Reddit reviews Watchmen

I like well-drawn comics, but that doesn't mean they have to be intricate and detailed - just that they match the content very well. For example, I think John Campbell (Pictures for Sad Children) is great because he can get the emotion of scenes across really well with his simple drawings. (Though I equally love artists like David Hellman.)

I like funny comics as well as serious comics. I dislike comics that aren't even remotely funny (but are trying to be). I dislike comics that could have been funny, but they ruined themselves by either going on too long (Ctrl Alt Delete) or by explaining their punchline ((Ctrl Alt Delete) again).

I love comics that are consistently good, or at least only foul occasionally.

I dislike comics that are nothing but essays with pictures added. (I'm looking at you, 50% of Subnormality.) I think the comic form is a unique medium in itself and should not be treated in such a manner.

I like comics that are self-contained to a certain extent, in that either each comic is a unique situation (SMBC) or they only have particular story arcs (Dr. McNinja) and don't just go on forever with no resolution (Megatokyo). This is why, when I go to comics stores, I buy comic books (like Blankets) rather than serials (like X-Men). (There are exceptions to this rule, when a comic book is finished and the entire collection is sold as one, like Watchmen or Marvel 1602.)

I'm sure there's more, these are just my thoughts for now.

Anything by Alan Moore. Promethea is a personal fave, but might not be the best place to start. Top Ten is also very good if cop drama overlaid with some super-hero stuff sounds appealing. Watchman is a cornerstone of the form, but you will definitely appreciate it more if/when you have a fair bit of 'capes & tights' superhero work under your belt.

Blankets is just stunning. I've bought it 3 times already and have the new hardcover edition on perorder.

Stardust is another great one by Neil Gaiman. It's also unique in that if you enjoy the story you can experience it in 3 different, but all very good, forms. The original comic, the prose novel, and the film all work quite well and give a nice window into what bits a pieces work better in each form.

Of course no comic list is complete without Maus and Understanding Comics.

Do graphic novels count? If so: Watchmen

Well, my favorites are

The Moviegoer

The Road

A Confederacy of Dunces

Rendezvous with Rama

Watchmen

Snow Crash

Slaughterhouse-Five

Cat's Cradle

The Big Sleep

The Maltese Falcon

American Gods

A Clockwork Orange

Preacher

Fahrenheit 451

1984

Akira

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Lolita

Love in the Time of Cholera

Naked Lunch

Animal Farm

The Sandman

At the Mountains of Madness

The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Tales

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Brave New World

We

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

It's called Watchmen.

Here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0930289234

No worries, I lol'd. To save you from the expedition, it comes from The Watchmen. Appeared on Time Magazine's (?) list of 100 best books ever written. I may not go that far but it is definitely a must read. Fascinating on many levels.

Seriously, do. The movie was good but the comic is just amazing. It's not possible to capture it perfectly in another form and it really needs to be experienced.

and if you have extra cash and you're like me and need to have a physical book in your hands, the paperback is less than $14 on Amazon.

This is the one you want, amigo.

http://www.amazon.ca/Watchmen-Alan-Moore/dp/0930289234/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415315608&sr=8-1&keywords=watchmen

My favorite book that I would recommend is I Am the Messenger by Mark Zusak. It's about a guy that's like down in the dumps and his life takes a crazy turn. It's one of those books that makes you think about life, or well it made me think haha.

And well I would like this book

My favorite book!

It's available for free if you have Kindle Unlimited, otherwise I'd go to my local library and see if they have it. My library even has an app I can use to download comics through them.

​

https://www.amazon.com/Watchmen-Alan-Moore/dp/0930289234

Because graphic novels are almost kinda sorta the greatest!!!! :D

Edit: It's in my "Wishlist #1" by the way :)

The Watchmen by Alan Moore, illustrated by Dave Gibbons. One of the best graphic novels out there, IMO. About a bunch of super-heros with a lot of contrasting personalities. Really quite complicated to explain briefly, but it's so amazing to read. The artwork is fantastic too.

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. A man named Gregor wakes up to find that he has mysteriously transformed into a giant bug, and his family must adapt to this new change. Really great read, studied it in my Literature class this past semester.

I've just finished Go ask Alice, it is pretty great :)

Geisha: A life by Mineko Iwasaki, is also one of my favorite book...

If you like comics and graphic novels, read The league of extraordinary gentlemen, Watchmen, The crow, Essex county a book about the rural lifestyle, hockey and family issues...

All of those are books I really loved and hope you will like if you read them :)

http://www.amazon.com/Scott-Pilgrims-Precious-Little-Boxset/dp/1934964573/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342392465&sr=8-1&keywords=scott+pilgrim

$40 for all of SP.

http://www.amazon.com/Watchmen-Alan-Moore/dp/0930289234/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342392504&sr=8-1&keywords=watchmen

$13 for Watchmen.

Alright, entry number two since you've all gone and buggered my Sandman entry -HUFF-

The Watchmen is by far one of the best pieces of comic book literature out there. Alan Moore has always done an impeccable job writing characters with real emotion, and even though this book might be kind of a gimmie since.. you know... it is THE WATCHMEN, that doesn't mean it should be over looked in a thread like this.

I mean, this book won awards. Real time awards that's usually won by straight novels because Moore is such a fantastic writer. I read this for the first time back in like 2003 when I was working at a movie theater and had a buddy who was way into comics. He let me borrow this one and Batman The Dark Knight Returns. The Watchmen was always the better book for me. Why?

It made you think. It asked and posed some serious freaking questions. Not only that, but it in essence was a super hero book, without the super hero's. It was regular people, with regular strength fighting the bad guys. Rorsarche is easily one of the best comic creations of all times. He saw the world for what it really was, and that whole thing was portrayed in the book flawlessly.

Another good reason to read the book? It has a comic within a comic. Tales of The Black Freighter, which is basically telling the story of the antagonist while it's happening in the "real" world, and poses the same kinds of questions in a different setting.

All in all, this book is easily in the top 5 of greatest comics ever written.

Oh and uh, Deadpool is still my favorite comic character. Also, refer back to my other post about me seriously wanting to get into Hellblazer

"Rorschach's Journal. October 12th, 1985: Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach. This city is afraid of me. I have seen its true face. The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout "Save us!"... and I'll whisper "no." " - Rorsache, reading from Journal. The Watchmen.

A Used copy of The Watchmen on my Teacher wishlist is just $4.88.

PAINT DRAWING of my student standing on a table excited about reading Watchmen.

I work in an urban, low-income school with mostly poor minorities. We are actually in the category of "high poverty," and our school was chosen to receive 100% free lunch and breakfast. We have ZERO budget for supplies. None. Zip. Zero. All of my pens, pencils, paper, books, erc. are bought by me or donors to my DonorsChoose.org account. (You can check my posted history if anyone wants to donate. I don't have any projects up right now.) So a book for four bucks and some change would help put high-quality literature in the hands of my students.

You could get me one book or many. There are plenty that would be exactly $4.00 including shipping. I wouldn't even mind splitting the prize money with anyone else, and only getting one or two books. Think about it. =)

Thanks!

Edit: My Donors Choose for American Born Chinese posted this morning. I won't post the link, but feel free to message m e if you are interested in supporting it. Sorry for the shameless plug. =)

Read Watchmen by Alan Moore. It's not really a traditional superhero comic, but it's excellent and it's the most famous comic book / graphic novel in the world. You'll enjoy it.

The QI Book of General Ignorance

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Batman: Long Halloween

Watchmen

QI Book of the Dead

Remember, Remember: The History of Britain in Bite Size Chunks

Preacher: Gone to Texas

Preacher: Until the End of the World

Fables: Legends in Exile

Also a couple of Iron Mans and the Abominations.

Dune by Frank Herbert.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams. You have probably read it, but if you haven't, it's superbly funny sci-fi comedy.

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. A book that I re-read once every few years, and every time I find something new in it.

Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon. A gripping, heartbreaking non-fiction book about police detectives. It inspired the acclaimed TV series "Homicide: Life on the Street." Simon would go on to create "The Wire."

The Big Nowhere by James Ellroy. Noir-ish procedural crime fiction. If you enjoy "Homicide," you may well like this.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, "a philosophical novel about two men, two women, a dog and their lives in the Prague Spring of the Czechoslovak Communist period in 1968," according to Wikipedia. One of my favorite books.

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami. Detective novel meets sci-fi in one mind-bending existential work. If you watch "Fringe," well, this book is Fringe-y... and more.

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis. Time travel. Victorian England. A tea cozy mystery of sorts.

Graphic novels! Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. Maus: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman. Love And Rockets by The Hernandez brothers. The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki. Elektra: Assassin by Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz. And of course, Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. To discover yet more great comic books, check out the Comics College series.

I might be a little off of the mark of what you are looking for, but Watchmen is a great piece set in the Cold War era. It is more detective than spy, but a great read nonetheless.

While it is not a prose book, I would totally recommend checking out Watchmen. It is a fantastic read, and is better than the movie. :D

• Legacy of Ashes: A History of the CIA by Tim Wiener. Chapter and verse how a small cadre of adventuresome elitists ended up shaping the post-War world into what it is today.
  
  
• The Cold War: A New History by John Lewis Gaddis. A balanced look at the effects upon the world of the economic systems of capitalism and communism, and an analysis of how the Soviet loss of the Cold War does not mean an American win.
  
  
• Blood Brothers: The Criminal Underworld of Asia by Bertil Linter. As much a socioeconomic history of the Pacific Rim as a flashy expose of Triads, the Yakuza and the Tongs, Blood Brothers delves into the philosophy of crime in Asia and how the Western paradigm of Law/Crime is inadequate when describing the Eastern mindset of quasi-governmental organized "crime."
  
  
• The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. Discusses the overall impact of mankind on ecology, geology, and the future of the planet, whether or not we happen to be here.
  
  
• The Joke by Milan Kundera. A lyrical, heartbreaking look into the workings of Soviet Czechoslovakia. The allegations that Milan Kundera may have been an informant himself throws a stark and surreal light on the book.
  
  
• The Evolution of Useful Things by Henry Petroski. Starting with the fork and working his way through the paperclip, Petroski illustrates that the oft-repeated platitude "necessity is the mother of invention" is completely wrong - luxury is the mother of invention.
  
  
• Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. Oversimplified and infuriating, Ishmael is, however, a pretty good overview told in a semi-entertaining way of Conrad Lorenz's argument that the modern lifestyle is fucking stupid and we were all better off as hunter-gatherers. If condescending sophistry isn't your bag, go to The Source.
  
  
• Watchmen. Fer real.

12 issues, source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmen

Collected in this: http://www.amazon.com/Watchmen-Alan-Moore/dp/0930289234/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342979007&sr=8-1&keywords=watchmen

Let's continue here with a book that should be near and dear to many Redditors' hearts:

• Watchmen, by Alan Moore and David Gibbons
  
  This is somewhat of a new classic in graphic novels, and broke through such that TIME magazine put it in their list of 100 best novels of the past 80 or so years. No small achievement for what many may still consider "just a comic book".
  
  Let's read it by October 1.
  
  Here are a couple good sources:
  
  
• Amazon
  
• Your local library

I thought this was an interesting, if pessimistic take on one of the logical conclusions that comes with acknowledging a godless reality.

Here, Watchmen character Rorschach realizes, after experiencing a horrific trauma, that in a world without a divine entity, evil cannot be blamed on some supernatural force.

We are responsible for every evil act. We bear responsibility for every atrocity. All of the wrong that is done rests squarely upon our shoulders.

And if someone is going to right those wrongs, it has to be us. There is no one else to do it.

I thought it was an interesting inversion of the usual thought process. I don't find the concept of a world without god(s) especially troublesome, but there are profound realizations that come with understanding that there are no devils to blame.

Disclaimer: When I talk about 'righting the wrongs', I'm not talking about vigilantism, even if Rorschach is. I'm simply talking about the problem with apathy. There are plenty of ways to right wrongs without violating the law.

I hope you enjoy it! Here are some of my favorites that I prefer over the Frank Miller stuff:

Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale (These are my favorites, lots of stuff taken from these in The Dark Knight film):

The Long Halloween

Dark Victory

Haunted Knight


Others:

The Killing Joke (You simply must read this one)

Batman and Son

Identity Crisis (Haven't read this one yet, but the plot sounds awesome!)

Non-Batman stuff:

Maximum Carnage (My first graphic novel that someone gave to me. It's spectacular!)

Watchmen

By continuity, do you dislike not knowing the backstory of the characters, or you literally can't decipher which order the cells on the pages are supposed to be in?

There are a lot of graphic novel paperbacks that are collected story arcs (or even the whole series).
Watchmen and Sandman (10 volumes) you can read from beginning to end. And they are awesome.
And there are one's like Ms Marvel that are several individual comics collected so you can follow a whole story. You'll get enough backstory at the beginning to understand what all is happening.

/u/johnnycomet has you covered if you don't like the "graphic" part of graphic novels.

The Watchmen comic. The whole thing is a masterpiece of storytelling.

http://www.amazon.com/Watchmen-Alan-Moore/dp/0930289234/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216346069&sr=8-1

Now, if you have any interest in comic books go out and read it. It's in most libraries.

Graphic novel enthusiast here. Seriously, I love 'em. I don't read books, but graphic novels? Count me in. Here are my top three recommendations:

Watchmen. You may have heard of it. It's my personal favorite. It's about a team of disbanded masked vigilantes in the sixties. There are a lot of flashbacks, a lot of brutality, and it's quite obscure.

The Umbrella Academy. It's also about a team of disbanded heroes. Except they're adopted siblings, all the same age, have kick-ass powers, and kind of all hate each other. It's dark and brooding. Very obscure.

Batman: The Court of Owls. My favorite Batman series. It's part of The New 52, if you've heard of that. It's very dark. Lots of blood. A much darker side of Batman than in the movies. It really catches interest and the art is GORGEOUS.

I would really like Beasts of Burden. I've read bits and pieces of it and adore it. It's very creepy. About a ragtag team of paranormal investigators who are- get this- animals. Cute and creepy! Right up my alley, all right. I'd also suggest this one to you, although I obviously can't say much about it. (Oh, and P.S.: Get it for me used if you'd like. Used books are great.)

People often say that the Movie isn't as good as the book, etc. Normally I disregard that.

But honestly. IMO this is the one of the larger exceptions (along with Frankenstein) where the book and the Movie are just two entirely different beasts.

Pick up the book. Read the first chapter. I dare you to put it down after that.

Its only 11 dollars

http://www.amazon.com/Watchmen-Alan-Moore/dp/0930289234