Watchmen
By Alan Moore
14 Karma Points
Customer Reviews
Alan Moore's masterpiece The Watchmen should have a spot on every comic aficionado's bookshelf. It has been hailed as the graphic novel that started a revolution in comics, and I like to agree with that sentiment. I was not around when it first came out, and I only just got to reading it, but I can see why it still stands as a solid piece of work thirty years after it ended. The Watchmen is indeed a classic!
Where to begin? Well, let us start with the lesser of its achievements, the art. The line work is crisp and clean, the anatomy realistic, and its action scenes flow like poetry (to say the least). The character designs were set in the early eighties, so they are a bit dated, yet for the most part you feel you could meet these people in your very own city. For me, my favorite thing was the use of color - each scene oozes atmosphere, and you can tell thought and effort was put into the coloring of each panel. All and all, it is superb.
What really makes this different from pretty pictures, and truly a graphic novel, is Moore's writing. The man is a genius. He took something that, for years, had been dumbed down for children's consumption, and made it for adults. After The Watchmen debuted, no one could say that superhero comics were kid's realms. It was truly what the stale comics scene needed at the time. It changed the scene - leaving a standard writers and artists continue living up to today.
Moore's first big achievement in The Watchmen is setting up a realistic and consistent world. Not only did he use the comic to do this, but between each chapter he would add textual tidbits - such as newspaper clippings from the story's world - to further expand the alternate reality. It draws you in, and upon a second reading makes you go "Oh! Now I see what he did there." Each line, each piece of dialogue, every panel is meant to further along the plot, faster and faster on to the final conclusion.
Then there is the recurring symbolism and motifs, something you don't really see anymore in any medium. The story makes continuous references: patterns stitch together where there once was nothing, subtly reminding the reader of what they are reading. Much of it is used to the effect of social commentary; some is there to bring a sense of unease; all of it is perfectly placed and never overused. Almost all of it is in the art, making another perfect example of why the graphic novel is such a powerful medium.
The most important thing, besides the groundbreaking plot, is The Watchmen's characters. Each and every one seems meticulously plotted out, their psychology slowly peeled open throughout the course of the book like a rare flower. Each character serves a purpose - each has their own motives, desires, and fears. They are memorable in their humanity. In real life, you do not see the ending before its due time, and The Watchmen reflects that. Until the final chapters we are left only guessing as to what great and terrible thing will happen to our heroes.
At the end, it will leave you asking - "Who watches the watchmen?"
Watchmen takes the comic genre to an entirely new level. The intricate plot and creative story telling mesh perfectly to give the reader a great expierience. While it does take a little while to get going, once it does it becomes a great read and a memorable one at that. The artwork helps paint the picture of Alan Moore's best writing. This is a must read for anyone who is in to comics or is curious about them. Buy it today!
Read this a few years ago. First graphic novel I read for pleasure (read Maus for a history class). Terrific story and images. Highly recommend. The movie did some justice to the story but do yourself a favor and read the novel.
I have nothing against comic books. They're fun. This one isn't. It's a heavy-handed (to the point of the author /spelling out/ the points he's making) and ultimately irritating in its lack of any real intellectual stimulation as a reward for the time required to read it.
The issue addressed is pretty much summed up by the title -- who watches the people with power? The question itself implies almost all the possible answers. Moore does little to explore the use and abuse of power in depth. And by introducing a character -- Dr Manhattan -- who is, for all practical purposes, omnipotent, he discards the possibility of analyzing the question of the moral responsibility of power in "the real world". Yet he misses the opportunity to compare/contrast Dr Manhattan with God, especially with regard to his/His behavior and responsibilites.
Alan Moore doesn't /really/ understand that comic books are fundamentally visual, which is why they're so heavily populated by super-heroes and other fantasy characters. Visual media (including motion pictures) don't easily lend themselves to philosophical discussions. Had "Watchmen" been a rousing adventure story in which the philosophical issues were the subtext, it would almost certainly have worked better.
I was expecting something special (especially considering TIME's encomium *). What I got was an intellectually and visually boring book (the fixed panel size is stultifying). And what can you say about an artist who wants to be taken seriously who includes a lesbian wrestling match? Fifteen-year-olds who know little about history or philosophy might find "Watchmen" stimulating. I don't think any reasonably well-educated adult will.
If you want to read good books that reward the time and effort needed to understand them, try Bobbitt's "The Shield of Achilles" or Barzun's "From Dawn to Decadence".
* Which also happens to be a piece of electronic music by Charles Wuorinen.
I hated this book with a heated passion. Some of my classmates loved it, but I would have rather burned it.
Where to begin? Well, let us start with the lesser of its achievements, the art. The line work is crisp and clean, the anatomy realistic, and its action scenes flow like poetry (to say the least). The character designs were set in the early eighties, so they are a bit dated, yet for the most part you feel you could meet these people in your very own city. For me, my favorite thing was the use of color - each scene oozes atmosphere, and you can tell thought and effort was put into the coloring of each panel. All and all, it is superb.
What really makes this different from pretty pictures, and truly a graphic novel, is Moore's writing. The man is a genius. He took something that, for years, had been dumbed down for children's consumption, and made it for adults. After The Watchmen debuted, no one could say that superhero comics were kid's realms. It was truly what the stale comics scene needed at the time. It changed the scene - leaving a standard writers and artists continue living up to today.
Moore's first big achievement in The Watchmen is setting up a realistic and consistent world. Not only did he use the comic to do this, but between each chapter he would add textual tidbits - such as newspaper clippings from the story's world - to further expand the alternate reality. It draws you in, and upon a second reading makes you go "Oh! Now I see what he did there." Each line, each piece of dialogue, every panel is meant to further along the plot, faster and faster on to the final conclusion.
Then there is the recurring symbolism and motifs, something you don't really see anymore in any medium. The story makes continuous references: patterns stitch together where there once was nothing, subtly reminding the reader of what they are reading. Much of it is used to the effect of social commentary; some is there to bring a sense of unease; all of it is perfectly placed and never overused. Almost all of it is in the art, making another perfect example of why the graphic novel is such a powerful medium.
The most important thing, besides the groundbreaking plot, is The Watchmen's characters. Each and every one seems meticulously plotted out, their psychology slowly peeled open throughout the course of the book like a rare flower. Each character serves a purpose - each has their own motives, desires, and fears. They are memorable in their humanity. In real life, you do not see the ending before its due time, and The Watchmen reflects that. Until the final chapters we are left only guessing as to what great and terrible thing will happen to our heroes.
At the end, it will leave you asking - "Who watches the watchmen?"
Watchmen takes the comic genre to an entirely new level. The intricate plot and creative story telling mesh perfectly to give the reader a great expierience. While it does take a little while to get going, once it does it becomes a great read and a memorable one at that. The artwork helps paint the picture of Alan Moore's best writing. This is a must read for anyone who is in to comics or is curious about them. Buy it today!
Read this a few years ago. First graphic novel I read for pleasure (read Maus for a history class). Terrific story and images. Highly recommend. The movie did some justice to the story but do yourself a favor and read the novel.
I have nothing against comic books. They're fun. This one isn't. It's a heavy-handed (to the point of the author /spelling out/ the points he's making) and ultimately irritating in its lack of any real intellectual stimulation as a reward for the time required to read it.
The issue addressed is pretty much summed up by the title -- who watches the people with power? The question itself implies almost all the possible answers. Moore does little to explore the use and abuse of power in depth. And by introducing a character -- Dr Manhattan -- who is, for all practical purposes, omnipotent, he discards the possibility of analyzing the question of the moral responsibility of power in "the real world". Yet he misses the opportunity to compare/contrast Dr Manhattan with God, especially with regard to his/His behavior and responsibilites.
Alan Moore doesn't /really/ understand that comic books are fundamentally visual, which is why they're so heavily populated by super-heroes and other fantasy characters. Visual media (including motion pictures) don't easily lend themselves to philosophical discussions. Had "Watchmen" been a rousing adventure story in which the philosophical issues were the subtext, it would almost certainly have worked better.
I was expecting something special (especially considering TIME's encomium *). What I got was an intellectually and visually boring book (the fixed panel size is stultifying). And what can you say about an artist who wants to be taken seriously who includes a lesbian wrestling match? Fifteen-year-olds who know little about history or philosophy might find "Watchmen" stimulating. I don't think any reasonably well-educated adult will.
If you want to read good books that reward the time and effort needed to understand them, try Bobbitt's "The Shield of Achilles" or Barzun's "From Dawn to Decadence".
* Which also happens to be a piece of electronic music by Charles Wuorinen.
I hated this book with a heated passion. Some of my classmates loved it, but I would have rather burned it.