So it looks like The Watchmen movie is really going to happen. After about a million years of rumors. Should be interesting, since everybody knows that the movie has taken so long to make because it’s a story that can only really be told in graphic novel format.

Why, you ask? Because:

1. Tons of stuff happens that requires billions of dollars in special effects to do right in a movie, and even then, let’s just say I’m skeptical of how they’re going to pull it off.
2. The words and images each tell a different part of the story. The whole story can only be fully understood with the two together – in film, it’s difficult to create this degree of IRONY (word of the day!).
3. Superheroes need secret identities. Toonifying yourself protects that identity. By using a cartoon format, graphic novels make a statement about the fundamental tragedy of the superhero:

He must always hide who he truly is from those he has sworn to protect, a.k.a. Aurora would kill me if she knew what I was planning

I’ll tell her at the right time, once I can say that I’ve actually DONE SOMETHING.

So I’m going to try to spread the word here, using this software, Toon-FX, to create some cool graphics.

And I know it’s not Frank Miller, buy hey, not everybody is a good illustrator. In fact, most people are really terrible illustrators. That’s why I like Toon-FX. It’s like Alan Moore, who says that anybody can be a superhero. Toon-FX lets anybody tell a story with cartoon graphics.

Aurora’s always trying to save the world. But not in a superhero way. She’s more into organizing letter-writing campaigns or protests, or volunteering to work with kids or picking up trash. She’s always inviting me to come along with her, or she used to, before New Guy. I never did, though, because it all seems so like smacking your head against a brick wall. It can actually be kind of hard to watch.

That’s why I liked The Watchmen. It’s about regular people who really DO something. In the story, the Watchmen are superheroes (or ‘masked adventurers’ because they don’t have any real powers). The idea of superheroes that are just normal people with no powers is awesome. That means anyone could do it. If they really thought that they could be a hero, and change things.

Interesting fact: Jerry says that Alan Moore got the title from this guy Juvenal, who was a poet in ancient Rome. He wrote the line (in translation): “Who will watch the watchmen?”

I wonder if that’s the first reference in history to the idea of the superhero. What do you think?

Aurora finally made it over to watch the last episode of Jericho. Ever since she started dating New Guy she’s got zero time. Fine. Whatever. I just wish the night hadn’t ended with us getting in a stupid argument over the message of the show.

The plot of Jericho was simple. A company is contracted to provide support to the U.S. in the event of a nuclear attack. The company makes the attack scenario happen, takes charge of the fallout, and eventually installs itself as the new government.

Me and Aurora both agreed that based on everything we know about how contractors handle humanitarian disasters, this scenario is entirely plausible.

We started to disagree when I said that it wouldn’t really make a significant difference to how this country works if power changed hands in this way. It all comes down to the same kind of people wanting the same kind of things.

But Aurora, doing her whole goddess of the downtrodden thing, said that it did matter how it happened, that we have to believe in the goodness of people and in the potential for change that is ‘non-destructive’ (her word, not mine).

That got us on to the topic of Adrian Veidt’s scheme in The Watchmen by Alan Moore, which we both just read. It is definitely one of the greatest graphic novels of all time.

Veidt basically unleashes a horrible monster on New York, which causes the world to band together against a common enemy. Of course, Aurora thinks that no positive outcome could justify the death and destruction caused by Veidt’s scheme.

You know those people that are so good and trusting and true that they make you feel bad about yourself, but you can’t hate them because they’re so totally beautiful and perfect and amazing?

That’s Aurora.

The last thing she said to me before she left was, “Fine! Why don’t you just go destroy the world, then?”

But that’s not what I want at all.