What Moore says about people who buy Before Watchmen should never buy his books is just silly. He'd have been better to advise them to download it, skim through it, recognize them for their general crapiness and delete them.

Secondly, Watchmen is different from other comics in that the ownership of them would go to Moore & Gibbons if it ever went out of print (though how you define what is and isn't in print, I don't know). What if there is an oversight in the DC offices and it goes out of print (one can but dream). What happens to all the Before Watchmen shit then?


Steve

Good question! I've been wondering that too, and similar questions:

- Are Moore and Gibbons receiving any kind of royalty or other payment for Before Watchmen?

- How about for all the promotional BW products like t-shirts and toasters?

We recall that Moore was angered back in the 1980's when DC sold some Watchmen wristwatches but did not give him any percentage of the profits from that. Decades later, Moore refused payments for the Watchmen movie and insisted that the money be given to Gibbons. Yet he was angered when Gibbons was inadequately grateful for those payments, leading to the end of their friendship.

- So if Moore is refusing money from BW, who would he want the money to go to now? Who is morally uncompromised enough to satisfy him?

I have to sadly and shamefacedly admit that I did buy Darwyn Cooke's first issue of The Minutemen, because I like Darwyn Cooke's work. I have already had to apologize to the staff at my comics shop and to both of my sons, all of whom were shocked and disappointed with me. I am disappointed with myself, and I apologize to all of my friends here at Comicon, to Alan Moore, and to all the rest of the world.

I am looking for ways to atone for whatever harm I have done. I have considered shredding the issue and sending the fragments to the DC offices. Perhaps I could copy some of the fight scenes from the issue, pasting the faces of Dan Didio and Jim Lee and Mickey Mouse over the faces of the characters being beaten up? I have already made some donations to the Hero Initiative in an attempt to make my viewing of The Avengers movie more carbon-neutral on a moral level, and perhaps there is a similar charity that could help me in this case?

Reading over the above, I realize that it may sound like I am joking. But sadly, I am not. What a messed up situation all around.

If you derive pleasure from Darwyn Cooke and wanted to read and own his latest work, then you have nothing for which to apologize.

If other people don't understand your pleasures, that is their problem, not yours.

What if Cooke were using the blood of murdered children for ink, would it still be okay to find pleasure in his work?

Don't be ludicrous.

Clearly, you don't care about Alan Moore or children.

If anyone wants Darwyn Cooke quality artwork, just peruse the racks of greeting cards. There's tons of that shit out there.