''Watchmen'' is an American comic book maxiseries by the British creative team of writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons and colorist John Higgins. It was published monthly by DC Comics in 1986 and 1987 before being collected in a single-volume edition in 1987. ''Watchmen'' originated from a story proposal Moore submitted to DC featuring

superhero A superhero or superheroine is a stock character that typically possesses ''superpowers'', abilities beyond those of ordinary people, and fits the role of the hero, typically using his or her powers to help the world become a better place, ...

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, to deconstruct and satirize the superhero concept and political commentary. ''Watchmen'' depicts an

alternate history Alternate history (also alternative history, althist, AH) is a genre of speculative fiction of stories in which one or more historical events occur and are resolved differently than in real life. As conjecture based upon historical fact, altern ...

in which superheroes emerged in the 1940s and 1960s and their presence changed history so that the United States won the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal 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 protagonists' personal development and moral struggles as an investigation into the murder of a government-sponsored superhero pulls them out of retirement. Gibbons used a nine-panel grid layout throughout the series and added recurring symbols such as a blood-stained

smiley face A smiley, sometimes referred to as a smiley face, is a basic ideogram that represents a smiling face. Since the 1950s it has become part of popular culture worldwide, used either as a standalone ideogram, or as a form of communication, such a ...

. 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 Nonlinear narrative, disjointed narrative, or disrupted narrative is a narrative technique, sometimes used in literature, film, video games, and other narratives, where events are portrayed, for example, out of chronological order or in other ways ...

, 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. ''Watchmen'' was recognized in ''Time''s List of the 100 Best Novels as one of the best English language novels published since 1923. In a retrospective review, the BBC's Nicholas Barber described it as "the moment comic books grew up". Moore opposed this idea, stating, "I tend to think that, no, comics hadn’t grown up. There were a few titles that were more adult than people were used to. But the majority of comics titles were pretty much the same as they'd ever been. It wasn’t comics growing up. I think it was more comics meeting the emotional age of the audience coming the other way." After a number of attempts to adapt the series into a feature film, director Zack Snyder's '' Watchmen'' was released in 2009. A video game series, '' Watchmen: The End Is Nigh'', was released in the same year to coincide with the film's release. DC Comics published '' Before Watchmen'', a series of nine

prequel A prequel is a literary, dramatic or cinematic work whose story precedes that of a previous work, by focusing on events that occur before the original narrative. A prequel is a work that forms part of a backstory to the preceding work. The term " ...

miniseries, in 2012, and '' Doomsday Clock'', a 12-issue limited series and sequel to the original ''Watchmen'' series, from 2017 to 2019 – both without Moore's or Gibbons' involvement. The second series integrated the ''Watchmen'' characters within the DC Universe, home to more recognizable DC

es like

Superman Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...

Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...

and Wonder Woman. A television continuation to the original comic, set 34 years after the comic's timeline, was broadcast on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

from October to December 2019 with Gibbons' involvement. A comic continuation of the HBO series, titled ''

Rorschach Rorschach may refer to: * Hermann Rorschach, a Swiss psychiatrist ** Rorschach test, his psychological evaluation method involving inkblots * Rorschach (character), a character from the comics ''Watchmen'' * Rorschach (comic book), a 2020 comic * ...

'' and written by Tom King, began publication in October 2020. Moore has expressed his displeasure with later adaptations and asked that ''Watchmen'' not be adapted for future works.

Publication history

''Watchmen'', created by writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons, first appeared in the 1985 issue of DC Spotlight, the 50th anniversary special. It was eventually published as a 12-issue maxiseries from DC Comics, cover-dated September 1986 to October 1987. It was subsequently collected in 1987 as a DC Comics

trade paperback Trade paperback may refer to: * Trade paperback, a higher-quality softcover version of a book * Trade paperback (comics) In comics in the United States, a trade paperback (shortened: TPB or trade) is a collection of stories originally published ...

that has had at least 24 printings as of March 2017;''Watchmen'' (DC, 1987)
at the Grand Comics Database. another trade paperback was published by Warner Books, a DC sister company, in 1987.''Watchmen'' (Warner Books, 1987)
at the Grand Comics Database. In February 1988, DC published a limited-edition, slipcased hardcover volume, produced by Graphitti Design, that contained 48 pages of bonus material, including the original proposal and concept art.''Watchmen'' (DC, 1988)
at the Grand Comics Database. In 2005, DC released ''Absolute Watchmen'', an oversized slipcased hardcover edition of the series in DC's

Absolute Edition DC Comics Absolute Edition is a series of archival quality printings of graphic novels published by DC Comics and its imprints WildStorm Productions and Vertigo. Each is presented in a hardcover and slipcased edition with cloth bookmark consisting ...

format. Assembled under the supervision of Dave Gibbons, ''Absolute Watchmen'' included the Graphitti materials, as well as restored and recolored art by John Higgins. That December DC published a new printing of ''Watchmen'' issue #1 at the original 1986 cover price of $1.50 as part of its "Millennium Edition" line. In 2012, DC published '' Before Watchmen'', a series of nine prequel miniseries, with various creative teams producing the characters' early adventures set before the events of the original series. In the 2016 one-shot '' DC Universe: Rebirth Special'', numerous symbols and visual references to ''Watchmen'', such as the blood-splattered smiley face, and the dialogue between Doctor Manhattan and Ozymandias in the last issue of ''Watchmen'', are shown. Further ''Watchmen'' imagery was added in the ''DC Universe: Rebirth Special'' #1 second printing, which featured an update to Gary Frank's cover, better revealing the outstretched hand of Doctor Manhattan in the top right corner. Doctor Manhattan later appeared in the 2017 four-part DC miniseries '' The Button'' serving as a direct sequel to both ''DC Universe Rebirth'' and the 2011 storyline " Flashpoint". Manhattan reappears in the 2017–19 twelve-part sequel series ''Doomsday Clock''.

Background and creation

In 1983, DC Comics acquired a line of characters from Charlton Comics.Eury; Giordano, p. 117 During that period, writer Alan Moore contemplated writing a story that featured an unused line of superheroes that he could revamp, as he had done in his '' Miracleman'' series in the early 1980s. Moore reasoned that

MLJ Comics Archie Comic Publications, Inc., is an American comic book publisher headquartered in Pelham, New York.Mighty Crusaders might be available for such a project, so he devised a murder mystery plot which would begin with the discovery of the body of the

Shield A shield is a piece of personal armour held in the hand, which may or may not be strapped to the wrist or forearm. Shields are used to intercept specific attacks, whether from close-ranged weaponry or projectiles such as arrows, by means of a ...

in a harbor. The writer felt it did not matter which set of characters he ultimately used, as long as readers recognized them "so it would have the shock and surprise value when you saw what the reality of these characters was". Moore used this premise and crafted a proposal featuring the Charlton characters titled ''Who Killed the

Peacemaker Peacemaker or The Peacemaker (in various forms) may refer to: Individuals and groups * UN Peacemaker, a project of the UN to support international peacemakers and mediators * Peace makers, a list of contemporary individuals and organizations inv ...

'',A Portal to Another Dimension: Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and Neil Gaiman
. '' The Comics Journal'' #116 (July 1987)
Archived
from the original on February 9, 2013. and submitted the unsolicited proposal to DC managing editor Dick Giordano.Eury; Giordano, p. 124 Giordano was receptive to the proposal, but opposed the idea of using the Charlton characters for the story. Moore said, "DC realized their expensive characters would end up either dead or dysfunctional." Instead, Giordano persuaded Moore to continue with new characters. Moore had initially believed that original characters would not provide emotional resonance for the readers, but later changed his mind. He said, "Eventually, I realized that if I wrote the substitute characters well enough, so that they seemed familiar in certain ways, certain aspects of them brought back a kind of generic super-hero resonance or familiarity to the reader, then it might work." Artist Dave Gibbons, who had collaborated with Moore on previous projects, recalled he "must have heard on the grapevine that he was doing a treatment for a new miniseries. I rang Alan up, saying I’d like to be involved with what he was doing", and Moore sent him the story outline. Gibbons told Giordano he wanted to draw the series Moore proposed and Moore approved. Gibbons brought colorist John Higgins onto the project because he liked his "unusual" style; Higgins lived near the artist, which allowed the two to "discuss he artand have some kind of human contact rather than just sending it across the ocean".

Len Wein Leonard Norman Wein (; June 12, 1948 – September 10, 2017) was an American comic book writer and editor best known for co-creating DC Comics' Swamp Thing and Marvel Comics' Wolverine, and for helping revive the Marvel superhero team the X-Men ( ...

joined the project as its editor, while Giordano stayed on to oversee it. Both Wein and Giordano stood back and "got out of their way"; Giordano remarked later, "Who copy-edits Alan Moore, for God's sake?" After receiving the go-ahead to work on the project, Moore and Gibbons spent a day at the latter's house creating characters, crafting details for the story's milieu and discussing influences. The pair was particularly influenced by a '' Mad'' parody of Superman named "

Superduperman "Superduperman" is a satirical story by Harvey Kurtzman and Wally Wood that was published in the fourth issue of '' Mad'' (April–May 1953). Lampooning both ''Superman'' and '' Captain Marvel'', it revolutionized the types of stories seen in ''Mad ...

"; Moore said, "We wanted to take Superduperman 180 degrees—dramatic, instead of comedic". Moore and Gibbons conceived of a story that would take "familiar old-fashioned superheroes into a completely new realm";Kavanagh, Barry.
The Alan Moore Interview: Watchmen characters
". Blather.net. October 17, 2000. Retrieved on October 14, 2008. Moore said his intention was to create "a superhero '' Moby Dick''; something that had that sort of weight, that sort of density". Moore came up with the character names and descriptions, but left the specifics of how they looked to Gibbons. Gibbons did not sit down and design the characters deliberately, but rather "did it at odd times ..spend ngmaybe two or three weeks just doing sketches." Gibbons designed his characters to make them easy to draw;

was his favorite to draw because "you just have to draw a hat. If you can draw a hat, then you've drawn Rorschach, you just draw kind of a shape for his face and put some black blobs on it and you're done."Illustrating ''Watchmen''
". WatchmenComicMovie.com. October 23, 2008. Retrieved on October 28, 2008. Moore began writing the series very early on, hoping to avoid publication delays such as those faced by the DC limited series '' Camelot 3000''.Heintjes, Tom. "Alan Moore On (Just About) Everything". ''The Comics Journal''. March 1986. When writing the script for the first issue, Moore said he realized, "I only had enough plot for six issues. We were contracted for 12!" His solution was to alternate issues that dealt with the overall plot of the series with origin issues for the characters.Jensen, Jeff.
Watchmen: An Oral History (3 of 6)
. ''Entertainment Weekly''. October 21, 2005. Retrieved on October 8, 2008. Moore wrote very detailed scripts for Gibbons to work from. Gibbons recalled that " e script for the first issue of ''Watchmen'' was, I think, 101 pages of typescript—single-spaced—with no gaps between the individual panel descriptions or, indeed, even between the pages." Upon receiving the scripts, the artist had to number each page "in case I drop them on the floor, because it would take me two days to put them back in the right order", and used a highlighter pen to single out lettering and shot descriptions; he remarked, "It takes quite a bit of organizing before you can actually put pen to paper."Stewart, Bhob. "Synchronicity and Symmetry". ''The Comics Journal''. July 1987. Despite Moore's detailed scripts, his panel descriptions would often end with the note "If that doesn't work for you, do what works best"; Gibbons nevertheless worked to Moore's instructions.Amaya, Erik.
Len Wein: Watching the Watchmen
. Comic Book Resources. September 30, 2008. Retrieved on October 3, 2008. In fact, Gibbons only suggested a single change to the script: a compression of Ozymandias' narration while he was preventing a sneak attack by Rorschach, as he felt that the dialogue was too long to fit with the amount of action expressed; Moore agreed and re-wrote the scene. Gibbons had a great deal of autonomy in developing the visual look of ''Watchmen'', and frequently inserted background details that Moore admitted he did not notice until later. Moore occasionally contacted fellow comics writer

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon GaimanBorn as Neil Richard Gaiman, with "MacKinnon" added on the occasion of his marriage to Amanda Palmer. ; ( Neil Richard Gaiman; born 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, gr ...

for answers to research questions and for quotes to include in issues. Despite his intentions, Moore admitted in November 1986 that there were likely to be delays, stating that he was, with issue five on the stands, still writing issue nine. Gibbons mentioned that a major factor in the delays was the "piecemeal way" in which he received Moore's scripts. Gibbons said the team's pace slowed around the fourth issue; from that point onward the two undertook their work "just several pages at a time. I'll get three pages of script from Alan and draw it and then toward the end, call him up and say, 'Feed me!' And he'll send another two or three pages or maybe one page or sometimes six pages."Stewart, Bhob. "Dave Gibbons: Pebbles in a Landscape". ''The Comics Journal''. July 1987. As the creators began to hit deadlines, Moore would hire a taxi driver to drive 50 miles and deliver scripts to Gibbons. On later issues the artist even had his wife and son draw panel grids on pages to help save time. Near the end of the project, Moore realized that the story bore some similarity to "

The Architects of Fear "The Architects of Fear" is an episode of the original '' The Outer Limits'' television show. It first aired on 30 September 1963, during the first season. Introduction Certain that the Cold War will lead to mankind's destruction, a cabal of sc ...

", an episode of ''

The Outer Limits ''The Outer Limits'' or ''Outer Limits'' may refer to: Television * ''The Outer Limits'' (1963 TV series), a black-and-white science fiction series that aired from 1963 to 1965 * ''The Outer Limits'' (1995 TV series), a revival of the older series ...

'' television series. The writer and Wein (an editor) argued over changing the ending, and when Moore refused to give in, Wein quit the book. Wein explained, "I kept telling him, 'Be more original, Alan, you've got the capability, do something different, not something that's already been done!' And he didn't seem to care enough to do that."Ho, Richard. "Who's Your Daddy??" ''Wizard''. November 2004. Moore acknowledged the ''Outer Limits'' episode by referencing it in the series' last issue.

Synopsis

Setting

''Watchmen'' is set in an alternate reality that closely mirrors the contemporary world of the 1980s. The primary difference is the presence of superheroes. The point of divergence occurs in the year 1938. Their existence in this version of the United States is shown to have dramatically affected and altered the outcomes of real-world events such as the Vietnam War and the presidency of Richard Nixon.Wright, p. 271 In keeping with the realism of the series, although the costumed crimefighters of ''Watchmen'' are commonly called "superheroes", only one, named Doctor Manhattan, possesses any superhuman abilities.Wright, p. 272 The war in Vietnam ends with an American victory in 1971 and Nixon is still president as of October 1985 upon the repeal of term limits and the Watergate scandal not coming to pass. The

Soviet invasion of Afghanistan The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

occurs approximately six years later than in real life. When the story begins, the existence of Doctor Manhattan has given the U.S. a strategic advantage over the Soviet Union, which has dramatically increased

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

tensions. Eventually, by 1977, superheroes grow unpopular among the police and the public, leading them to be outlawed with the passage of the Keene Act. While many of the heroes retired, Doctor Manhattan and another superhero, known as The Comedian, operate as government-sanctioned agents. Another named Rorschach continues to operate outside the law.Reynolds, p. 106

Plot

In October 1985, New York City detectives are investigating the murder of Edward Blake. With the police having no leads, costumed vigilante Rorschach decides to probe further. Rorschach deduces Blake to have been the true identity of The Comedian, a costumed hero employed by the U.S. government, after finding his costume and signature smiley-face pin badge. Rorschach believes he has discovered a plot to terminate costumed adventurers and sets about warning four of his retired comrades: Daniel Dreiberg (an inventor and formerly the second Nite Owl), the superpowered and emotionally detached Jon Osterman (codenamed Doctor Manhattan) and his lover Laurie Juspeczyk (the second Silk Spectre), and Adrian Veidt (once the hero Ozymandias, and now a successful businessman). Dreiberg, Veidt, and Manhattan attend Blake's funeral, where Dreiberg tosses Blake's pin badge in his coffin before he is buried. Manhattan is later accused on national television of being the cause of cancer in friends and former colleagues. When the government takes the accusations seriously, Manhattan exiles himself to Mars. As the U.S. depends on Manhattan as a strategic military asset, his departure throws humanity into political turmoil, with the Soviets invading Afghanistan to capitalize on the perceived American weakness. Rorschach's concerns appear vindicated when Veidt narrowly survives an assassination attempt. Rorschach himself is framed for murdering a former supervillain named Moloch. Though he attempted to flee from the authorities, Rorschach is ultimately captured and unmasked as Walter Kovacs. Neglected in her relationship with the once-human Manhattan, whose now-godlike powers and transformation have removed him completely from the everyday concerns of living beings, and no longer kept on retainer by the government, Juspeczyk stays with Dreiberg. They begin a romance, don their costumes, and resume vigilante work as they grow closer together. With Dreiberg starting to believe some aspects of Rorschach's

conspiracy theory A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful groups, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * * * * The term has a nega ...

, the pair take it upon themselves to break him out of prison. After looking back on his own personal history, Manhattan places the fate of his involvement with human affairs in Juspeczyk's hands. He teleports her to Mars to make the case for emotional investment. During the course of the argument, Juspeczyk is forced to come to terms with the fact that Blake, who once attempted to rape her mother (the original Silk Spectre), was, in fact, her biological father following a second, consensual relationship. This discovery, reflecting the complexity of human emotions and relationships, reignites Manhattan's interest in humanity. On Earth, Nite Owl and Rorschach continue to uncover the conspiracy and find evidence that Veidt may be behind the plan. Rorschach writes his suspicions about Veidt in his journal, in which he has been recording his entire investigation, and mails it to ''New Frontiersman'', a local right-wing newspaper. The pair then confront Veidt at his Antarctic retreat. Veidt explains his underlying plan is to save humanity from impending nuclear war by faking an alien invasion in New York, which will annihilate half the city's population. He hopes this will unite the superpowers against a perceived common enemy. He also reveals that he had murdered The Comedian when he discovered his plan, arranged for Manhattan's past associates to contract cancer, staged the attempt on his own life in order to place himself above suspicion, and killed Moloch in order to frame Rorschach. This was all done in an attempt to prevent his plan from being exposed. Nite Owl and Rorschach find Veidt's logic callous and abhorrent. They say that they will stop him, but Veidt reveals that he already enacted his plan before they arrived. When Manhattan and Juspeczyk arrive back on Earth, they are confronted by mass destruction and death in New York, with a gigantic squid-like creature, created by Veidt's laboratories, dead in the middle of the city. Manhattan notices his

prescient Melange (), often referred to as "the spice", is the fictional psychedelic drug central to the Dune (franchise), ''Dune'' series of science fiction novels by Frank Herbert and derivative works. In the series, the most essential and valuable commo ...

abilities are limited by tachyons emanating from the Antarctic and the pair teleport there. They discover Veidt's involvement and confront him. Veidt shows everyone news broadcasts confirming that the emergence of a new threat has indeed prompted peaceful co-operation between the superpowers; this leads almost all present to agree that concealing the truth is in the best interests of world peace. Rorschach refuses to compromise and leaves, intent on revealing the truth. As he is making his way back, he is confronted by Manhattan who argues that at this point, the truth can only hurt. Rorschach declares that Manhattan will have to kill him to stop him from exposing Veidt, which Manhattan duly does. Manhattan then wanders through the base and finds Veidt, who asks him if he did the right thing in the end. Manhattan cryptically responds that "nothing ever ends" before leaving Earth. Dreiberg and Juspeczyk go into hiding under new identities and continue their romance. Back in New York, the editor at ''New Frontiersman'' asks his assistant to find some filler material from the "crank file", a collection of rejected submissions to the paper, many of which have not been reviewed yet. The series ends with the young man reaching toward the pile of discarded submissions, near the top of which is Rorschach's journal.

Characters

With ''Watchmen'', Alan Moore's intention was to create four or five "radically opposing ways" to perceive the world and to give readers of the story the privilege of determining which one was most morally comprehensible. Moore did not believe in the notion of " rammingregurgitated morals" down the readers' throats and instead sought to show heroes in an ambivalent light. Moore said, "What we wanted to do was show all of these people, warts and all. Show that even the worst of them had something going for them, and even the best of them had their flaws." ; Adrian Veidt / Ozymandias: Drawing inspiration from Alexander the Great, Veidt was once the superhero Ozymandias, but has since retired to devote his attention to the running of his own enterprises. Veidt is believed to be the smartest man on the planet. Ozymandias was based on

Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt is a fictional superhero character originally published by Charlton Comics. Publication history Charlton Comics The character debuted in ''Peter Cannon ... Thunderbolt'' #1 (Jan. 1966), part of Charlton editor Dick Giord ...

; Moore liked the idea of a character who "us dthe full 100% of his brain" and " adcomplete physical and mental control". Richard Reynolds noted that by taking initiative to "help the world", Veidt displays a trait normally attributed to villains in superhero stories, and in a sense he is the "villain" of the series.Reynolds, p. 110 Gibbons noted, "One of the worst of his sins skind of looking down on the rest of humanity, scorning the rest of humanity." ; Daniel Dreiberg / Nite Owl II: A retired superhero who utilizes owl-themed gadgets. Nite Owl was based on the Ted Kord version of the Blue Beetle. Paralleling the way Ted Kord had a predecessor, Moore also incorporated an earlier adventurer who used the name "Nite Owl", the retired crime fighter Hollis Mason, into ''Watchmen''. While Moore devised character notes for Gibbons to work from, the artist provided a name and a costume design for Hollis Mason he had created when he was twelve. Richard Reynolds noted in ''Super Heroes: A Modern Mythology'' that despite the character's Charlton roots, Nite Owl's modus operandi has more in common with the DC Comics character

. According to Klock, his civilian form "visually suggests an impotent, middle-aged

Clark Kent Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publish ...

." ; Edward Blake / The Comedian: One of two government-sanctioned heroes (along with Doctor Manhattan) who remains active after the Keene Act is passed in 1977 to ban superheroes. His murder, which occurs shortly before the first chapter begins, sets the plot of ''Watchmen'' in motion. The character appears throughout the story in flashbacks and aspects of his personality are revealed by other characters. The Comedian was based on the Charlton Comics character

, with elements of the Marvel Comics spy character

Nick Fury Colonel Nicholas Joseph "Nick" Fury Sr. is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer/artist Jack Kirby and writer Stan Lee, he first appeared in ''Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos ...

added. Moore and Gibbons saw The Comedian as "a kind of

Gordon Liddy George Gordon Battle Liddy (November 30, 1930 – March 30, 2021) was an American lawyer, FBI agent, talk show host, actor, and convicted felon in the Watergate scandal as the chief operative in the White House Plumbers unit during the Nixon admi ...

character, only a much bigger, tougher guy". Richard Reynolds described The Comedian as "ruthless, cynical, and nihilistic, and yet capable of deeper insights than the others into the role of the costumed hero." ; Dr. Jon Osterman / Doctor Manhattan: A superpowered being who is contracted by the United States government. Scientist Jon Osterman gained power over matter when he was caught in an "Intrinsic Field Subtractor" in 1959. Doctor Manhattan was based upon Charlton's Captain Atom, who in Moore's original proposal was surrounded by the shadow of nuclear threat. However, the writer found he could do more with Manhattan as a "kind of a quantum super-hero" than he could have with Captain Atom. In contrast to other superheroes who lacked scientific exploration of their origins, Moore sought to delve into nuclear physics and

quantum physics Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, qua ...

in constructing the character of Dr. Manhattan. The writer believed that a character living in a quantum universe would not perceive time with a linear perspective, which would influence the character's perception of human affairs. Moore also wanted to avoid creating an emotionless character like

Spock Spock is a Character (arts), fictional character in the ''Star Trek'' media franchise. He first appeared in the Star Trek: The Original Series, original ''Star Trek'' series serving aboard the starship USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), USS ''Enterprise ...

from ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...

'', so he sought for Dr. Manhattan to retain "human habits" and to grow away from them and humanity in general. Gibbons had created the blue character Rogue Trooper and explained he reused the blue skin motif for Doctor Manhattan as it resembles human skin tonally, but has a different hue. Moore incorporated the color into the story, and Gibbons noted the rest of the comic's color scheme made Manhattan unique.Watchmen Secrets Revealed
. WatchmenComicMovie.com. November 3, 2008. Retrieved on November 5, 2008. Moore recalled that he was unsure if DC would allow the creators to depict the character as fully nude, which partially influenced how they portrayed the character. Gibbons wanted to be tasteful in depicting Manhattan's nudity, selecting carefully when full frontal shots would occur and giving him "understated" genitals—like a classical sculpture—so the reader would not initially notice it. ; Laurie Juspeczyk / Silk Spectre II: The daughter of Sally Jupiter (the first Silk Spectre, with whom she has a strained relationship) and The Comedian. Of Polish heritage, she had been the lover of Doctor Manhattan for years. While Silk Spectre was originally supposed to be the Charlton superheroine

Nightshade The Solanaceae , or nightshades, are a family of flowering plants that ranges from annual and perennial herbs to vines, lianas, epiphytes, shrubs, and trees, and includes a number of agricultural crops, medicinal plants, spices, weeds, and orna ...

, Moore was not particularly interested in that character. Once the idea of using Charlton characters was abandoned, Moore drew more from heroines such as

Black Canary The Black Canary is the name of two superheroines appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics: Dinah Drake and her daughter Dinah Laurel Lance. The original version was created by the writer-artist team of Robert Kanigher and ...

and Phantom Lady. ; Walter Joseph Kovacs / Rorschach: A vigilante who wears a white mask that contains a symmetrical but constantly shifting ink blot pattern, he continues to fight crime in spite of his outlaw status. Moore said he was trying to "come up with this quintessential Steve Ditko character—someone who's got a funny name, whose surname begins with a 'K,' who's got an oddly designed mask". Moore based Rorschach on Ditko's creation

Mr. A Mr. A is a fictional comic book hero created by Steve Ditko. Unlike most of Ditko's work, the character of Mr. A remained the property of Ditko, who wrote and illustrated the stories in which the character appeared entirely himself. The characte ...

; Ditko's Charlton character The Question also served as a template for creating Rorschach. Comics historian Bradford W. Wright described the character's world view "a set of black-and-white values that take many shapes but never mix into shades of gray, similar to the ink blot tests of his namesake". Rorschach sees existence as random and, according to Wright, this viewpoint leaves the character "free to 'scrawl isown design' on a 'morally blank world. Moore said he did not foresee the death of Rorschach until the fourth issue when he realized that his refusal to compromise would result in him not surviving the story.

Art and composition

Moore and Gibbons designed ''Watchmen'' to showcase the unique qualities of the comics medium and to highlight its particular strengths. In a 1986 interview, Moore said, "What I'd like to explore is the areas that comics succeed in where no other media is capable of operating", and emphasized this by stressing the differences between comics and film. Moore said that ''Watchmen'' was designed to be read "four or five times", with some links and allusions only becoming apparent to the reader after several readings. Dave Gibbons notes that, " it progressed, ''Watchmen'' became much more about the telling than the tale itself. The main thrust of the story essentially hinges on what is called a macguffin, a

gimmick A gimmick is a novel device or idea designed primarily to attract attention or increase appeal, often with little intrinsic value. When applied to retail marketing, it is a unique or quirky feature designed to make a product or service "stand ou ...

... So really the plot itself is of no great consequence ... it just really isn't the most interesting thing about ''Watchmen''. As we actually came to tell the tale, that's where the real creativity came in."Salisbury, p. 82 Gibbons said he deliberately constructed the visual look of ''Watchmen'' so that each page would be identifiable as part of that particular series and "not some other comic book".Salisbury, p. 77 He made a concerted effort to draw the characters in a manner different from that commonly seen in comics. The artist tried to draw the series with "a particular weight of line, using a hard, stiff pen that didn't have much modulation in terms of thick and thin" which he hoped "would differentiate it from the usual lush, fluid kind of comic book line".Salisbury, p. 80 In a 2009 interview, Moore recalled that he took advantage of Gibbons' training as a former

surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

for "including incredible amounts of detail in every tiny panel, so we could choreograph every little thing". Gibbons described the series as "a comic about comics". Gibbons felt that "Alan is more concerned with the social implications of he presence of super-heroesand I've gotten involved in the technical implications." The story's alternate world setting allowed Gibbons to change details of the American landscape, such as adding

electric car An electric car, battery electric car, or all-electric car is an automobile that is propelled by one or more electric motors, using only energy stored in batteries. Compared to internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, electric cars are quie ...

s, slightly different buildings, and spark hydrants instead of fire hydrants, which Moore said, "perhaps gives the American readership a chance in some ways to see their own culture as an outsider would". Gibbons noted that the setting was liberating for him because he did not have to rely primarily on reference books. Colorist John Higgins used a template that was "moodier" and favored secondary colors. Moore stated that he had also "always loved John's coloring, but always associated him with being an airbrush colorist", which Moore was not fond of; Higgins subsequently decided to color ''Watchmen'' in European-style flat color. Moore noted that the artist paid particular attention to lighting and subtle color changes; in issue six, Higgins began with "warm and cheerful" colors and throughout the issue gradually made it darker to give the story a dark and bleak feeling.

Structure

Structurally, certain aspects of ''Watchmen'' deviated from the norm in comic books at the time, particularly the panel layout and the coloring. Instead of panels of various sizes, the creators divided each page into a nine-panel grid. Gibbons favored the nine-panel grid system due to its "authority". Moore accepted the use of the nine-panel grid format, which "gave him a level of control over the storytelling he hadn't had previously", according to Gibbons. "There was this element of the pacing and visual impact that he could now predict and use to dramatic effect." Bhob Stewart of '' The Comics Journal'' mentioned to Gibbons in 1987, that the page layouts recalled those of EC Comics, in addition to the art itself, which Stewart felt particularly echoed that of John Severin. Gibbons agreed that the echoing of the EC-style layouts "was a very deliberate thing", although his inspiration was rather Harvey Kurtzman, but it was altered enough to give the series a unique look. The artist also cited Steve Ditko's work on early issues of '' The Amazing Spider-Man'' as an influence, as well as ''

Doctor Strange Doctor Stephen Strange is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Steve Ditko, the character first appeared in ''Strange Tales'' #110 (cover-dated July 1963). Doctor Strange serves as Sorce ...

'', where "even at his most psychedelic ewould still keep a pretty straight page layout". The cover of each issue serves as the first panel to the story. Gibbons said, "The cover of the ''Watchmen'' is in the real world and looks quite real, but it's starting to turn into a comic book, a portal to another dimension." The covers were designed as close-ups that focused on a single detail with no human elements present. The creators on occasion experimented with the layout of the issue contents. Gibbons drew issue five, titled "Fearful Symmetry", so the first page mirrors the last (in terms of frame disposition), with the following pages mirroring each other before the center-spread is (broadly) symmetrical in layout. The end of each issue, with the exception of issue twelve, contains supplemental prose pieces written by Moore. Among the contents are fictional book chapters, letters, reports, and articles written by various ''Watchmen'' characters. DC had trouble selling ad space in issues of ''Watchmen'', which left an extra eight to nine pages per issue. DC planned to insert house ads and a longer letters column to fill the space, but editor Len Wein felt this would be unfair to anyone who wrote in during the last four issues of the series. He decided to use the extra pages to fill in the series' backstory. Moore said, "By the time we got around to issue #3, #4, and so on, we thought that the book looked nice without a letters page. It looks less like a comic book, so we stuck with it."

''Tales of the Black Freighter''

''Watchmen'' features a

story within a story A story within a story, also referred to as an embedded narrative, is a literary device in which a character within a story becomes the narrator of a second story (within the first one). Multiple layers of stories within stories are sometimes c ...

in the form of ''Tales of the Black Freighter'', a fictional comic book from which scenes appear in issues three, five, eight, ten, and eleven. The fictional comic's story, "Marooned", is read by a youth in New York City. Moore and Gibbons conceived a pirate comic because they reasoned that since the characters of ''Watchmen'' experience superheroes in real life, "they probably wouldn't be at all interested in superhero comics."Kavanagh, Barry.
The Alan Moore Interview: Watchmen, microcosms and details
. Blather.net. October 17, 2000. Retrieved on October 14, 2008. Gibbons suggested a pirate theme, and Moore agreed in part because he is "a big

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

fan": the ''Black Freighter'' alludes to the song " Seeräuberjenny" (" Pirate Jenny") from Brecht's ''

Threepenny Opera ''The Threepenny Opera'' ( ) is a "play with music" by Bertolt Brecht, adapted from a translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann of John Gay's 18th-century English ballad opera, ''The Beggar's Opera'', and four ballads by François Villon, with music b ...

''. Moore theorized that since superheroes existed, and existed as "objects of fear, loathing, and scorn, the main superheroes quickly fell out of popularity in comic books, as we suggest. Mainly, genres like horror, science fiction, and piracy, particularly piracy, became prominent—with EC riding the crest of the wave." Moore felt "the imagery of the whole pirate genre is so rich and dark that it provided a perfect counterpoint to the contemporary world of ''Watchmen''". The writer expanded upon the premise so that its presence in the story would add subtext and allegory. The supplemental article detailing the fictional history of ''Tales of the Black Freighter'' at the end of issue five credits real-life artist Joe Orlando as a major contributor to the series. Moore chose Orlando because he felt that if pirate stories were popular in the ''Watchmen'' universe that DC editor Julius Schwartz might have tried to lure the artist over to the company to draw a pirate comic book. Orlando contributed a drawing designed as if it were a page from the fake title to the supplemental piece. In "Marooned", a young mariner (called "The Sea Captain") journeys to warn his hometown of the coming of ''The Black Freighter'', after he survives the destruction of his own ship. He uses the bodies of his dead shipmates as a makeshift raft and sails home, gradually descending into insanity. When he finally returns to his hometown, believing it to be already under the occupation of ''The Black Freighter''s crew, he makes his way to his house and slays everyone he finds there, only to discover that the person he mistook for a pirate was in fact his wife. He returns to the seashore, where he realizes that ''The Black Freighter'' has not come to claim the town, but rather to claim him; he swims out to sea and climbs aboard the ship. According to Richard Reynolds, the mariner is "forced by the urgency of his mission to shed one inhibition after another." Just like Adrian Veidt, he "hopes to stave off disaster by using the dead bodies of his former comrades as a means of reaching his goal". Moore stated that the story of ''The Black Freighter'' ends up specifically describing "the story of Adrian Veidt" and that it can also be used as a counterpoint to other parts of the story, such as Rorschach's capture and Dr. Manhattan's self-exile on Mars.

Symbols and imagery

Moore named William S. Burroughs as one of his main influences during the conception of ''Watchmen''. He admired Burroughs' use of "repeated symbols that would become laden with meaning" in Burroughs' only comic strip, " The Unspeakable Mr. Hart", which appeared in the British underground magazine ''Cyclops''. Not every intertextual link in the series was planned by Moore, who remarked that "there's stuff in there Dave had put in that even I only noticed on the sixth or seventh read", while other "things ..turned up in there by accident." Galle crater

A stained

is a recurring image in the story, appearing in many forms. In ''The System of Comics'', Thierry Groensteen described the symbol as a recurring motif that produces "rhyme and remarkable configurations" by appearing in key segments of ''Watchmen'', notably the first and last pages of the series—spattered with blood on the first, and sauce from a hamburger on the last. Groensteen cites it as one form of the circle shape that appears throughout the story, as a "recurrent geometric motif" and due to its symbolic connotations. Gibbons created a smiley face badge as an element of The Comedian's costume in order to "lighten" the overall design, later adding a splash of blood to the badge to imply his murder. Gibbons said the creators came to regard the blood-stained smiley face as "a symbol for the whole series", noting its resemblance to the Doomsday Clock ticking up to midnight. Moore drew inspiration from psychological tests of

behaviorism Behaviorism is a systematic approach to understanding the behavior of humans and animals. It assumes that behavior is either a reflex evoked by the pairing of certain antecedent (behavioral psychology), antecedent stimuli in the environment, o ...

, explaining that the tests had presented the face as "a symbol of complete innocence". With the addition of a blood splash over the eye, the face's meaning was altered to become simultaneously radical and simple enough for the first issue's cover to avoid human detail. Although most evocations of the central image were created on purpose, others were coincidental. Moore mentioned in particular that on "the little plugs on the spark hydrants if you turn them upside down, you discover a little smiley face". Other symbols, images, and allusions that appeared throughout the series often emerged unexpectedly. Moore mentioned that " e whole thing with ''Watchmen'' has just been loads of these little bits of synchronicity popping up all over the place". Gibbons noted an unintended theme was contrasting the mundane and the romantic, citing the separate sex scenes between Nite Owl and Silk Spectre on his couch and then high in the sky on Nite Owl's airship. In a book of the

craters Crater may refer to: Landforms * Impact crater, a depression caused by two celestial bodies impacting each other, such as a meteorite hitting a planet * Explosion crater, a hole formed in the ground produced by an explosion near or below the surf ...

and boulders of Mars, Gibbons discovered a photograph of the Galle crater, which resembles a happy face, which they worked into an issue. Moore said, "We found a lot of these things started to generate themselves as if by magic", in particular citing an occasion where they decided to name a lock company the "

Gordian Knot The Gordian Knot is an Ancient Greek legend of Phrygian Gordium associated with Alexander the Great who is said to have cut the knot in 333 BC. It is often used as a metaphor for an intractable problem (untying an impossibly tangled knot) sol ...

Lock Company".

Themes

The initial premise of the series was to examine what superheroes would be like "in a credible, real world". As the story became more complex, Moore said ''Watchmen'' became about "power and about the idea of the superman manifest within society." The title of the series refers to the question "Who will watch the watchmen themselves?", famously posed by the Roman satirist Juvenal (as "''

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? is a Latin phrase found in the work of the Roman poet Juvenal from his ''Satires'' (Satire VI, lines 347–348). It is literally translated as "Who will guard the guards themselves?", though it is also known by variant translations, such as "Who ...

''"), although Moore was not aware of the phrase's classical origins until

Harlan Ellison Harlan Jay Ellison (May 27, 1934 – June 28, 2018) was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave speculative fiction and for his outspoken, combative personality. Robert Bloch, the author of '' Psycho'' ...

informed him.Plowright, Frank. "Preview: Watchmen". ''

Amazing Heroes ''Amazing Heroes'' was a magazine about the comic book medium published by American company Fantagraphics Books from 1981 to 1992. Unlike its companion title, ''The Comics Journal'', ''Amazing Heroes'' was a hobbyist magazine rather than an analyt ...

'' #97 (June 15, 1986), p. 43 Moore commented in 1987, "In the context of ''Watchmen'', that fits. 'They're watching out for us, who's watching out for them? The writer stated in the introduction to the Graffiti hardcover of ''Watchmen'' that while writing the series he was able to purge himself of his nostalgia for superheroes, and instead he found an interest in real human beings. Who Watches the Watchmen

Bradford Wright described ''Watchmen'' as "Moore's obituary for the concept of heroes in general and superheroes in particular." Putting the story in a contemporary sociological context, Wright wrote that the characters of ''Watchmen'' were Moore's "admonition to those who trusted in 'heroes' and leaders to guard the world's fate". He added that to place faith in such icons was to give up personal responsibility to "the Reagans, Thatchers, and other 'Watchmen' of the world who supposed to 'rescue' us and perhaps lay waste to the planet in the process".Wright, p. 273 Moore specifically stated in 1986 that he was writing ''Watchmen'' to be "not anti-Americanism, utanti-

Reaganism Ronald Reagan was the 40th President of the United States (1981–1989). A Republican and former actor and governor of California, he energized the conservative movement in the United States from 1964. His basic foreign policy was to equal and ...

", specifically believing that "at the moment a certain part of Reagan's America isn't scared. They think they're invulnerable." Before the series premiered, Gibbons stated: "There's no overt political message at all. It's a fantasy extrapolation of what might happen and if people can see things in it that apply to the real America, then they're reading it into the comic .."Plowright, p. 54 While Moore wanted to write about "power politics" and the "worrying" times he lived in, he stated the reason that the story was set in an alternate reality was because he was worried that readers would "switch off" if he attacked a leader they admired. Moore stated in 1986 that he "was consciously trying to do something that would make people feel uneasy." Citing ''Watchmen'' as the point where the comic book medium "came of age", Iain Thomson wrote in his essay "Deconstructing the Hero" that the story accomplished this by "developing its heroes precisely in order to ''deconstruct'' the very idea of the hero and so encouraging us to reflect upon its significance from the many different angles of the shards left lying on the ground". Thomson stated that the heroes in ''Watchmen'' almost all share a

nihilistic Nihilism (; ) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning of life, meaning. The term was pop ...

outlook, and that Moore presents this outlook "as the simple, unvarnished truth" to "deconstruct the would-be hero's ultimate motivation, namely, to provide a secular salvation and so attain a mortal immortality". He wrote that the story "develops its heroes precisely in order to ask us if we would not in fact be better off without heroes". Thomson added that the story's deconstruction of the hero concept "suggests that perhaps the time for heroes has passed", which he feels distinguishes "this postmodern work" from the deconstructions of the hero in the existentialism movement. Richard Reynolds states that without any supervillains in the story, the superheroes of ''Watchmen'' are forced to confront "more intangible social and moral concerns", adding that this removes the superhero concept from the normal narrative expectations of the genre. Reynolds concludes that the series' ironic self-awareness of the genre "all mark out ''Watchmen'' either as the last key superhero text, or the first in a new maturity of the genre". Geoff Klock eschewed the term "deconstruction" in favor of describing ''Watchmen'' as a "revisionary superhero narrative". He considers ''Watchmen'' and Frank Miller's '' Batman: The Dark Knight Returns'' to be "the first instances ..of new kind of comic book ..a first phase of development, the transition of the superhero from fantasy to literature." He elaborates by noting that "Alan Moore's realism ..performs a '' kenosis'' towards comic book history .. hichdoes not ennoble and empower his characters ..Rather, it sends a wave of disruption back through superhero history ..devalue ngone of the basic superhero conventions by placing his masked crime fighters in a realistic world". First and foremost, "Moore's exploration of the ften compromisedmotives for costumed crimefighting sheds a disturbing light on past superhero stories, and forces the reader to reevaluate—to revision—every superhero in terms of Moore's ''kenosis''—his emptying out of the tradition". Klock relates the title to the quote by Juvenal to highlight the problem of controlling those who hold power and quoted repeatedly within the work itself. The deconstructive nature of ''Watchmen'' is, Klock notes, played out on the page also as, " ke Alan Moore's ''kenosis'', eidtmust destroy, then reconstruct, in order to build 'a unity which would survive him. Moore has expressed dismay that " e gritty, deconstructivist postmodern superhero comic, as exemplified by ''Watchmen'' ..became a genre". He said in 2003 that "to some degree there has been, in the 15 years since ''Watchmen'', an awful lot of the comics field devoted to these grim, pessimistic, nasty, violent stories which kind of use ''Watchmen'' to validate what are, in effect, often just some very nasty stories that don't have a lot to recommend them". Gibbons said that while readers "were left with the idea that it was a grim and gritty kind of thing", he said in his view the series was "a wonderful celebration of superheroes as much as anything else".

Publication and reception

''Watchmen'' was first mentioned publicly in the 1985 ''

Preview''. When Moore and Gibbons turned in the first issue of their series to DC, Gibbons recalled, "What really clinched it ..was riter/artist Howard Chaykin, who doesn't give praise lightly, and who came up and said, 'Dave what you've done on ''Watchmen'' is freaking A.'"Duin, Steve and Richardson, Mike. ''Comics: Between the Panels''. Dark Horse Comics, 1998. , p. 460–61 Speaking in 1986, Moore said, "DC backed us all the way ..and have been really supportive about even the most graphic excesses". To promote the series, DC Comics released a limited-edition badge ("button") display card set, featuring characters and images from the series. Ten thousand sets of the four badges, including a replica of the blood-stained

badge worn by the Comedian in the story, were released and sold.

Mayfair Games Mayfair Games was an American publisher of board, card, and roleplaying games that also licensed Euro-style board games to publish them in English. The company licensed worldwide English-language publishing rights to ''The Settlers of Catan'' ser ...

introduced a ''Watchmen'' module for its ''

DC Heroes ''DC Heroes'' is an out-of-print superhero role-playing game set in the DC Universe and published by Mayfair Games. Other than sharing the same licensed setting, ''DC Heroes'' is unrelated to the West End Games ''DC Universe'' or the more recent ...

'' Role-playing Game series that was released before the series concluded. The module, which was endorsed by Moore, adds details to the series' backstory by portraying events that occurred in 1966. ''Watchmen'' was published in single-issue form over the course of 1986 and 1987. The

limited series Limited series may refer to: *Limited series, individual storylines within an anthology series *Limited series, a particular run of collectables, usually individually numbered *Limited series (comics), a comics series with a predetermined number of ...

was a commercial success, and its sales helped DC Comics briefly overtake its competitor Marvel Comics in the comic book direct market. The series' publishing schedule ran into delays because it was scheduled with three issues completed instead of the six editor Len Wein believed were necessary. Further delays were caused when later issues each took more than a month to complete. One contemporaneous report noted that although DC solicited issue #12 for publication in April 1987, it became apparent "it ouldn'tdebut until July or August". After the series concluded, the individual issues were collected and sold in

form. Along with Frank Miller's 1986 '' Batman: The Dark Knight Returns'' miniseries, ''Watchmen'' was marketed as a " graphic novel", a term that allowed DC and other publishers to sell similar comic book collections in a way that associated them with novels and dissociated them from comics. As a result of the publicity given to the books like the ''Watchmen'' trade in 1987, bookstores and public libraries began to devote special shelves to them. Subsequently, new comics series were commissioned on the basis of reprinting them in a collected form for these markets. ''Watchmen'' received critical praise, both inside and outside of the comics industry. '' Time'' magazine, which noted that the series was "by common assent the best of breed" of the new wave of comics published at the time, praised ''Watchmen'' as "a superlative feat of imagination, combining sci-fi, political satire, knowing evocations of comics past and bold reworkings of current graphic formats into a mystery story". In 1988, ''Watchmen'' received a

Hugo Award The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier a ...

in the Other Forms category.1988 Hugo Awards
. The HugoAwards.com. Retrieved on September 22, 2008. According to Gibbons, Moore had his award placed upside down in his garden and used it as a bird table.

Dave Langford David Rowland Langford (born 10 April 1953) is a British author, editor, and critic, largely active within the science fiction field. He publishes the science fiction fanzine and newsletter ''Ansible'', and holds the all-time record for most ...

reviewed ''Watchmen'' for '' White Dwarf'' #96, and stated that "The modern myth of the Superhero is curiously powerful despite its usual silliness; ''Watchmen'' lovingly disassembles the mythology into bloodstained cogs and ratchets, concluding with the famous quotation ''

''"

Ownership disputes

Disagreements about the ownership of the story ultimately led Moore to sever ties with DC Comics. Not wanting to work under a work for hire arrangement, Moore and Gibbons had a reversion clause in their contract for ''Watchmen''. Speaking at the 1985 San Diego Comic-Con, Moore said: "The way it works, if I understand it, is that DC owns it for the time they're publishing it, and then it reverts to Dave and me, so we can make all the money from the Slurpee cups." For ''Watchmen'', Moore and Gibbons received eight percent of the series' earnings. Moore explained in 1986 that his understanding was that when "DC have not used the characters for a year, they're ours." Both Moore and Gibbons said DC paid them "a substantial amount of money" to retain the rights. Moore added, "So basically they're not ours, but if DC is working with the characters in our interests then they might as well be. On the other hand, if the characters have outlived their natural life span and DC doesn't want to do anything with them, then after a year we've got them and we can do what we want with them, which I'm perfectly happy with." Moore said he left DC in 1989 due to the language in his contracts for ''Watchmen'' and his '' V for Vendetta'' series with artist David Lloyd. Moore felt the reversion clauses were ultimately meaningless because DC did not intend to let the publications go out of print. He told ''The New York Times'' in 2006, "I said, 'Fair enough,' ..'You have managed to successfully swindle me, and so I will never work for you again. In 2000, Moore publicly distanced himself from DC's plans for a 15th anniversary ''Watchmen'' hardcover release as well as a proposed line of action figures from

DC Direct DC Direct was a Division (business), division of WarnerMedia that sold collectibles based on DC Comics characters (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, etc.). Prior to 1998, merchandise sold by DC Comics was branded with the DC Comics logo rather th ...

. While DC wanted to mend its relationship with the writer, Moore felt the company was not treating him fairly in regard to his America's Best Comics imprint (launched under the WildStorm comic

imprint Imprint or imprinting may refer to: Entertainment * ''Imprint'' (TV series), Canadian television series * "Imprint" (''Masters of Horror''), episode of TV show ''Masters of Horror'' * ''Imprint'' (film), a 2007 independent drama/thriller film ...

, which was bought by DC in 1998; Moore was promised no direct interference by DC as part of the arrangement). Moore added, "As far as I'm concerned, the 15th anniversary of ''Watchmen'' is purely a 15th Anniversary of when DC managed to take the ''Watchmen'' property from me and Dave ibbons" Soon afterward, DC Direct canceled the ''Watchmen'' action-figure line, despite the company having displayed prototypes at the 2000 San Diego Comic-Con International.St-Louis, Hervé.
Watchmen Action Figures – Controversies and Fulfillment
". ComicBookBin.com, August 18, 2008. Retrieved on December 24, 2008.

Prequel projects

Moore stated in 1985 that if the limited series was well-received, he and Gibbons would possibly create a 12-issue

series called ''Minutemen'' featuring the 1940s superhero group from the story. DC offered Moore and Gibbons chances to publish prequels to the series, such as ''Rorschach's Journal'' or ''The Comedian's Vietnam War Diary'', as well as hinting at the possibility of other authors using the same universe. Tales of the Comedian's Vietnam War experiences were floated because '' The 'Nam'' was popular at the time, while another suggestion was, according to Gibbons, for a "Nite Owl/Rorschach team" (in the manner of '' Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)''). Neither man felt the stories would have gone anywhere, with Moore particularly adamant that DC not go forward with stories by other individuals."Watchmen Round Table: Moore & Gibbons". '' David Anthony Kraft's Comics Interview''. Issue 65, 1988. Gibbons was more attracted to the idea of a ''Minutemen'' series because it would have " aidhomage to the simplicity and unsophisticated nature of Golden Age comic books—with the added dramatic interest that it would be a story whose conclusion is already known. It would be, perhaps, interesting to see how we got to the conclusion." In 2010, Moore told '' Wired'' that DC offered him the rights to ''Watchmen'' back if he would agree to prequel and sequel projects. Moore said that "if they said that 10 years ago, when I asked them for that, then yeah it might have worked ..But these days I don't want ''Watchmen'' back. Certainly, I don't want it back under those kinds of terms." DC Comics co-publishers

Dan DiDio Dan DiDio (; born October 13, 1959) is an American writer, editor, and publisher who has worked in the television and comic book industries. From February 2010 until February 2020, he was the co-publisher of DC Comics, along with Jim Lee. '' Wizar ...

and Jim Lee responded: "DC Comics would only revisit these iconic characters if the creative vision of any proposed new stories matched the quality set by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons nearly 25 years ago, and our first discussion on any of this would naturally be with the creators themselves."Thill, Scott (July 21, 2010)
"Alan Moore: 'I Don't Want Watchmen Back'"
'' Wired''. Retrieved on July 21, 2010. Following months of rumors about a potential ''Watchmen'' follow-up project, in February 2012 DC announced it was publishing seven prequel series under the "''Before Watchmen''" banner. Among the creators involved were writers

J. Michael Straczynski Joseph Michael Straczynski (; born July 17, 1954) is an American filmmaker and comic book writer. He is the founder of Synthetic Worlds Ltd. and Studio JMS and is best known as the creator of the science fiction television series ''Babylon 5'' ( ...

Brian Azzarello Brian Azzarello (born August 11, 1962 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American comic book writer and screenwriter who first came to prominence with the hardboiled crime series ''100 Bullets'', published by DC Comics' mature-audience imprint Vertigo. ...

, Darwyn Cooke, and Len Wein, and artists Lee Bermejo,

J. G. Jones Jeffrey Glen Jones is an American comics artist who is known for his work on titles such as ''Wanted'' and ''Final Crisis''. Early life Jones hails from Walker, Louisiana and attended Louisiana State University and the University at Albany, SUN ...

Adam Hughes Adam Hughes (born May 5, 1967) is an American comics artist and illustrator best known to American comic book readers for his renderings of pinup-style female characters, and his cover work on titles such as ''Wonder Woman'' and ''Catwoman''. H ...

, Andy Kubert, Joe Kubert, and Amanda Conner. Though Moore had no involvement with ''Before Watchmen'', Gibbons supplied the project with a statement in the initial press announcement:

Sequels

Comic book sequel: ''Doomsday Clock''

The sequel to ''Watchmen'', entitled ''Doomsday Clock'', is part of the DC Rebirth line of comics, additionally continuing a narrative established with 2016's one-shot '' DC Universe: Rebirth Special'' and 2017's crossover '' The Button'', both of which featured Doctor Manhattan in a minor capacity. The miniseries, taking place seven years after the events of ''Watchmen'' in November 1992, follows Ozymandias as he attempts to locate Doctor Manhattan alongside Reginald Long, the successor of Walter Kovacs as Rorschach, following the exposure and subsequent failure of his plan for peace and the subsequent impending nuclear war between the United States and Russia. The series was revealed on May 14, 2017, with a teaser image displaying the

Superman logo Superman shield, also known as the Superman logo or the Superman symbol, is the iconic emblem for the fictional DC Comics superhero Superman. As a representation of one of the first superheroes, it served as a template for character design decad ...

in the 12 o'clock slot of the clock depicted in ''Watchmen'' and the series title in the bold typeface used for ''Watchmen''. The first of a planned twelve issues was released on November 22, 2017. The story includes many DC characters but has a particular focus on

and Doctor Manhattan, despite Superman stated as being a fictional character in the original series—the series uses the plot element of the

multiverse The multiverse is a hypothetical group of multiple universes. Together, these universes comprise everything that exists: the entirety of space, time, matter, energy, information, and the physical laws and constants that describe them. The di ...

. Writer Geoff Johns felt like there was an interesting story to be told in Rebirth with Doctor Manhattan. He thought there was an interesting dichotomy between Superman—an alien who embodies and is compassionate for humanity—and Doctor Manhattan—a human who has detached himself from humanity. This led to over six months of debates amongst the creative team about whether to intersect the ''Watchmen'' universe with the DC Universe, through the plot element of alternate realities. He explained that ''Doomsday Clock'' was the "most personal and most epic, utterly mind-bending project" that he had worked on in his career.

Television series sequel

brought on Damon Lindelof to develop a ''Watchmen'' television show, which premiered on October 20, 2019. Lindelof, a fan of the limited series, made the show a "remix" of the comic, narratively a sequel while introducing a new set of characters and story that he felt made the work unique enough without being a full reboot of the comic series. Among its main cast are

Regina King Regina Rene King (born January 15, 1971) is an American actress and director. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and four Primetime Emmy Awards. In 2019, ''Time'' magazine named her one ...

, Don Johnson, Tim Blake Nelson,

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (; born July 15, 1986) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Black Manta in the superhero films ''Aquaman'' (2018) and ''Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom'' (2023), Bobby Seale in the Netflix historical legal drama ' ...

, and Jeremy Irons. The television show takes place in 2019, 34 years after the end of the limited series, and is primarily set in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Due to liberal policies set by President

Robert Redford Charles Robert Redford Jr. (born August 18, 1936) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the List of awards and nominations received by Robert Redford, recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Awards, Academy Award from four nomi ...

to provide reparations to those affected by racial violence, white supremacist groups (following the writings of Rorschach) attack the police who enforce these policies, leading to laws requiring police to hide their identity and wear masks. This has allowed new masked crime fighters to assist the police against the supremacists. Doctor Manhattan, Adrian Veidt / Ozymandias, and Laurie Blake / Silk Spectre are central characters to the show's plot.

Adaptations

Film adaptation

There have been numerous attempts to make a film version of ''Watchmen'' since 1986, when producers Lawrence Gordon and Joel Silver acquired film rights to the series for

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

. Fox asked Alan Moore to write a screenplay based on his story, but he declined, so the studio enlisted screenwriter Sam Hamm. Hamm took the liberty of re-writing ''Watchmen''s complicated ending into a "more manageable" conclusion involving an assassination and a time paradox.Hughes, David. "Who Watches the ''Watchmen''? – How The Greatest Graphic Novel of Them All Confounded Hollywood". ''The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made''. Chicago Review Press, 2002. , p. 144 Fox put the project into turnaround in 1991, and the project was moved to Warner Bros. Pictures, where Terry Gilliam was attached to direct and Charles McKeown to rewrite it. They used the character Rorschach's diary as a voice-over and restored scenes from the comic book that Hamm had removed. Gilliam and Silver were only able to raise $25 million for the film (a quarter of the necessary budget) because their previous films had gone over budget. Gilliam abandoned the project because he decided that ''Watchmen'' would have been

unfilmable Unfilmability is a type of medium specificity which prevents a work of literature from undergoing successful film adaptation. A wide variety of considerations can lead to a work being seen as unfilmable. These include aesthetic conventions, audience ...

. "Reducing

he story He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

to a two or two-and-a-half hour film ..seemed to me to take away the essence of what ''Watchmen'' is about," he said. After Warner Bros. dropped the project, Gordon invited Gilliam back to helm the film independently. The director again declined, believing that the comic book would be better directed as a five-hour

miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...

In October 2001, Gordon partnered with

Lloyd Levin Lloyd A. Levin (born 1958) is an American film producer. Biography Early life Levin is a native of Paramus, New Jersey, where he attended Paramus High School and graduated in 1976. Producing career He was once the president of Lawrence Gordon P ...

and Universal Studios, hiring David Hayter to write and direct.Stax.
David Hayter Watches ''The Watchmen''
. IGN.com. October 27, 2001. Retrieved on October 18, 2008. Hayter and the producers left Universal due to creative differences, and Gordon and Levin expressed interest in setting up ''Watchmen'' at Revolution Studios. The project did not hold together at Revolution Studios and subsequently fell apart.Linder, Brian.
Aronofksy Still Watching ''Watchmen''
. IGN.com. July 23, 2004. Retrieved on October 18, 2008. In July 2004, it was announced

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

would produce ''Watchmen'', and they attached Darren Aronofsky to direct Hayter's script. Producers Gordon and Levin remained attached, collaborating with Aronofsky's producing partner, Eric Watson. Aronofsky left to focus on ''

The Fountain ''The Fountain'' is a 2006 American epic romantic drama film written and directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. Blending elements of fantasy, history, spirituality, and science fiction, the film consists of ...

'' and was replaced by Paul Greengrass. Ultimately, Paramount placed ''Watchmen'' in turnaround. In October 2005, Gordon and Levin met with Warner Bros. to develop the film there again. Impressed with Zack Snyder's work on ''

300 __NOTOC__ Year 300 (Roman numerals, CCC) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Constantius and Valerius (or, less frequently, ...

'', Warner Bros. approached him to direct an adaptation of ''Watchmen''. Screenwriter Alex Tse drew from his favorite elements of Hayter's script, but also returned it to the original

setting of the ''Watchmen'' comic. Similar to his approach to ''300'', Snyder used the comic book panel-grid as a

storyboard A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, i ...

and opted to shoot the entire film using live-action sets instead of green screens.Weiland, Jonah.
''300'' Post-Game: One-On-One With Zack Snyder
". ComicBookResources.com. March 14, 2007. Retrieved on March 16, 2007. He extended the fight scenes, and added a subplot about energy resources to make the film more topical. Although he intended to stay faithful to the look of the characters in the comic, Snyder intended Nite Owl to look scarier, and made Ozymandias' armor into a parody of the rubber muscle suits from the 1997 superhero film '' Batman & Robin''. After the trailer to the film premiered in July 2008, DC Comics president Paul Levitz said that the company had to print more than 900,000 copies of ''Watchmen'' trade collection to meet the additional demand for the book that the advertising campaign had generated, with the total annual print run expected to be over one million copies. While 20th Century Fox filed a lawsuit to block the film's release, the studios eventually settled, with Warner agreeing to give Fox 8.5 percent of the film's worldwide gross, including from sequels and spin-offs in return. The film was released to theaters in March 2009. ''Tales of the Black Freighter'' was adapted as a direct-to-video animated feature from Warner Premiere and Warner Bros. Animation, which was released on March 24, 2009. It was originally included in the screenplay for the ''Watchmen'' film, but was cut due to budget restrictions, as the segment would have added $20 million to the budget, because Snyder wanted to film it in a stylized manner reminiscent of ''

''. Gerard Butler, who starred in ''300'', voices the Captain in the film. Jared Harris voices his deceased friend Ridley, whom the Captain hallucinates is talking to him. Snyder had Butler and Harris record their parts together. Snyder considered including the animated film in the final cut, but the film was already approaching a three-hour running time. Gerard Butler, who starred in ''300'', voices the Captain in the film, having been promised a role in ''Watchmen'' that never materialized. The ''Tales of the Black Freighter'' was given standalone DVD release which also will ''Under the Hood'', a documentary detailing the characters' backstories, named after the character Hollis Mason's (the first

Nite Owl Nite Owl is the name of superhero, fictional superheroes in the graphic novel Limited series (comics), limited series ''Watchmen'', published by DC Comics. Created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, the original Nite Owl, Hollis T. Mason, was a memb ...

) memoirs. The film itself was released on DVD four months after ''Tales of the Black Freighter'', and in November 2009, a four-disc set was released as the "Ultimate Cut" with the animated film edited back into the main picture. The director's cut and the extended version of ''Watchmen'' both include ''Tales of the Black Freighter'' on their DVD releases. Len Wein, the comic's editor, wrote a video game prequel entitled '' Watchmen: The End Is Nigh''. Dave Gibbons became an adviser on Snyder's film, but Moore has refused to have his name attached to any film adaptations of his work.MacDonald, Heidi.
Moore Leaves DC for Top Shelf
. PublishersWeekly.com. May 30, 2005. Retrieved on April 15, 2006. Moore has stated he has no interest in seeing Snyder's adaptation; he told ''Entertainment Weekly'' in 2008 that " ere are things that we did with ''Watchmen'' that could only work in a comic, and were indeed designed to show off things that other media can't". While Moore believes that David Hayter's screenplay was "as close as I could imagine anyone getting to ''Watchmen''", he asserted he did not intend to see the film if it were made.Jensen, Jeff.
Watchmen: An Oral History (5 of 6)
. ''Entertainment Weekly''. October 21, 2005. Retrieved on October 8, 2008.

Motion comic

In 2008, Warner Bros. Entertainment released ''Watchmen Motion Comics'', a series of narrated animations of the original comic book. The first chapter was released for purchase in the summer of 2008 on digital video stores, such as iTunes Store. A DVD compiling the full motion comic series was released in March 2009.

Animated film

Warner Bros. announced in April 2017 that it is developing an R-rated animated film based on the comic book, but no further progress has been made since this announcement.

Arrowverse

The

version of the '' Watchmen'' was referenced in the Arrowverse's '' Crisis on Infinite Earths'' crossover. A sign could be seen on a building on Earth-666 advertising the show. Earth-666 was an Earth inhabited by the Pre-Crisis version of Lucifer from the ''Lucifer'' television series. Tom Ellis reprised his role from that series.

Legacy

A critical and commercial success, ''Watchmen'' is highly regarded in the comics industry and is frequently considered by several critics and reviewers as comics' greatest series and graphic novel.Albert, Aaron.
''Watchmen'' Graphic Novel Review
". About.com. Retrieved on March 11, 2013.Driscoll, Molly.
''Watchmen'' prequels provoke debate in comic book community
". ''The Christian Science Monitor''. February 1, 2012. Retrieved on March 11, 2013.All-Time Essential Comics
". IGN. Retrieved on March 11, 2013.''Watchmen'', Other DC Graphic Novels Announced as Kindle Fire Digital Exclusives
". ''Comic Book Resources''. September 29, 2011. Retrieved on March 22, 2013. In addition to being one of the first major works to help popularize the graphic novel publishing format alongside ''

The Dark Knight Returns ''The Dark Knight Returns'' (alternatively titled ''Batman: The Dark Knight Returns'') is a 1986 four-issue comic book miniseries starring Batman, written by Frank Miller, illustrated by Miller and Klaus Janson, with color by Lynn Varley, and pub ...

'', ''Watchmen'' has also become one of the best-selling graphic novels ever published.Johnston, Rich.
''Before Watchmen'' To Double Up For Hardcover Collections
". ''Bleeding Cool''. December 10, 2012. Retrieved on March 22, 2013. ''Watchmen'' was the only graphic novel to appear on '' Time''s 2005 "All-''Time'' 100 Greatest Novels" list,Goldstein, Hilary.
''Watchmen'' Distinguished in Time
". ''IGN''. October 17, 2005. Retrieved on March 11, 2013. where ''Time'' critic Lev Grossman described the story as "a heart-pounding, heartbreaking read and a watershed in the evolution of a young medium."Grossman, Lev.
''Watchmen'' – ALL-''Time'' 100 Novels
". ''Time''. October 16, 2005. Retrieved on March 9, 2013. It later appeared on ''Time''s 2009 "Top 10 Graphic Novels" list, where Grossman further praised ''Watchmen'', proclaiming "It’s way beyond cliché at this point to call ''Watchmen'' the greatest superhero comic ever written-slash-drawn. But it’s true."Grossman, Lev.
''Watchmen'' – Top 10 Graphic Novels
". ''Time''. March 6, 2009. Retrieved on March 9, 2013. In 2008, '' Entertainment Weekly'' placed ''Watchmen'' at number 13 on its list of the best 50 novels printed in the last 25 years, describing it as "The greatest superhero story ever told and proof that comics are capable of smart, emotionally resonant narratives worthy of the label 'literature'." '' The Comics Journal'', however, ranked ''Watchmen'' at number 91 on its list of the Top 100 English-language comics of the 20th century. In ''Art of the Comic Book: An Aesthetic History'', Robert Harvey wrote that, with ''Watchmen'', Moore and Gibbons "had demonstrated as never before the capacity of the omic bookmedium to tell a sophisticated story that could be engineered only in comics".Harvey, p. 150 In his review of the Absolute Edition of the collection, Dave Itzkoff of '' The New York Times'' wrote that the dark legacy of ''Watchmen'', "one that Moore almost certainly never intended, whose DNA is encoded in the increasingly black inks and bleak storylines that have become the essential elements of the contemporary superhero comic book," is "a domain he has largely ceded to writers and artists who share his fascination with brutality but not his interest in its consequences, his eagerness to tear down old boundaries but not his drive to find new ones." Alan Moore himself said his intentions with works like ''

Marvelman Miracleman (Michael ("Micky" / "Mike") Moran), originally known as Marvelman, is a fictional superhero appearing in comic books first published by L. Miller & Son, Ltd. Created in 1954 by writer-artist Mick Anglo for publisher L. Miller & So ...

'' and ''Watchmen'' were to liberate comics and open them up to new and fresh ideas, thus creating more diversity in the comics world by showing the industry what could be done with already existing concepts. Instead it had the opposite effect, causing the superhero comic to end up stuck in a "depressive ghetto of grimness and psychosis". In 2009, Lydia Millet of '' The Wall Street Journal'' contested that ''Watchmen'' was worthy of such acclaim, and wrote that while the series' "vividly drawn panels, moody colors and lush imagery make its popularity well-deserved, if disproportionate", that "it's simply bizarre to assert that, as an illustrated literary narrative, it rivals in artistic merit, say, masterpieces like Chris Ware's ' Acme Novelty Library' or almost any part of the witty and brilliant work of

Edward Gorey Edward St. John Gorey (February 22, 1925 – April 15, 2000) was an Americans, American writer, Tony Award-winning costume designer, and artist, noted for his own illustrated books as well as cover art and illustration for books by other w ...

". ''Watchmen'' was one of the two comic books, alongside '' Batman: The Dark Knight Returns'', that inspired designer Vincent Connare when he created the

Comic Sans Comic Sans MS is a sans-serif typeface designed by Vincent Connare and released in 1994 by Microsoft Corporation. It is a non-connecting script inspired by comic book lettering, intended for use in cartoon speech bubbles, as well as in other cas ...

font. In 2009, Brain Scan Studios released the parody ''

Watchmensch ''Watchmensch'' is a one-shot comic book by writer Rich Johnston and artist Simon Rohrmüller released by Brain Scan Studios. It parodies the ''Watchmen'' limited series created by writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons, and colorist John Higgins ...

'', a comic in which writer Rich Johnston chronicled "the debate surrounding ''Watchmen'', the original contracts, the current legal suits over the Fox contract". Also in 2009, to coincide with the release of the ''Watchmen'' movie,

IDW Publishing IDW Publishing is an American publisher of comic books, graphic novels, art books, and comic strip collections. It was founded in 1999 as the publishing division of Idea and Design Works, LLC (IDW), itself formed in 1999, and is regularly recog ...

produced a parody one-shot comic titled ''Whatmen?!'' In September 2016, Hasslein Books published ''Watching Time: The Unauthorized Watchmen Chronology'', by author Rich Handley. The book provides a detailed history of the ''Watchmen'' franchise. In December 2017, DC Entertainment published ''Watchmen: Annotated'', a fully annotated black-and-white edition of the graphic novel, edited, with an introduction and notes by

Leslie S. Klinger Leslie S. Klinger (born May 2, 1946, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American attorney and writer. He is a noted literary editor and annotator of classic genre fiction, including the Sherlock Holmes stories and the novels '' Dracula'', ''Frankenst ...

(who previously annotated Neil Gaiman's ''

The Sandman The Sandman is a mythical character in European folklore who puts people to sleep and encourages and inspires beautiful dreams by sprinkling magical sand onto their eyes. Representation in traditional folklore The Sandman is a traditional charact ...

'' for DC). The edition contains extensive materials from Alan Moore's original scripts and was written with the full collaboration of Dave Gibbons. Rorschach appears in

Laura Beatty Laura Mary Catherine Beatty (née Keen; born 1 May 1963) is a writer awarded the Authors' Club First Novel Award for her 2008 novel '' Pollard'', also shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize. She has also written two biographies, the first about Li ...

's 2019 novel, ''

Lost Property A lost and found (American English) or lost property (British English), or lost articles (also Canadian English) is an office in a public building or area where people can go to retrieve lost articles that may have been found by others. Frequen ...

''.

Notes

References

* Eury, Michael; Giordano, Dick. ''Dick Giordano: Changing Comics, One Day at a Time''. TwoMorrows Publishing, 2003. * Groensteen, Thierry. ''The System of Comics''. University Press of Mississippi, 2007. * Harvey, Robert C. ''The Art of the Comic Book: An Aesthetic History''. University Press of Mississippi, 1996. * Klock, Geoff. ''How to Read Superhero Comics and Why''.

Continuum Continuum may refer to: * Continuum (measurement), theories or models that explain gradual transitions from one condition to another without abrupt changes Mathematics * Continuum (set theory), the real line or the corresponding cardinal number ...

, 2002. * Reynolds, Richard. ''Super Heroes: A Modern Mythology''. B. T. Batsford Ltd, 1992. * Sabin, Roger. ''Comics, Comix and Graphic Novels''.

Phaidon Press Phaidon Press is a global publisher of books on art, architecture, design, fashion, photography, and popular culture, as well as cookbooks, children's books, and travel books. The company is based in London and New York City, with additional off ...

, 1996; 2001. * Salisbury, Mark (editor). ''Artists on Comics Art''. Titan Books, 2000. * Thomson, Iain. "Deconstructing the Hero". ''Comics As Philosophy''. Jeff McLaughlin (editor). University Press of Mississippi, 2005. * Wright, Bradford W. ''Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America''. Johns Hopkins, 2001.

External links

* *
Watching The Detectives: An Internet Companion for Readers of ''Watchmen''
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