Random Flashes of Watchmen, Part 1

As I continue to digest the Watchmen experience, flashes of cool stuff keep coming back to me that I neglected to put in my review. They may be spoilery, but I'll try to avoid that for now.

In the establishing shot of the Comedian's funeral, the camera is zoomed in on a monument that appears to be the face of an angel, with raindrops splashing against it. As the camera pulls back, we see that a funeral is going on. This is the cover to issue #2 (see left). The unread viewer is going to completely miss this detail, but we "fanboys," as the media is so eloquently calling us, won't.

My Daughter Watches the Watchmen

Yeah, but not the one in theaters:

Aunt May Needs Life Alert!

Stan, if you're really still writing this, you need to avoid this. What's next, "Where's the beef?"

Treasures in the Basement, Part 2

I was going through some of my old sketchbooks from the 80s and found this. I re-lettered it, but the drawing is exactly the same. This is from 1988, a glorious time for comic book fans:

Watching the Watchmen

I told Magi that I wanted only one thing for my birthday (yesterday; I'll blog about it someday), and it was this book.

It is everything I hoped it would be. Watching the Watchmen includes character studies, notes, breakdowns, color roughs, original script pages, and colorist notes for the greatest graphic story of all time. You can literally see how Dave Gibbons worked out the visuals for every character, major and minor; how he laid out scenery so that it was consistent not only from page to page, but from issue to issue. He even includes the original graphic schedule he made for himself to keep himself on task. As I pored over every detail, I gained a new respect for comic book artists. The good ones really don't just sit down at the table and knock stuff out. They think about everything, and the speed at which they actually draw is secondary compared to the process of even getting to the point where they are ready to draw the page. Dave Gibbons goes through several steps between thumbnail breakdowns and the inked page. I had no idea how laborious it actually is and I admire him for his efforts, especially on this wonderful work.