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Watchmen | 
 enlarge | Author: Alan Moore
Creator: Dave Gibbons
Publisher: DC Comics
Category: Book
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $10.99
You Save: $9.00 (45%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  475 reviews
Sales Rank: 7
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
Publication Date: April 1, 1995
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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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
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 470 more reviews...
 Who watches the watchmen? August 20, 2008
Don't let the fact that this is a graphic novel (e.g., "comic book") fool you. Watchmen is a fantastic piece of fiction, and was well-written, fantastically illustrated, fast-paced, and thought provoking. The geo-political issues felt a little dated, but one doesn't have to think to hard to extrapolate the issues to modern times. This is a "must read"!
 Good, but not the best! August 20, 2008
I thought it was a very very good book...for it's time! Don't get me wrong, yes, it was a great book! Everyone should read this!! I just thought it was a long long long long read, for such a so so ending. If you haven't read this, please give it a try, I just didn't think it lived up to the "Best Graphic Novel"
Not really a "masterpiece". August 19, 2008
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
I'm not going to make this long but basically I saw the trailer for the movie and was blown away. When I found out it was based on "the greatest graphic novel of all time" I knew I just had to get a copy. I'm not much of a comic person but the artwork is impressive. The story has interesting characters, the ending is VERY unpredictable. Other than that, if you're like me and you read lots of novels, short stories, and movie scripts don't expect to be knocked off your feet.
I hope the movie does well for everyone involved. The special effects will have everyone running to see it. After the first two weeks of release we'll see how well it does. If you're like me, a person who had never even heard of the Watchmen before, read the book and post what you think.
Not bad but not "incredible" either.
Learning experience (good) August 18, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I was given this book by younger friends, with a certain amount of trepidation on their part. They need not have worried, for this is a fantastic piece of work, beautifully-drawn, consistently intriguing. Want to know what super-heroes are REALLY like? This will get you inside their minds ... and his super-heroes are orders of magnitude more interesting than Batman, Superman, et al.
Indeed a masterpiece August 17, 2008
Watchmen is not only an amazing comic, but an amazing novel as well. Originally a 12 part comic book series, the graphic novel "Watchmen" is a must read for comic book fans and fans of drama novels. If you think this is a common superhero novel, think again. The group of heroes this book tells about have no super-powers, except for one. This book deconstructs the basic superhero archetype and gives us human superheroes. Characters like the Nite Owl and Rorschach suffer from all kinds of problems that everyday human beings go through. "Watchmen" is a very human story. Now, the story is set in an alternate 1985 and it deals with the death of one of the heroes and the finding out of who did it while in the meantime, America is ever closer to a nuclear war with Russia. They are many flashbacks that tell the back story of the main characters and these flashbacks relate to the current story. In addition, there are many twists and moments that will have you on the edge of your seat. The book has a very cinematic quality to it and Dave Gibbons art is iconic while Alan Moore's story telling is legendary. Never before have I been so immersed in a comic book before. Once you pick this one up, you can't put it down. Reading it once does no justice, you have to (and you will) read again and again. I have read hundreds and hundreds of novels in my life and "Watchmen" is one of the best and most important novels I have ever read. You can relate to the characters and their situations so much; you forget that you're reading a comic. All in all, if you've never read a graphic novel, start here. "Watchmen" is a must read and a must buy for comic fans, or drama fans. Now that the movie is coming, this book will fly off the shelves. Buy it, read it, love it, read it again.
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