Do you believe in Alan Moore?

[Lynchenberg]

Alan Moore, the author of the comic book Watchmen, recently said superhero comics used to be good when they were for kids. However, modern superhero comics are bad because they cater to adult man-children, rather than to entertain children, So as such, I must ask you all this. Do you think that Moore intended Watchmen for children?

[Sonicroc]

Oh my gosh, I love Alan Moore! He has to be one of the most interesting humans ever!

I don't completely agree with him on that particular point (I have a counter argument I wish I could present to him), but I understand where he's coming from. So I think he's cool despite the fact that I know that he would consider my love for Sonic the Hedgehog comics to be childish.

And you make a good point, Gloria. But I think the idea of Watchmen was to show that super heroes wouldn't be so great after all, in real life.

Actually, related to what you said, after the success of his Batman story "The Killing Joke," comics publishers started thinking, "Hey, people like violent super hero stories! Let's make more!" Then Alan Moore was like, "Oh no, what have I done! Kids shouldn't be reading this stuff!" so he made the kids series Tom Strong in an attempt to partially make up for this.

But anyway, for those of you who aren't familiar with Alan Moore: He's a giant, with a huge, gray beard. And he's a wizard too, which goes along well with that! He's also an Anarchist, in the intellectual sense, not the "everyone throwing chairs" sense. He vowed never to write for DC Comics again, but then the publisher he switched to, America's Best Comics, got bought by DC! The cruel irony, lol.

I've read a few of his graphic novels, which were unpleasant yet thought provoking. (Except The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Not sure what I was supposed to get out of that...) I would recommend Watchmen, although it's kinda depressing.

Alan Moore definitely isn't someone I agree with on everything, but I have to admire him for being a free thinker and such.

[Lynchenberg]

Thank you so much for leaving such a thoughtful, well-written comment! 0v0 So nice to see another general comic book fan on here, what are your thoughts on Garth Ennis?

[Sonicroc]

Oh no! I don't know who Garth Ennis is!!

I'm not sure whether or not I would classify myself as a general comic book fan. Apart from Sonic, I mostly read manga. But I did read Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics and Making Comics, and since then I've regarded the comics medium as a respectable art form and such.

I know about Alan Moore because a friend of mine lent us Watchmen, and my brother became a huge Alan Moore fan.

But I'm glad you liked my post!

[Lynchenberg]

https://kickass.so/punisher-max-1-60-co ... 21101.html Download this and read it then.

[Sonicroc]

Lol, I'll take a look; but I'm currently reading at least ten different series, so I can't make any guarantees...

[Prince By-Tor]

Personally I don't think that one should pander one demographic, be it "man children" or kids. I think that art should be there for what the artist wants, not to maximize sales to a targeted group. It just so happens the "bread and butter" of the superhero comic books are adults, so that's the crowd that they write to.
It's just like with Archie and Sonic; it's right now targeted straight at the young audience, and I don't think think the comic is better than it could be as it was prior.
As I said, in my opinion the comic should be made to what the artist wants, not to a targeted demographic.

[Sonicroc]

I think you might be right that in the west we're too concerned about target demographics and stuff like that.

It seems like the opposite problem seems to come up in Japan. For instance, the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion was originally targeted... for kids? And there's all sorts of extreme violence and psychological trauma in it. I love that series, but... kids should not watch that stuff....


EDIT: Oh wait, I take that back, Hollywood does that too. The Dark Knight is rated PG-13 and has almost the same level of psychological weirdness; yet, it was advertised to kids on Fruit Roll-Ups. So I guess I should drop the generalizations...