If you're a comic book fan(atic) then the above headline must cause you to pause dead in your tracks.  A few of you out there are probably outraged.

Yes, there is a rumor that DC Comics, the publishing company that owns the characters in the series, is interested in presenting further adventures in the "Watchmen" universe.  Those familiar with the graphic novel/12 part series, which was the basis for the movie of the same name, know that the original author/creator of the works, one Alan Moore, is currently very much on the outs with DC Comics and would, one assumes, not be happy at all with new adventures set in this universe he co-created with artist David Gibbons.

However, before getting a little too outraged, consider this blog entry from Peter David, another noted comic book (and book) author:

http://www.peterdavid.net/index.php/2010/02/05/watchmen-2/

I tend to agree with Mr. David about several issues.

But let me backtrack and say that, during the mid to late 1980's, there was no comic book author out there like Alan Moore.  I first experienced his work in Saga of the Swamp Thing as it was released (I was one of the only people at my local comic shop actually buying the book when Mr. Moore took over.  Even the store owner, who presumably profited from my buying the book, ridiculed the fact that I spent money on it!).  I was so impressed with Mr. Moore's writing that I searched for any and all other works, eventually buying every issue I could find of Warrior Magazine.  And it was there I read his incredible Marvel (soon to be renamed Miracle) Man and V for Vendetta stories.

At the time, I could truly be called an Alan Moore fanatic.  But the best was yet to come, and it proved to be Watchmen.

And then came the strange times...

Mr. Moore, it seemed, was, if nothing else, something of an eccentric.  Early on he lambasted Marvel Comics and swore never to work for them.  But after Watchmen was done, he vented plenty of ire toward DC Comics.  The crux of his negativity toward DC, it appeared, was that they held the copyrights to the story and characters of Watchmen and it upset him that he did not.

The interviews wherein he stated this view I found odd.  Did the man not read the contracts he signed with DC before doing the series?  And weren't the Watchmen characters, after all, based on the Charlton characters, characters that DC had at that point bought, anyway?  And, further, shouldn't Mr. Moore be somewhat appreciative about DC Comics and the faith they had in hiring him in the first place?  Would he have this fantastic career had if not been for them?  (This later point I'm sure can be argued, but note that Warrior Magazine folded and his other British works weren't huge sellers.  In the end, DC Comics finished up V for Vendetta while Eclipse and others "finished" Moore's run on Miracle/MarvelMan.  It is certainly possible Mr. Moore could have enjoyed great success without DC, but even he, I suspect, would deny they helped his career tremendously).

But the thing that was most peculiar, at least to me, was seeing this man who rallied against the "big bad company" that owned his best known works...went on to write "pastiches" and "homages" and, in the case of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, stories that used well established characters...created by other authors.  Particularly nasty, it seemed to me, was to write Supreme, a book that was so clearly an "homage" (the nicest way of saying rip-off) of Superman.

What was he doing?  Was he "sticking it" to DC Comics, the publisher of Superman?  It was possible, but subsequent works revealed that Mr. Moore seemed to relish writing these "homages", although of course there were exceptions (From Hell, the already mentioned V for Vendetta).

Still, I have to agree with Mr. David's concise points.

I doubt I'll buy any "new" Watchmen material, but also doubt its existence, should it ever come to be, will lesson my feelings regarding the quality of the original work.