Watchmen
A Deconstructed Graphic Novel
Watchmen was published in an era when the comic book genre was dominated by superheroes and antiheroes with black and white views about good and evil. It is a parody of the overman in dystopia. A combination of dark, pulp, and deconstructed comic book style, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon offered something that caters to both comic book aficionados and common readers.
Watchmen is not your typical graphic novel. It defies all other conventions in the comic book genre and deviates from the usual larger-than-life comic book characters we have come to know. Instead of an alien from Krypton or a dark knight in a bat mobile, Watchmen offers a different set of superheroes with insecurities, imperfections, and emotional disturbances.
The graphic novel is somewhat an oxymoron. On one hand, this is slated to a wider range of audience, but this doesn't make the graphic novel an easy read. It is designed to be read more than once. Watchmen brings the readers into a dynamic state, into a questioning mode of thinking. Every encounter with this comic book elicits a different response from readers. As said by Moore and Gibbon in an interview, they intended the graphic novel to hold different meanings to different people.
The art and structure of the graphic novel are equally fascinating and original as its content. Watchmen showcases unseen features of the comics medium and puts its strong points to the fore. In an interview, Moore said, "What I'd like to explore is the areas that comics succeed in where no other media is capable of operating". The graphic novel became ultimately different from the movies.
What's more unique about the art is that it exploits the use of panels. The creators really intended its panels to be distinct from other comic books. The use of symbolisms is also superb giving reference to the story's theme. This is why reading the graphic novel once betrays the purpose of the act of reading Watchmen. As the plot thickens, the readers are drawn into an intellectual challenge of piecing the puzzles together to fully grasp the depth of the novel.
It is important to note that the novel might not be aimed at people who are not familiar with the comic book genre. Appreciating the profundity of this comic book necessitates knowledge about genre and exposure to other graphic novels. Since Watchmen is a hard read, it is easy for someone unfamiliar wit the world of comic books to be lost in the ebbs of symbolisms and themes.
Watchmen is a great alternative to comic fans tired of the usual goody-two-shoe and perfect hero stories. Although this is a difficult to decode for beginners, for comic book enthusiasts, this is a knockout.
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Article Source: Joel Owens
Watchmen: A Deconstructed Graphic Novel