...But not American Love.
It's been the craze lately. For the longest time it was all I heard about. Far back in my past, perhaps a year and a half ago, I first heard of the graphic novel famously titled Watchmen. I have to say that it interested me, but not enough for me to actively seek it out. The birth of the movie made this available to me, as a friend of mine in my English class had purchased, and read the graphic novel. She loaned it out to a friend of mine, and I told him that he had two days to read it.
" I need two days to read this, because I'm watching the movie Friday and I want to review both," I told him, and my urgency was answered. I used to be a comic book addict. It wasn't just a hobby. It seemed like every time I left the house I had to buy several of them, and knowing the hours of every comic book shop in every city I went to like the back of my hand became the norm. Star Wars was what I was into, and I believe I gave up before purchasing all of the Boba Fett series. So I had some experience when it came to comic books, but taking Watchmen into consideration, I was way above my head.
I'll give a little more background information as to how this became a reality before I begin both reviews. Once again, Watchmen linked back to my English class. A student there asked the teacher if a girl would be interested in seeing it. I promptly told him," Well, Jeff...My girlfriend asked ME to see it."
At the time I was just being a prick, as per usual, but the significance of that didn't really dawn on me until recently. Watchmen was becoming such a phenomenon that my comic book virgin girlfriend asked ME to see it. I felt overwhelmed. I don't have to go into as much detail regarding the book as I do the movie, and how my views might've been biased, because as far as reading the comic went, I was not biased at all. I just read it. I knew it was something I would enjoy and be interested in, and as far as things go, that was what I was expecting.
I'll go ahead and start this by saying that Watchmen became my favorite graphic novel/comic book series that I have ever read. Except for the sole exception of Boba Fett: Agent of Doom (Which was a standalone comic), this is the greatest form of graphic literature that I have ever experienced, and I doubt it will be rivaled until I ultimately take on the task of reading Preacher.
Watchmen has everything that I strive to have in my writing, and deep characters is one of those things. Rorschach is bar none one of the single greatest characters I have ever experienced. I'll go ahead say that I did very much like Dr. Manhattan and later on ended up liking Dan Dreiburg quite a bit, but Rorschach blew me away.
The genius of Alan Moore, the writer of Watchmen, can be seen through the character of Rorschach alone. He is proof that Moore himself is a fucking genius. Rorschach is this emotionless character that seems very alienated from society, and yet it is the most realistic and believing interpretation of that character type I've ever seen. The back story involved was breathtaking, and as a character he felt chilling. Even through simple text and a hand-drawn image, the character of Rorschach was able to make me convey emotion that made me want to be weary of such a fellow.
You see, in Watchmen, upon the arrival of fictationous superheroes, there came a batch of costumed adventuerers, so to speak, that ran around and fought crime. They formed together to join the Minutemen, and Watchmen takes place, and stars the next generation of the Minutemen: The infamous Crimebusters. Unfortunately, the government passes a law in 1977 stating that masked vigilantes have been outlawed, and as such all but three of them go into retirement. With this, a man with actual super powers, Dr. Manhattan, is introduced, and this changes not only the tide of things, but how the world is and how events unfold because of this. Needless to say, the story is very, very deep, and as such this makes it a very difficult thing to review.
The character of Dr. Manhattan is also very interesting, as he can decompose the genetic makeup of anything, changing it's atoms and rearranging the matter that makes up absolutely everything. He also sees time from different angles than human beings, being able to see the past, present, and future simultaneously. He describes time as a jewel, and human beings can only see one side of that jewel, while he can see all of the sides. Each issue in the comic stars a different character (with Rorschach getting a little more airtime), but the issue that stood out the most to me was definitely Dr. Manhattan's.
In the issue, Dr. Manhattan describes several events, and as such they are viewed from the past tense, present tense, and future tense. So, you get three different stories simultaneously, giving you a somewhat accurate representation of how life would be for him. Examples like this can be seen all throughout the comic, and veterans to the comic book franchise will really take notice of the perfect that is the layout of the comic, and small details such as how Rorschach's speech bubbles change depending on whether or not you're viewing a flashback or not.
There is so much I can say about Watchmen, and to really get a grasp of just how epic and dense the comic is, I would have to be sitting down and talking with you one on one. It's difficult for me to not recommend something like this, and if you have any interest in comic books...then this really is one of the greatest things you can read. Not only that, but thanks to the movie you can find copies of the trade at most Barnes & Nobles, Borders, etc. It's really, really easy to find now, and you don't really have an excuse not to check this out.
Now for the movie review...
" I need two days to read this, because I'm watching the movie Friday and I want to review both," I told him, and my urgency was answered. I used to be a comic book addict. It wasn't just a hobby. It seemed like every time I left the house I had to buy several of them, and knowing the hours of every comic book shop in every city I went to like the back of my hand became the norm. Star Wars was what I was into, and I believe I gave up before purchasing all of the Boba Fett series. So I had some experience when it came to comic books, but taking Watchmen into consideration, I was way above my head.
I'll give a little more background information as to how this became a reality before I begin both reviews. Once again, Watchmen linked back to my English class. A student there asked the teacher if a girl would be interested in seeing it. I promptly told him," Well, Jeff...My girlfriend asked ME to see it."
At the time I was just being a prick, as per usual, but the significance of that didn't really dawn on me until recently. Watchmen was becoming such a phenomenon that my comic book virgin girlfriend asked ME to see it. I felt overwhelmed. I don't have to go into as much detail regarding the book as I do the movie, and how my views might've been biased, because as far as reading the comic went, I was not biased at all. I just read it. I knew it was something I would enjoy and be interested in, and as far as things go, that was what I was expecting.
I'll go ahead and start this by saying that Watchmen became my favorite graphic novel/comic book series that I have ever read. Except for the sole exception of Boba Fett: Agent of Doom (Which was a standalone comic), this is the greatest form of graphic literature that I have ever experienced, and I doubt it will be rivaled until I ultimately take on the task of reading Preacher.
Watchmen has everything that I strive to have in my writing, and deep characters is one of those things. Rorschach is bar none one of the single greatest characters I have ever experienced. I'll go ahead say that I did very much like Dr. Manhattan and later on ended up liking Dan Dreiburg quite a bit, but Rorschach blew me away.
The genius of Alan Moore, the writer of Watchmen, can be seen through the character of Rorschach alone. He is proof that Moore himself is a fucking genius. Rorschach is this emotionless character that seems very alienated from society, and yet it is the most realistic and believing interpretation of that character type I've ever seen. The back story involved was breathtaking, and as a character he felt chilling. Even through simple text and a hand-drawn image, the character of Rorschach was able to make me convey emotion that made me want to be weary of such a fellow.
You see, in Watchmen, upon the arrival of fictationous superheroes, there came a batch of costumed adventuerers, so to speak, that ran around and fought crime. They formed together to join the Minutemen, and Watchmen takes place, and stars the next generation of the Minutemen: The infamous Crimebusters. Unfortunately, the government passes a law in 1977 stating that masked vigilantes have been outlawed, and as such all but three of them go into retirement. With this, a man with actual super powers, Dr. Manhattan, is introduced, and this changes not only the tide of things, but how the world is and how events unfold because of this. Needless to say, the story is very, very deep, and as such this makes it a very difficult thing to review.
The character of Dr. Manhattan is also very interesting, as he can decompose the genetic makeup of anything, changing it's atoms and rearranging the matter that makes up absolutely everything. He also sees time from different angles than human beings, being able to see the past, present, and future simultaneously. He describes time as a jewel, and human beings can only see one side of that jewel, while he can see all of the sides. Each issue in the comic stars a different character (with Rorschach getting a little more airtime), but the issue that stood out the most to me was definitely Dr. Manhattan's.
In the issue, Dr. Manhattan describes several events, and as such they are viewed from the past tense, present tense, and future tense. So, you get three different stories simultaneously, giving you a somewhat accurate representation of how life would be for him. Examples like this can be seen all throughout the comic, and veterans to the comic book franchise will really take notice of the perfect that is the layout of the comic, and small details such as how Rorschach's speech bubbles change depending on whether or not you're viewing a flashback or not.
There is so much I can say about Watchmen, and to really get a grasp of just how epic and dense the comic is, I would have to be sitting down and talking with you one on one. It's difficult for me to not recommend something like this, and if you have any interest in comic books...then this really is one of the greatest things you can read. Not only that, but thanks to the movie you can find copies of the trade at most Barnes & Nobles, Borders, etc. It's really, really easy to find now, and you don't really have an excuse not to check this out.
Now for the movie review...
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