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Watchmen and graphic novels in general
Jul. 14th, 2006 09:05 amYes, I've been reading Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons' Watchmen. I'm about halfway through at the moment, and I have to say I've been pretty floored by it - both by how well they handle the myriad characters, and how tightly meshed the various storylines are - bits of plot and visual cues that you think are throwaway the first time you see them have you paging back for them later on the story. It's not a happy tale, certainly, but it's still a story well-told and a horrifically fascinating look at humanity as a whole, and what's fundamentally the same in all of us despite the barriers we put between ourselves and others who aren't of our race/religion/social class.
I can also really see why so many people consider this the story that revolutionized the comic book as a medium for "serious" storytelling. Comic books have been the traditional medium for superhero stories, so it follows that this tale (which deals with superheroes as a group of people - some interesting, some disturbed, all very human) should be told in this medium. However, it's a story dense enough that telling it in any other medium would be a disservice - you can fit so many more important visual details in the pictures that would be tedious to describe in text, yet at the same time you don't have to spell it all out for people the way you would in a movie - much of the quiet fascination comes from inferring for oneself what happens between the panels. It would also be much more difficult to tell the same story in movie form - part of what make the story interesting is that it's very non-linear, hence the flipping-back-through-the-pages aspect. While stories of that nature have been told successfully in movie form before, I think the panels of a comic book work much better than a form that is by its very nature streamlined and linear.
As for the story itself - not having finished it yet, I can't say for certain how optimistic/pessimistic it is or how much I like it, but I can say with certainty that it's a well written enough tale that it should appeal to those who like intelligent stories. However, it's also a dark enough tale that it should be avoided by those who don't like stories about the darker side of human nature (or in other words - Mum, don't read this one). =)
I can also really see why so many people consider this the story that revolutionized the comic book as a medium for "serious" storytelling. Comic books have been the traditional medium for superhero stories, so it follows that this tale (which deals with superheroes as a group of people - some interesting, some disturbed, all very human) should be told in this medium. However, it's a story dense enough that telling it in any other medium would be a disservice - you can fit so many more important visual details in the pictures that would be tedious to describe in text, yet at the same time you don't have to spell it all out for people the way you would in a movie - much of the quiet fascination comes from inferring for oneself what happens between the panels. It would also be much more difficult to tell the same story in movie form - part of what make the story interesting is that it's very non-linear, hence the flipping-back-through-the-pages aspect. While stories of that nature have been told successfully in movie form before, I think the panels of a comic book work much better than a form that is by its very nature streamlined and linear.
As for the story itself - not having finished it yet, I can't say for certain how optimistic/pessimistic it is or how much I like it, but I can say with certainty that it's a well written enough tale that it should appeal to those who like intelligent stories. However, it's also a dark enough tale that it should be avoided by those who don't like stories about the darker side of human nature (or in other words - Mum, don't read this one). =)
