Watchmen parody Watchmensch out this week
I know, the world can probably live without another Watchmen blog post, but I've been intrigued by the news that a graphic novel parody, entitled Watchmensch, is out this week. My initial impressions weren't positive - the Comedian has been replaced by Krusty the Clown and Nite Owl has turned into Nite Nurse - and although the artwork looks pretty good I haven't been drawn in by the specimen panels. What did make me prick up my ears was Valerie D'Orazio's comment on Occasional Superheroine that "Watchmensch is actually an allegory about the rift between Watchmen creator Alan Moore and DC Comics -- and, by extension, a meditation on the issue of creator's rights". This is a really interesting story, touched on again in an interview with Moore in Monday's Guardian in which he refers to DC as being like "a rich stalker-girlfriend".
Cover of Watchmensch by Rich Johnston and Simon Rohrmuller
Even if Watchmensch's parody is a touch broad - all I've seen are the first few pages - there's plenty of mileage in the relationship between authors, artist and the large commercial organisations who attempt to adapt and exploit their work.
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