The origin of Superheroes: Watchmen

[Javaman]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmen

Watchmen is an American comic book limited series by the British creative team of writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons and colorist John Higgins. It was published by DC Comics in 1986 and 1987, and collected in a single volume edition in 1987. Watchmen originated from a story proposal Moore submitted to DC featuring superhero characters that the company had acquired from Charlton Comics. As Moore's proposed story would have left many of the characters unusable for future stories, managing editor Dick Giordano convinced Moore to create original characters instead.

Moore used the story as a means to reflect contemporary anxieties and to deconstruct and parody the superhero concept. Watchmen depicts an alternate history where superheroes emerged in the 1940s and 1960s and their presence changed history so that the United States won the Vietnam War and the Watergate break-in was never exposed. In 1985, the country is edging toward World War III with the Soviet Union, freelance costumed vigilantes have been outlawed and most former superheroes are in retirement or working for the government. The story focuses on the personal development and moral struggles of the protagonists as an investigation into the murder of a government-sponsored superhero pulls them out of retirement.

Creatively, the focus of Watchmen is on its structure. Gibbons used a nine-panel grid layout throughout the series and added recurring symbols such as a blood-stained smiley face. All but the last issue feature supplemental fictional documents that add to the series' backstory, and the narrative is intertwined with that of another story, an in-story pirate comic titled Tales of the Black Freighter, which one of the characters reads. Structured at times as a nonlinear narrative, the story skips through space, time and plot. In the same manner, entire scenes and dialogue have parallels with others through synchronicity, coincidence and repeated imagery.

A commercial success, Watchmen has received critical acclaim both in the comics and mainstream press, and is considered by several critics and reviewers to be one of the most significant works of 20th-century literature. Watchmen was recognized in Time's List of the 100 Best Novels as one of the best English language novels published since 1923. The BBC described it as "The moment comic books grew up."[1]

much more at link...

[Ferrets are Cool]

1. I really enjoyed the movie, however

it is terribly difficult to watch because it is so depressing. I have never read the "comic". How depressing is IT?

[Javaman]

2. it's been a while since I read it and I have been meaning to reread it but...

from what I recall, yeah, it was also depressing but in a different way. It's such an expansive series, that the logic Doctor Manhattan employs sort of takes the edge off the depression and make his choices seem to make sense.

the interesting thing about this is that the new connection of Doctor Manhattan to the DC universe.

That kind of throws a bit of a odd monkey wrench in things when that is added to the context.

in other words, I have to reread it with that new information in mind.

[hotrod0808]

3. I re-read the collection at least once a year

Of all of the comics that I have read over the years, this one speaks to me the most. I see it as a parallel to what my life has become, and I will leave it at that.

[Dr. Strange]

4. A little trivia regarding the Comic Sans Font:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_Sans

It was based in part on the lettering in the Watchmen series.