FAN EXPO: "Before Watchmen" Team on New Series, Controversy

[Cryptid]

I think I see where this is going, so I'll just nip it in the bud before I head off to work.
Fact is, there is no American comic that defeats Watchmen tit-for-tat on a list of criteria.
Any category your chosen comic might surpass it in, will lose to it in three others.
Overall, Watchmen is matchless. A masterpiece on every conceivable level.
It's been twenty-five years, I should not have to argue this to anyone older than fourteen.

You probably won't have to argue it with anyone older than fourteen as long as they're also younger than twenty-eight. After that somewhat arbitrary threshhold, you start running into a readership with a sense of comics history that stretches back past the 1980s (even if that's when a lot of us were born) and a collection that centers less strongly on the wonderful but parochial world of superheroes. One of the nice things about Watchmen is its appeal to both the cape crowd and the indie audience, people who read JLA and people who read Love and Rockets, which may be why it comes up so often in conversations about literary comics. And it's good. But your readiness to extol its many virtues doesn't mean they are peerless virtues. It means that Watchmen is the best comic of a certain kind....and there are other kinds.

[cgh]

You probably won't have to argue it with anyone older than fourteen as long as they're also younger than twenty-eight. After that somewhat arbitrary threshhold, you start running into a readership with a sense of comics history that stretches back past the 1980s (even if that's when a lot of us were born) and a collection that centers less strongly on the wonderful but parochial world of superheroes. One of the nice things about Watchmen is its appeal to both the cape crowd and the indie audience, people who read JLA and people who read Love and Rockets, which may be why it comes up so often in conversations about literary comics. And it's good. But your readiness to extol its many virtues doesn't mean they are peerless virtues. It means that Watchmen is the best comic of a certain kind....and there are other kinds.

Agreed, although I do take TCJ a lot more seriously than people on the internet who say "This is the BESTEST!11!" On the other hand, I love to see people who are passionate about comics, so it's all good in the end.

[Cryptid]

Agreed, although I do take TCJ a lot more seriously than people on the internet who say "This is the BESTEST!11!" On the other hand, I love to see people who are passionate about comics, so it's all good in the end.

Sure. It's safe to say that I also take The Comics Journal more seriously than capslocking forum-warriors, in that I take it seriously, but I hold out the tenuous hope that there are people out there who muse over Blacksad before they pull out the latest issue of Avengers and carpet-bomb the web with interrobangs. Er...maybe.

Also, bonus points for using the British spelling of color in the post about Watchmen's imported talent. Does that make you a Brit, an ironist, or both?

[cgh]

Also, bonus points for using the British spelling of color in the post about Watchmen's imported talent. Does that make you a Brit, an ironist, or both?

Neither, it just makes me Canadian. And no, I am not Dave Sim.

[Batman9]

So what's the best series of BW so far?

[Johnny P. Sartre]

Neither, it just makes me Canadian. And no, I am not Dave Sim.

Does that make you Jeff Lemire? Seth? Chester Brown? David Boswell? Julie Doucet? Bryan Lee O'Malley? Ryan Sohmer?

[dregj]

Nah that's pretty tame. CBR forums are a joy to read. You should see the flaming at comicon.com. People tried to post a memorial thread to Joe Kubert and a bunch of guys claimed Kubert's participation in the Before Watchmen was a black mark on his career and much much worse. Like I said, the CBR forums are a joy to read this place is much more civil than some places.

its a black mark on anyones career but on a memorial thread is pretty bad thing to do.hope they got banned

[stk]

You probably won't have to argue it with anyone older than fourteen as long as they're also younger than twenty-eight.

Best line of the thread.