Being a bit of a nerd, I've never really grown out of comics. From the the age of 8 until I went off to art college I was an avid reader of 2000AD - and It was very influential in my choice of career. As a kid I would copy the comics' illustrators like Brian Bolland, Mike McMahon and Carlos Ezquerra (along with McMahon was famous for drawing the iconic Judge Dredd, below, with enormous feet - "They are not big feet - he just wears big boots"). I was always drawing, so it was natural that I would follow an 'arty' career. I knew early on that I'd never make it as an illustrator, and I ended up designing books and magazines.
One of the early writers for 2000AD was Alan Moore, for which he wrote (amongst many other wonderful things) The Ballad Of Halo Jones. He's written some the the best stories there have ever been - It's an overused phrase, but Moore really is an eccentric, beardy genius (he worships a Roman snake deity called Glycon). Arguably, his best work has been outside of 2000AD - including From Hell, The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, V for Vendetta and of course The Watchmen. Originally published as a comic in 12 parts, The Watchmen is set in 1985, in an alternate United States with the world on the brink of nuclear war. The main characters are costumed adventurers. They are all very human (except for one). It's like nothing I've read before or since. Time magazine has named it as one of the best 100 novels of all time. Next year it's going to be made into a film. The movie adaptions of Moore's work ranges from the mediocre (From Hell) to the downright embarassing (The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen - which made me want to cry, it was so bad). However, this trailer for Watchmen looks really promising. It's going to be directed by Zack Snyder who made 300. Surely it must be impossible to make a bad film out of Moore's masterpiece, which is like 'reading' a film anyway.
I'd like to point out that the bloke on the end of the trailer isn't me.
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