Wednesday
Interview with Alan Moore
Kurt Amacker: I thought we could discuss the initial ownership dispute you had with DC back in the 1980s, wherein you and Dave Gibbons expected to get the rights to Watchmen and its characters back a year after the trade paperback went out of print. But, it never went out of print--and one suspects DC probably knew it wouldn't.
Alan Moore: We were told that. That was the understanding upon which we did Watchmen--that they understood that we wanted to actually own the work that we'd done, and that they were a "new DC Comics," who were going to be more responsive to creators. And, they'd got this new contract worked out which meant that when the work went out of print, then the rights to it would revert to us--which sounded like a really good deal. I'd got no reason not to trust these people. They'd all been very, very friendly. They seemed to be delighted with the amount of extra comics they were selling. Even on that level, I thought, "Well, they can see that I'm getting them an awful lot of good publicity, and I'm bringing them a great deal of money. So, if they are even competent business people, they surely won't be going out of their way to screw us in any way." Now, I've since seen the Watchmen contract, which obviously we didn't read very closely at the time. It was the first contract that I'd ever seen--and I believe that it was a relatively rare event for a contract to actually exist in the comics business. Most of the time, people just signed away all their rights on the back of their invoice voucher. But, I was so pleased with the deal with Watchmen, that I suggested to David Lloyd that we do the same thing on V for Vendetta--which was, again, something that we owned and that we wanted to carry on owning. The contracts actually are some of the most anti-creator contracts imaginable. They've got clauses such as, if I refuse to sign for any reason any agreements in the future, DC can appoint an attorney to sign them instead of me. There was some point before we'd realized that DC was never going to give us Watchmen back that I started to have my doubts. There were a couple of incidents, like the decision to sell Watchmen merchandise and initially not to give us any cut of the profits, because it was supposed to be "self-financing promotion."
KA: You mean the buttons they released?
AM: Right, and that's fine except if it makes a profit--which they had done. So, that seemed cheap to me. But, up until that point I'd trusted the company and thought that they were probably decent people who, as they said, were making a genuine effort to adapt to modern times and modern morality. But, that incident seemed a little, to me, as if having just got what must've been quite a lucrative creator come through the door--having got a creator who was bringing them a lot more attention from media outside of comics than they'd ever received before--it struck me that they seemed to be very delighted with all this. But, somebody there had thought it would be even better if they could swindle us out of a few thousand dollars. It was like having signed a deal and finding out that the people you've signed it with have been going through your pockets in the cloak room for spare change. Shortly after that, it became apparent that Watchmen was never going to be allowed to go out of print. At the time, obviously, I was very angry because we'd been lied to. And there's no polite way of putting that. Also, I don't think this was the first time that DC had used this technique or a variation upon it.
So, this was the initial thing. I was pretty disappointed and angry regarding working for DC at that time. The first opportunity that came up to really vent my disappointment was when they were bringing in some ridiculous rating system, which I objected to along with various other creators. I think Frank Miller got up some sort of petition. I said that if DC Comics were going ahead with this rating system, I wouldn't be working for them anymore. I believe I was the only person who signed the petition who didn't just back down or accept it. So at that point, I severed connections with DC Comics--although there were still some people there then, like Karen Berger, who I did remain friends with. But, I resolved that I didn't want to work for DC Comics ever again--or their subsidiaries. This worked fine for a number of years until I'd just signed contracts with Jim Lee's WildStorm Comics, at which point DC bought the whole of them--as they previously tried to buy the whole of Rob Liefeld's Awesome Comics, if I was part of the deal. So, it seemed that they'd bought a whole company just to have me working for them again. This may well have been because they had realized that having the enmity of somebody who'd created the only book that anybody outside of their industry had ever heard of might not be such a good idea. I think that they were probably then looking to the fact that they were quite desperate to make movies of Watchmen or spin merchandise out of it. They perhaps realized that, given that, I believe, Watchmen is still at least copyrighted to me, that they might be on some shaky ground there. It might be difficult to attract investors to a product where there could be kind of a legal minefield. So, I think that was when we started to get the various shenanigans that went on around that film, which have led since to me completely severing my contacts with anybody that works at DC--and pretty much with the entirety of the comics business. That was a few years ago now.
Most of that stuff had happened in the few weeks before I got married to Melinda. That's pretty much been the state of play since then. There was the business a while ago now that led to me having my last conversation with Dave Gibbons--by which I do mean last in the sense of final, rather than most recent, which is a shame.
KA: Wow.
AM: Yeah. I really don't feel that I have any friends in the comic industry--certainly none that I would be seeking out.
“And, they'd got this new contract worked out which meant that when the work went out of print, then the rights to it would revert to us--which, sounded like a really good deal.”
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all content © 2006 - 2012 seraphemera books except where noted
KA: Do you still get royalty payments from the trade paperback sales of Watchmen and the movie?
AM: Yes. It is my work. I still get a royalty--not a very big royalty, but the kind that the comic industry was offering in the 1980s. Yes, I still get a little bit of the money that I consider myself to be owed for these things. But, it's not really the money that's the principle. It's the fact that I was lied to. It's the fact that the reason they offered us Watchmen was that they'd seen what I could do with their regular comics. They could see that I was capable of moving them to a new area that comics had not ventured into before. So, they offered us Watchmen and it worked out very, very well for them. They were able to suddenly claim that all of their comics were "graphic novels" now--that they were seriously committed to a progressive comics medium that could produce works of art and literature. But, that is never what they were concerned with. It was always purely to do with commerce. And, yes, when they saw that they were being given an opportunity with this stuff, then they jumped on it with both feet and really sort of bled Watchmen for all of the publicity that they could get. They started a whole comics line that seemed to be designed mainly as an "Alan Moore farm," where I believe that the early contributors to Karen Berger's Vertigo were pretty much--at least implicitly--being instructed to do work that was kind of like mine. At the time, I wasn't that bothered about it. I thought it was a shame that they couldn't have done something more original. So yes, I do still get royalties for this stuff. But, given the amount of capital and the amount of publicity and everything else that the American comics industry--not just DC--has gotten out of my work, I think it's a bit rich that they should have lied through their teeth and swindled me out of me rights to it, and that now, they should be planning to take that further, presumably out of desperation--because they haven't got anything else that anybody is interested in.
KA: You're talking about the Before Watchmen prequels?
AM: Yeah. It's something they've been talking about for a long while. And, indeed, that was the reason why I broke off all contact with Dave Gibbons.
KA: Because he sort-of supported them?
AM: This all went back to the Watchmen movie. I mean, Watchmen had been a dead issue for a number of years, as far as I was concerned. DC had stolen it from us, and they weren't going to give it back. I'd adjusted to that situation. However, there came a point back when I was still working for WildStorm. This was after the period when one of the V for Vendetta movie's producers had been "economical" with the truth and had announced that I was really excited about that worthless film and was going to be meeting with its director, which he knew was not the case. He was just saying that because it sounded better if I was on board. Of course, at that point I said I wouldn’t have anything to do with DC Comics or anything connected with it ever again. Even if I'm working for another company, I'm going to have clauses in the contract that say that if you're bought out by DC, then my contract is null and void.
AM (continued): So, I'd distanced myself from DC considerably and hadn't really got anything to do with them. But I was still, I think, tying up loose ends with some of the projects. So, I was still talking occasionally to people at WildStorm. I might've been finishing The Black Dossier or something like that. Now, Steve Moore is my oldest friend and mentor, and the person who taught me how to write comics, even though he doesn't like being described in those terms, and is a brilliant writer in his own right and shouldn't just be remembered in relation to me. He had not had any work in the couple of years that had elapsed since I'd said "Right, I'm just going to finish my work at WildStorm and that's it." It was the same for all of the writers I was using on America's Best Comics. When I wrapped up the ABC line, all of a sudden none of those writers were given any work, which I assumed was some sort of blacklisting. It might not have been, but it was just kind of odd that all of a sudden the work dried up for everybody. But, I got a phone call from Steve Moore, saying that he'd had a phone call from DC saying "Would you like to do the Watchmen computer game? We haven't told Alan yet."
Now, Steve had gotten a little bit of work at that time. And, even if he hadn't, Steve is a loyal friend. He is someone else who is way outside of the comics industry and doesn’t ever want to go back there. Steve phoned me up and said what had happened, and said that he'd told them that, no, he didn't want the job, and he would never even consider doing anything where I was being kept in the dark about it.
I should imagine that what DC was probably trying to do there was to offer Steve some work for which they presumed he'd be desperate, get him to accept it, and then present it to me as a fait accompli. That way, I couldn't make any noise about it without depriving my oldest friend of money and employment in his hour of need. Now, I thought that that was slimy--and also, although they weren't aware of this at the time, Steve Moore's brother had just been diagnosed with motor neuron disease, which is slow, and painful, and ultimately fatal. Stephen Hawking has it, but he is, as well as the world's most famous sufferer, unique in that he's still alive.
DC didn't know that, but I phoned up WildStorm and said, "Look, can you pass this on to DC please? I understand what they were doing. I understand that they wanted to present this new Watchmen computer game as a fait accompli. They didn't know that Steve Moore's brother is terminally ill, so he's going to have to look after him until he dies. And, over here at least, we regard something like a terminally ill loved one as more important than the machinations of people who publish Batman comics. So, could you please tell them not to try their slimy little tricks with Steve again, because he's got a terminally ill brother and, for Christ's sake, just leave it out." That was pretty much the content of the message.
Shortly after that, I had a conversation with Dave Gibbons, who was saying that, yes, there was a Watchmen film coming up. We both understood that we had different feelings about the film. But, that was perfectly amiable. I don't demand that everybody see things the way I do. Everybody's got the right to make up their own mind. So, Dave came to me expressing concern. He said, "Look, this film's coming up and the last thing that I want to happen is for there to be any trouble between us."
I said, "I really don't think that will happen, Dave." I said, "I respect your position as wanting to see the film made, and I hope that you respect mine as not wanting to see the film made." He agreed. I said, "The only thing could cause any problems between us is, as you know, I am having my name taken off of the film, and am giving all of my money to the co-creators." This has been my policy ever since the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen film, which was when I decided that I didn't even want to be connected with a credit to anything Hollywood was popping out. I said to Dave, "The only thing that ever would cause a problem in our relationship is if, when you get the money--that is, my share of the production money--I would ask that you just give me a quick phone call and say 'I've got the money, Alan. Thanks a lot.' Just thank me--or, write me a letter or something like that just saying thank-you. Just the words 'thank you' will be more than adequate."
I said that because Dave Lloyd never did. Dave Lloyd took the money and then went around badmouthing me at these little comic conventions that he goes to--including on one occasion, apparently, sitting a table away from my daughter, Leah. I presume it was that stage of the evening where he was, perhaps a bit relaxed and refreshed. He was proclaiming in an over-loud voice about my many, many faults as a human being while Leah sat there. She knew what he thought, so she just rolled her eyes and ignored him. But, like I said, Dave Lloyd hadn't phoned up and thanked me. So, I really didn't want anything more to do with him. And, I explained this to Dave [Gibbons] and said "If you'd just ring up and say thank-you, that will be fine."
Dave, being an amiable and jovial chap said, "Oh yeah, don't worry Alan. I'll phone up and thank you from the deck of the yacht that I've bought with your money." And I laughed, because it was a good joke. I said as long as he phoned up and thanked me, it would be great. So, things went on. Dave hadn't called, but I assumed that was because he hadn't got the money yet.
A few weeks before that point, I'd had a phone call from Steve Moore, who said that perhaps he wasn't blacklisted from DC, because he'd just had Warner Books phone him and up say that after he'd done such a brilliant job on the novelization of the V for Vendetta film--even fixing a plot hole in the original screenplay for them--that they'd like him to do the novelization of the Watchmen film. They knew that Steve was the only person that I would be in favor of doing that. He phoned me up and told me about this, and I said, "That's great," because this is the year that he was expecting to lose his brother. And the work had dried up again, so he was really looking to have at least a little bit of money as a cushion when his brother finally departed. I said, "Yes, go ahead with my blessing. Write the novel and that will give you a few thousand quid that will actually serve as a bit of a breakwater when Chris finally dies." “Shortly after that, I had a conversation with Dave Gibbons... I said, "I am having my name taken off of the film, and am giving all of my money to the co-creators." This has been my policy ever sincethe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen filmAM (continued): Then, I got a message from Dave Gibbons. He said there was a possibility of product coming out connected to the Watchmen film that he wanted to ask my permission for. He said that he thought that he could extract the panels of the pirate comic narrative running through Watchmen. He thought he could make them into a whole comic book that could then be licensed as Tales of the Black Freighter to go along with the film. I thought that this sounded like a fairly stupid and unworkable idea, and couldn't really see the point. It'd be like taking all of the counterparts out of Mozart and releasing it on its own. But, I said, "Well, if it's something you want to do Dave, I'm just completely unbothered about it, as long as there is something making clear that I won't be participating in the project. And, I wouldn't want any money for it. And, just as long as my name isn't on it, then that'll be fine."
He said, "Oh, well that's good. DC said you would be quietly compliant."
I said, "Why'd they say that?"
He said, "I don't know. They just said you'd be quietly compliant."
I said, "I'm more completely indifferent. As long as my name's not on it, then do what you want."
Dave said, "I don't think they were going to put our names on it anyway. I think they were going to use the fictitious names of the artist and writer that are mentioned in Watchmen."
I said, "In that case, how will anyone know that I'm not participating in it?" I just said, "Look, do it if you want Dave, but just put a little un-embarrassing, small print thing on the inside front cover of the thing saying that Alan Moore is not participating in this comic or anything to do with the film." He said that that sounded okay. But apparently, either he or DC had decided they didn't want to put out a piece of film merchandise that made it clear that I was definitely not participating in the film or any of its byproducts. Shortly after that, I received a call from Steve Moore saying he'd just been told that Watchmen wasn't even going to have a novelization. So, he wouldn't be getting the job.
At this point--call me paranoid, and I know that some people have done so--it struck me that was possibly what that odd turn-of-phrase "quietly compliant" was all about--that they expected me to be quietly compliant because I would have been thinking like them, and thinking "Oh, if I don't do what they say they'll take that job away from Steve." That had never even occurred to me. I didn't think that anyone could ever be that verminous. But, once I had thought that was probably what had happened, I immediately spoke to the people at DC. I told Karen Berger she could never call me again, and that I didn't want anything to do with anybody at DC Comics. I was furiously angry and sickened at--at least what I'd perceived--had happened. I though that was completely unforgivable and subhuman.
Now, it was probably the week before I married Melinda [Gebbie] that this had all happened. Now, I knew that Dave Gibbons would be coming along to the wedding. While he was there, I very amiably took him to one side and explained what had happened and what my perception of the events was. He denied that the people at DC would ever do something like that, but he couldn't explain what they had actually meant by the phrase "quietly compliant." So, I said, "You've got your different feelings about it and I understand that, yes, you are a lot closer to these people. But, this is my perception of what has happened." And, I didn't believe he was in any way complicit. I believe that he'd just been told to pass on a message without understanding it. So, I said, "For the sake of our friendship, Dave, in the future, let's just not talk about Watchmen."
This was on my wedding day.
Alan Moore: We were told that. That was the understanding upon which we did Watchmen--that they understood that we wanted to actually own the work that we'd done, and that they were a "new DC Comics," who were going to be more responsive to creators. And, they'd got this new contract worked out which meant that when the work went out of print, then the rights to it would revert to us--which sounded like a really good deal. I'd got no reason not to trust these people. They'd all been very, very friendly. They seemed to be delighted with the amount of extra comics they were selling. Even on that level, I thought, "Well, they can see that I'm getting them an awful lot of good publicity, and I'm bringing them a great deal of money. So, if they are even competent business people, they surely won't be going out of their way to screw us in any way." Now, I've since seen the Watchmen contract, which obviously we didn't read very closely at the time. It was the first contract that I'd ever seen--and I believe that it was a relatively rare event for a contract to actually exist in the comics business. Most of the time, people just signed away all their rights on the back of their invoice voucher. But, I was so pleased with the deal with Watchmen, that I suggested to David Lloyd that we do the same thing on V for Vendetta--which was, again, something that we owned and that we wanted to carry on owning. The contracts actually are some of the most anti-creator contracts imaginable. They've got clauses such as, if I refuse to sign for any reason any agreements in the future, DC can appoint an attorney to sign them instead of me. There was some point before we'd realized that DC was never going to give us Watchmen back that I started to have my doubts. There were a couple of incidents, like the decision to sell Watchmen merchandise and initially not to give us any cut of the profits, because it was supposed to be "self-financing promotion."
KA: You mean the buttons they released?
AM: Right, and that's fine except if it makes a profit--which they had done. So, that seemed cheap to me. But, up until that point I'd trusted the company and thought that they were probably decent people who, as they said, were making a genuine effort to adapt to modern times and modern morality. But, that incident seemed a little, to me, as if having just got what must've been quite a lucrative creator come through the door--having got a creator who was bringing them a lot more attention from media outside of comics than they'd ever received before--it struck me that they seemed to be very delighted with all this. But, somebody there had thought it would be even better if they could swindle us out of a few thousand dollars. It was like having signed a deal and finding out that the people you've signed it with have been going through your pockets in the cloak room for spare change. Shortly after that, it became apparent that Watchmen was never going to be allowed to go out of print. At the time, obviously, I was very angry because we'd been lied to. And there's no polite way of putting that. Also, I don't think this was the first time that DC had used this technique or a variation upon it.
So, this was the initial thing. I was pretty disappointed and angry regarding working for DC at that time. The first opportunity that came up to really vent my disappointment was when they were bringing in some ridiculous rating system, which I objected to along with various other creators. I think Frank Miller got up some sort of petition. I said that if DC Comics were going ahead with this rating system, I wouldn't be working for them anymore. I believe I was the only person who signed the petition who didn't just back down or accept it. So at that point, I severed connections with DC Comics--although there were still some people there then, like Karen Berger, who I did remain friends with. But, I resolved that I didn't want to work for DC Comics ever again--or their subsidiaries. This worked fine for a number of years until I'd just signed contracts with Jim Lee's WildStorm Comics, at which point DC bought the whole of them--as they previously tried to buy the whole of Rob Liefeld's Awesome Comics, if I was part of the deal. So, it seemed that they'd bought a whole company just to have me working for them again. This may well have been because they had realized that having the enmity of somebody who'd created the only book that anybody outside of their industry had ever heard of might not be such a good idea. I think that they were probably then looking to the fact that they were quite desperate to make movies of Watchmen or spin merchandise out of it. They perhaps realized that, given that, I believe, Watchmen is still at least copyrighted to me, that they might be on some shaky ground there. It might be difficult to attract investors to a product where there could be kind of a legal minefield. So, I think that was when we started to get the various shenanigans that went on around that film, which have led since to me completely severing my contacts with anybody that works at DC--and pretty much with the entirety of the comics business. That was a few years ago now.
Most of that stuff had happened in the few weeks before I got married to Melinda. That's pretty much been the state of play since then. There was the business a while ago now that led to me having my last conversation with Dave Gibbons--by which I do mean last in the sense of final, rather than most recent, which is a shame.
KA: Wow.
AM: Yeah. I really don't feel that I have any friends in the comic industry--certainly none that I would be seeking out.
“And, they'd got this new contract worked out which meant that when the work went out of print, then the rights to it would revert to us--which, sounded like a really good deal.”
This is the homepage of seraphemera books - bookbinders, storytellers, mythmakers...defenders of the ephemeral arts
all content © 2006 - 2012 seraphemera books except where noted
KA: Do you still get royalty payments from the trade paperback sales of Watchmen and the movie?
AM: Yes. It is my work. I still get a royalty--not a very big royalty, but the kind that the comic industry was offering in the 1980s. Yes, I still get a little bit of the money that I consider myself to be owed for these things. But, it's not really the money that's the principle. It's the fact that I was lied to. It's the fact that the reason they offered us Watchmen was that they'd seen what I could do with their regular comics. They could see that I was capable of moving them to a new area that comics had not ventured into before. So, they offered us Watchmen and it worked out very, very well for them. They were able to suddenly claim that all of their comics were "graphic novels" now--that they were seriously committed to a progressive comics medium that could produce works of art and literature. But, that is never what they were concerned with. It was always purely to do with commerce. And, yes, when they saw that they were being given an opportunity with this stuff, then they jumped on it with both feet and really sort of bled Watchmen for all of the publicity that they could get. They started a whole comics line that seemed to be designed mainly as an "Alan Moore farm," where I believe that the early contributors to Karen Berger's Vertigo were pretty much--at least implicitly--being instructed to do work that was kind of like mine. At the time, I wasn't that bothered about it. I thought it was a shame that they couldn't have done something more original. So yes, I do still get royalties for this stuff. But, given the amount of capital and the amount of publicity and everything else that the American comics industry--not just DC--has gotten out of my work, I think it's a bit rich that they should have lied through their teeth and swindled me out of me rights to it, and that now, they should be planning to take that further, presumably out of desperation--because they haven't got anything else that anybody is interested in.
KA: You're talking about the Before Watchmen prequels?
AM: Yeah. It's something they've been talking about for a long while. And, indeed, that was the reason why I broke off all contact with Dave Gibbons.
KA: Because he sort-of supported them?
AM: This all went back to the Watchmen movie. I mean, Watchmen had been a dead issue for a number of years, as far as I was concerned. DC had stolen it from us, and they weren't going to give it back. I'd adjusted to that situation. However, there came a point back when I was still working for WildStorm. This was after the period when one of the V for Vendetta movie's producers had been "economical" with the truth and had announced that I was really excited about that worthless film and was going to be meeting with its director, which he knew was not the case. He was just saying that because it sounded better if I was on board. Of course, at that point I said I wouldn’t have anything to do with DC Comics or anything connected with it ever again. Even if I'm working for another company, I'm going to have clauses in the contract that say that if you're bought out by DC, then my contract is null and void.
AM (continued): So, I'd distanced myself from DC considerably and hadn't really got anything to do with them. But I was still, I think, tying up loose ends with some of the projects. So, I was still talking occasionally to people at WildStorm. I might've been finishing The Black Dossier or something like that. Now, Steve Moore is my oldest friend and mentor, and the person who taught me how to write comics, even though he doesn't like being described in those terms, and is a brilliant writer in his own right and shouldn't just be remembered in relation to me. He had not had any work in the couple of years that had elapsed since I'd said "Right, I'm just going to finish my work at WildStorm and that's it." It was the same for all of the writers I was using on America's Best Comics. When I wrapped up the ABC line, all of a sudden none of those writers were given any work, which I assumed was some sort of blacklisting. It might not have been, but it was just kind of odd that all of a sudden the work dried up for everybody. But, I got a phone call from Steve Moore, saying that he'd had a phone call from DC saying "Would you like to do the Watchmen computer game? We haven't told Alan yet."
Now, Steve had gotten a little bit of work at that time. And, even if he hadn't, Steve is a loyal friend. He is someone else who is way outside of the comics industry and doesn’t ever want to go back there. Steve phoned me up and said what had happened, and said that he'd told them that, no, he didn't want the job, and he would never even consider doing anything where I was being kept in the dark about it.
I should imagine that what DC was probably trying to do there was to offer Steve some work for which they presumed he'd be desperate, get him to accept it, and then present it to me as a fait accompli. That way, I couldn't make any noise about it without depriving my oldest friend of money and employment in his hour of need. Now, I thought that that was slimy--and also, although they weren't aware of this at the time, Steve Moore's brother had just been diagnosed with motor neuron disease, which is slow, and painful, and ultimately fatal. Stephen Hawking has it, but he is, as well as the world's most famous sufferer, unique in that he's still alive.
DC didn't know that, but I phoned up WildStorm and said, "Look, can you pass this on to DC please? I understand what they were doing. I understand that they wanted to present this new Watchmen computer game as a fait accompli. They didn't know that Steve Moore's brother is terminally ill, so he's going to have to look after him until he dies. And, over here at least, we regard something like a terminally ill loved one as more important than the machinations of people who publish Batman comics. So, could you please tell them not to try their slimy little tricks with Steve again, because he's got a terminally ill brother and, for Christ's sake, just leave it out." That was pretty much the content of the message.
Shortly after that, I had a conversation with Dave Gibbons, who was saying that, yes, there was a Watchmen film coming up. We both understood that we had different feelings about the film. But, that was perfectly amiable. I don't demand that everybody see things the way I do. Everybody's got the right to make up their own mind. So, Dave came to me expressing concern. He said, "Look, this film's coming up and the last thing that I want to happen is for there to be any trouble between us."
I said, "I really don't think that will happen, Dave." I said, "I respect your position as wanting to see the film made, and I hope that you respect mine as not wanting to see the film made." He agreed. I said, "The only thing could cause any problems between us is, as you know, I am having my name taken off of the film, and am giving all of my money to the co-creators." This has been my policy ever since the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen film, which was when I decided that I didn't even want to be connected with a credit to anything Hollywood was popping out. I said to Dave, "The only thing that ever would cause a problem in our relationship is if, when you get the money--that is, my share of the production money--I would ask that you just give me a quick phone call and say 'I've got the money, Alan. Thanks a lot.' Just thank me--or, write me a letter or something like that just saying thank-you. Just the words 'thank you' will be more than adequate."
I said that because Dave Lloyd never did. Dave Lloyd took the money and then went around badmouthing me at these little comic conventions that he goes to--including on one occasion, apparently, sitting a table away from my daughter, Leah. I presume it was that stage of the evening where he was, perhaps a bit relaxed and refreshed. He was proclaiming in an over-loud voice about my many, many faults as a human being while Leah sat there. She knew what he thought, so she just rolled her eyes and ignored him. But, like I said, Dave Lloyd hadn't phoned up and thanked me. So, I really didn't want anything more to do with him. And, I explained this to Dave [Gibbons] and said "If you'd just ring up and say thank-you, that will be fine."
Dave, being an amiable and jovial chap said, "Oh yeah, don't worry Alan. I'll phone up and thank you from the deck of the yacht that I've bought with your money." And I laughed, because it was a good joke. I said as long as he phoned up and thanked me, it would be great. So, things went on. Dave hadn't called, but I assumed that was because he hadn't got the money yet.
A few weeks before that point, I'd had a phone call from Steve Moore, who said that perhaps he wasn't blacklisted from DC, because he'd just had Warner Books phone him and up say that after he'd done such a brilliant job on the novelization of the V for Vendetta film--even fixing a plot hole in the original screenplay for them--that they'd like him to do the novelization of the Watchmen film. They knew that Steve was the only person that I would be in favor of doing that. He phoned me up and told me about this, and I said, "That's great," because this is the year that he was expecting to lose his brother. And the work had dried up again, so he was really looking to have at least a little bit of money as a cushion when his brother finally departed. I said, "Yes, go ahead with my blessing. Write the novel and that will give you a few thousand quid that will actually serve as a bit of a breakwater when Chris finally dies." “Shortly after that, I had a conversation with Dave Gibbons... I said, "I am having my name taken off of the film, and am giving all of my money to the co-creators." This has been my policy ever sincethe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen filmAM (continued): Then, I got a message from Dave Gibbons. He said there was a possibility of product coming out connected to the Watchmen film that he wanted to ask my permission for. He said that he thought that he could extract the panels of the pirate comic narrative running through Watchmen. He thought he could make them into a whole comic book that could then be licensed as Tales of the Black Freighter to go along with the film. I thought that this sounded like a fairly stupid and unworkable idea, and couldn't really see the point. It'd be like taking all of the counterparts out of Mozart and releasing it on its own. But, I said, "Well, if it's something you want to do Dave, I'm just completely unbothered about it, as long as there is something making clear that I won't be participating in the project. And, I wouldn't want any money for it. And, just as long as my name isn't on it, then that'll be fine."
He said, "Oh, well that's good. DC said you would be quietly compliant."
I said, "Why'd they say that?"
He said, "I don't know. They just said you'd be quietly compliant."
I said, "I'm more completely indifferent. As long as my name's not on it, then do what you want."
Dave said, "I don't think they were going to put our names on it anyway. I think they were going to use the fictitious names of the artist and writer that are mentioned in Watchmen."
I said, "In that case, how will anyone know that I'm not participating in it?" I just said, "Look, do it if you want Dave, but just put a little un-embarrassing, small print thing on the inside front cover of the thing saying that Alan Moore is not participating in this comic or anything to do with the film." He said that that sounded okay. But apparently, either he or DC had decided they didn't want to put out a piece of film merchandise that made it clear that I was definitely not participating in the film or any of its byproducts. Shortly after that, I received a call from Steve Moore saying he'd just been told that Watchmen wasn't even going to have a novelization. So, he wouldn't be getting the job.
At this point--call me paranoid, and I know that some people have done so--it struck me that was possibly what that odd turn-of-phrase "quietly compliant" was all about--that they expected me to be quietly compliant because I would have been thinking like them, and thinking "Oh, if I don't do what they say they'll take that job away from Steve." That had never even occurred to me. I didn't think that anyone could ever be that verminous. But, once I had thought that was probably what had happened, I immediately spoke to the people at DC. I told Karen Berger she could never call me again, and that I didn't want anything to do with anybody at DC Comics. I was furiously angry and sickened at--at least what I'd perceived--had happened. I though that was completely unforgivable and subhuman.
Now, it was probably the week before I married Melinda [Gebbie] that this had all happened. Now, I knew that Dave Gibbons would be coming along to the wedding. While he was there, I very amiably took him to one side and explained what had happened and what my perception of the events was. He denied that the people at DC would ever do something like that, but he couldn't explain what they had actually meant by the phrase "quietly compliant." So, I said, "You've got your different feelings about it and I understand that, yes, you are a lot closer to these people. But, this is my perception of what has happened." And, I didn't believe he was in any way complicit. I believe that he'd just been told to pass on a message without understanding it. So, I said, "For the sake of our friendship, Dave, in the future, let's just not talk about Watchmen."
This was on my wedding day.
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// posted by vm @ 12:10 PM 
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