hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr0347.txt

Episode: 347
Title: HPR0347: Watchmen: the motion comic
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr0347/hpr0347.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-07 16:58:54

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Hello and welcome to Hacker Public Radio, this is Dave again, and in today's episode
of Hacker Public Radio I want to do a movie review, but I don't know if you would call
this a movie or not.
The listeners of Hacker Public Radio are probably familiar with the graphic novel Watchmen,
I have probably seen the Motion Picture Watchmen that came out March 6th, I think, and may
have even heard me review the graphic novel and the movie in past episodes of my own podcast.
Today I want to talk about something I've seen online on the DC Comics website, but I've
never watched one of these, and it is a motion comic.
When I was in Walmart a couple of weeks ago, and I saw for $13.99, the complete motion
comic of Watchmen, it's 12 episodes and the front of the DVD cover says the complete
motion comic, 12 episodes, the graphic novel comes to life, page by page, watchmen for
mature audiences.
The back of the DVD box says the entire Watchmen graphic novel comes to life, and the little
burb on the back says, watched any great books lately.
Now you can, the most celebrated graphic novel of all time that broke the conventional
mold, continues to break new ground, Watchmen co-creator and illustrator Dave Gibbons
oversees the digital version of the graphic novel that adds limited motion, voice and sound
to the book strikingly drawn panels.
All 12 chapters of the story are here over five hours spanning everything from the mysterious
demise of the comedian to the Chris Cross destinies of loosely allied superheroes to their
faithful impact on the world, being the know be watching with Watchmen the complete motion
comic.
It's five and a half hours long, it's two DVDs, and it is great.
It is just like watching a book, it's like watching the graphic novel.
I guess the added bonus of, with limits, I don't know how they do this, let me start there
I guess.
They've taken the original artwork from the book, I mean it is the book, frame by frame
more or less, they've added narration or a person reading all the words, they've added
music, and they've added limited motion.
The camera will zoom in to a frame, you don't see the frame per se, but each panel zoomed
in to or zoomed out off, so there's camera motion that way, inside the frames there is motion,
you will see hands move, chains on doors move, there is limited motion added, I have no idea
how they do this, but they do a really good job.
It adds a dimension to the graphic novel, and I've read Watchmen probably four times in
watching the Watchmen the motion comic, things are brought out that you don't, that I didn't
get reading the book, some of the continuity between seemingly non-continuous scenes are
brought out, that I didn't notice in reading the book four times, and this is, in my opinion,
better than the motion picture, it's not the entire book, they do leave out all the
under the hood stuff, but Tales of the Bike Frater is included, not the animated Tales
of the Bike Frater to survey the one DVD now, but the Tales of the Bike Frater is shown
in the book, this is the book with limited motion, music, and narration, sound effects,
that kind of thing, it is, it's amazing, if you've not read the Watchmen, or don't feel
like watching the Watchmen, you can, excuse me, if don't feel like reading the Watchmen,
I recommend that you do anyway, you can pick up the DVD for $13.99, and it's 325 minutes,
and it is well worth the watch, it is not rated, it contains mature content, some viewers
may find, may not find so, it won't interpret for viewers younger than 17, well worth it,
pick it up, I think you'll enjoy it, thanks for listening.
Thank you for listening to Half the Public Radio, HPR is sponsored by Pharaoh.net,
so head on over to C-A-R-O-O dot N-E-T for all of us in the U.S.
Thank you for listening to Half the Public Radio, HPR is sponsored by Pharaoh.