of the site, I like to have fun with the material too. I love showing the parodies and oddities, etc. Its like this big tapestry of "stuff." Is Watchmen really such a sacred cow that we can't have fun with it and still respect it?

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Those who dance are considered insane by those who can't hear the music - George Carlin

Here's the thing, DD.

It's perfectly fine to "have fun" with Watchmen and it is possible to respect it while doing so. To answer your "sacred cow" question, the answer is no. Nothing is sacred in this day and age, especially not some graphic novel.

But "having fun" is temporary. Usually, it's fan-created (except for gag reels, sketchbooks, etc. released by the PTB). It's always completely removed from the property in question.

If DC -- they who hold the rights to Watchmen -- commissions and releases a sequel to Watchmen, that is not "having fun." They are creating new canon and permanently adding to the history of this property. And as I said earlier, any attempt at a sequel must address what Seymour does with Rorschach's journal at the end. This would eradicate the ambiguity of that question, which is really what Watchmen is all about.

Whatever Seymour picks in a DC-sanctioned sequel to Watchmen is what happens. Period. And the ramifications of that decision are far too great to simply be considered "having fun."

But merchandise is something else. Action figures, T-shirts, coffee mugs, pens... these are all completely removed from the story of Watchmen. This would be "having fun."

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This is truly a madhouse. And I'm the lunatic running it. I've spent three years wondering if I should be proud or ashamed.

I disagree 100%,merchandising could ruin watchmen...two words napoleon dynamite.
How many Vote for Pedro shirts have you seen? .I loved that movie when it came out,both times i saw it in the theatre and told people about it they shuned it.
Then came the dvd and next thing i knew Hot Topic had over 25 different shirts and it just seemed to ruin this little gem "in my opinion" of a movie.
Alan Moore says No action figures,no movie and no merchandise,I agree.
Am i going to see the movie,i will but id rather them not make it then make it.
As for peoples faith that Hollywood wont try and make a sequel to Watchmen if it make tons of money...Your crazy,I could name 5,000 sequels that didnt need to be made and YES there was/has been talk of a sequel to 300.

I love the idea of Watchmen merchandise, provided it's all bespoke. I want my own Comedian mask made from genuine bison leather, softened by mallets wielded by eight-year-olds and stained with organic cheroot (a guaranteed hit with the ladeez). If it has to come to hard plastic toys, I want an exploding Rorschach and a nudie Manhattan. And I'd love to see a Lego set of post-squid New York.

Vynson, how do we organize a boycott? It'll never work, but it would be an honorable campaign. Should we start by asking the site administrator to take off the "Buy Watchmen now" ad?

ps. Hi, Finger - I suspected it was you.

I'm not for a sequel either - for the book or the movie. I would like to have merchandise, like figures, etc. I don't feel it "ruins" the property either. The watches and buttons DC released in the 80's didn't ruin it, why would any merchandise ruin it today. In fact, a shitty movie has a better chance of "ruining" it more than some t-shirts or a few action figures.

Now the funny thing is, if Watchmen is a huge success - like Planet of the Apes was in the late 60's, theres a bigger chance crappy sequels will follow. Its a real Catch 22. A shitty movie would suck, but it would stop Hollywood's future plansfor a franchise in its tracks. A huge phenomenon of a film that everyone praises might keep the crap machine rolling.

The double whammy would be Snyder makes a giant unfaithful turd and its a big hit, and then Hollwood keeps churning out Watchmen brand garbage.

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Those who dance are considered insane by those who can't hear the music - George Carlin

See I do think lots of merchandise does ruin whats special about it.
The last thing I want to see is abunch of emo hipsters wearing "who watches the watchmen" shirts.But thats just me.

Personally, I didn't like Napoleon Dynamite. But I'm pretty darn sure that the "Vote for Pedro" shirts convinced a lot of people to go see the movie. And that's exactly what I hope will happen for Watchmen.

Newcomers will like the merchandise and be encouraged to read the book or watch the movie. Veterans will be able to buy more Watchmen swag and WB will make money. Everyone wins... except Alan Moore.

Now, I don't know if Moore is upset about the merchandise being made or if he's upset about not getting his cut (though it's probably the former, since Moore endorsed the Watchmen tabletop RPGs). I can sympathize with getting ripped off like that. Still, with all due respect, Moore is a key reason why we Watchmen fans have gotten the shaft for twenty years. Like I said earlier, for twenty years of devotion and promotion, we have the book and nothing else.

For this fandom to grow any further, we need more than just the book. We have the movie, and that will hopefully spread awareness and get more people to read the book. But why stop there? Merchandise would be a boon to this property and it would do all of us a lot of favors.


Yeah, there are a lot of posers out there. And I know that a lot of wannabe-goths and emo kids would buy the Watchmen merchandise. And I don't care.

I want the word of Watchmen spread. I want as many people as possible to pick up the damn book. As long as the book and the story remain intact, I don't care how that happens. I don't care how much merchandise finds its way into Hot Topic (GAP in disguise) and I don't care how many people don't or can't sort through all the layers. All I want is for people to buy or borrow the book, sit down, read it, and share it with their friends and family.

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This is truly a madhouse. And I'm the lunatic running it. I've spent three years wondering if I should be proud or ashamed.

But it won't! At least if the previous film adaptations are anything to go by. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was a Disney-esque adventure romp. V for Vendetta was worse. They raped the book and murdered it, resurrected it and then raped it again. I left the cinema shaking with anger. No wonder Alan Moore wanted his name removed from the book.

I don't understand why Frank Miller's work is treated as sacrosant, followed to the letter and the panel, but Alan Moore's work is used as a starting point for the filmmaker to deliver their own vision, impose their own message and agenda.

It's not a starting point, it's a perfectly articulated story, perfectly structured, perfectly characterised, perfectly paced, perfectly twisted, perfectly wrapped up.

Oh for Christopher Nolan to be directing. The Prestige left me with the same sense of satisfaction, of a perfect story, surprising, smart and carefully, ingeniously plotted.

Also: I'm afraid to say that watching the movie won't necessarily inspire people to read the book. My heathen friends who had not yet read V for Vendetta when the movie came out were not inspired to run out and read the graphic novel, although they did buy the toys. <sigh>

But different to the book.

For me in the end I just hope the movie comes along,its 99% faithful to the book and people just dont get it and it goes away.That 99% of coarse is the book without the black freighter stuff.

Because 300, the League and V were all made by completely different people. Frank Miller's work was treated as sacrosanct because that's how Snyder approached it.

But the crew behind the other two movies clearly didn't mind tampering with the source material. And while V for Vendetta may have screwed up the adaptation, at least they didn't shoehorn in any American characters or go with any number of the boneheaded decisions made by the crew of the League.

Different crews make for different movies. So we should count ourselves lucky that Watchmen is in the hands of Snyder and his 300 crew, instead of the Wachowskis or Don Murphy.

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This is truly a madhouse. And I'm the lunatic running it. I've spent three years wondering if I should be proud or ashamed.

The main reason for that is both Sin City and 300 are completely controlled by Frank Miller and it was HIS say to whether or not a movie got made.

300 was made once he was assured of a certain level of faithfulness and Sin City only managed to get made through a combination of constant badgering, a no-risk demonstration of how good it would look AND his direct involvement.

Alan Moore had no interest in getting involved with the titles that he DID have control over (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and From Hell), and I believe rather regrets his decision to sell the rights, and more recently has no control over the properties getting made into movies (V for Vendetta and Watchmen.)

I wouldn't mind Watchmen merchandise, but only if it were done in a creative way. Like have some perfume company release a limited edition Nostalgia brand perfume. Action Figures from Veidt industries. Wall posters of the "Nixon Four More Years" or "Superman/God does exist" ones in the book's universe. T-shirts sporting the logos of the New Frontiersman or Nova, and merchandise like Mmmeltdowns. You can have Watchmen merchandise and still respect the graphic novel. The only disrespect it'd be doing is Alan Moore would see none of the profits from any of this, but that's happening no matter what.

What I'm trying to say is we're getting Watchmen merchandise whether we like it or not. I'm sure that fashionable Rorschach is a sign of things to come. I just hope the merchandising isn't as silly and irrelevant as Spaceballs the flamethrower.

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The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking. The solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I would have become a watchmaker. - Albert Einstein