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Watchmen fans know that original creator Alan Moore isn’t a fan of HBO’s upcoming adaptation… and executive producer Damon Lindelof is OK with that.

The Lost veteran, who’s writing HBO’s new take on the revered graphic novel, addressed Moore’s surly reaction to the series at the Television Critics Association summer press tour on Wednesday. “Alan Moore is a genius,” Lindelof said, before admitting “he’s made it very clear that he doesn’t want to have any association or affiliation with Watchmen.” (Moore won’t even allow his name to be credited on the series.) But he admires Moore’s “punk rock spirit, rebellious spirit” and thinks if Moore were told back in the day that he couldn’t do something, “he would say, ‘F–k you. I’m doing it anyway… so I’m channeling the spirit of Alan Moore to tell Alan Moore, ‘F–k you. I’m doing it anyway.’

Lindelof is a huge Watchmen fan, and when he first signed on to pen the adaptation, he confesses, “I went through a very intensive period of terror of f–king it up, and I’m not entirely sure I’m out of that tunnel.” But, as he notes, “if I was too reverent, then I wouldn’t be able to do anything that was risky.”

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Watchmen — debuting in October on HBO — is a new take on Moore’s classic graphic novel “set in an alternate history where masked vigilantes are treated like outlaws” that takes quite a few liberties with the source material. (Several key characters from the original, including the blue-bodied Doctor Manhattan, will appear, though.) Emmy winner Regina King stars as cop Angela Abar, who now dons a mask and hood to take the law into her own hands. The supporting cast includes Jeremy Irons (as Ozymandias), Don Johnson, Jean Smart, Louis Gossett Jr. and Tim Blake Nelson.