Over at THE BEAT, ex-Vertigo editor turned best-damned-newshound in comics Heidi MacDonald discusses what DC supremo Paul Levitz has dubbed "the Watchmen paradox". Namely, if every quantifiable comics reader in the Anglophone world already owns a copy of the Alan Moore meisterwerk, how come DC keep selling so many copies of it, year in, year out? Don't really have anything to add: it's a good piece, her conclusions are sound (Rich Johnston makes a similar point every time he points out the ongoing UK sales success that is VIZ), but it reminded me of the time I started a conversation with a guy on the tube reading a copy of the book back in 1988. The guy didn't know anything about comics or Alan Moore. He'd just read a review in a trendy mag and gave it a go. Plus, I think he was amazed at the fact that someone started a conversation with him on the tube. Especially an Irishman (the Eighties equivalent of an Arab with a backpack). Those crazy English, eh?