"Before Watchmen" Prequels comics planned.

[Jacklefttown]

No. Really... Comics and toys, etc.

http://www.figures.com/forums/news/14867-dc-entertainment-presents-before-watchmen.html

[Troynos]

Of course they'll be making toys. This is a great oppotunity to get figures and such out there.

The nice part is that they're "classic" designs, not updated or anything like that.

[sharky]

I wish the Watchmen movie toys were 4" though. Would have liked to have a toy version of Night Owl's ship as well.

[Jacklefttown]

Yes, 1/18th scale Watchmen would be great. But I do not like that DC is going ahead with this NOT endorsed by Alan Moore.

I will wait until they inevitably collect the series in a TPB or two.

[pig iron grenadier]

oooh Darwyn Cooke.

[Kungfuguy]

It's all about business and money. I can see why Gibbons and Moore not wanting to participate in this. The Watchman was an original piece of work from 2 artists with a singular vision. Much like a Beatles album. 25 years later, would you settle for a tribute album from various artists. If this was a Moore/Gibbons collaboration with an original tale, then I'd be interested. But this is more of a sell-out. 34 issues of loosely related stories by various talent cheapens the original.

[pig iron grenadier]

Some guy that worked for 3M designed and invented the Post It note. He created one size and color. 3M owns it, as it is work for hire or invention for hire. I still enjoy Post it notes, but use all sorts of colors and sizes. I prefer the mid-size off yellow, but others have their purpose.....
This crap will be the same way...

[Troynos]

It in no way cheapens the original. It has no affect on the original.

I don't think DC needed to make these because there was no need. The original was a complete story. There's no need for more stories to be built off of it, which is the only reason I think a book should be published: if it adds to the story.

This is an attempt to get money. That's all.

Can't fault the other creators. It's kind of a dream job, to play in the Watchmen sandbox.

But it in no way, shape or form cheapens the original.

[DrKain]

I have mixed feelings on this, as there was no need for it. On the other hand, Len Wein, Straczynski, you cannot go wrong there!!!

As for the toys, if they are from DC Direct, count me out. If they are from Mattel, count me in.

[Jettfire]

Yes, 1/18th scale Watchmen would be great. But I do not like that DC is going ahead with this NOT endorsed by Alan Moore.

I will wait until they inevitably collect the series in a TPB or two.

I don't like that DC is going forward with Superman comics NOT endorsed by Siegal & Shuster.

[Jettfire]

Of course they'll be making toys. This is a great oppotunity to get figures and such out there.

The nice part is that they're "classic" designs, not updated or anything like that.

I saw the 15th anniversary figures from DC Direct years back and loved them. I was mildly heartbroken when they decided not to make them. I hope those molds survived.

[DrKain]

I don't care what is or is not endorsed, just give me good stories!!!

[Clobbertron]

I don't like that DC is going forward with Superman comics NOT endorsed by Siegal & Shuster.
Win.

[Visionaer]

DC is flooding the comics market, this reminds me of Marvel 94-96, shortly before they went bankrupt.

A flood of new titles, it cant work, because the comic market isnt growing. And they dont know what to do with classic characters.

Blackhawk, Easy Company, the MLJ Heroes, one failure after another.
A single Watchmen prequel by Alan Moore would be fine, but dozens of prequels by average minus writers and artists is unnecessary.

[Kungfuguy]

DC is flooding the comics market, this reminds me of Marvel 94-96, shortly before they went bankrupt.

A flood of new titles, it cant work, because the comic market isnt growing. And they dont know what to do with classic characters.

Blackhawk, Easy Company, the MLJ Heroes, one failure after another.
A single Watchmen prequel by Alan Moore would be fine, but dozens of prequels by average minus writers and artists is unnecessary.


It does seem like a desperate move by DC. I never liked these company wide re-set the universe events. What I like about great stories is there is a beginning, a middle, and an end. That's Watchmen. It stands on its own. Before Watchmen is a bunch of loosely tied stories by tribute writer/artists. That's 34 issues! Even the original was a concise 12 issues. Before Watchmen taken as a whole amounts to a desperate cash grab. It's business afterall. Creatively it doesn't add up. Individual stories weakens the original team concept and complex storytelling of the original.

As for the market not growing, I often wondered if there is a future for printed comics. I'll miss it. Digital is the future and also its demise. Let's face reality. Going fully digital will kill the medium. Geeks and nerds pioneered piracy. We're part of the problem. No one pays for content. I can see a future where Marvel/DC are just licensing companies. The digital comic is sold at cost or at break even. With the quality of storytelling nosediving because there's simply no money to be made in comics books. Why make books when you can make millions in licensing.

[Zarana]

This project only degraded comics as a whole. There is a reason why they never leave the literary ghetto. Nothing in a superhero comic ever mattered because it can and will be changed on a whim to make a few more dollars.

The few comics which are taken seriously are those that comic companies haven't messed with. Think about how ridiculous a Maus or Blankets prequel sounds, let alone war and peace.



Also has a prequel ever added anything to a story? I can't think of one.

[Visionaer]

Its different with newspapers, because almost nobody reads the whole newspaper and is satiesfied with news on the net.
And the newspaper is already "old" when you buy it.

Maybe some new readers try comics as ebooks, also some computer/video series will have a larger digital comic following, like Sonic oder Mega Man, but other comics are still read on paper, or ?

Yes, the comic market is in a crisis, quite a lot of series havent been cancelled yet, only because of strong sales in the export markets.

( Its also amazing how different the markets are. Characters very popular in some country are almost unknown in another. )

I think there is a future for the comic market, but especially DC made fatal errors in the last years.

The price raise from $ 2.99 to $ 3.99, for normal comic books, was a fatal error. It came at a time when the $ was climbing and the Euro falling, so it was an even higher price raise for european collectors. The same with Archie, raising from $ 2.25 to $ 3.

Another problem is the content. The last really innovative series from Marvel was - in my opinion - the Red Skull limited series.
Too much spiderman and mutant comics.

And look at the low sales figures for Transformers and even G.I.JOE.
The new series had incredible high sales at the start, but with every new spin off series the sales went down.

( You can duplicate and triple the published comic books, but usually not your spending money ! )

Marvel cancelled Transformers in 1991, because they only sold 75.000 copies. As Simon Furman wrote, " today almost every publisher can only dream of these sales figures ".

I think you need a ongoing series in a price range of $ 2.25 - 3 at maximum. And maybe two ongoing series higher priced, or a graphic novel now and then. But turning out a flood of generic product is contraproductive.

[Kungfuguy]

Visionaer, interesting thoughts.

Why hasn't Marvel/DC gone with the itunes model? Piracy aside, it solves the distribution model worldwide. Costs should come down like the $1 songs on itunes. It would allow publishers to take bigger creative risks beyond superheroes since the cost to publish is gone and you have worldwide reach through the internet. If a series fails, the loss is minimized. Printing on paper is expensive and foolhardy. Successful series can be given the hardcover treatment for its followers. The upside of going totally digital outweighs these costly re-vamp the universe events every few years.

[Troynos]

BTW, DC is in no way flooding the market with titles.

They had 52 (or so) titles pre-reboot and they have that many now. They are aright around the amount they had.

That's not the issue.


Digital is doing VERY well. And it has for some time. Alot of books are available on iTuntes.

The problem is that the publishers approach digital like they do the direct market (which in reality is responsible for the downfall of comics). Comixology and other platforms are what is preventing digital comics from taking off (that and price). They need to make a digital issue available on all platforms, not limit it. The price is an issue, and will be for a long time, because they cannot lower the price on digital without putting the print out of business.

Digital available for $1 a month? No one would be buying print issues anymore. There goes the market.

[Troynos]

DC has been the only one that has done a "revamp the universe". No one else has.

And it wasn't costly. In fact, it made them a ton of money. The sales in the first four months were very high for today's market (which is no where near what the market in the 90s was and that has to be taken into account. Transformers 75,000 copies back in the 90s is not a direct translation of 75k copies today, it would be more like 3k copies today). The sales have returned to the pre-relaunch numbers, so it caused a significant bump for awhile, which obviously helped DC's overall sales.

[Visionaer]

Ive read in a german mag, that Amazon sold more E-Books in the last quarter than printed books - in North America.

In Germany, Kindle and Ipads sell way too, but ebook sales are low.
Under 0,5%. Some german newspapers sell digital versions, they have only a few thousand subscribers, contrary to the printed newspapers with over 50 - 100 000 subscriptions.

We still have some of the largest newspaper markets in the world, in the USA one newspaper after another is forced to close business.
There is a newspaper crisis too here, but from a very high level.

So even if we live in the times of globalization, markets are totally different.

But back to the thread, some of the Watchmen prequels may be acceptable, in relation to whatever, but they really have to stop overcrowding the market.

@ Troynos: Partly you are right, many DC series only started anew,
but they started a lot of new series: "Blackhawk", "Men of War", "Frankenstein", etc. The output in total is too high.

[Troynos]

@ Troynos: Partly you are right, many DC series only started anew,
but they started a lot of new series: "Blackhawk", "Men of War", "Frankenstein", etc. The output in total is too high.

The output total did not change significantly. They merely substituted an older title for a newer title.

They canceled some older series and started a new one to see if there would be a place for it in the market.