3 Reasons to Read Watchmen
3 Reasons to Read Watchmen
By Sam Newman
I recently read the graphic novel Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, and below are three
reasons why I think you should too. This graphic novel was listed on Time magazine’s 100 Best
Novels of all time.
Art style: While the art style in Watchmen is dated and bleak regarding the colors (according to
modern standards), you have to respect the amount of effort and detail put into each and every page.
If you consider that this book was published in the same year that the original Legend of Zelda came
out for the Nintendo Entertainment System (i.e., in 1985), your perspective will change and allow
you to realize how impressive the art is. You might be thinking to yourself, “Well Sam, technology
was not advanced enough at the time to make impressive graphics in video games,” and you would
be correct; but the artwork in Watchmen was still more ornate and vivacious than other comics that
came out during the same year. For example, take Secret Wars II by James Shooter and Allen L.
Milgrom and flip to a random page. You will notice that compared to a page in Watchmen there is less detail in the background and characters, and the color variety is way less developed.
Storytelling/plot: Do you like mystery books and superheroes? If so, then you will love Watchmen. In
this book, it is 1985, superheros have been outlawed, and the United states is at war with the Soviet
Union. I'll try to not spoil anything, but I will say that this book features multiple plot twists, fight
scenes, and some morality questions you can ask yourself at the end: (a) Is it OK for the government
to lie to the public in order to protect the peace?, and (b) is it ok to kill 100,000 people in order to
save 1,000,000 people? If you end up reading this awesome book, you will be happy to hear that
there is a Watchmen TV show on HBO with 9 hour-long episodes written by Damon Lindelof, who is
mainly known for working on the hit TV show Lost.
Bestselling: The Watchmen series is very popular, and I'm sure you have heard about it at least a few
times. Watchmen has sold over one million copies while changing comic books forever. It started a
new genre of comic books with dark themes, where the protagonists themselves have questionable
morality. As implied by the title of the book, one theme of the book is that
watchmen/heroes/authorities themselves also need to be watched (the book is a political satire about
the Ronald Reagan era/Cold War with Russia/arms race). Watchmen has also won the Hugo Award
from the World Science Fiction Convention, which is awarded to the best science fiction works of a
given year. Fun fact: Watchmen is the first comic book to have received the award, which definitely
shows its worth.
Great post! My favorite part of reading this is when you discuss the morality questions. I think that morality plays a great role in our society today, especially with the internet and privacy related rules. I also like how you talk about the art style. I have not read many graphic novels so it helps how you explained the art style.
ReplyDeleteSolid post. As someone who's read Watchmen multiple times before I think you covered quite a few of the important bases. Your statement about Gibbon's art is accurate in that it was more complex than other books coming out of that time, but it wasn't alone in that. The art of Stephen R. Bissette, John Totlebein, Rick Veitch, Brian Bolland, Frank Miller, Bernie Wrigtson, and David Mazzucchelli just to name a few were coming out concurrently with it at equal or higher quality. Most of the complexity of the work belongs to both Gibbons and Moore, as Moore would intricately outline each panel with scripts lasting longer than the comic itself, and the two put purpose, meaning, and intention behind almost every detail. Your section on the storytelling and plot was pretty spot on with the only thing I'd add being that the story is also structured as a deconstruction of the superhero genre, so a lot of elements of the book are made better if you're familiar with the tropes of that time. The finally thing I'll add is that Watchmen didn't "create a new genre of comic books" but rather caused significant change within the genre it satirizes. Overall pretty good work.
ReplyDeleteWatchmen is a great story, and I think that you really touched on a lot of the points that makes Watchmen so great. Like Lukas said, I also like how you brought in the morality aspect of the story because the general idea of Watchmen surrounds morality (at least that's how I think of it). Overall good review.
ReplyDeleteI've never read watchmen but I believe I watched the movie and found it somewhat boring. Perhaps the movie was a poor adaptation because judging by the content in your book, the actual comic should be pretty good. I like how you talk about the art style because that's a pretty important part of a comic and it's unique compared to other blog posts (although admittedly, it's mainly because they aren't about comics). I also like how you talk about its popularity because just hearing the thoughts of the writer of the blog post usually isn't enough. Knowing that a large portion of people in the world likes the story tells me a lot about how good the comic should be. I also think that the morality questions you pointed out were interesting because it immediately tells me how complex the story should be. It seems like the creator of the story spent a lot of time thinking through the storyline and that hard work seems to have payed off judging by the comic's popularity. I may decide to read this comic in my free time because once in a while, the movie comes to the front of my mind. And plus, we're in quarantine so it's like there's much else to do.
ReplyDeleteI liked this review a lot. Great explanation of the plot, and themes that occur throughout. I might have to check this book out for myself. Overall great job.
ReplyDeleteIt is really interesting that you chose a comic book. This is because, in my view, comic books are more difficult to analyze than novels. I don't know why I think this but you did a great job of describing the color and the real life situation (the year, technology, etc.) and I really enjoyed this blog post!
ReplyDeleteI read Watchmen a few years ago, and I found myself agreeing with everything in your blog post. The amount of plot twists in the graphic novel is really interesting, and the fact that the Watchmen are portrayed as complex rather than stereotypical perfect superheroes defenitely made it a thought-provoking read.
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