Book: Watchmen – Allan Moore

May 23rd, 2009 | Posted in Books

Watchmen

I just finished reading Watchmen, the graphic novel on which the recent Watchmen movie was based. I did not watch the movie when it was out in the cinema a short while ago, but I’ve been wanting to read a comic or a manga book which was a self-contained novel and not something episodical which I would have to carry on reading for months and months. Watchmen was exactly what I wanted because it is a 12-issue collection of the entire story.

Watchmen tells the story about costumed vigilantes who were once active in fighting crime before the government passed a law prohibiting their activity. The story starts with the sudden murder or one of the Watchmen which led to fear of a conspiracy to eliminate all costumed crime fighters. 

I don’t think I ever read a graphic novel since I was a child, and I really liked this one. It was really artistic and smart, especially the way two scenes would be told simultaneously to indicate irony (part where the kid is reading the novel on the street and other events happening). 

I usually read in bed at night before going to sleep, but I found it hard to do that because, unlike pure text novels, you have to focus on each picture and analyse all the contents of the frame, which is mentally exhausting.

Now that I missed the movie in the cinema, I will make sure I get the DVD when it comes out.

My next book is The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

  • Crimson
    I've watched both 5 Centimeters Per Second and Watchmen. To tell you the truth, I didn't like any of them. 5CPS is way overrated. There is nothing special about it. I recommend The Girl Who Leapt Through Time which was at least decent. Mikoto Shinkai is good anime director/animator, but he is no where near Miyazaki.
  • Mo, I read the book, so I HAVE to watch the movie now! I already know all the characters and the plot, so I'm hoping my experience will be different! :D

    (They stopped showing it at the cinema a while ago and it will take two months for it to get released on DVD, so I might just forget about it when that happens! :P)
  • Riyadh, dont watch the movie. I thought it was very cheesy and quite frankly, crap!

    lots of hype surrounding it though. Marketers r doing a good job of that.
  • (PS, I was wondering why your comment doesn't have proper paragraph spacing, so I clicked on the edit button).
  • Yeah, I do know my anime quite a bit! :P

    I have the DVDs for both" Voices of a Distant Star" and "The Place We Promised in Our Early days", the only movie I have not seen by Mikoto Shinkai is 5CPM, and yes, it is because I do not want to download it illegally. I don't know what I'm going to do about it, but I'll be waiting for a couple of months to see if it gets a UK release or something.

    I might check out The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, it's been popping on my recommended list for a while now. Thanks for the recommendation!
  • Yasir AL-Balushi
    oh I'd have to be honest that I'm shocked that you do have some knowledge with anime !
    I know you hate illegal downloading but if you can't find 5 Centimeters Per Second anywhere i think you should really consider it, It's one of the best movies i ever saw, it's one of those very rare anime that have realistic characters in realistic setting going through realistic dilemmas.
    the name of the director who worked on both voices of the distant star (hoshi no koe) and 5 centimeters per second is called Makoto Shinkai and many people consider him the next miyazaki, so i recommend you watch almost anything by him.

    The DVD and Blu-Ray of The Sky Crawlers will be released very soon and the DVD of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is available for a reasonable price if you ever consider watching any of those two.

    I wanted to help you more with manga but i mostly focus on anime so i have better knowledge with it.
  • Thanks for your recommendations Yasir. I have seen the movie for Voices of a Distant Star, and I really liked it, but I do not like reading a book after watching the movie for some reason, even though I like watching a movie after reading the book. I added "Beautiful People" to my wish list though. Will check it out in the future.

    I'm really not a huge Batman fan, might consider these if I can't find something better to read, but don't think I'll pick up in favour of other things/

    I've been wanting to watch 5 Centimeters Per Second, but the DVD never got released in the UK and it's been discontinued in the US. It's sold on eBay and Amazon Market Place for 100s of dollars now because it is a rare movie!!
  • Yasir AL-Balushi
    If you are interested you can also check out Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and The Dark Knight Strikes Again comics since i noticed that most who liked unconventional super hero story by watchmen also like those two comics.
    when it comes to Manga, if you want a good story that is a single issue and not serialized i would recommend Beautiful People and The Voices of a Distant Star. i heard a lot of positive things about them though i haven't read any of them myself so I'm not sure wither its as good as people say or not, and don't worry they're not immature shonen mangas. :p
    here are their reviews if you are interested though the reviews by ANN are not very credible.
    http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/beautiful-people-gn-1
    http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/voices-of-a-distant-star/manga
    also, if you are ever interested in watching anime i HIGHLY recommend three anime movies: The Sky Crawlers,The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and 5 Centimeters Per Second which are very good movies with mature stories compared to most other anime movies out there.
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