Graphic Novel-Watchmen

In a previous blog, long ago, I admitted that one of my few regrets in life was that I sold my comic book collection in 1992. I had collected these from the 70's until 1986, and I didn't mind so much that I stopped collecting, but I never should have gotten rid of them.

Well, slowly I am buying back old issues and putting the collection back together, but I am now buying some current comics again too. Yes yes yes...NERD!

But I am also buying some of the "event" graphic novels that came out in between, one of the most acclaimed being Watchmen.

Now really, despite protests from some, graphic novels are big comic books. Let's be quite honest. They do allow for larger themes, and subtleties, but they are comic books. "A rose by any other name..."

And Watchmen really was an outstanding book. It dealt with superheroes, but in a very different way. It also dealt with much larger political and human themes, and offered a multi-layered approach to telling the story, relying on multiple narratives and overlapping thematic story lines. Seriously. Remember, I was an English major and quite an interesting thesis could (and probably has) been done on this book.

But I must admit, reading it now, as opposed to when it first came out in the 80's, has made it seem a bit dated. It had story lines that fit the era of the cold war, that don't really resonate now, the era of the terrorist and religious war. And while some of the large themes are still valid, the way they are told, the narratives, are just a bit passe...like going to a disco, or wearing plaid.

It still is an incredibly textured read, and well worth it. I don't think anything like this had been done before. And it stands as a fitting touchstone for all who try to make the graphic novel better than the run-of-the-mill comic book, who try to make it into something with literary value. Watchmen did do that. Not bad for a comic book huh?