I actually saw Art Spiegelman speak at a college a few years ago.
Two cool points:
1.) I don't know if he still does this but when he autographs your copy of "Maus" in about three seconds he amazingly draws a mouse with a word balloon saying "Hi, your name!" He must have done it thousands of times so that's why he's fast at it but it's really cool.
2.) The school had JUST instituted a Draconian smoking policy. Absolutely no smoking in ANY building and only in small 5' x 5' sections outside of buildings. Anyhow, Art Spiegelman smokes. Rather, chain smokes. Amazingly. In the span of a two hour+ talk he must have gone through half a pack. Plus, he pulled the "light your new cigarette off the old one" trick. It was great to see the administration look like such hypocrites.
As for "The Watchmen", I really hate to say this because I sound like a broken record but isn't it really overrated? Maybe not Beatles/Saturday Night Live/Monty Python/Springsteen overrated/awful but especially the ending? It slowly built to an explosive climax and then...?
Not only did Moore's editor hate the ending, I think Moore readily admits that the ending is stolen from an episode of "The Twilight Zone." "The Watchmen" is so anti-climactic.
If you like "Fables", Miss P (which I think is so-so) I suggest you search for the first twelve fifteen issues of "The Elementals" which is a comic book Bill Willingham both wrote and drew back in the 80's.
Brian
P.S. "The Watchmen" isn't nearly as overrated as "The Dark Knight Returns", though. That's borderline garbage.
