We Are In The Gutters - Graphic Novels in Libraries UK

Message from discussion We Are In The Gutters
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Date: Tue, 19 May 2009 03:01:56 -0700 (PDT)
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References: <56B3219A0A558E42916D64F140EE87934C3F7D@DSHEVS3.dshexchange.derbyshire.gov.uk>
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Subject: Re: We Are In The Gutters
From: Nicolas Papaconstantinou <popac...@gmail.com>
To: Graphic Novels in Libraries UK <GNLIBUK@googlegroups.com>

Thank you for taking a look at it!

I quite enjoyed the "V" adaptation, but I had some odd criteria for
making my comments about what makes a good and not so good adaptation,
that I found myself having to explain a few times in the talk! I took
Moore's point - his original story was set in a world that was a
commentary on the insiduous and creeping corruption that he saw in UK
government at the time, and the Wachowskis changed the film quite
considerably to make it fit the much more deliberate machinations that
they saw in the more recent US government - if anything jarred about
the movie, it was that.

There's one extremely Moore-esque sequence in the film that raises it
above the pack - just before the final act, when the inspector is
breaking it all down.

Moore's main argument against a "Watchmen" movie were more about the
value (or lack of it) in changing the delivery method of the story
than any changes that the story might go through, so I think he'd
probably have wished for them to make a more sensible movie out of it!
David Gibbons loves it, I guess - he worked on it, and his input to
the original is largely intact. Moore's plotting/pacing/dialogue is
rendered nonsensical, though!

Mind, I loved it. There are explosions! & the one piece of invention/
adaptation they did was the one thing that showed a movie could have
been possible - that ending made a LOT more sense on the big screen
than the original would have!

Miller or Millar? This has been a source of confusion in recent days!
But no, I think Miller loves the comic medium, and he'd have struggled
to get "Sin City" or "300" greenlit as movies, I suspect. I think the
heavy movie influences in his work, the lack of deeper themes and
literary subtexts, are probably all a side-effect of his blunt-
instrument, reductive approach to comic creation, rather than a
deliberate effort.

When he makes movies, they tend to be a lot more fidgetty plot-wise,
which leads me to think that he doesn't actually even KNOW what he's
doing, genius-medium-manipulation wise!

God, I'm pompous!

On 18 May, 10:30, "Cross,Carl \(Cultural & Community Services\)"
<Carl.Cr...@Derbyshire.gov.uk> wrote:
> I did enjoy thanks very much, not least because I'd not seen the snazzy p=
resentation software before and I since I am mainly writing this as a displ=
acement activity to avoid writing my own presentation (to be delivered in t=
wo weeks time!) timely.
>
> I take your general points about Moore/Millar films although I for one re=
ally liked the V adaptation and [whisper it] prefer the ending to the comic=
's which is pretty weak and clich=E9d.
>
> Does this mean that Millar is writing comics as film treatments in the sa=
me way that Michael Crichton used to be accused of doing with his later nov=
els?
>
> Watchmen was prodigiously faithful to its source material to the point wh=
ere I think even Mr.Moore might quite like it. Not that he's ever going to =
see it , obviously. Not on a DVD player in London or elsewhere. And accordi=
ng to =A0the DVD extras of the Black Freighter (yes I am that sad) will get=
 even more verbatim with the release of a directors cut with the Behind the=
 Hood and Black Freighter segments inserted at the correct times.
>
> I think it made a great film for fans. I think it made a fairly incompreh=
ensible film for non-fans though.
>
> But then again what do I know? I don't think the new Star Trek movie is u=
p to much and I so wanted to like it. [that should get at least one reply f=
rom a member of this list if his Twitter feed is any indication].
>
> Thanks again for making this available for everyone,
>
> Carl.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: GNLIBUK@googlegroups.com [mailto:GNLIBUK@googlegroups.com] On Behal=
f Of Nicolas Papaconstantinou
> Sent: 15 May 2009 11:50
> To: Graphic Novels in Libraries UK
> Subject: [GNLIBUK] We Are In The Gutters
>
> Been largely absent from here since starting my new job - I still get
> the e-mails, but not working in a library, or reading many comics,
> means I'm out of the loop somewhat...
>
> However, I was recently asked by an old colleague at Southampton City
> College to talk to some of their students about comics. The remit was
> vague, so I flailed around, but watching Watchmen gave me something to
> think about.
>
> Here, for your perusal, but without the added context of me being
> awesome out loud at the students, is that presentation:
>
> http://prezi.com/64835/
>
> (Borrowed heavily from McCloud, have since heard that Moore said
> similar stuff in an interview, and should clarify that most of the
> movies mentioned I definitely enjoyed - what I'm talking about is
> their quality as either movies or adaptations).
>
> Enjoy!
>
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