Alan Moore Should Watch Saturday Morning Cartoons

Last night's comicsblog debut of The Amazing Adventures of Little Batman had everyone talking about serious superheroes around the Home Office water cooler this morning. Any discussion by enlightened individuals about 'serious' and 'superheroes' will, sooner than later, involve Watchmen. Ours did, but then again, we also had a good laugh over Tiny Titans. Hmmm...

Back in 1987, when Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons wrapped up their original twelve issue Watchmen series at DC, the comics industry didn't really know just how serious superheroes could be, at least without losing the traditional characteristics that made them heroes in the first place. Moore and Gibbons changed that way of thinking, and opened the doors to storytelling possibilities that have since become the standard. And while most of them don't reach Moore's complexity or inverted heroism -- aspects that Zack Snyder captured so well with his Watchmen adaptation and which we believe may be the reasons some viewers found the film difficult -- comic book storylines, the heroes and villains and their worlds at large, are darker, grittier, and far more visceral. [Need a big-screen Watchmen refresher? Movie trailers and more can be found here. -- Courteous 'Dabbler]

You betcha, Alan Moore is as serious a fellow as his work might lead you to believe. Just how serious is a topic rich enough for a blog of its own (that gives us an idea!), but the short answer would be too serious. But pull past his thickly out-of-of-control beard and the fact that he worships an ancient Roman snake deity, take Lost Girls only at face value while considering many of his problems with Hollywood and the adaptations of his comics stem not from their quality but his own naivety, and what you have, dabblers, is a little boy. Really, it's true. Alan Moore's a little boy deep-down, one who quite respectably found his genius in comic books.

So when the Home Office's faithful neighbor Raley laughed and snorted about how funny it would've been if Zack Snyder's Watchmen interpretation ended up being a cheesy Saturday morning cartoon full of pizza, pastels, and a talking pink Bubastis, I nearly s%@! myself!

You will, too, when you get a peek at Happy Harry's inspired and frakkin' hilarious satire, Saturday Morning Watchmen. He skillfully twists so many of Watchmen's darkest moments and themes into campy and cuddly kiddie-fare so brilliant even Moore would have to laugh. We all know he could use a good one. Alan, check this out, buddy. Happy Harry's 'toon is serious superhero slapstick at its finest, your Saturday mornings will never be the same.

Was Saturday Morning Watchmen just too funny, or did it take up too-much space on the comicsblog? Are we being unfair to Sir Alan Moore, or have we been way too gentle? (We'll always be respectful, but talent's just part of the picture.) Abbracadabbling wants you - our dabblers and faithful comicsblog followers - to be a BIG part of our picture. So get talking and get involved!! Leave us your Back Issues today!!

Abbracadabbling at the Movies

If the unofficial if not mischievous Thor teaser we had on the blog yesterday is any indication, the superhero 'cinemaniac' crowd has Photoshop prowess - and free time - to spare. Empire had the stellar idea to tap into that talent and, as we're certain you'll agree, direct it to a very creative end. When the movie and video news site recently asked its legion of readers to get clever and mash-up classic film posters with 50 different themes - from politics to Star Trek and the Bible to cheese, the response was, well, abbracadabbling. .

In fact, so many of the submissions Empire received were so good (and overwhelming), we had a tough time picking just a few to post. In the end, we narrowed our selection down to our favorite superhero and cartoon mash-ups -- mostly.

We know blog space is at a premium these days, but we did say mostly. Plus, we'd like to see you pass-up Uma Thurman starring in Pulp Pictionary, one of the absolute best non-role-playing games invented by Man? Well, neither could we. Empire's Board Game Mash-ups are here. [Link]

We've kind of been waxing nostalgic for old Atari ever since the PlayStation turned 15 last week -- weird, isn't it? -- and after we checked out the first twenty-five Video Game Mash-ups [Link], it felt only fair to give a nod to the little guys who taught us how to use our joysticks long before puberty even hit. The pixelated ghosts up front are priceless, and we'd pay double admission to see how the father of modern horror gets those guys spooky.

For the record, no one at the Springfield Home Office comes even close to being a Mel Gibson fan. But we've got nothing against Jerry Seinfeld or his show, and we've been intrigued by crop circles and their odd appeal to little green men since junior high. While not every Sitcom on the site tickled our clever bone, there were several gems in the bunch, too. Our fave was the sign feld mash-up, but the rest are just waiting for you to see here. [Link]

Cartoon character mash-ups [Link] came in at number-two, and they, like the superhero mash-ups, are a showcase of creativity. We laughed our asses off, in fact. And yes, we can say 'asses' on the comicsblog if we want to, okay?

Watchmen, er -- Brockman (LOL) -- is a great segue for us to show you just a few of the superhero-themed mashes before you get antsy in your seat. The very subtle yet unmistakable dark humor lurking in Kryptonite, And Good Luck and About a Boy Wonder is awesome, so well done. And while Emma Frost Nixon, like Riddler on the Roof, works for the rhyming, whoever made the mash-up must have read Grant Morrison's New X-Men or even Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men. Emma's White Queen is at least as much of a bitch as Nixon ever was, and for our money, even more of one. (Is it any wonder she's also the star of Friday's Winter One-derland?)

Get yourself over to Empire and plan to stay a while. We estimate they've got at least 1,250 mash-ups on the site, and the number could reach as high as 1500 or more. They're all listed by theme here [Link]. Or cut to the chase and go right to the Superhero section, which begins here. [Link]