That's were I think I'm ending up on the whole thing. I think guys like Kirby would want their characters to live on and remain popular, they just wish they would also have been treated more fairly. But having the character go out of print would serve no purpose either.

Better to fight for the old guys getting fair credit at this point than to boycott anything, (Easy for me to say, except for the occasional Essential or Showcase reprints, the cartoons and movies are my sole connection to Marvel and DC anymore).

So you can relate to Kirby desperately agreeing to Marvels outrageous terms back in the '70's, in order to get at least some compensation?

I've seen worse. Some reporter credited Lee with inventing the comic book. I assume she just misread the tele-prompter that may have said, "reinvented the comic book." Which is a little more in line with the reality, if a bit vague.

It's not about how well "Moore's story dovetails into them." Or about quality at all. It's about the idea of using characters created by another author, for your own story.

Philip José Farmer does this sort of thing all the time as well, he's sort of the grandfather of it I suppose with his whole Wold Newton Universe. I just discovered his ancient Opar novels, great fun. So in principal I see nothing wrong with this sort of thing.

My point being is if anyone writing new stories using Moore's characters doing anything different than Moore did himself by using the characters' created by other authors in LOEG, or Terra Incogita for that matter?

I have a blue penis.

Blue or blew?

Trust me blue as the balls beneath it.

The point of continuing Watchmen is exploiting the fanbase's awareness and adulation of Alan Moore. Most people can't name the authors Moore stole the principle LoEG characters from.



Terra Obscura. And once again, name the creators of those characters and any original appearances Moore was referring to.

"The point of continuing Watchmen is exploiting the fanbase's awareness and adulation of Alan Moore. Most people can't name the authors Moore stole the principle LoEG characters from."

The point of LOEG is to use characters from popular fiction to tell a new story. Before Watchmen is trying to tell further stories of popular characters by Alan Moore, not Moore himself. It's really not that categorically different. Moore applied the shared universe idea of corporate superhero comics to characters from old popular fiction. That brought the individual worlds of the various original creators into Moore's world. The Before Watchmen creators are adding to Moore's world. And the fact is: these creators aren't much concerned about how Moore might've been treated. However, Moore became famous by working at the same company at a time when his "previous creators" were treated even more poorly than Moore himself. He seems to regret that now, but that's after his name was made. Nor is he concerned about what those long dead creators might've thought about having him use their characters in such a way. Would Carroll or Baum have likely approved of having their characters for children turned into porn stars? I don't see a problem with it, but if Moore's going to slam these current creators for not caring about his wishes, maybe he should have.

My mind isn't made up about whether one should not buy work from creators you like because they're working for an exploitive company. (I'm not buying any of the BW because it will be pure shit, but I'm speaking "in principle.") I like Joss Whedon's work -- should I not buy his X-men or pay to see his Avengers, because of how the company treated Jack Kirby? Is it immoral to work for Volkswagon or buy a Bug because of how the company started? Is there anything in the capitalist world that isn't tainted by blood, oppression and death? Old school Christians had it right: we're born into this world as sinful creatures -- that is, we're inherently compromised under capitalism. We can't start with a clean slate.

Take off the rubber band!

Other than being the complete inverse, yeah, not that categorically different.



I'm not sure how badly Bernie Wrightson was treated, but at least Len Wein is getting revenge.



Once again, Moore isn't creating canonical continuity. The very idea that Neverland, Oz and Wonderland all exist in the same reality is a bit much.



I have the opposite problem. I hate Joss Whedon's work and I don't want to give him any money at all. I downloaded a bootleg of Cabin in the Woods, and it was very much that same mish-mash superficial elements lifted from other genres that made me dislike Whedon in the first place. Sort of the opposite of what Moore was originally doing with LoEG (telling a solid story with lifted characters), Whedon just waves around some lifted material and that's his whole story. Which is, sadly, what Moore is now doing with LoEG, Black Dossier forward.



If you're an American, I'd say it's immoral to buy anything other than a Ford, Chevy or Chrysler vehicle.

Well, that's what turned your penis blue, indulging in too much self-exploitation. Alex, just set a max of three times a day, you're not a teenager, chrisakes!

Sigh.

I gave myself repetitive motion disorder of the wrist.