Watching the Watchmen: First Foray

by
Sylvia Bond

When I called Time Warp Comics in Boulder, to ask about buying a copy of The Watchmen, the guy on the phone was aghast that I’d never heard of it before now. He made that little sound, you know, the one you do when you find out that the person you’re talking to doesn’t actually like chocolate OR beer, and you really, really pity them? He made that sound, and I knew he pitied me, but it let me know I was in good hands. And I was. Which was a lucky thing, because I’d not been to a comic book store in years.

In reality, I stopped reading comic books long about the time I discovered boys. Before that, I was into Hi and Lois, Dot and Little Lulu, Wendy the Good Witch, and Casper the Friendly Ghost. I read Archie, I read all the Aesop’s Fables I could get hold of, I traded my comics, coveted them, read them till they were worn. I thought Wendy was a little boring and that Dot and Little Lulu had the weirdest shoes. I thought Casper should one day rise up and rebel against his mean older ghost brothers. I knew, without a doubt that Betty would be more fun to hang out with than Veronica, and I believed it when that old fox told me that those grapes were sour.

I did, once, stumble across a friend’s stash of the entire collection of Superman comics, and I spent the day scanning them all. It was a pretty big stack; to a collector, it would have been his heart’s dream, not to mention a heart attack, given the way they were piled higgledy-piggledy. I was fondest of the Bizzaro Superman and I felt myself pretty clever at that age to understand the whole flipped world concept. I went on to have quite a fondness for Superman after that, but will admit to liking the more recent Superman rather than the Christopher Reeve one. Don’t shoot me. Mr. Chris did a fine job and reinvented the genre and our love for the whole comic book come-to-life thing. It’s just that the more recent Superman, the chiseled Brandon Routh, has a smokier gaze and a head of hair that moves like the best Anime. Not that I watch much Anime either, but I’m into hair, so there you go.

But, other than Superman and my childhood collection, I’m not really into comic books, however I’m bound and determined to go see The Watchmen AND understand it. Which means that I have to read the comic book the movie is based on. Or, excuse me, the graphic novel. And, just in case you don’t know, this particular comic book won not only a Hugo award, but was also on Time Magazine’s 2005 list of best English language novels.

I went down to Time Warp, which used to be, as many of you know, in a grotto basement shop on Pearl Street before it became grand and expensive. There, you could wend your way through the archives, the crooked brick curves of the ceiling dipping down over your head, and get some great deals on comic books and find some neat-o stuff. I once bought a life-sized poster of Spock for my bedroom door and an entire box of Dark Shadows comic books for ten cents a piece. Those are now worth five bucks each, thank you very much, and I wouldn’t part with them for less than ten. (Though I don’t know where Spock has gotten to. Maybe he walked off on his papery legs.)

But back to Time Warp and The Watchmen. When I got to the newer and shinier store, I was beset with racks and rows of graphic novels and comic books, all organized by some secret known only to the clerks there. Actually, everything is organized by the publishing label, for example, Gold Key, WB, DC, Marvel, or whatever, but to me it was confusing. I finally had to admit defeat and ask. Then the help poured over me like milk over cereal. And I won’t say it was because I was the only woman in the place (which I was at the time), or that they called me “miss” whenever appropriate (which they did and which I liked), but they honestly seemed to want to help, and I really felt welcome. One clerk went so far as to make sure I had a nice, unmarred copy of The Watchmen, and then pointed out several other graphic novels I might enjoy, once I got through with the crème de la crème.

I mentioned to him my brief foray into the world of comic books some years back when I ventured into a comic book store back in Ought Two. The covers were nice, but I found the insides to be gritty and not very pleasant to look at, and as such, I couldn’t relate to the characters. I fully expected that he would mock me, but he didn’t. He said, that yes, back in the ‘90s, comic books/graphic novels took a very odd turn and what was coming out was not very good. Now, however, graphic novels have made, according to him, a stunning return to the classic ways. And indeed he was right. As I flipped through several graphic novels, I found that I could see and understand what was going on and the pictures were pretty, too. (That’s what I like, I can’t help it.)

With some more prodding from him so as to find out what my tastes were to be better able to find me what I liked, I admitted that my interest in comic books was limited and that I was only reading the graphic novel to prepare for my review on The Watchmen movie for Pink Raygun. Suddenly, I had three clerks, all nice as could be, expressing their concern as to whether or not the movie would be as good as the graphic novel. I could have told them that any movie will never as good as the book, but it wasn’t that simple.

In a way, I think the clerks wanted the movie to validate the graphic novel, much in the way that I wanted Little House on the Prairie the TV show to validate the Little House book series. Because, I mean, I loved those books, I lived them. I wanted to BE Laura, and the TV show would bring her story to millions of viewers. At which point I would be able to point and say, “See? See how cool this is?” (Sadly, though the show was watchable, it deviated so far from the books as to be completely unrelated. Pa was supposed to have a beard, and Laura never went fishing without Pa. But never mind. I still have the books.)

I’m thinking my three clerks have much of the same feeling about The Watchmen as I did about Laura. From what I’ve read out there, the clerks’ expectations are high, but they are not alone. They are so not alone. For everyone who has read The Watchmen and cheered when it made the top 100 books of 2005, the shivers of anticipation started long before the first trailer came out. This is not just a graphic novel, it is a saga. It is a message to the world, a metaphor about the human condition, it is about US. Or something. I’ve not quite figured it out yet, as I’ve not yet read the graphic novel. Which I will do once I have a free minute.

Which brings me to my next point: why? Why, if I’m not into comic books would I spend this much time talking to some very nice comic book guys and buying and reading a type of novel in which I usually have absolutely no interest? That’s an interesting question that has two answers: a good answer and the real answer. A good answer is true and stands by itself, but you usually give it to pacify whoever you are with so they will let you get about your business. The good answer, in this case, is that I work for a website that supports me looking into geeky things like comic books and movies about comic book characters. As well, they have encouraged me to expand my horizon and write about things other than Supernatural. (Although they have acknowledged that I will never be as loyal to anything else.)

On the other hand, a real answer reveals the root of the issue. It is the answer that comes from your heart of hearts, and can neither be coerced nor bribed. It is you without filters or apologies, it is you as you are ready to leap into the void without a single care as to whether you live or die, for at last, at last, you speak the utter truth. As to my real answer, I’m getting all into the graphic novel because Jeffrey Dean Morgan is in the movie and plays the part of The Comedian. And that’s just facts.

Now I know there’re lots of other great actors in this movie, but when I went to IMDB.com to check, the list read like the call-backs for auditions for a play at my old high school. Not only did I never know who the kids listed were, I couldn’t figure out how they’d gotten the parts, and, in fact, it would occur to me long about then that I’d somehow missed the call for the original auditions altogether. Actually, I do recognize some of the names, so I won’t be totally lost when The Comedian is not on screen hurting people and doing bad things, as he’s rumored to do.

Billy Crudup is one name I recognize from the movie “Almost Famous” (he played Russell Hammond), which will remain on my list of Top Ten All Time Favorite Movies till the end of time. He’s going to play Dr. Manhattan, who is, apparently, a character crucial to the plot. I also recognize Malin Akerman, who recently played the mean sister in “27 Dresses.” Her current character of Silk Spectre II seems 180 degrees different, so I’ll be interested to see what she comes up with. Then, oddly, I recognize the name of Stephen McHattie, who plays Nite Owl. Mr. McHattie was once in an episode of Starsky and Hutch (He played the bad guy in “Terror on the Docks”), and I’ll wager there’s no one out there who’s surprised that I know that particular factoid.  (He was also the lead in the movie “Look What’s Happened to Rosemary’s Baby,” which, yes, I saw and enjoyed.)

But it’s Mr. Morgan who has caught my eye time and again, the first time being in a short-lived show called The Handler. He played Mike, a guy who wanted to stop rich people from killing horses for the insurance money. I actually have this episode on tape, I taped all the episodes, in fact, because I adored the premise of the show, and thought that Joe Pantoliano did an excellent job. But when Morgan walked on the screen, he, dark, tall, and a little scary, obliterated everything else. I could just tell his character was getting ready to take over Joe’s character’s job, and then, sadly, the series ended.

My mother adored Morgan as Denny in Grey’s Anatomy, but I wasn’t much into medical shows, so I never saw him in that. But I know I saw him in Monk because I watch that all the time with my dad, and in Tru Calling and Sliders, and though I caught every single one of those eps, I can’t say that I recall him specifically. And then my sister kept trying to get me to watch Supernatural on account of there was this guy? What guy? That guy. Oh, him!

There’s something that he does when he comes on screen, and I don’t quite know how to explain it. Even when he’s only occupying one corner of the action, he’s smoky and slow and rather takes over anything else that’s happening. And watching him, something bubbles up from outside of conscious awareness, from beneath the place of intellect, where filters and preferences such as “I only like blond guys,” suddenly have no meaning and female hormones perk up and start speaking in one word sentences, like, “That,” and “Now,” and “More.”

He does most of his acting with his eyes, and subtle turns of the head, or a tenseness in the shoulders. His gravelly voice is so low and deep it actually touches the skin. He’s subtle. He underplays it, rather like you or I might if we were carrying an Uzi in our hands, he’s ginger with it and careful, because with something like that, you don’t want it going off in your hands. Frankly, he doesn’t chew the scenery, he melts it.

So, getting all involved and worked up about The Watchmen because of one actor, yeah, it’s shallow and terribly fangirlish, but at least I’m willing to allow that the whole experience will open up my horizons and get me out of my comfort zone. All that stuff that’s supposed to make you grow in wisdom, blah, blah, blah. Who CARES about that! Bring on The WATCHMEN!!!

Sylvia Bond (besides providing excellent, fangirl-y coverage of the television show Supernatural) is a ten-year technical writing veteran with too many degrees under her belt to count. She lives in Colorado, but does not ski, preferring instead to spend her money and time at the annual Great American Beer Festival, taking road trips across the United States, and reading historical fiction from the comfort of her fluffy green arm chair. She has been involved in fandom since 1993 and been writing fanfic since approximately 1993. What she finds most amazing about fandom (besides the open heartedness of fans and the sheer amount of creativity) is how visible fandom has become. “In my day,” she says, “we had to hide behind P.O. boxes to get fanfic. But nowadays, people wear t-shirts that shout their affiliation and share their shiny toys on the internet.” It’s a wonderful world.

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