Alan Moore takes ‘Watchmen’ movie money to sue DC for print rights reversion

by Glenn Hauman on April 1st, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Posted In: News

The clock has reached midnight. The unthinkable has happened, and soon, so will the worst case scenario.

In what may go down as the biggest sucker-punch to hit DC Comics since the Superboy lawsuit, Alan Moore has reversed his position on taking money from the film version of Watchmen. The reason is elegant and ironic; he’s using the money to fund a lawsuit against DC, with the intent of forcing a reversion of rights to the print edition of Watchmen.

Watchmen has been the all-time best selling graphic novel for the two decades since its collected release, and has enjoyed a major surge in the last few months with anticipation from the movie, topping bestseller lists and becoming the #1 book sold on Amazon in early March.

It’s unclear, at this point in time, what this will do to DC’s backlist sales, which revolve around the mega-seller. Further complicating the issue is that Moore has filed an injunction against both DC and Diamond preventing the further sale of any additional copies of Watchmen from their inventory. An American judge is expected to rule on the motion later today; a ruling has already come down in England in Alan’s favor, which has caused the suspension of all UK sales. Stores are apparently scrambling for back issues and used copies over there, as it’s the only thing they can legally sell.

Stay tuned, we’ll have more as it develops. We anticipate an announcement from DC as soon as people get into the offices.