Watchmen Motion Comic

In anticipation of the upcoming movie, DC Comics and WB released a "motion comic" on DVD and Blu Ray today. This is a, well... a motion comic. It's a pretty good label because that's exactly what it is. It's the entire comic, word for word, panel for panel, "animated" in the most limited sense of the term.

Sounds stupid, right? In theory, it is. I thought it would be terrible, because it's been done before and it was always terrible. The very first Captain American cartoon was little more than Kirby's original comic book drawings with the mouths almost moving while bad voice actors read Stan Lee's dialogue. Then there was that Maxx cartoon on MTV in the 1990s, which offered actual animation, but it still took whole images and panels from the comic. There have been a few other attempts here and there, none to much success, un my opinion.

But this one is kind of cool.

Some how, it works. Maybe it's because of the deliberately slow pace of the comic book that you don't mind the lack of much movement on the parts of the characters. Or maybe it's the dramatic, brooding prose of Alan Moore that ties it together. Or maybe it's because Dave Gibbons's art work was already so cinematic to begin. I don't know. I just know that it's kind of cool.

At the end of the day, it's not a comic book but it's not quite a cartoon either. It's also probably something a little less than either. I'd rather read the comic book again, but the artwork actually does look very good and the colors are awesome. I bet it looks great in HD. But make your own judgment. The first episode is free on iTunes and it's well worth checking out. I'm not going to buy the entire season, but I did like the first, free episode. Also, if your computer can handle it, check out the official website. It's pretty cool.