DC Comics announces Watchmen Prequels

DC is announcing today the long rumored set of Watchmen prequels. According to the Wasau Daily Herald who looks to have jumped embargo in a story by Brian Truitt:

Under its DC Comics banner, DC Entertainment is reviving characters from the beloved and seminal graphic novel Watchmen for seven prequels collectively titled Before Watchmen.

The comics will feature all of the heroes — and antiheroes — who writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons created in the 1986-87 Watchmen series, which was later collected as a graphic novel. Those characters will star in miniseries by some of the company’s top writers, including:

- Brian Azzarello (who’s penning Rorschach and Comedian)

- Darwyn Cooke (Minutemen, Silk Spectre)

- J. Michael Straczynski (Dr. Manhattan, Nite Owl)

- Original Watchmen editor Len Wein (Ozymandias)

The artists for the books, which will come out once a week, were not named except for the back-up story, Curse of the Crimson Corsair, written by Wein, with art by Watchmen colorist John Higgins.

Amanda Conner is speculated to be the artist on Silk Spectre and J.G. Jones the artist on the Comedian based on art obtained by Bleeding Cool.

UPDATE: Apparently the embargo was 6AM EST because the story is breaking in the mainstream and comic media and on the Source. Here are the creator teams from the Source:

-      RORSCHACH (4 issues) – Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: Lee Bermejo
-      MINUTEMEN (6 issues) – Writer/Artist: Darwyn Cooke
-      COMEDIAN (6 issues) – Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: J.G. Jones
-      DR. MANHATTAN (4 issues) – Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artist:  Adam Hughes
-      NITE OWL (4 issues) – Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artists: Andy and Joe Kubert
-      OZYMANDIAS (6 issues) – Writer: Len Wein. Artist: Jae Lee

-      SILK SPECTRE (4 issues) – Writer: Darwyn Cooke. Artist: Amanda Conner

I’ve been waiting for this announcement for a while. I had originally heard that it was going to be announced at New York Comic Con in September and there were rumblings as far back as the Spring.