Watchmen is a crime comics that begins with a crime and the investigation conducted in a fun and clever way suitable for this visual medium. The Comedian, a former superhero, was murdered. His former companions set out in search of the culprit.
Watchmen is an exceptional graphic rigor. Dave Gibbons managed to put all the information required by the scenario in each drawing without any visual overload impression. He retained a rigorous frame 9 boxes per page, with some variations which involve merging 2 or 3 spaces between them. The designs are entirely at the service of the story.
Watchmen is a complex narrative structure that gives the impression of being intelligent reader. Moore and Gibbons entangled with the main survey texts illustrated pages at the end of each of the first 11 chapters and with a comic in the comic. This story seems at first apply to the guilty and condemning its actions (such as a harbinger of the final value judgment of Doctor Manhattan), and as an ironic nod to the choice of the next issue of the cabbage leaf 'far right.
Watchmen is a philosophical perspective on the meaning of history and perception of reality. At a second level, the Black Freighter story indicates that the understanding and interpretation of reality depends on the person who contemplates; each individual is limited in its ability to understand the world around him. Similarly, every action is controlled by our ability to understand our surroundings. And that story development refers to those times when characters change vision on the world around them while watching the actions of the Comedian. Edward Blake is the one who has the clearest vision of the world around him, but it's also one that is most unable to act because this absence deprives the illusions of motivation.
Watchmen is an alternate history in which the existence of one man endowed with extraordinary powers has upset the ratio of power of the nations. Strategic defense of the United States rests on his shoulders. Richard Nixon is still in power. But the tension between the West and the East and a war seems inevitable and imminent.
Watchmen is a penetrating and sophisticated psychological analysis of each of the main characters. After the death of the Comedian, everyone remembers to turn one of his meetings with him. But it turns out that these scenes do not serve both to honor the memory of the deceased to measure its impact on each of the narrators and the direction he will give to his life.
Watchmen is a visual world of rigor and perfect consistency. Dave Gibbons and Alan Moore worked to make each significant visual element: the graffiti on the walls, the symbolic recurrence of stained smiley, electric cars, corporate logos, advertising posters, to design shoes worn.
Watchmen is the narrative sequences of a force and an incredible intelligence. The chapter on Rorsach is built around the symmetry of the mask. The first page responds to the last, the second with the penultimate, etc. In chapter 9, Moore and Gibbons succeed an outstanding feat: they get to share the reader's point of view of a character who has an overall perception of time and nonlinear. And the result is convincing. This sequence on Mars alone is worth 5 stars (and even more).
Watchmen is a comic that has risen above its origin (superhero comics) to reach the level of masterpiece which we could not fault the reduced position of women. The reader acquainted with singular characters as part of a classic police frame that is used to query the desires and motivations of each, and the sense of history while having a height of entertainment content.
URBAN EDITION Comics - She takes the translation of Jean-Patrick Manchette (author of thrillers). It contains several bonuses including 6 original covers of Dave Gibbons for the first French edition (Zenda). It also includes Alan Moore script pages including those of the first episode. Their reading is indicative of the amount of work done by Moore. They are worth to be read to be aware of the depth of the preparatory design work.
