Robot Panic Book Club: Watchmen
Now that Fox and Warner Brothers have settled over the distribution rights for the film adaptation of Alan Moore’s beloved 1987 graphic novel Watchmen, it’s time to start ramping up to it’s March 6th release date. What better way to get excited for the film adaptation than to read the novel? That’s why we’re kicking off the first official Robot Panic Book club! Every week for six weeks, we’ll be reading and discussing two chapters of the novel. On March 1st, we’ll be doing a live wrap-up podcast, where you can call in and discuss your take on the book. Then a week later on March 8th, we’ll be doing ANOTHER live show, where we’ll discuss the merits of the Watchmen movie, both as a film and an adaptation of the novel. Everyone is welcome to join at any time, no matter if you’ve never read the novel, or if your pages are torn and wrinkled from repeated readings.
Here’s the tentative schedule:
- 1/25: Chapters 1 & 2
- 2/01: Chapters 3 & 4
- 2/08: Chapters 5 & 6
- 2/15: Chapters 7 & 8
- 2/22: Chapters 9 & 10
- 3/01: Chapters 11 & 12, wrap-up discussion
- 3/08: Film Discussion
January 20th, 2009 at 7:43 am
This is pretty cool. I’m doing my first read through of it now and I’m enjoying it. It’s one of the books that I’ve had on my shelf for a while and this past weekend I decided to pick it up and read it.
January 20th, 2009 at 10:20 am
HA! I just started reading it Saturday too.
January 20th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Thank You Drunken Gamers for doing this book study!!!
This is a MUST read for any self-respecting fan of comics, or literature. Not only is it rich in character development and storytelling, but it actually won a HUGO for its contribution to literature. One read through is not enough to gain all the nuances and Easter eggs hidden in its pages. That being said, our friends at Comic Geek Speak have been doing a footnotes version of the book where they go panel by panel and discuss themes, spoilers, and easter eggs. Thanks to Q who told me about it while paying Left 4 Dead on weekend, the podcasts are amazing!
http://www.comicgeekspeak.com/
I’m eagerly awaiting what WB does with this work and I pray that it is faithful to this classic. Discussing as a community is a no-brainer and I eagerly await the coming feedback.
For new and old fans of this work, I highly recoomend “Watching the Watchmen” which contains unique insights and concept art not in the series.
http://www.amazon.com/Watching-Watchmen-Definitive-Companion-Ultimate/dp/1848560419/ref=pd_bbs_sr_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232475734&sr=8-4
January 20th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
I have also started re-reading it. It’s a great book, and if you like it you should also check out that moving graphic novel thingamawhatsit on Itunes. That’s really cool.
January 20th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Oh, awesome! I actually just finished reading it a couple weeks ago. Looking forward to hearing what others think!
January 20th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Everytime I read this book, I notice something else that I haven’t before. The only thing I fear about the movie is the rumor that the ending is different than the one in the book. We just have to wait to see it before passing judgment. V For Vendetta did the same thing. Different ending for the movie, and it still worked out very well.
Oh, and everytime I see the trailer, I can’t help but think that the guy playing the Comedian looks exactly like Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark.
January 21st, 2009 at 10:02 am
Jarrod (badbad) speaks the truth. That Watchmen live comic thingy is pretty awesome. I downloaded it the other day and have gone through the first few chapters.
Oh, and I hated V. Watchmen sure as hell better be better than that movie.
January 21st, 2009 at 10:42 am
While I hope the ending isn’t changed, I don’t see how they couldn’t change it. I don’t see a major hollywood studio release where
*SPOILERS*
…
…
…They kill off 75% of New York City
…
…
…
*END SPOILERS*
January 21st, 2009 at 11:43 am
They’ve already said that that IS happening, Jarrod. However, there are rumors that they changed HOW it happened.
…I won’t say more.
January 21st, 2009 at 7:16 pm
Peanuts.
That’s how it happened.
Peanuts.
January 21st, 2009 at 8:56 pm
OK, I’ve been holding out long enough. The Watchmen as book club entry has convinced me to finally get off my ass and register for Robot Panic comments.
I read the Watchmen a while back and was thinking about re-reading it before the movie releases. I’m in!
Long time listener – looking forward to getting involved in the community.
January 21st, 2009 at 10:24 pm
Welcome to the cult…club.
January 22nd, 2009 at 1:43 am
What’s rumored to have been changed really doesn’t bother me. I’m a bit skeptical of the way I’ve heard they explain the events at the end of the story, but I get why they didi it. I heard an inteview earlier this week with B Clay Moore, I believe, & he was talking about how we, as geeks in general, have a much higher threshold of tolerance for the geeky than your average person. You say something about a Cthulu to one of us & we’re like, “Yeah, I get that.” Show it to someone not so geeky & they’ll generally see it as something corny and/or over the top.
I also heard an interview with Zack Snyder, wherein he talked about how people are focusing way too much on this change, and not realizing what he stood firm about keeping in, like *SPOILER* The Comedian offing a specific woman *SPOILER* and I get that. All in all, I have nothing but a great respect for Watchmen, but I also think that it and Moore himself become damned near religious dogma to a lot of people. I’m, personally, just pleased as punch to have someone as respectful and dedicated to the material as Snyder.
January 22nd, 2009 at 11:13 am
I heard a pretty solid rumor that the Special Edition DVD will have TONS of stuff not in the theater release, perhaps we’ll get our geeky ending after all…
January 22nd, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Well, the DVD will apparently include the whole Black Freighter animated segments. Whereas, the movie is supposedly NOT including them in any way.
Im not sure how I feel about that. Actually, Im kinda mad because the way that the Black Freighter juxtaposed Ozymandias schemes, really helped elaborate on what his intentions really were. In a way, Ozymandias wasnt a bad guy, he was just misguided. I hope that by excluding the Black Freighter scenes, they have replaced them with something that helps further Ozymandias as opposed to making him a just black and white, good or evil character.
January 23rd, 2009 at 9:50 am
I believe the original intent of the Black Freighter comics was to show the comics of the Watchmen world. What would a world that has superheroes in it have for comics…pirates. It’s only later that we can see the parallels between the Black Freighter and Ozymandias. I agree that adding those scenes in would make all of us giddy, but for those who don’t already have a knowledge of what they are about and what they symbolize would be saying WTF?