Watchmen stuff I found on eBay

Watchmen-mania is kicking wild balls right now thanks to the movie opening next weekend, and that means we've all started seeing that black and yellow logo everywhere. The merchandising for the movie already popped off, too, with Halloween costumes and books and coffee and so on.

So I looked on eBay for fun (cause that's what I do for fun) to see what kind of Watchmen crap people were selling and I was surprised to see a lot of older merchandise I'd never seen before. Here's some of the stuff I found:

DC COMICS SPOTLIGHT #1

The DC SPOTLIGHT series was a freebie DC sent to retailers back in the '80s and they acted as previews to the coming year's new titles. This first issue was released in 1985 and features a page on a new series called Watchmen. Yep, this is the first appearance of Watchmen. It's currently going for over $150 on eBay, but before you hardcore fans drop that cash on a copy, here's a secret: The "first appearance" is only one page. And it can be seen below:



No, I know it's a tiny version, and you can't really read it. I have another picture somewhere on my computer, so if I ever find it, I'll post it here. But there you have it.It's just a quick write-up on the book, and it features the art used on the new hardcover edition of the collected series.

WATCHMEN WATCH

Yay! Alliteration! This timepiece was released around the same time the book was in the '80s. I saw one for sale at a comic shop in Texas around 2000, and even then I thought it was ugly.

WATCHMEN RPG 1

Yeah, there was a role-playing game in the '80s tied into the Watchmen universe. I actually saw this at a dollar store in Muskogee, Oklahoma when I was growing up around the early '90s and passed it by. I'd heard of Watchmen, but didn't care at the time. I believe I was busy reading about Superman dying or some other very important comic book event.

WATCHMEN RPG 2

How boss does this look? Looks like a Nintendo cartridge package or something. Anyways, this is another role-playing game booklet. Note the blood platter-free smiley face button on the right shoulder of the Comedian.

WATCHMEN RPG 3

This is the one I think I;d like to have. Something to do with Rorschach's journal. I believe they used content in this one, which was over-seen by Gibbons and Moore, to help build that video game they're making.

WATCHMEN RPG FIGURE SET

These were little metal figures tied to the role-playing game. There was the box and inside were the little metal guys you could paint and play with. I have no RPG experience beyond trying to play Dungeons & Dragons with a couple friends in high school at a sleepover for about 20 minutes before the guy who was our dungeon master got SUPER pissed at us for giggling and had his mom come and pick him up early. Even still, I wonder if this RPG was any good by regular players' standards. Seems to me this woulda been rad to play in someone's basement in 1986. Here's a closer view of the pieces:


I almost snagged this at a Wizard World Philadelphia show a couple years ago from this really old - but totally nice - retailer guy for $10 before I decided it was a stupid idea and went right on living my life. What the hell was I gonna do with metal figures of the Watchmen characters? And that all brings us to this baby:

WATCHMEN RPG POSTER

This was a poster for the role-playing game. I like comic posters a lot, and there wasn't one other than this (that I know of) for Watchmen that was also all in color.

Up next, I plan on posting all the '80s comics fan press stuff I have on Watchmen. Keep your eyes peeled!