So. About those Watchmen prequels.
I have a huge respect for my audience. On the occasions when I meet them, they seem, I like to think, to be intelligent and scrupulous people. If people do want to go out and buy these Watchmen prequels, they would be doing me an enormous favor if they would just stop buying my other books. When I think of my audience, I like to have good thoughts and think about how lucky I am to have one that is as intelligent as mine and as moral as mine…. The kind of readers who are prepared to turn a blind eye when the people who create their favorite reading material, their favorite characters, are marginalized or put to the wall—that’s not the kind of readers I want. So, even if it means a huge drop in sales upon my other work, I would prefer it that way. I mean, there’s no way I can police this, of course. But, I would hope that you wouldn’t want to buy a book knowing that its author actually had complete contempt for you.
Via Seraphemera, via CBR.
What a grumpy gus.
I have no problem with Moore expressing his scorn for the prequels in this way. I wish he could afford to buy the rights to the characters back, or had never signed away those rights. All he can do at this point is let people know how he feels.
Similarly, if you ever read Lost Girls, you should never buy another book by Lewis Carroll, L. Frank Baum or J. M. Barrie.
I would be down with it more if they marketed it openly as fan-fiction, but nope, it’s just some new “official” canon because they “own” the “property”.
“Put to the wall” in this case being a wall of money.