‘Watchmen,’ a TV hit for HBO, was ’embarrassing’ for the comic’s creator Alan Moore.
The comic is now in the middle of a TV revival, with the miniseries Watchmen also debuting later this month on Fox.
Moore tells the BBC that the TV version of Watchmen is’very different’ to the comic.
Here are three things that we learned from Watchmen’s TV revival:
1. A lot of people are angry about Watchmen
The comic, written by Alan Moore (right) and illustrated by Dave Gibbons (left), has been in print since the early 1970s and has been adapted into several live-action and TV titles, including an animated series, a feature film and a miniseries.
“It’s embarrassing. It’s embarrassing,” the comic’s creator Alan Moore tells the BBC.
“I mean, in this day and age. It makes me laugh. It’s probably the only one of my books that I actually know anybody wants to know in the first place.”
Watchmen was created in 1985, shortly after Moore was released from a prison sentence for “damaging property” in a sex-related case, and has remained a divisive work for a number of years.
Last year, HBO announced the long-awaited miniseries would be a show about the comic.
“I was very, very involved, but as a writer I am far more involved as a narrator,” says Moore.
“They wanted me to tell the story and they wanted me to tell it well.”
The series, which will have a first screening later this month, will see the comic’s central four characters – Rachel [Jennifer Nettles], Ben [Mallory Shoemaker], John [Jack Koehler] and the Comedian [Christopher Larkin] – put through their paces as the story unfolds, with each man having an important part to play.
“It’s a very different Watchmen from the comic,” says Moore.
“You have Rachel who is a woman – she’s very much the comic character.”
The TV version has been heavily criticised by fans, who claim it will be unfathomably “less Watchmen” and will be un-endearing to anyone who has bought into the comic’s premise.