Complex Numbers

Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes

In the mid-80s, DC Comics released the groundbreaking comic mini-series, Watchmen. Written by Alan Moore and drawn by Dave Gibbons, it quickly achieved epic status among comics geeks, and even got some notice among normal people - and the semi-normals who give out the Hugo Award for science fiction, which Watchmen was the only graphic novel to ever receive.

Actually, an argument could be made that the publication of the 12-issue miniseries in one paperback volume was the birth of the "graphic novel" format, a distinction which, again, probably only matters to comic geeks like me.

Since it came out, there's been talk of doing a movie. At one point, Terry Gilliam (Brazil, The Fisher King and, well, anything Monty Python) was tapped to direct it. What with one thing and another, mostly having to do with budget issues, the movie was in limbo for twenty years.

But soon...

http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/watchmen/high.html

Honestly, I don't know what effect that trailer will have on normal people, and I know some of you read this blog. But I felt like I needed a cigarette after it was over.

The details aren't precise copies of the comic - they pretty much couldn't be - but the look and feel seems to be authentic.

Batman be damned - this is the comic-inspired movie I'm waiting for.

And I can hardly wait.

"Who watches the Watchmen?"

Me.