Out of the Inkwell

So it's been a week plus a day since I last posted and my only excuse is the demands of the paying job and fatigue, but I have to overcome those elements to push on...

So here's to pushing on...

Chris Collins posted my hour of radio on the WHMP Web site and here it is approximately. You have to scroll down and you'll see it. Honest. And then you can listen, if you like.

I'm going to try to post the broadcast later this week here on this blog.

I'm going to see "Watchmen" this weekend and I've finally read what many people have described as "the greatest graphic novel of all time."

Well.

It's a fine piece of work in many ways. I like the concept of basing superheroes in a "real" world. I like the grit. I like the additional texts that give the story and its characters greater depth. Dave Gibbon's art is acceptable although there is a cramped feeling as if Gibbons had to force into the format of the comic books a whole lot more content than he should have.

The subplot of "The Black Freighter" though seemed wholly unnecessary and arty with an capital A. It distracts from the story.

And that ending: The world is shocked into peace by the appearance of a man-made manufactured space octopus that manages to kill millions of people in New York City? I read that section correctly, right?

This was parody, correct? A reference to all of those Stan Lee- Jack Kirby monster comics, right? No, Moore, now described as being " one of the most powerful minds" on the planet, was so desperate for an ending that he cobbled together that device?

It must have been an off day for the super genius. Sorry, but when a book is sold as "the greatest" and its writer allows himself to be described as having "one of the most powerful minds" known to man at the present than I expect a little better ending to an epic piece than a giant alien murderous octopus – a device that not only gives the world peace but justifies the existence of of the banned superheroes in the future. After all they might be able to keep other giant space mollusks from attacking earth.

I'm only going to the film because Moore is making a dime off of it – his choice. I wouldn't want to support a guy who treats his co-creators in the way that he has done to more than one.

I'll post a review on Sunday – like five million other blogging fan boys.

© 2009 by Gordon Michael Dobbs