After Watchmen, What's Next?

Ever since reading Watchmen and then the series Transmetropolitan, by Warren Ellis, I've always thought that it seemed to draw a lot from Watchmen. Transmetropolitan is described on wikipedia as a "postcyberpunk" comic series. It was written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Darick Robertson, and was published by DC comics from 1997 to 2002. It basically tells the story of Spider Jerusalem, a journalist that does a copious amount of drugs and fights the corruption of two consecutive U.S. presidents, "The Beast" and "The Smiler" by writing scathing articles about them that reveal how horrible they are.

To me the setting of Transmetropolitan is very reminiscent of Watchmen, in the way that they're both kind of futuristic and the end of humanity seems eminent. The political and societal commentary going on in both of the works is also very similar, and there is some imagery in Transmetropolitan that is most definitely related to symbols that reappear throughout Watchmen. For example, this smiley face symbol with three eyes that is the symbol of the Transient Movement in Transmetropolitan looks a lot like the smiley face of Watchmen:

Watchmen smileyTransmetropolitan smiley

Apparently DC Comics realizes how similar these two series are, and Warren Ellis has written on his blog that DC has developed a new marketing campaign based on the success of the Watchmen movie, hoping to find more comic book readers by selling cheaper, or "promotionally-priced" comics such as Transmetropolitan. I'm just going to post what Warren Ellis posted on his blog because it seems to be straight from DC Comics:

"The excitement surrounding the upcoming WATCHMEN feature film has brought new readers to the graphic novel format. Now that they’ve read WATCHMEN, where do they go next? Help point them in the right direction with DC Comics’ “AFTER WATCHMEN, WHAT’S NEXT?” program.

DC Comics has developed a marketing campaign that spotlights several award-winning, best-selling titles from our various imprints. Each book reflects an aspect of WATCHMEN’s broad appeal — including other works by Alan Moore, science fiction tales, post-modern super hero action and sophisticated titles for mature readers — and is a great entry point for both new fans just discovering graphic novels and established readers looking to try something new.

The program is supported by an extensive marketing campaign including five promotionally-priced reprint Specials which are rush solicited below.

The marketing campaign includes:

Five “AFTER WATCHMEN, WHAT’S NEXT?” Specials featuring a cover price of just $1.00:

• SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING #21 SPECIAL EDITION
• TRANSMETROPOLITAN #1 SPECIAL EDITION
• PLANETARY #1 SPECIAL EDITION
• PREACHER #1 SPECIAL
• IDENTITY CRISIS #1 SPECIAL"

I've only heard before of the first three comics on this list, but I know Saga of the Swamp Thing is by Alan Moore, and both Transmetropolitan and Planetary are by Warren Ellis. It's an interesting marketing campaign, and I wonder how exactly DC came to the decision that these 5 comics are the most similar to Watchmen that they have published. Whatever their criteria, Warren Ellis doesn't seem to happy about being marketed as second place to Alan Moore. He wrote this on his blog: "I am the bag of sweets that DC, wrapped in a filthy mac, will be holding in their hand as the kids leave the cinema." I'm not even sure what he really means by this (wrapped in a filthy mac?), but he doesn't sound very happy.