EW takes first look at “Watchmen”

Entertainment Weekly talks to Zack Snyder about his adaptation of the Alan Moore-Dave Gibbons graphic novel “Watchmen.”  The cover shown is from EW’s Comic-Con preview issue.  (This is yet another sign, comic book fans — we won.)  Writer Alan Moore, however, isn’t thrilled:

“I increasingly fear that nothing good can come of almost any adaptation, and obviously that’s sweeping. There are a couple of adaptations that are perhaps as good or better than the original work. But the vast majority of them are pointless.”

I can see Moore’s argument — “Watchmen” works on its own, it sells well years after its original release. Does it need a movie? Will having a movie version mean people don’t feel they need to read the book?  It’s a situation I saw to some degree with “From Hell,” by Moore and Eddie Campbell.  My comic-book store sold the collected edition well from its original release, and sales increased through all the pre-movie hype.  After the film, sales fell off, and while we still sell some copies of the work, it’s not as many as it possibly should be, given the quality of the book.  I haven’t looked at specific numbers on these other books, but I wonder if the same could be said for “V for Vendetta,” “Sin City” or “300.”  Increasing sales up through the movie’s release, then numbers that settle below where the book was selling before the film.  In most cases, I think it’s still a win for the publisher — that surge sells more books than the slow-and-steady movement would have over a certain number of years — but is that true for “Watchmen,” a book that’s been one of the top comic store sellers since the original release in graphic novel form?