Watchmen (Moore)

Watchmen
Written by Alan Moore,
Artist Dave Gibbons, and Colorist John Higgins (1987)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

I know this is Moore's story, but the artwork really drives it, sometimes incredibly so. Also, I added the colorist's name (above) along with the artist because the colors and shading were a major part of the atmosphere.

Alan Moore's Watchmen started publishing around the time I graduated college. I had friends who were really into it. Finally, a friend loaned me his trade paperback -- he overestimated the speed at which I read. Anyway, I have vague recollections of the story. And I remember the extra material wasn't exactly extra -- the stuff at the end was similar to online extras for movies these days. One of the problems I had back then was that the first couple of issues had fake excerpts of a biography of one of the heroes. It was several pages of small print. I don't read comic books for multiple pages of small print. If I wanted to do that, I'd just read a book -- and back then, I didn't read that many books. This was mostly because I didn't read quickly, didn't set a lot of time aside for reading, and often picked the wrong books.

Ironically, my graphic novel class is the reason I picked this up again. I would love to share this with my students but I just can't. Nothing wrong with the story, but the copy came from my brother's apartment and it's from the 80s. I can't say that it's a first printing or anything like that, but it's valuable to me sentimentally more than monetarily. And my students are just not into my class. It's "basket weaving" to them. Many of them can't even read English, and without the use of their phones, they can't translate the text. Basically, they don't care and wouldn't appreciate it. So I'm protecting this book, and I'll find others for them.

For those unaware, this was probably the first deconstruction of superheroes. (If not the first, it was the first one to make a splash this loud!) The heroes were based on the Charlton characters that DC acquired, but the concept was so out there that the characters would be forever tainted and unusable ever again. So the serial numbers were filed off and the story redone.

Reading this nearly 40 years later, it's amazing to see not only how well it holds up but to compare it with more modern graphic novels, or even comic book collections published as trade paperbacks (but not necessarily one complete story). I don't read so many regular comics any more, but, of course, I've upped the number of graphic novels. The nine-panel per page layout is a bit of a throwback just in itself. And now that I'm teaching about these comics, I'm noticing things, such as how the story manages to switch focus at the end of the page, and when it doesn't, the first pages of the following page serve as a transition. I noticed the reuse of a lot of artwork as themes and moments (and time in general) are repeated. That must've saved a bit of time.

I actually put the physical book aside for a while and waited for the ebook to be available from the library. Regardless, I still read the physical book in class on Fridays in front of my students. But the ebook had two advantages: first, zooming in on the dialogue and the backgrounds, second, screen grabs of images that I'd like to use in class next year. I was taking photos with my phone (fair use), but they are warped from bent pages and they have light reflecting. Many websites that I visit for information about graphic novels will use images from Watchmen, so I figured this would be the best way. If nothing else, I could replace the photos I took.

Moving on...

Once again, I skipped the additional material at the end of each chapter (issue) and went back to them later. Some of the stuff that I remembered was stuff people had told me from those pages. I came back to them before the book was due back at the library. The novel was probably the worst to get through. The sheer variety of the material was intriguing, even being true the subject matter, including typos or bad typesetting. I wonder how much time and effort went into making those right, as opposed to writing the regular book. If nothing else, you got the sense that the world really thought that the costumed heroes were a little nutty particularly after the villains traded in their crazy clothing for well-manicured suits. The real enemy of the 1950 (other than McCarthyism, of course) was organized crime. Even the Superman TV show went there - fighting organized crime instead of Lex Luthor or Brainiac.

If anything, I had a better feel for the older period, the past of the story, then I might've had 40 years ago when that stuff was only 40 years old. One thing that still stands out was Rorshach's origin, or at least, the origin of his mask, which was tied to Kitty Genovese, which was something that I learned about in college or somewhat afterward. I might've heard the story before that and hadn't known the name.

I didn't remember a lot of the imagery, especially involving the Comedian. Looking at it now, it's obvious. But, hey, I think I rushed to read it the first time so I could give it back.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.