Thirty-five years ago if you wanted to read the opening chapter of one of the greatest literary works of the 20th Century, you needed to go to a shop that sold comic books. Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons masterpiece Watchmen accomplished a great deal in its twelve issue run. It reinvented second tier characters from a minor publisher and in the process deconstructed the superhero genre. It commented on war and politics, it inspired generations of comic book creators and helped established the medium as a place where serious writing could happen. It cemented Moore’s reputation as the most influential comic writer of his time. It revolutionized comics and superheroes. And, it told one heck of story.
Join the DC History Club and the Justice League Book Club as we take a deep, deep dive in to Watchmen. Each week, you’ll find a Watchmen 35th Anniversary Read-Along, issue by issue alternating between the two clubs. Read and discuss the individual issues there. Here, led by our intrepid researcher the extraordinary @turoksonofstone find the best in articles, interviews and video links on individual issues and the series as a whole. We’ll also provide our normal poll and quiz questions as we get deeper into the individual issues. Hope you can join in, because if there’s one comic series worth this kind of deep examination, Watchmen is it.
Note: The Watchmen series is not available on DCUI so you will need to procure your own copy if you wish to read it.
Moore wanted initially
To use an existing line of
Super heroes for his story
Interestingly
His initial thought
Was to use
The Mighty Crusaders
(Shield, Fly, Black Hood etc)
But also
T H U N D E R Agents
( Dynamo, NoMan, Menthor, etc)
Before settling on the
Charlton Characters
(Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, Question, etc)
He wanted to use
Existing Characters
From the same universe
Because
Readers would be familiar with them.
My question is
What percentage of readers
Would be familiar with
Any of them?
Mighty Crusaders and
T H U N D E R Agents
Were somewhat popular
In the sixties
And the year now was 1985
Decades later.
Also most comic book readers were young boys
With very limited income.
Who could only buy
A few comics a month.
I only remember buying
A Captain Atom comic
Once during the 1960s
Normally they were not available at the places
I bought comics.
DC Editor Dick Giordano vetoed the use of the
Chariton characters
Which DC Comics
Had just bought
Because they would be
Unusable after the story.
I think the Watchmen
Use of original characters
Made a better storyline
