famous book Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. In 2016, Azbuka-Atticus publishing house published the most complete edition in the world. At least that's what the publisher says on the cover.

This novel has previously been published in Russian, which we will try to tell you separately. To date, the 2016 edition is the most complete.

One of the 100 best novels of the 20th century

The book contains 12 full-length chapters of the story and several appendices: Minutes, Seconds, Notes. Each chapter is provided with explanations that allow you to better understand the characters and the reasons for their actions.

All the events of the book take place in a parallel reality in the 80s of the last century. And the time in the book is not linear. The authors treat US history as they see fit. For example, they "elect" Nixon for a third term and end the Vietnam War early.

The Beginning of the Watchmen's History

Or not start. Since the action of the book begins after the heroes have accomplished their feats. Their activities have long been banned, and suddenly ...

The comic's narrative begins with an investigation into the murder of one of the Watchmen, the Comedian. The investigation is being conducted by police officers who are inspecting the apartment of the deceased on a high floor.

From here the Comedian flew out, breaking the panoramic glass with himself, he fell on the road. Rorschach joins his own investigation, one of the Guardians who once guarded order in the city.

Rorschach, that other character with a mask on his face, with a moving pattern.

Rorschach keeps a diary

In it, he describes in detail what is happening. It is this diary that will later play a role. But I will not go into details, it is better to read the comic.

The Watchmen graphic novel constantly takes us back to the flashback of events.

Each hero periodically recalls events from the past, when the Guardian team acted and fought crime.

Fate left its mark on each of the heroes. They had their own reasons for being who they were. These are childhood traumas, and events later.

Black Schooner Story comic and Watchmen comic.

An interesting plot of the novel within the novel is the History of the Black Schooner, which is read by one of the characters in the novel. A well-known technique of postmodern literature, this time on the pages of a comic book.

This technique helps to create emotional intensity. It's a book within a book, where one feeds the other.

All the characters are ordinary people, except for one

Only one hero has superpowers - Doctor Manhattan.

He gained strength after an accident in the laboratory. The rest of the characters are just people. This distinguishes the Watchmen comic from other works of the genre, where you rarely see normal person, not a superhero.

Add-ons and applications

As I wrote above, the Watchmen graphic novel includes a lot of additional material. Here are posters, and sketches of the artist, and explanations.

Lots of illustrations, lots of explanatory text. There are separate chapters with the stories of the heroes of the novel.

And to be completely honest, the heroes of the Guardians are psychos 🙂 Each with their own "skeletons in the closet".

The materials even include a storyboard of the pages. It will be useful for those who want to understand the process of creating a comic through the eyes of an author and an artist.

Movie Watchmen

In 2009, director Zack Snyder and Universal Pictures made the film Watchmen. This is far from the first time a movie or even a series has been made based on a successful comic book.

« Guardians is a twelve-issue comic book series. All twelve issues were published between 1986 and 1987. The comic was written by Alan Moore, who is known for such comic stories as V for Vendetta, From Hell, The Killing Joke, The League distinguished gentlemen”, “Prometea”. The comic series was drawn by Dave Gibbons and John Higgins. The comic "Watchmen" came out from the publishing house.

The history of the alternate reality is primarily known for its unusual form of storytelling. The comic is composed of nine frames per page. The pages often repeat a characteristic element - a blood-stained yellow smiley. Also, 12 issues (except the last one) contain fictitious documents, photographs, newspaper clippings, which give the comics a completely unusual, almost realistic, atmosphere. Articles, photographs and newspaper clippings are very well used in the comic and tell the backstory of events. Thanks to this move, the creators of the comic managed to hook the viewer, making a comic is not easy fantastic story, but a story that could actually be or even exist in some parallel world.

The comic tells about an alternative history of the United States during the 1980s. With the help of superheroes, in this reality, the US did not lose the Vietnam War, but won. President Richard Nixon is re-elected for a third term. Now America is on the brink of nuclear war with the USSR. For a long time V American society there were some heroes in masks or costumed heroes. Only one among them - Doctor Manhattan has superpowers. After the heroes ceased to enjoy the trust of the public, the government recognized them as outlaws. Only one Rorschach did not agree to stop his activities and is trying to investigate the murder of his former friend. The investigation into the death of one of the heroes should reveal a shocking truth that will lead to dire consequences, but prevent a nuclear apocalypse.

Comic "Watchmen" online

Watchmen graphic novel

Watchmen (1986) read comic online

Watchmen - Watchmen graphic novel

Watchmen - Watchmen is a graphic novel created by writer Alan Moore, illustrator Dave Gibbons and John Higgins. This series has been published American company DC Comics in 1986 and 1987, as a 12-issue limited series. The story has been reprinted several times and translated into different languages, including Russian, in addition to receiving prestigious awards, including Hugo , There is a film , premiered in 2009, which was accepted worldwide and brought in $ 185,250,000. , which the company acquired from Charlton Comics. As the story progressed, Allan Moore would leave many useless characters for future stories, but managing editor Dick Giordano convinced the writer to create original characters.

Watchmen - read comic online

Moore used the story as a vehicle to reflect contemporary anxieties and critique the concept of superheroes. The Watchmen is an alternate history where superheroes emerge during the years 1940 and 1960 helping the United States establish world hegemony through Operation Condor and the Vietnam War. The country is heading towards nuclear war with the Soviet Union, costumed vigilantes have been outlawed, and most previous superheroes are retired or working for the government. The story focuses on the personal struggles of the main actors and an investigation into a government-sponsored superhero murder that eventually leads them to confront each other and eventually prevent nuclear war and killing millions of people.

Alan Moore, who wanted to overcome the general perception of comics as a genre meant for the consumption of young people, created the Watchmen comic as an attempt to make Moby-Dick a superhero. Moore cites William Burroughs as one of the main "influences" during the work. The author said that he admired Burroughs and many phrases borrowed from his work were used.

Moore and Gibbons concocted a story that would lead back to the "common superhero past for a completely different time." new level". Moore originally looked to the MLJ superhero comic for inspiration.

Dick Giordano, who worked for Charlton Comics suggested using a cast composed of old characters from Charlton, which was recently acquired by DC Comics. However, Charlton's heroes were gradually integrated into the DCU. Moore and Gibbons wanted to work on a serious script in which some of the main characters die, so using the Charlton characters was not an option. Giordano then suggested that both writers start from scratch, creating their own characters and hero abilities. So while some of the Watchmen characters are based on the Charlton characters (The Doctor Manhattan was inspired by Captain Atom, Rorschach was based on the question and the Night Word -Night Owl - slightly based on the Blue Beetle), Moore chose to create characters that were ultimately only reminded their colleagues.

Initially, Moore and Gibbons only had material for six numbers, so they chose to "splash between numbers dedicated to directing another storyline that performed a biographical portrait of one of the main characters. During this process, Gibbons had a great deal of autonomy to develop visual appearance Keepers.

The Structure and View of the Watchmen Comic

This comic book series is divided into twelve chapters. Each shipment was a limited edition and was selected for editing first. The first printings began to be published in 1986. Each chapter begins with a closing - to the deltoid first bullet, which serves as a cover in the original edition. There was also a section at the beginning of each issue, which is abbreviated and used as the title of the chapter. The appointment is reproduced in full at the end of the issue, noting the author of it: then serves to summarize the events that have just happened.

The Watchmen comic contains a number of fictitious biography documents of the main characters, presented in appendices at the end of each chapter, except for the last one. I wrote as a retrospective under the Night Owl mask to help the reader in chronological order of various events, to to which the symbols refer and to understand the changes that occurred in a perception masked by part of public opinion for decades. Sometimes these documents show personal details privacy adventurers, like arrest reports and a psychiatric evaluation of Rorschach. Military reports and newspaper articles and magazines are also included.

When reading a Watchmen comic, the reader is mostly an objective point of view: he lets you know the actions, dialogues, facial expressions and body language of the characters. However, unlike what happened in most comics at the time, Moore did not use snacks to show the characters' thoughts. However, many chapters have long sections that show characters' memories or include journal entries that, together with appendices documents, help clarify the characters' thoughts and feelings throughout the novel. This variant is an example of the cinematic approach with which the action takes place in Watchmen.

Thus, using flashbacks to help the reader understand the events that take place in this story, but also to compare the differences between the Watchmen's alternate history and the real one. For example, Dr. Manhattan's memories of the Vietnam War emphasize the existence of this character and The Comedian helped change world history.

On each page the Guardians are usually arranged in three-by-three mosaic vignettes, with few concessions. The goal is to “give the reader fewer clues about how they will react to each scene; Likewise, the sense of realism is increased and the distance from the novel to conventional comic book standards is increased. » Chapter V, the terrible symmetry is drawn in time with the way that the provision of the vignettes of the first page is mirror reflection the location of the last, second penultimate, etc. The effect culminates in the two pages displayed at the opening half of the chapter, 14 and 15, which are also reflected in this regard. In addition, the first bullet and the last of the terrible symmetry are almost identical.

In Guardians, two sequences of different facts often develop in parallel with some relation. For example, when a character is alive and what is recalling or reading a comic book character and what is going on around them. Vignettes of one of the sequences are interspersed between each other and, often, dialogue or comments belonging to one of them appear in the second. In these cases, the text has a full feel in both sequences, although their meaning is different in each.

The Guardians are amazing!

Haven't been this excited in a long time. piece of art! There was an idea just to get acquainted, but already from the 3rd chapter you can’t tear yourself away. Strong thing!

Just an example of how clear ideas and a direct, clearly written plot are combined with the depth and ambiguity of characters, actions, and the world as a whole.

Clearly done. Heroes directly, completely transparently voice their views, beliefs and main ideas. And the situation itself is ambiguous. And the world is not embellished. Because of the transparency, you do not immediately realize how deep it is below.

Probably, the thing that catches the most is the fact that everything is honestly spoken directly, without these elitist “subtract secretly between the lines”, or a sort of wink “eat, but under the guise of a simple comic book, I slip you ...” - which some postmodernists love ( there is a certain duplicity in this approach itself, don’t you think?). No, it's not here; the masks have been removed, everything is open, it is prescribed on the forehead - and at the same time very deeply and truly.

In addition to a strong ideological framework, all the little things are thought out. This is admirable. Everything is going to work. Wall posters and newspaper headlines. Even plot details that are completely unobtrusive, such as how Rorschach breaks down Owl’s door twice and advises putting a stronger lock; or even how he steals sugar - all these details will then inexorably work just as imperceptibly in the background. Well done visual solutions: angles, skillful transition to flashbacks. The insert story is very symbolic; and some episodes are just finished artistic images: when, uh, a man with a poster walks through a pool of blood and leaves bloody footprints behind him.

Just great!

The plot is top notch. The authors slightly play along with the reader, sometimes allowing them to guess a little earlier than the characters, but not earlier than necessary according to the plot. There are turns that are generally impossible to guess without knowing about them in advance. There are very strong moments (about Owl I at the end of Chapter 8) and in general the whole finale.

In a word, impressive.

For those who have not come across graphic novels before, I will say: I also had some kind of inertia towards the new genre. Well, a sort of "comic book with a serious face", and we can do without it, there are a lot of normal books. Now I will say: definitely read it! I don't know if I'll get addicted to graphic novels in the future, but Watchmen in particular is a powerful thing!

I put 9, or even all 10 - I'll wait (5-10 years), I need to check with time.

Now the impressions are very strong.

Score: 9

Today, many began to turn their attention to comics. Of course, Russian-language, and even more so Ukrainian editions are rare and often expensive, but this does not stop curious readers in search of a pleasant pastime. And the more a man reads, the more he wants to read more. It is on this law that the market for any product is built, demand creates supply. And as a result, long adventures of superheroes appear not as unwilling to die on the glossy pages of recent publications. There are many heroes and almost always they come out victorious even from the most terrible situations, and if they die, then there is a chance for revival in another series or cycle.

I myself am not an adherent of such stories, you can endlessly describe the adventures of Superman and not all of them will be hackneyed, but in such descriptions the very essence and idea that the author wanted to convey to the reader will be lost.

I want to talk about a comic that has a clear beginning and an equally specific end, with a bold point at the end. And even though this point is very controversial, even if it stands against the background of the destroyed New York, it does not lose its significance. You can call it a classic or one of the most clear examples I don’t know my genre, I can’t put such loud labels.

Watchmen is a twelve issue comic book series created by Alan Moore for DC, of ​​course we can't forget the great artist Dave Gibbson who managed to highlight and draw a lot of small parts. About colorist John Higgins, who endowed the comics with his own atmosphere and charm with his colors, without them this story would not have been able to take its rightful place not only in America but throughout the world. Twelve chapters of an amazing story, later combined into a graphic novel, which, standing on a shelf, is the pride of any reader (for sure I am).

Watchmen is not only an exciting story with an unpredictable ending, it is a fantastic detective story in which a sense of justice and the correctness of a decision collide. Is it worth sacrificing thousands to save millions? Alan Moore gives his solution to this eternal question.

The author draws us an alternative America of the eighties of the twentieth century, it also has Soviet Union, which does not allow good Americans to sleep peacefully and President Richard Nixon, cars drive in it and there is an unhealthy McDonald's.

And then there are superheroes.

But what is most surprising is that they are more heroes than "super", not endowed with superpowers. ordinary people who decided to protect the peace of their country under the cover of a mask and their faith in a better future.

The key to any comic book is always the characters, the plot can fade into the background if the hero starts pouring jokes and sharp aphorisms. The more colorful the created characters, the more popular the series becomes and the more the author receives in percentage of deductions. Alan Moore was able to create charismatic characters, give each of them distinctive and memorable features and make the reader empathize. This is Rorschach, who does not accept compromises and wants justice, Doctor Manhattan, who every day comprehends the world deeper and deeper, thereby alienating friends from himself, even Moore’s character, nicknamed the Comedian, turned out not to be funny, but rather evil and cruel, but no less his cruelty is directed against the enemies of his country. These are just some of the characters that you will meet if you decide to open the first page of the story.

We have all heard about Superman, The Flash, Green Lantern, the huge good-natured Hulk, Captain America, Batman, Hawkman and many others who stand guard over our alternative lives. And most of them have superpowers that allow them to spy on their neighbors or teleport a bottle of beer without getting up from their chair. It was enough for someone to fly from the world that exploded and get into a family of farmers, another had to fly in order as a test pilot on an airplane before curiosity got the better of it and the pilot did not accept a green ring from the alien. There are many such examples, a spider bites a poor student, four friends fly into space, or another virus finds its carrier.

Of the entire list, only Batman has to cunning with the help of his expensive devices and stop evil with the power of his mind, and not use superpowers in the form of fire control or invisibility, here you can also remember the billionaire Tony Stark, but he only earns saving lives in his free time . He also invents more new weapons.

I list for a reason, the characters created by Moore are different. They do not have innate telekinesis or the ability to control the weather. You will not find in the Guardians of the world evil and the second coming to Earth of Christ, there is only the blue superman Doctor Manhattan, but he is more an exception than a constant.

This comic is about people.

People create their own future and are the evil that has to be fought.

Everything happens at a time when heroes are banned by law and sent home. The Soviets threaten America nuclear war, and people's thoughts are more occupied with their own problems than with the good for their country.

The plot takes the first step by committing a routine murder in the middle of a sleeping city. A man was thrown out of the window of a multi-storey building and the gratuar was stained with blood. The police come to the conclusion that this is a banal robbery, but not everything is as simple as it seems at first glance. The murder is taken to reveal the last of the inapplicable heroes who refused to stop their work after it was banned by law - Rorschach. He finds evidence that the victim was former hero wearing a mask, now working for the government. Rorschach, like a beast, senses danger and goes to former friends to warn them.

From this point on, the checks get faster and longer, sometimes the plot slows down making stops towards the past, from such moments we learn how America wins Vietnam in just a few days, as well as the story of the costumed heroes themselves.

These indents allow you to tune in the right way and understand this or that act of the character, the linearity of the plot proceeds systematically, swinging your imagination throughout all twelve chapters in order to show the true meaning of the whole story in the finale.

I won't tell the whole story by listing every unexpected moment or bright episode, it will take a huge amount of time.

Let me just say that if you are really a fan of cartoon stories or can appreciate a decent plot, but you need to read this book.

Score: 10

I just read Watchmen, even though I've watched the movie a long time ago.

In general, what I think about this novel: it's just something. Alan Moore, taking as a basis the heroes of the Charlton comics that already existed at that time, managed to create his own, unique world, approximating our reality and, most importantly, transferring the main problems of that time to his universe, thus showing our own face, only in a kind of caricature a style that we don't like, but that is true. Of course, this was done so that we humans would not make such terrible mistakes as we did in this novel.

This is a truly great dystopia based on the ideas of Living Superheroes and the anti-war community.

Why Alive? It's simple: here the invincible heroes familiar to us appear as quite ordinary personalities, with their own problems, experiences, sins, omissions, secrets and other reflections that they, like ordinary people, are not able to cope with completely, which is why they lock them deep inside themselves, and then they suffer - again, like ordinary inhabitants of the planet Earth. In general, in fact, there is only one real Superhero here - Doctor Manhattan. But even he is not so much a Superhero as just a Super Being - he is no longer involved in our world, for him there is no vision of the environment in three dimensions, for him any living being is just an incredibly huge assembly of particles at the subatomic level. He is a being capable of walking on the Sun and moving to other galaxies. He is omnipotent and this causes the fear of people who, for obvious reasons, are not able to take this for granted. However, the people themselves do something with the Doctor: We are the only thing that remains unclear and incomprehensible to Manhattan. This way you can trace another interesting detail in Moore's novel it is a question of human essence, his true nature and the complexity of his being in general.

And this is only a small part of the topics raised: how absolutely non-identical heroes appear to us - they also appear to us and absolutely different questions being. Nostalgia for the past and a certain constraint due to the feeling of inferiority in the form of a simple layman on the part of the Night Owl (Dan Dreyberg), not perceiving life as such due to the eternal control from the mother (the first Silk Shadow) and the almost impossibility of choosing one’s own, personally, one’s fateful path from side of the Second Silk Shadow (Lori Jupiter), understanding the world as such and, in view of this, displaying it as a half-normal person, fully meeting the canons of society like “kill or be killed” by the Comedian (Edward Blake), accepting the image of the mission due to the complete loss faith in humanity and the personal taking of the fate of millions into their own hands, which is why the hoisting of such a heavy burden on oneself is inherent in Ozymandias (Adrian Wade) or even an absolute inclination to the extreme of the truth of justice and the goal of doing exactly good, no matter how cruel in its nature and personification it was not, as well as the acceptance of the fact of the bestial nature of many people and the goal to compare the exact opposite of the like in order to overthrow this sin as such - this mental construction is revealed to us by the unsurpassed Rorschach (Walter Kovacs). And this is only half, because in the novel, at the same time, there are also, so to speak, the former Guardians - the Militia, who stood guard over security in the forties. And from them there is also a considerable pressure on many sore topics of society, which, as it becomes clear to us at the same time, little lose their integrity over time, remaining relevant.

All in all, I am very pleased with this graphic novel. Its design is incomparable, the social value is inestimable - it is undoubtedly one of the best novels of the 20th century. It cannot be distributed as regular comic. He raises topics that will not be clear to ordinary people under at least 18 years of age, exposes all the slate pleiades of human nature, thereby plunging into shock. In view of what I want to say that you should prepare for reading these twelve issues. And I have not yet mentioned all sorts of cultural, social and political references, of which there are simply darkness! To notice everything on your own, you need to be not just an educated or well-read person, you need to know the history of the world situation of the forties of the last century, the sixties, and also the eighties. It is necessary to watch more than a dozen films, which are certainly little known in our area. It is necessary to roughly imagine the trend at that time in various sectors of service and satisfaction of people: food, TV shows, comics, and so on and so forth.

Bottom line: "Watchmen" as a graphic novel, in no uncertain terms, is cultural phenomena, a masterpiece that reflects truly important topics in a young genre of literature, thereby raising it not only for readers, but also for public value. He has absorbed so much that I can’t tell everything about everything, therefore I simply advise you to read this creation: but I warn you again - get ready. You will obviously be overwhelmed by a lot of surprises, and if the whole story is not completely impressed, then the ending will certainly leave an imprint ... unless, of course, you have not watched the film.

Score: 9

An excerpt from my article on comic book adaptations (), but gives an idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe book:

And this year, Watchmen, the film adaptation of Alan Moore's next most influential graphic novel, hits theaters. The film adaptation, from which Moore at one time barely dissuaded Terry Guillim, explaining that this comic was not amenable to film adaptation. Its very structure did not allow. Obviously, only Hollywood bigwigs have spoken to Zack Snyder, the director of the new blockbuster, and here it is, the result. What, according to Guillermo Grandfather Toro, could only be filmed as a mini-series, fits into the framework of three hours. Moore's name is not listed in the credits. At his own request.

The film called conflicting reviews which is not at all surprising. But what does a true bibliophile care about some kind of film adaptation? Just as the film “V for Vendetta” set the stage for the release of the Russian translation of the original, “Watchmen” preceded the release of the original graphic novel! The Amphora Publishing House did a great job: on the shelves of bookstores there are volumes in hardcover with a catchy yellow inscription, with high-quality printed pages of pictures and in excellent translation.

Like "Vendetta", "Watchmen" affects political themes turning to horror cold war, but in this novel, Moore conducts even more daring experiments, both at the plot level and at the level of the narrative form: a non-linear development of events, told from the faces of several characters, revealing to the reader what chaos means; mirrored pages that almost completely repeat each other, structures comparable to the works of William Blake ... “Amazing. Comic War and Peace,” said cartoonist Terry Gilliam.

Alan Moore is unhappy. Or rather, furious. There is no limit to the joy of a Russian-speaking comic book lover, because at last he can comfortably read the longed-for graphic novel without squinting at the screen of a computer monitor and without flipping through dictionaries. Perhaps this fact would somewhat soften the anger of the annoyed author, but, most likely, he simply does not know about it.

Well, they would soon filmed " Sandman»!

Score: 10

God is certainly not an angel, but superheroes are no better than their reputation. Every day they peer into the abyss, and the abyss looks at them - and this cannot remain without consequences. If even “little” people have rather big troubles, then what about superheroes? Who will protect them from mental complexes and problems, and who will protect the world from the watchmen themselves?

Hell in the soul, emptiness in the eyes, night, abomination and decay on the streets (and burn it all with a blue flame!). The hands of the clock are steadily moving towards Armageddon ... - such is the mood of the "Guardians".

The graphics don't stand out too much from other superhero comics, be it Marvel or DC comics (I like D. McKean's non-standard style in this regard, but Gibbons did well too). But the script is complicated, plans, scenes and angles are worked out to the smallest detail. editing and effects involved. For example phased drawing scenes: color, a stream of red, a jet of water washing away blood, a sewer grate, and only then overall plan scenes of the incident, which are looked at from above, then the usual interiors - this is the style of this opium for the American people, branded a hundred times by Soviet propaganda, during which there are retreats into the past and a cascade of times. The share of originality is contributed by text materials at the end of issues (supposedly excerpts from books or the press, clarifying individual moments) - and add more sound here, scroll through the records of the 1980s - from the brain twist Nobel laureates to the Dire Straits - and immersion in another reality is guaranteed. The interspersing of a children's comic about the times of Captain Teach is just as organic: hopelessness is pumped up, as if it were a requiem, a funeral song for perished humanity - against the background of ruins and corpses, against the background of blood-red skies. In the background and in the form of scraps, this line looks more impressive.

The story of the "Guardians" is simple, like a baby's dream, but, not alien to harmony and poetry, this thing, in some ways even adult and philosophical, touches the inner strings, catches. Personally, it reminded me ... not even an “outbreak” of anthrax on our Vtorchermet in 1979, but rather a dragonfly larva that I saw at the same time on one of the Ural radioactive lakes (Mayak, radioactive trace) - strange creature, suddenly swam to the surface, it seemed like an alien monster that ate all the fish in the area.

Spoilers you were afraid to know:

Spoiler (plot reveal)

Alternate history, arms race, counterculture,

Freud, psychoanalysis and other schizophrenia,

... "The Garden of Earthly Delights", the background of the central panel, as well as the scheme of the uterus,

The day the earth stood still

A pale horse, asphalt jungle and hell's seagulls,

The American dream is to live long, die young.

Score: 9

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!”...

This is one of those books that at the very beginning gives a butt to the head, subtly changes perception while reading, and on last page just torn to pieces. And it is impossible to explain this from a rational point of view, as well as to paint point by point what specifically “liked” it. I don't understand how after Watchmen you can step back into our world by the same person who started reading. The sensations are extremely similar to those that arose after V for Vendetta. It’s good that there was a decent break between these two graphic pillars, otherwise my head would definitely have blown up. And I don't doubt for a second that I'll be back with Moore; More questions have been asked than I have answers.

The book is heavy and dark. Each page of the novel is a whole microcosm with its signs, allusions and references. Frames from the first releases go through metamorphoses and return with new colors in the latest ones. Every little thing strives to hide from a cursory glance and is revealed only upon close examination. One scene can be presented from several angles, complementing the previously outlined picture, adding previously unknown emotions. And the depressive component drags you to the bottom. Violence, cruelty, war, dead-ended humanity, desperately in need of rebirth... After Watchmen, you don't feel like running and saving the world at all, you want to lie down on the asphalt and close your eyes. Put your hand on the hot surface, feel the pulse of the city, rotten no more and no less than others. Hear the eternal clatter of technological progress. Feel the impending storm, ready to sweep everyone off the face of the Earth. Fall asleep and wake up in a better world.

All the characters are beautiful, all the landscapes are meaningful. Choose your favorite character? Moore uses furious, assertive, melancholic, hyper-rational characters to mold his story, but toss any one out of the equation and it's a whole different picture. Only together they shoot so powerfully and bitingly. I'm completely pissed off and can't find the words. For a long time I will collect this mosaic into some semblance of a single whole. And no, this is not the ending I dreamed of. But everything is natural and honest, cruel and uncompromising. Thank you for this.

And I'll look down and whisper “No.”

Score: 10

best comic what I have seen and read in my life. Previously, for me there were only all sorts of avengers, x-men, the walking Dead etc. But this graphic novel turned my idea of ​​comics as part of the entertainment industry 180 degrees. After reading, I realized that comics, in addition to an entertaining mission, also carry an instructive one. Beautiful heroes whose beliefs you blindly believe, but you cannot influence their actions. Rorschach is generally a fairy tale, not a character. I did not find the deepest character, except for him, either in books, or in the same comics, or in games, and certainly not in films.

The screen shot was a little disappointing. There is nothing like that in it ... The elusive spirit of a comic book, when you read it, the picture seems to be bright, but clouds begin to gather in your soul with each chapter, with each leaf. And in the film, everything is somehow the same, although he is on top, definitely. But this is more the merit of Alan Moore than the filmmakers. It just so happened that I first read the comic and then saw the movie. If you have not read/watched Watchmen, quickly run to the store for a printed version and a film adaptation disc. Only at the beginning, nevertheless, read the comic, it is much better than the film, and it is the primary source.

ZY: And the game is also not bad :)

Score: 7

Spoiler (plot reveal) (click on it to see)

The end is low. © Rorschach

Comics are often called graphic novels, either out of political correctness or to justify the fact that adults are addicted to them (like the "adult" covers for Harry Potter books that were popular at one time over the hill), but in my opinion, Not all comics deserve this title. Watchmen is one of those that can’t even call a comic book a language, you can only talk about it as a graphic novel. This is the most real romance- with a complex plot, consisting of interweaving several independent ones, with a non-linear narrative structure, with many characters, several narrators, giving a look from different angles and perspectives, character development and increasing tension with each chapter.

There are no heroes and villains here: the villains are almost all retired, they suffer from cancer and live out their days in oblivion, and the heroes have taken off their cloaks and masks and are trying to live in a new wonderful world with electric cars, advanced genetics and miracle technologies bestowed by Dr. Manhattan. There is no black and white here, only shadows and twilight; well, except perhaps for Rorschach, the insane scumbag for whom there is only yes and no. There are no right decisions, the end of the world is near, there are five minutes left before Armageddon, hours doomsday it's about to strike midnight. The novel completely revisits the idea of ​​superheroes, their influence on the world and the influence of the world on them, along the way the toughest questions about responsibility and the “tear of a child”.

The realism of the world is emphasized and built and additional materials that you get to know as you read selected chapters from the memoirs of the first Night Owl Under The Hood, a piece of a book about Dr. Manhattan, a police file on Walter Kovacs (a.k.a. Rorschach), an essay on ornithology by Dan Dreiberg (the second Night Owl), an article about a Black Freichter comic read by one of minor characters, and which in several chapters serves as a counterpoint to what is happening in the Guardians themselves, and much more that creates depth and adds ambiguity to characters and events.

Apart from great story narrated by Alan Moore, it is also worth noting the absolutely stunning drawing by Dave Gibbons, with his original play of colors, a detailed (I would say - lovingly) traced background that lives its own life (it is often no less interesting to follow what is happening in the background than the main events) and creates additional allusions and amusing parallelism.

In fact, Watchmen is not even just a comic book. This real phenomenon this genre, the same as "Ulysses" for literature in its time.

"Keepers" is a deep, penetrating and bright history full of deep philosophical thoughts, dozens of references and allusions, often inaccessible to the untrained eye. Literally the very first scenes are fundamental to the whole plot, but it is hardly possible to catch them on the first reading. Similarly, much happens on the second, third, and even fourth planes: somewhere behind the main actions, dramas develop, destinies intertwine and collapse, but, as is often the case in the world, a cursory glance misses them, and only an attentive reader is able to catch how much multifaceted this novel. This is a whole original universe, capable of telling the story of several decades, a country, individual destinies, several publishing houses and political events within 12 chapters.

The novel builds around itself a convincing world filled with newspapers, books, films. Excerpts from fictional book themselves are almost the standard of impeccable prose - well-coordinated, thoughtful stories that can captivate even a biased reader.

The characters are charming. In addition to the fact that each of them has a written history, up to the point that we learn the fate of their parents, we have something more: charismatic, memorable, voluminous heroes who have their own problems, views, desires, often running counter to the opinions of others, which gives rise to a lot of fascinating dramatic situations.

Not to mention the film adaptation of Zack Snyder. This is a film that perfectly captures the plot and atmosphere of a graphic novel. The original source was treated with great care. The movie is atmospheric, bright, nothing like it. In some places it goes even further than the comics, gaining momentum, humor, action. The picture in the screen version is brighter, livelier. However, through the film it is impossible to convey the depth and complexity of the graphic novel. In addition, these two works have different endings. In this regard, I think that in order to fully experience this story, one should both watch the film (not the usual, not the director's version, but the maximum version) and read the book.

Diagnosis is really cool. Beautifully rendered, a good tricky plot, reminiscences, flashbacks and other scary words. Not once "superman vs villain", but a very sensible story (and by and large fantasy element not that important). In general, it is recommended to read (or rather, to consider in this case) very carefully, if a gun is hanging on the wall, then it’s not just like that (In the appendices there are examples of the author’s storyboard - for each square of the picture - several paragraphs of text describing what and why should be in the picture. In general, the authors really and well got confused). Characters. Non-cardboard characters. Separately, I was pleased with the applications - sketches, drawings, etc., etc. Actually "Locus" and "Hyugi" just like that, for beautiful eyes do not distribute.

Total - despite the price (the book is made really high quality), strongly recommended for purchase and reading. Moreover, it is the 2014 edition that is better - with applications, they are really worth it. In the most extreme case, even if you don’t like it, it will be a great gift.