WatchmenComicMovie.com Forum

Okay, so understanding that there's a flood coming to this site of people who haven't read the GN, and may or may not be interested in doing so, but are definitely interested in the film - I propose:

A Watchmen Primer/Overview on WatchmenComicMovie.com

I'm not talking about something dense, I mean something visual, simple and direct - a much more accurate version of what AOTS tried to do. Short character bios, quotes from the characters, GN-to-film comparisons, a simple timeline and a bullet-pointed list of very basic points, like "• There were two groups - The Minutemen and The Crimebusters - but there was never a group called 'The Watchmen'"- stuff like that.

Nothing intimating or overwhelming - a stripped-down overview designed to whet appetites and get the uninitiated interested in digging deeper.

I know there are other materials on that left nav bar, but I'm imagining a bold, "GET TO KNOW WATCHMEN" link over there - something that any newcomer would know to click, to understand more about the GN we all know and love.

What do you think, Doomsday Clock?

I like it! You read my mind. I actually had this idea a while ago, but refined some of my thoughts today. As some of you have probably seen, the site is filling up with updates in my attempt to keep it current and give easier access to some of the content we devoured and digested weeks or even months ago.

I was toying with the idea of adding an overview page summarizing the storyline and the history of the book, plus a character descriptions page, a timeline of events in the story and a Black Freighter page which explains that entire subplot with images.

What do you all think?

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Those who dance are considered insane by those who can't hear the music - George Carlin

I think that sounds like a great idea! It'll give me a place to send people like my dad, who've never read the GN but thought the trailer was cool.

I can make a video if you want, with lots of the Ken Burns effect!

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If that's what you want, Doomsday, you can count on my help.

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This is truly a madhouse. And I'm the lunatic running it. I've spent three years wondering if I should be proud or ashamed.

You sound like you have a different idea?

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Those who dance are considered insane by those who can't hear the music - George Carlin

To be perfectly honest, I thought that the chapter summaries, the analysis articles and everything else that we have on the main site would be enough to sell newcomers on the graphic novel. At the same time, however, I am open to the idea that I may be mistaken on that.

So basically, I think the site is awesome with or without the "Primer" section.

It's your site, DD. If you want a section devoted to this, I'd be proud and happy to help you generate content for it.

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This is truly a madhouse. And I'm the lunatic running it. I've spent three years wondering if I should be proud or ashamed.

Here's my feeling: if you throw everything at a person, as we tend to do, they may be impressed at the complexity of the story, but they're overwhelmed and rarely dig in further.

If you give them a small nibble, then entice them to come further, you're going to see more, you'll pull in many more people.

For example, a friend of mine mentioned that Attack of the Show segment - he knew of Watchmen from me, but seeing that short overview got him excited.

He's really into politics, so he asked me about Nixon still being in power, and rather than get into the massive story, I just gave him a short bit about Doctor Manhattan, how his presence affected Nixon, Viet Nam, and how Watergate never happened.

So my friend wrote back, asking more about Nam and The Comedian - so I gave him a little more information. He was getting much more intrigued finding things out in these little pieces, rather than me unloading everything on him at once.

I think a tiered approach would work - maybe even a single page, heavy with representative graphics, that new users can read over and then click to go deeper.

Here's my vision of how it could work: http://plasmicstudio.com/watchmen/watchmen_overview.jpg

The little yellow icons in the photos can be clickable, to get to the comic's representation(s) of the character.