Dear Mr. Moore (Sage and Mystic of Northampton) I know how you must be feeling at the moment, unable to escape the marketing push for the latest screen version of one of your graphic novels. You certainly have every right to view the whole enterprise with suspicion and scorn, considering what a mess Hollywood has made of previous adaptations.

Things started badly with ‘From Hell’. An unholy mess that managed to cross ‘Carry on Screaming’ with ‘Mary Poppins’. (I’m thinking more bad cockney accents than dancing penguins) Out went the gothic musings on life and death, replaced instead with Johnny Depp’s doe eyed detective and Heather Graham as the tart with a heart. Did the film makers actually read the book? Or worse still, did they have any idea what Victorian London was really like?

If the film has any merit, it’s in making the two Ronnie’s ‘Phantom Rasberryblower of old London Town’ look like a masterpiece.

Next up was ‘The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’, a film so bad it’s enough to make a grown man cry (as I’m sure you’ve done on many occasions Mr Moore).

Everything that made the comic subversive, wild, dangerous and down right bizarre was jettisoned in favour of a child friendly romp round a badly constructed set of the East end.

Where were the sly literary allusions, the deranged Rupert bear, the buggery and the Martians?

I can feel your pain Alan.

Things picked up slightly with ‘V for Vendetta’ - a pretty faithful adaptation with some good performances, but which ultimately lacked any real bite. It certainly didn’t capture the claustrophobic intensity of the comic. Still it was a real improvement on what had gone before and bode well for what was to come.

Which brings me to ‘Watchmen’.

I know you’ve taken your name off the project and pretty much dismissed it before having seen a single frame, but I think you may be pleasantly surprised. It’s an entertaining, thoughtful and close approximation of the comic. Everything that made the original original has been retained, with just enough updates to make it relevant.

Maybe not the masterpiece we’d have hoped for, but certainly one of the most audacious comic book movies for some time.

Maybe if you’re stuck for something to do one evening, you can watch it on DVD.

Best wishes.

A Fan

P.S I’m looking forward to the film version of ‘Lost girls’. Any thoughts on casting?