Even as an American, I have to respect the man's words. It's easier to do that, being a fan of his works and agreeing that there's something wrong with the American film industry, too. And I'm not even trying to brown-nose. If anything, I had hoped he would've lightened up in some way, but I can't fault him for being stubborn for his beliefs.

Wow! Moore certainly has a lot of reason to be mad at Hollywood, and its sad but understandable that he won't even give Watchmen a chance but wow... the guy sure knows how to go off on a tangent. I agree that America really likes their superheroes, but okay, suddenly we're talking about friendly fire and 07/07??
http://www.igp-scifi.com

On the one hand - great to see a man with conviction and principles. On the other - cheer up beard-boy!

Alan Moore is another far-left man who was content to get rich off of middle class white American fanboys. Now that he's living comfortably he can take "moral stands" and turn down Hollywood money, and savage the industry that made him a legend. (and legitimately so, his comic work is excellent!)

His sentiments about Hollywood and even the comic industry are not even that far-fetched, but when he tries to tie it to some larger point about American culture, that is where he fails miserably.

His belief that America "provided most of the munitions to Hitler" is also completely ludicrous. Pre-war trading did not include munitions. You could argue synthetic rubber and ball-bearings perhaps, but not munitions.

And calling 7/7 "a little bit of bother" might apply on Planet Moore, but to the rest of us, it was a terrorist attack. And this from the man who was inspired by Thatcher to write V For Vendetta, when it's the leftists in his own country who have put cameras all over the cities, have government agencies forcing people to lose weight or lose health care, have "garbage police" making sure people don't toss a milk jug in the trash, or throw away perfectly good food. Big Brother is alive in the UK Mr. Moore, and it's come from the left. Even in 1948, Orwell saw the slow slide to socialism coming.

Finally, superheroes are admired because at one time they represented an ideal for the rest of us to live up to. "With great power comes great responsibility" remember? But it was Alan Moore who chose to deconstruct the super hero. Now most of our so-called "heroes" in comics are full of self-doubt and failure to the point that they are no longer flights of fancy, but depressed and childish man-boys who alternately beat things up and then cry about it later.

I own many Mr. Moore's books, and enjoy them for their characters, plots, and artwork, but I feel that his ideas about America are about as sophisticated and correct as any lefty blogger's.

George Orwell was a socialist! Look it up! He did, however, despise both Stalin and Hitler and all that they stood for.

He's just like every burnt out hippie I've ever met- grouchy! Also I think LSD makes you a megalomaniac. I love his stuff but sometimes you need to separate the artist from the artwork.

Here's Neil Gaiman's take on the subject:

"You can learn from your experience, but you can also learn from your friends’ experience, because your friends are walking through the minefield ahead of you and you go, ‘Ah-ha, don’t tread on that. (laughs)’

"Watching for example: Alan Moore. When I first knew Alan, he was quite excited by film. And then he edged over into, ‘Just give me the cheque. I’ll have nothing to do with it but at least I’ll have the book.’

"But the trouble with that point of view – the one that says, ‘I am not getting involved’ – is you wind up with League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (laughs). You wind up with a film that is such a horrible, shambling travesty of this elegant, brilliant thing that you created, and now people think that’s what you did.

"And, if you’re Alan, you eventually get to the point where you say, ‘I don’t want my name on here, I don’t want the money.’"

You can read the whole interview over here:

http://hollywood-animated-films.suite101.com/article.cfm/neil_gaiman_on_hollywood_interview

Actually, Moore's idea about the US providing Hitler with munitions isn't that far. There were a number of companies that did business with Nazi Germany:IBM for one. I also remember reading about a Senator being forced to resign after it was discovered the law firm that he work for did business with Hitler, his name: Prescott Bush.

Alan Moore is right though, most comic book movies do suck.

I'm so thankful that are artists as intelligent and as brave as Alan Moore, to stand against the hypocrisy of modern media and culture. He gave us some of the greatest works of fiction of the 20th century, and as near as I know, never hit his wife or buggered a child. We repay him by throwing his work to Hollywood directors - pearls before swine.

One of the things I've always loved about Alan Moore, is that he's an intelligent, well-spoken writer. I think that's why he doesn't keep a blog or post in forums...

What an inciteful read, it must have disgusted him that one of the worst movies hollywood has thrown up was based on one of his comics. LOEG- which no matter what way you look at it was terrible.

"And as Londoners, when we had that little bit of bother on the 7th July 2005 – after America had two big buildings blown up... Terrible shame, but we had a lot more than two buildings blown up during the ‘40s when America was providing most of the munitions to Hitler..."

What a crock of shi*. American firms dealt with Germany before the war. Hindsight is nice and safe. Moore is misleading people with these statements.

"There’s that beautiful bit of dialogue from the cockpit video when they say, “You’ve just bombed a load of Brits.” Their pilots say, “Woah, dude, we’re going to jail.” This is the Iraq war, not Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure!"

Another misleading statement. I've heard the tape, they were genuinely upset. The idea of them going to jail came up sometime after they had learnt of the mistake they made, not right after. The way beardy puts it is misleading. And how manipulative of the bearded one to make a connection with Bill and Ted. The man is a snake in the grass.

The man makes good comics, but he's a bitter fool. Posing like that in his "Do you suspect I am God? Because I do." way for every camera. He loses all credibility as a critic of America when he does that. Get real. And Glycon is nothing, btw.

a bitter d****e

Um... Just a thought, but surely the 1,000,000 reprints of the Watchmen comic (all of which will sell out) will add to Alan Moore's extensive coffers.

Another thought... If he hates movie adaptations of his books, then why has he sold nearly every single one of them to be made into movies in the first place?

I just don't get why the man doth protest so much... Surely if he mans up and contribute to movie adaptations of his books (Like Dave Gibbons did with Watchmen) then surely the movie adaptations would be far more to his liking...

It all just smacks of hypocrisy... He sells his stories to movie companies for top dollar (perhaps he gives them away... I doubt it though) and then carps on about how much he hates the industry... Simple solution Alan... DON'T SELL YOUR WORK TO MOVIE COMPANIES...

1. Don't sell your comics to movie companies
2. I bet Alan isn't moaning about the revenue generated by reprinting 1,000,000 copies of Watchmen
3. Get involved in your own film adaptations.. Be an Executive Producer. Maintain quality control
4. Stop being a carping old hippy and get with the programme.
5. Create some decent comics, like you used to make in the old days.
6. Just shut up and allow us to enjoy Watchmen you bitter old man. It's bigger than you now. You just wrote it.... This doesn't make you God.

Why so serious?

Some one tell Eric Roberts /w a beard to STFU. Nice of him to write something with such integrity, then sell to, eh "evil naive Americans" and then bash the people who bought it. I'm more than sure that all the people that will be buying tickets are die hard comic readers. Oh wait those folks already bought your comic and read the story. So I can only assume that your appealing to the casual market for your own profit. This is a cinematic adaptation of a comic book is it not? Odds are folks are seeing this for pretty colors not social commentary.
I especially liked the part about heroes that basically "outgun" the villain... Sound like another book people keep pushing on everyone else? Perhaps the concept seems foreign since doesn't have pictures in it. Perhaps he did read it and that's what inspired his heroes that don't respond to humanities every beck and call.
I was going to matinee this one but after reading this I'll most likely obtain a screener copy. It only appealed to me as a trailer because of angst-y music and the same flashy tired treatment that makes me see another graphic novel interpretation or any Tim Burton movie. All with the same result; Lamenting wasted time and the desire to gouge my eyes out as penance.
Do us Yanks a solid and judge us buy our diversity and not the stupidity of our leaders. As I'm sure you have agreed with everything your administration has done. Leave the flea market jewelry at home as it might get caught in your Hagrid beard when you go to stroke your ego and go have one of those warm pints your so fond of.

You spoke of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure in a negative context. I don't think we can be friends any moore

All this criticism of Hollywood from a guy who takes every photo like he's a rock star? "Hang on, let me take this one with sunglasses on!"

Oh yeah and no British super-heroes? I'll give you no men in tights, but what about Doctor Who? Captain Scarlet? Thunderbirds? James Bond?

Don't forget that America comes from British stock, bub. Our imperial spirit is genetically inherited from the last great western empire--YOURS.

That said, "Watchmen" is one of my favorite books ever and the movie was actually pretty enjoyable, even for a purist like me. You might be surprised if you went and saw it.

And I agree that Hollywood does suck, but it will ALWAYS suck if someone doesn't try to change it.

Yeah, this guy is a total fart sniffer. I am sooo sick of hearing whiny Brits telling Americans what they are or what we think. Are there lame Americans? Absolutely. Policies that benefit "Corporate America"? Absolutely. But the British have become the ultimate hypocrites. Just because the world has passed the UK by and are they become the equivolent to middle management in world politics, it's not all right for any other nation to ensure their nations safety and prosperity, because they no longer control the world's destiny.What's funny is that all these leftist Brits try soo hard to make it seem like their little, insignificant nation is somehow relevant, or even more laughable, innocent of crimes against humanity. To sit there and act like the British are some sort of community of martyrs and not one of the biggest profiteers of other peoples suffering is outrageous. The United States and its people have a looong way to go before they can even be considered in the same neighborhood of British imperialism. If the Brits were able to, they would still be operating their nefarious imperialism on the world and these leftist Brits would rationalize it just like most Americans do with their governments actions throughout the world.Moore is guilty of "when in doubt, blame American Imperialism". How uncreative. What a fool he is for associating the complete lack of creativity in Hollywood(with which I generally agree) with American Imperialism. What a stretch.

Hahaha! Well, thats a simplified view of the world if I ever heard one...almost as if we were in a comic book!!
First of all, talented as the man is, there are plenty of Hollywood writers that are more talented then he is. There are uncreative films in Hollywood, but why are we judging by the worst? Hollywood is still an incredible institution, and are responsible for all of my favorite films. The guy is just like a PC billboard. The whole James Bond thing is easy to explain tho. I think the guy is simply dead set against a successful heterosexual. Sure that sounds silly, but look at him?

where he was asking why people dont make their own superheroes i think its because there are no more original superheroes to be made, marvel with their vast amount of powers makes it hard to come up with new powers, DC with their more realistic superheroes like batman and watchmen now with their gritty style of crime fighting, its real hard to even think of a new superhero before researching the guy youll make and finding out...damn its been done