On Friday, we asked you if, in light of Alan Moore’s protestations about adapting his work, certain comics should be off-limits from being adapted. 59.6% of you said that should not be the case, with everything available for others to adapt. Let’s unpack this a bit.
On one hand, I appreciate the fact that our readers want to see their favorite comics transcend their medium of origin. There have been some really fun/great adaptations in the past, and I understand not wanting to lose those opportunities.
On the other, the 40.4% of our readership is, likely, thinking about creator rights. For Moore and Dave Gibbons, they still receive royalties from the sale of “Watchmen,” but they do not own it, despite creating all the characters. DC and Marvel have reprinted stuff for years simply to keep the copyright active and avoid works slipping into the public domain and/or reverting to the creators. Is that fair? Well, it depends on how you define the word. They knew what they were getting into when they were doing work for hire, but DC hasn’t exactly been altruistic on their end, either.
This is obviously a tough issue, and there isn’t a hard and fast rule for what is and isn’t appropriate. But the reality is that adaptations are going to stop anytime soon, whether creators are for them or not.
