Product Description

This Hugo Award-winning graphic novel chronicles the fall from grace of a group of super-heroes plagued by all-too-human failings. Along the way, the concept of the super-hero is dissected as the heroes are stalked by an unknown assassin.

One of the most influential graphic novels of all time and a perennial bestseller, WATCHMEN has been studied on college campuses across the nation and is considered a gateway title, leading readers to other graphic novels such as V FOR VENDETTA, BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS and THE SANDMAN series.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #42 in Books
• Published on: 1995-04-01
• Released on: 1995-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Amazon.com Review
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

Review
"A work of ruthless psychological realism, it’s a landmark in the graphic novel medium. It would be a masterpiece in any."
–TIME, TIME MAGAZINE’s 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present

Customer Reviews

Watchmen graphic novel
Great story, great artwork. Alan Moore tells an excellent tale of superheros and the human condition. An adult storyline, not for young children.

Watchman paperback review
This book is a phenomenal read. I had a really hard time putting it down from the moment I got it and finished it in two days. I highly recommend this book, both for its graphic style and for its story. It's a little eerie how this cold war era book rings true today, many years later.
I think this book is a great read for both comic and graphic novel fans as well as the casual reader. If you're looking at getting a friend into graphic novels, this is the book to use to hook them in.

As good as storytelling gets
I had heard quite a bit of the hype for Watchmen, particularly with the movie being announced. So I finally decided to give it a shot and see if it lived up to it.

It's so rare for any form of media to stand up to today's hype machine. Between the trailer for the movie, friends constantly talking it up, forums constantly talking it up. It's almost not fair to book, comics, games, music, etc. But this is one of the few things I've come across recently that lived up to - and shattered - all the hype. This is just plain phenomenal in every way.

If you're a fan of comics, if you're a fan of great artwork, if you're a fan of great storytelling. You'd be doing yourself a disservice by not reading this.

Get it! It's that simple!