Watchmen | 
 enlarge | Authors: Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons
Publisher: DC Comics
Category: Book
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $10.28
You Save: $9.71 (49%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  446 reviews
Sales Rank: 2
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 10.1 x 6.6 x 0.8
ISBN: 0930289234
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780930289232
ASIN: 0930289234
Publication Date: April 1, 1995
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW FACTORY SEALED SUPER FAST SHIPPING
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Amazon.com
Has any comic been as acclaimed as Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen? Possibly only Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, but Watchmen remains the critics' favorite. Why? Because Moore is a better writer, and Watchmen a more complex and dark and literate creation than Miller's fantastic, subversive take on the Batman myth. Moore, renowned for many other of the genre's finest creations (Saga of the Swamp Thing, V for Vendetta, and From Hell, with Eddie Campbell) first put out Watchmen in 12 issues for DC in 1986-87. It won a comic award at the time (the 1987 Jack Kirby Comics Industry Awards for Best Writer/Artist combination) and has continued to gather praise since. The story concerns a group called the Crimebusters and a plot to kill and discredit them. Moore's characterization is as sophisticated as any novel's. Importantly the costumes do not get in the way of the storytelling; rather they allow Moore to investigate issues of power and control--indeed it was Watchmen, and to a lesser extent Dark Knight, that propelled the comic genre forward, making "adult" comics a reality. The artwork of Gibbons (best known for 2000AD's Rogue Trooper and DC's Green Lantern) is very fine too, echoing Moore's paranoid mood perfectly throughout. Packed with symbolism, some of the overlying themes (arms control, nuclear threat, vigilantes) have dated but the intelligent social and political commentary, the structure of the story itself, its intertextuality (chapters appended with excerpts from other "works" and "studies" on Moore's characters, or with excerpts from another comic book being read by a child within the story), the finepace of the writing and its humanity mean that Watchmen more than stands up--it keeps its crown as the best the genre has yet produced. --Mark Thwaite
Product Description
Has any comic been as acclaimed as Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen? Possibly only Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, but Watchmen remains the critics' favorite. Why? Because Moore is a better writer, and Watchmen a more complex and dark and literate creation than Miller's fantastic, subversive take on the Batman myth. Moore, renowned for many other of the genre's finest creations (Saga of the Swamp Thing, V for Vendetta, and From Hell, with Eddie Campbell) first put out Watchmen in 12 issues for DC in 1986-87. It won a comic award at the time (the 1987 Jack Kirby Comics Industry Awards for Best Writer/Artist combination) and has continued to gather praise since.The story concerns a group called the Crimebusters and a plot to kill and discredit them. Moore's characterization is as sophisticated as any novel's. Importantly the costumes do not get in the way of the storytelling; rather they allow Moore to investigate issues of power and control--indeed it was Watchmen, and to a lesser extent Dark Knight, that propelled the comic genre forward, making "adult" comics a reality. The artwork of Gibbons (best known for 2000AD's Rogue Trooper and DC's Green Lantern) is very fine too, echoing Moore's paranoid mood perfectly throughout. Packed with symbolism, some of the overlying themes (arms control, nuclear threat, vigilantes) have dated but the intelligent social and political commentary, the structure of the story itself, its intertextuality (chapters appended with excerpts from other "works" and "studies" on Moore's characters, or with excerpts from another comic book being read by a child within the story), the finepace of the writing and its humanity mean that Watchmen more than stands up--it keeps its crown as the best the genre has yet produced. --MarkThwaite
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| Customer Reviews: Read 441 more reviews...
 Pure Awesome! July 24, 2008
This book is amazing. I cannot see why it is not more popular. I hope the movie is great.
WATCHMEN by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons July 24, 2008
Watchmen, written by Alan Moore and drawn by Dave Gibbons, was originally published as a 12-issue series in 1986 and 1987. It is set in a parallel 1980s America: the U.S. won the Vietnam War and Nixon is still President. The story is almost indescribably complex. It begins with the murder of a former superhero, and the suggestion that perhaps someone is killing them off.
There are seemingly dozens of characters here, all original to this work, but Moore does an excellent job of developing almost all of them, and of balancing their exposure levels. Indeed, half of Watchmen is character development, but it's well done, and almost never boring. There's plenty of action, too, including a suitably epic and very satisfying conclusion.
The characters are what make Watchmen great. There are so many fascinating and deep characters here, and Moore uses them to explore morality on virtually every level. For this is what Watchmen is on its basic level: a morality tale, albeit a fairly bleak one.
Dave Gibbons's drawing style is realistic, and on the whole it's quite good (although his overweight figures look a little stiff). It fits the story perfectly. As with Moore's V for Vendetta, Watchmen features no illustrated sound effects, and they are not particularly missed.
Watchmen is one of the greatest and most complex comics ever written, and it's held up well over time. There's so much going on here that it virtually demands (and benefits from) multiple readings.
 Superfolks Was First July 24, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
Tons of readers are giving credit to Moore for inventing the neurotic superhero. But Kurt Busiek doesn't. Nor does Grant Morrison. Nor do most superhero writers. They give the credit to Superfolks, a comic novel (not graphic) that came out in 1977. With a quote from Nietzsche. With the smiley yellow face. With a superhero up to his neck in personal problems. And with a lot more humor.
Superfolks clearly "inspired" Moore to write Watchmen.
So check it out on Amazon. Don't just take my word for it, because I'm biased. I wrote it.
A Book Everyone Can Enjoy July 23, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I did not expect to like this book half so much. This is a book everyone can enjoy. I would recommend as a gift for someone who likes to read.
if the movie is half the novel, dark knight will only be atop the comic world for 8 more months July 22, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
How can i describe Watchmen? Suppose that one was to rate movies and books for what you would pay for the chance to enjoy them, not for their overall influence on society, but for your own enjoyment only. Value goes up, like all other goods, with low supply. So a movie like the Dark Knight, I would easily pay $60 or $70 to see. (glad i didn't have to.) Watchmen would fall in the several hundred dollar range. Every single chapter (episode, issue, whatever they're called) is completely engrossing.
As someone who enjoys the comic genre I feel that it is ok for characters to be repetitive in their abilites. When many reviewers referred to the individual powers in The Incredibles (pixar) as remarkably creative I scoffed, all were rehashes. But I also didn't hold that against the movie. So many types of heroes are reused that I don't expect them to be original. So I was all the more amazed when I found in Watchmen characters that were original. Rorsharch, Dr. Manhattan, Ozymandas, The Comedian, (ok maybe the Night Owl is a Batman ripoff) are all completely... completely unique... and here's the kicker, there's a reason they haven't been copied. Because Moore created them for this exact story. They are unique products of their world and any writer who tried to use them in another story would be unable to transpose them correctly.
The thing is, the entirety of the novel is like this. other unique story telling aspects, such as the comic within the novel, and the historical interludes, are delivered in a way as if the story telling required it, so Moore had no choice but to create it.
It is completely rereadable. In fact, it is compulsively rereadable. Don't leave it on a readily available shelf because it will end up back in your hands.
I've decided, I would pay $500 for Watchmen. Glad I don't have to.
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