Tonight I went to the opening of an exhibit of Watchmen art at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco (http://www.cartoonart.org/). They had a good selection of original pages from Watchmen, as well as a bunch of sketches and
other work. (I think the bulk of the non-Watchmen pieces were reproduced in "Watching the Watchmen" but it was still interesting to see them in
person.)
They also had a fair amount of prop-work from the upcoming movie, which was more impressive and interesting than I thought it would be... the attention to detail that was paid is clearly pretty impressive. (e.g.: ever wonder what the dust jacket for the hardcover edition of "Under The Hood" looks like? How about Captain Metropolis' map of "trouble spots" from the Crimebusters meeting.... pre-torching, of course!)
Celebrity guests included none other than Mr. Gibbons himself... he spent most of his time there doing interviews (three different online groups.. Wired.TV and two others I forget) but I did manage to ask him if a reprint of "Black Freighter" was in the works... sadly, he indicated not (apparently they considered it early on, then decided to do the animated version instead). (I also heard him mutter that he couldn't believe that he had sold all the artwork pages for so little, way back when...)
Also present were various representatives of the filmmaker, including Clay Enos, the photographer, who had some quite impressive stills. He assured several of us that we'd be just as happy with the narrative aspects of the movie as with the visuals (which, based on the props, I'm now sold on. Rorschach's "The End Is Nigh" sign is damn perfect.)
And in a fit of fanboyism I found myself buying *yet another* copy of Watchmen TPB in order to get it signed by Mr. G... ah well, there's apparently no limit to how many times I'll re-buy this stuff.
Sadly, no pictures (photos not allowed, though some folks were sneaking them anyway).
If you find yourself in the San Francisco area in the next few weeks, definitely check it out.
They also had a fair amount of prop-work from the upcoming movie, which was more impressive and interesting than I thought it would be... the attention to detail that was paid is clearly pretty impressive. (e.g.: ever wonder what the dust jacket for the hardcover edition of "Under The Hood" looks like? How about Captain Metropolis' map of "trouble spots" from the Crimebusters meeting.... pre-torching, of course!)
Celebrity guests included none other than Mr. Gibbons himself... he spent most of his time there doing interviews (three different online groups.. Wired.TV and two others I forget) but I did manage to ask him if a reprint of "Black Freighter" was in the works... sadly, he indicated not (apparently they considered it early on, then decided to do the animated version instead). (I also heard him mutter that he couldn't believe that he had sold all the artwork pages for so little, way back when...)
Also present were various representatives of the filmmaker, including Clay Enos, the photographer, who had some quite impressive stills. He assured several of us that we'd be just as happy with the narrative aspects of the movie as with the visuals (which, based on the props, I'm now sold on. Rorschach's "The End Is Nigh" sign is damn perfect.)
And in a fit of fanboyism I found myself buying *yet another* copy of Watchmen TPB in order to get it signed by Mr. G... ah well, there's apparently no limit to how many times I'll re-buy this stuff.
Sadly, no pictures (photos not allowed, though some folks were sneaking them anyway).
If you find yourself in the San Francisco area in the next few weeks, definitely check it out.
