Watchmen

In about 24 hours from right now, I'll be sitting in a movie theater. But for now, I'm gonna admit something I'm quite frankly, very embarrassed about admitting in public: I barely finished reading Watchmen just last month.

I've been reading and collecting comics for almost six and a half - going on seven years now. The nerd in me feels like I should have read this book long ago. It's like I'm losing my "street cred," my "nerd membership," or something. It just feels wrong that I discovered comics and really got into the medium, but had never read the one story that many of today's creators and the works they've spawned have been influenced by.

Just last year, or maybe even the year before, I inadvertently found out which character it is who in fact 'watches the Watchmen.' Or, if you'd like the simpler, less verbose sentence, a piece of the ending was spoiled for me. At first, I was pissed, but then realized that it was my own fault. Spoilers have a statute of limitations, and I should have had already read it. However, just this past weekend during WonderCon, some things were put into perspective for me even more so.

Waiting anxiously in line to get into the con's exhibition hall on Friday, I struck up a conversation with the guy in front of mr in line. He seemed like a nice enough guy, I invited him to come out to the Isotope's Tiki Tour. I had already invited some friends to come out anyway, so I figured, why not?

These friends, with the exception of one, don't read very many comics, but practically all of them have read Watchmen by now.

Anyhow, during the Tiki Tour, as you would expect, talk of Watchmen the book, and the movie turned up in conversation a couple times. It got hard to believe when I found out that this guy wasn't a particular fan of Moore and Gibbons' book. If that wasn't enough, he'd rag on it every chance he'd get. There was also a point when he mentioned that when he saw the movie's first trailer he was excited until he realized what it was. True, he was drunk for most of the night (it was a pub crawl after all, and I had a nice buzz most of the night), but there is only so much disagreement you can take. He mentioned how much he hated the stuff about the Black Freighter, and I responded "but that's one of the best parts." That the other different tangents Watchmen goes into are some of people's favorite parts, as well.

I internalized how my friends who don't read comics, but have read Watchmen recently, absolutely love the book. It really left me at a lost, and since this guy was really buzzing, and we were out there for a good time, going into an even deeper discussion just wasn't worth the bother.

Later that night, my friend, Jamie (the one friend in the group who reads comics more regularly than the others), pointed out that maybe the guy just didn't get "it" about the book, and instead of saying "I don't get it," and coming off as a fool and/or dumb, and without even knowing (or maybe he is conscious of it), just sticks with the opinion that the book isn't that great.

Looking back now, I think I might be grateful I didn't read Watchmen til just recently. Maybe I wouldn't have comprehended certain portions or just wouldn't get "it" in general.

People are of course, entitled to their own opinions, but even now, I'm wondering what does he read on a regular basis? What is on his pull-list at his LCS? What, if any, comic book that gave him pause, that broke through, that made him think. What comic book out there has reached out to him?

For some people, it's Watchmen. For others, Watchmen might not be the one, but I'd bet they'd rank it pretty high. Then there's those that have no care for Watchmen at all, like this guy. There are also those who might not "get" Watchmen, but I reckon they at least recognize the comic's importance.

I'm pretty sure this guy doesn't even recognize its importance, and that's the weird thing. All that said, my anticipation for this movie couldn't be higher, and midnight Thursday night can't get here fast enough.

The word of the weekend.

I haven't updated this bad boy on a frequent basis in quite some time, let alone any posts in the first two months of this year.

But enough of that dilly-dallying. This weekend was one of those long weekends (ie. a comic convention weekend). I wasn't really sure what I wanted out of this year's WonderCon. I didn't really feel like going after sketches from artist, or do too much searching for cheap trades or individual floppies to fill out any runs in my collection. (Although, I did pick up some trades.)

But I did notice one thing that made me pause and reflect on something I've been working for: being paid to write. More specifically, paid to write comics. In college, I studied to be a screenwriter, and in the time since I made that decision, I've realized that I'd also like to write comics, novels, and other forms of fiction besides movies or television.

Since the start of this year, I've been interning as writer/editor for an online media company, and it's kinda weird actually being paid to write, and be (modestly) paid for it. With a little more work, I'll actually get a position with them once this internship is over. (I've gotten some great feedback so far.) I've been working at this thing pretty hard so far, but it's also left some of my own writing projects kinda twisting in the wind.

Talking and hanging out with some friends, and what they're doing to get their foot in the door, as well as going to panels and hearing from some creators, and what they have to say about creating comics and how they've been able to succeed.

Originally, I was gonna go with "rededication" (is it even a word?), but in writing all this out, I think what the word of the weekend should really be is CHUTZPAH. It's something I remember that my screenwriting professor mentioned a time or two, and that being a writing means having to have a certain amount of Chutzpah.

Well, I have been working on it, but I guess what this whole entry has been about is that I've gotta throw myself into a higher gear, and work a little harder to maintain and succeed in this internship, get back into and continue on with my own writing projects, as well as shoehorning the "day job."

This shit is about to get heavy.