[REVIEWS] Book: Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

[thewlisian_afer]

Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

Watchmen is a twelve-issue comic book limited series written by Alan Moore, and illustrated by Dave Gibbons and John Higgins. Originally published by DC Comics as a monthly limited series from 1986 to 1987, it was later republished as a trade paperback, which popularized the "graphic novel" format. To date, Watchmen remains the only graphic novel to win a Hugo Award, and is also the only graphic novel to appear on one of Time's lists of "the 100 best English-language novels", an annual feature of the magazine since it was founded in 1923.

Watchmen is set in 1985, in an alternate history of the United States where costumed adventurers are real and the country is edging closer to a nuclear war with the Soviet Union; throughout the books, the Doomsday Clock is shown gradually ticking towards midnight. It tells the story of a group of past and present heroes and superheroes and the events surrounding the mysterious murder of one of their own. Watchmen depicts heroes as real people who must confront ethical and personal issues, who struggle with neuroses and failings, and who—with one notable exception—lack anything immediately recognizable as accepted super powers. Watchmen's deconstruction of the conventional superhero archetype, combined with its innovative adaptation of cinematic techniques and heavy use of symbolism, multi-layered dialogue, and metafiction, has influenced both comics and film.

(Taken from Wikipedia; 29 Sept 2008)

~*Caped crusaders*~ are not my thing. I'm not a superhero fan. It's a sad fact, but it is still a fact. So I wasn't expecting to love Watchmen. I certainly wasn't expecting to dislike it at all, but I figured I'd read it, be like, "Eh. Not bad," give a lukewarm review and either stick it on a shelf and mostly forget about it or pass it on to someone else without expecting my copy back.

That's not how it went down.

Wow, guys. Wow. Just... Wow. I might fall asleep hugging this book for a few days. I think if I really started writing all my thoughts, I'd end up writing a huge-ass essay. There's just so much to this book, so many layers, so much ambiguity, so many things paralleling each other, so very much to think about. And I really don't want to write something really long. So I'm just going to mention what I liked the very best: the characters.

There was not a single character that I actually liked. There were one or two that I didn't hate. But for the most part, I found them varying degrees of horrible, from annoying to unlikable to despicable. But I found every single one of them absolutely fascinating. I never wished for any of them to go away when they were on the page, and the character I found the most heinous and off-putting was actually my favorite.

Oh, man. I have to read some other new stuff first, but I'm definitely rereading this. Maybe it'll be my first reread for next year when my reading goals are reset. Awesome, awesome stuff.

Comments

[fizzylizard.livejournal.com]

As a fan of graphic novels in general, should I look into this?

[thewlisian-afer.livejournal.com]

Oh, definitely. I'd recommend this to pretty much anyone, even if they weren't a fan of the format -- I think it might convert them. But if you already like graphic novels, definitely. Run, do not walk, to find a copy.