What can I learn from Watchmen as a comic writer/artist?

>>89448038
that the character you thought was an unsympathetic psycho with a grade-school level of morality, who you thought would be a cautionary tale, will his childish values unironically embraced by the readers

>>89448050
Go to bed, Moore.

>>89448038
Read the contract before signing it

>>89448038
That ozymandias did nothing wrong

Thirty years later? Nothing, because dozens if not hundreds have already applied it to their own work.

To not try to copy Watchmen

>>89448038
That clever paneling is overrated.

That it's better to make your own knock-off versions of existing characters because then you have more freedom to do what you want with them.

That in-universe documents are fun and acceptable in a comic book.

That "camera work" makes a big difference.

That when you sell the movie rights someone else gets to reshape your baby. You may not agree with the result.

That a good work of fiction often allows multiple interpretations, like >>89448050 here suggests.

That motifs and themes work. Holy shit do they work.

File: IMG_3035.jpg (77KB, 484x300px) Image search: [Google]

77KB, 484x300px

Assume the journal was guaranteed to reveal the truth to everyone. If you could destroy it, would you, /co/?

>>89448224
No, but I'd keep it to myself. It's a powerful weapon until it's been used.

>>89448243
I hope you live in a one-story building then, anon.

That nudity is totally appropriate when you don't draw attention to the genitals

>>89448038
no matter what you create, Zack Snyder can find a way to make it worse

Premise your story on the disruptive effects of an actual superhuman, but oh yeah there are also psychics.

>>89448224
flawed assumption, we know Rorsharch's journal only notes a few vague correlations to Veidt, and those only vaguely implicate him in the "mask killer" conspiracy. If printed, it will go in the back pages of a magazine that is widely discredited in-universe, especially if credited to Rorsharch, who we know is basically universally reviled as a psychopath.

GRIDS

File: smiley.jpg (282KB, 736x1180px) Image search: [Google]

282KB, 736x1180px

>>89448038

How things work in the UK = V For Vendetta

How things work in the USA = Watchmen

Ozymandias did nothing wrong!

>>89448038
Just make pretentious garbage and every one will talk about what a 'visionary' you are.

>>89449930

What is NOT pretentious then?

>>89449914
V isn't that great.
It reads like a hobo murdering the worlds political leaders, except it keeps being ruined by shitty long text dumps.

The movie ends up being superior, simply because text dumps only works okay in comics.

>>89448038
Good story needs to deliver some clear point.

>>89449990
The movies okay compared to the book kinda feels a lrfle cheap at times

>>89450021
Thats more of a issue where the books ARE cheap.
Then again, its the kind of adaption where its straight beyond slightly altered ending, and trying to fix the shitty pacing.

>>89448187
I agree with everything but-
>That clever paneling is overrated.
I wouldn't say it's overrated, but to say that those panels weren't meticulously plotted would be an understatement. The amount of precision and control Gibbons had with his artwork is nothing short of astounding. Also using a secondary color scheme (green, yellow, purples) make the book look different from of the other books at the time.

>>89450106
I wrote a paper about watchmens color last semester. Wish Higgins would get more credit that he does.

>>89450258
Share it mate.

>>89450258

post it pls

>>89450396
>>89451089
I'd like to post it online somewhere, but it's still in its academic form so it's kind of bloated with sources and stuff that don't really matter to the average reader.
And it's kind of basic. It was about how the color creates a subconscious/visual motif for the reader which can then tie scenes plots together. I spent the bulk of it just identifying the major colors and talking about what it could mean.
I'll look for it though.

File: alan moore script.png (618KB, 485x644px) Image search: [Google]

618KB, 485x644px

>>89448038
>What can I learn from Watchmen as a comic writer
Quite a lot actually.

File: 1406345169902.jpg (47KB, 500x388px) Image search: [Google]

47KB, 500x388px

Read Watchmen and then reread it with these anontations
http://www.capnwacky.com/rj/watchmen.html
https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~sjblatt/watchmen/o.html
https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/moulthro/hypertexts/wm/wm.htm
http://www.readingwatchmen.com/
It will blow your mind the amount of detail that goes from panel to panel and how the story tangles.

File: alan moore script2.jpg (544KB, 607x850px) Image search: [Google]

544KB, 607x850px

>>89451140
How to properly layout a page, for once

File: alan moore script3.jpg (497KB, 589x730px) Image search: [Google]

497KB, 589x730px

>>89451163

>>89451140
God I love the opening on this page.
Blood up to my elbows and veins in my teeth.
What a nut.

>>89451140
Wonder what a Bendis script looks like.

>>89451163
Most artists would hate you if you tried to pull this shit, btw. It's cool because it's Moore, but it's largely unnecessary.
Sometimes it pays to be concise.

>>89451232
>Most artists would hate you if you tried to pull this shit
Maybe we wouldn't have such an array of mediocre comic books if that wasn't the case.

File: 1105-hellblazer9.jpg (148KB, 585x881px) Image search: [Google]

148KB, 585x881px

>>89449990
The movie doesn't have Vicious Cabaret though, and that's the best bit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JO4tQ6_ygdU

>>89451288
Most artists are not Gibbons, and most writers aren't Moore.
You can only do full page descriptions like that in very small situations.

>>89448038
that comics are usually pretty fucking stupid unless you're Alan Moore

>>89451725
It would be the best part, if it was relevant for later.
It isn't.

Movie decided that "Remember, Remember" was the better scene for the sake of the structure.

>>89451232
>>89451288

Moore also wrote the level of detail because he knew Gibbons could pull it off.

>>89451880

>It would be the best part, if it was relevant for later.
>It isn't.

how dense can you be

>>89451867

:(

The whole book is a rorsarch pattern. It meets in the middle and symmetrys on itself.

How the nine-panel grid can be used as an excellent structure with more room for creativity than you think.

How to fill scenes with details (what's on tables, bookshelves, etc.) that inform the reader on mood and characterization without having to be told.

How meticulous plotting and detail can make your story and characters feel more alive and helps the reader connect to them more.

>>89451163
I wonder if Moore ever did sketches before writing a page.

>>89449990
>The movie ends up being superior

None of the Moore adapted stories are superior to the original.

>>89452087
IIRC he sketched some layouts for Gibbons to follow

>>89450396
>>89451089
Here it is.
It's okay for a classroom setting, but it doesn't read that great, and the last two pages are pretty shit.
Still got an A on it, so it's hard to complain.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Kj_y0RJCnnnHGKQpWn0a3WIh_93QW999JokGISyFLqs/edit

>>89448038
That you don't need a lot of colours as long as your choice of them and composition is good.

>>89448038
As an artist, nothing Dave gibbons suffers from same-face drawing, though to a lesser degree than Steve Dillon,

As a writer...well at least every character had their own voice, and had differing opinions and views, no two read the same, at least not for me.

>>89453340
on a similar note, just because a story is dark in tone doesn't mean that your colours have to be muted and drab

>>89454186
>As an artist, nothing
Lol

>>89452906
>a disgusting level of humanity
Good way to put it.

>>89455276
Thanks, bruv.