Watchmen sales

[alexxkay]

Alan Moore fans know that he has given up on "Hollywood money" -- he now requests that any payments he is legally due from such movies be sent to the appropriate artists, instead. But I think he's getting a pretty significant bump in income from the Watchmen movie, indirectly. My local comics store owner says he used to sell a small but steady stream of Watchmen GNs, quite respectable for a book over 20 years old... but in the month since the trailer came out, his sales of that book went up by roughly a factor of *thirty*! DC has gone back to press, for a new printing of 900,000 copies.

Comments

[rickthefightguy.livejournal.com]

I don't know the story about the Hollywood money, which artists does he mean? The inkers and colorists, or the actors and screenwriters?

[umbran.livejournal.com]

*nod*. Part of that stream myself. The copy I had read originally moved out some years ago with a roommate, and I wanted to reread the original before the movie came out.

[kestrell.livejournal.com]

Over the past month I have been watching science fiction and fantasy sales on Amazon (I was interested in tracking pre-order sales for Neal Stephenson's _Anathem_) and noticed that most of the other spots in the top ten were filled by either Alan Moore Watchmen comics or various editions of Dark Knight.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

The artists of the comics on which the movies are based.

[rickthefightguy.livejournal.com]

So, that's not him? Isn't he the writer? Or is he more of a producer?

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

Yep. My local comics shops in the DC area can't keep it in stock.

I went to the earliest available showing of The Dark Knight. I had no idea the trailer would play, and neither did most of the people around me, but there was cheering when it was over.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

In the comics world "artist" typically translates to "penciler" (or "painter", for fully-painted comics). Sometimes the term "artist" also includes "inker", but that isn't common usage. As it happens, most of the artists who Moore works with also ink themselves. There is no intent (at least usually) to imply that the inkers, colorists, letterers, etc. are not contributing artistic worth; it's just a jargon issue.

Moore is professionally a "writer". While he is capable of penciling and other forms of directly creating visual artwork, he does it only very rarely these days.

[idonotlikepeas]

I think you're right. And that's great. I understand why he doesn't want the hollywood money directly, but at least this way he's getting money from something he can feel is legitimately his, even if it's coming by way of publicity from something he doesn't like.