Max Shea and Hira Manish in Watchmen

Max Shea and Hira Manish

Duped into creating Veidt’s giant alien squid (Shea writes the story and Manish designs the beastie) these lovers die in each other’s arms on the Pyramid cruise ship, along with all the other writers, artists, and scientists in Veidt’s employ. Earlier, on their island studio, Shea, Manish et al. truly believe they’re working on a movie, and have no idea Veidt intends to turn their creativity into a WMD (weapon of mass destruction). Shea is also important for being the creator of Tales from the Black Freighter, the comic within the comic. Do writers and artists pay a price for selling out? That’s a question Alan Moore seems interested in asking.