Graphic Novel: WATCHMEN by Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons

I suppose I should have known better than to start off with a novel based on The Wizard of Oz. I guess that's not particularly manly subject matter, particularly given that the main character is female, so only those whose manliness is so powerful as to not be in question (namely me and my brother) felt confident enough to post a response. Still, you should give that book a chance. It's worthwhile. So is this next selection, however, and I fear it too may be met with scoffing. After all, it's just a comic book, right?

Wrong. Though the comics had always had their dirty little underbelly (often in the form of "adult" comics, for example), a funny thing happened in the mid-80s. The rise of two talents with a dystopic vision of the future shifted the subject matter, the audience, and the critical reception of comics and graphic novels to a more mature and serious tone. Those two men were Frank Miller and Alan Moore. Miller (whose work I'll probably examine in future reviews) wrote such classic pieces as The Dark Knight Returns - probably the single most influential Batman comic ever written since Bob Kane developed the character in 1939. He went on to write gritty noir comics such as the acclaimed Sin City series and remains a popular writer and artist today.

Writer Alan Moore's relationship to the comics has not been quite so straightforward or so comfortable (though certainly Miller has had his share of disagreements with the industry. First of all, he looks like this:

But don't let that stop you. The author of such well-known works as From Hell and V for Vendetta, as well as the immensly popular The League of Extraordinary Gentlement (which, despite being brilliant in print form, was unfortunately adapted as that ridiculously bad film with Sean Connery), Moore is probably one of the most well-read and complicated figures in the industry. He's dark and intelligent, and for the most part so are his comic creations.

Perhaps the best example of this is his postmodern superhero epic Watchmen. Let me just get this out of the way: If you're going to read only one graphic novel in your life, it should probably be this one. Published by DC Comics (with whom Moore has an extemely rocky relationship), Watchmen picks up the superhero genre, brushes off all the fluff, and then drills to its rocky core.

It is 1985 and superheros are real, though few have actual super powers. Masked avengers, who became popular in the 30s and 40s, have been outlawed since 1977. The two heros still working (sanctioned by the government as weapons in the Cold War of course) use any means necessary to keep the balance of power in place and to prevent the world from slipping into nuclear war. Then one of them is murdered. Former masked crimefighters are being removed from the picture one by one. Is there a Mask Killer at work? Is this a government conspiracy? Are the Russians making their move to take over the world? And can anything stop World War III?


Though more than two decades old, Watchmen continues to hold up today. Moore is an incredibly self-aware author, deftly exploring the psychology of his heroes (memorable figures like Rorschach, Nite Owl, the Silk Specter, and Ozymandias), the terror of nuclear annihilation, the price of freedom, and other issues that are still relevant today. As a complement to Moore's writing, Gibbons' artwork is superb. His lines are spare but his pictures are detailed, and the artist has an eye for unique angles. The book is dense--it takes about as long to read as a typical novel--and involves multiple storylines, narrators, and comics within comics. After each "graphic" section there are 2-4 pages of text which complement the story--sections from characters' memoirs, news clippings, business documents, and more. The result is an engrossing and compelling work, fiction at its finest. It's not without cause that Watchmen is the only graphic novel to make Time magazine's list of 100 Greatest Novels Since 1923 (why 1923 I have no idea).

I was captivated from start to finish. There are elements of noir, of detective mystery, of fantasy, of science fiction, and of course of superheroism. The characters are realistic (rarely one-sided) and interesting. Rorschach in particular is a fascinating figure, and though I'd love to see more of him, I really like that these characters haven't been diluted by having their own spin-off series, or what have you. The world of Watchmen is self-contained, and that's a good thing. It would be disappointing if other DC characters (like Superman or Batman) showed up, or if these characters appeared elsewhere. It adds to keeping this graphic novel a unique experience. But believe me, this is one experience worth having. I don't want to overtalk the book, but I'm confident it will surpass your expectations.