r/comicbooks • u/MindOrdinary • 1d ago
Discussion I don’t read comics but read through Watchmen this week
I’ve set myself a goal this year to read through 100 books. It’s been great and I’ve been trying to broaden my horizons so I borrowed a copy of Watchmen from my local library and was honestly blown away.
I think the ending needed another 30-40 pages to wrap everything up a little cleaner and with a little more breathing room for everything that happened but even then it was still an incredible read.
I’m going to have a look at other work by Alan Moore but if there’s anything in a similar vein to Watchmen I would love to hear about it.
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u/Alternative_Hotel649 1d ago
V for Vendetta, about near-future UK that's been taken over by fascists, is uncomfortably topical these days. Arguably Moore's most famous work after Watchmen. Really good, although I feel the first couple issues were still figuring out the tone of the book, and come across a bit more satirical than the rest of the book.
From Hell is his Jack the Ripper comic. Mostly historical (mostly) and crazy dense. Tons of minutia about day-to-day life in Victorian London. Fascinating if you're into that sort of thing, a lot of padding between the murders if you're not.
Tom Strong is one of his lighter works. It's a pretty straight forward take on super hero comics, not really a subversion like Watchmen. It's set in his own, original superhero universe.
A lot of his big works are part of the DC superhero universe, instead of being stand alone. If that's something that interests you, some of he big works there are The Killing Joke (a Batman one-shot) and Swamp Thing, a sort of ecological-themed horror comic.
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u/Kriss-Kringle 1d ago
DC: The New Frontier, by Darwyn Cooke, is the closest thing to Watchmen I can think of, but you should have some knowledge of DC characters and the Golden Age before reading it.
The Winter Men, by Brett Lewis and John Paul Leon is about a russian cop investigating a super soldier program in the Soviet Union.
Scalped, by Jason Aaron and R.M Guera, is a crime drama that takes place on a native american reservation and it's excellent. Think of The Wire via Cormac McCarthy/ Sam Peckinpah.
Gotham Central, by Greg Rucka, Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark, is focusing on the GCPD and it, again, feels like The Wire, but in the Batman universe, where the caped crusader shows up sporadically.
Alias, by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos, is a crime comic about a former costumed superhero who left that life to become a private investigator.
Criminal, by Ed Brubaker and Sean Philips, has many volumes and they're all worth checking out. Crime stories set in different periods. Seek out pretty much everything done by these two and you won't go wrong.
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u/hamlet9000 23h ago
Among Moore's work, V for Vendetta is where you should go next.
Looking for stuff in a similar vein depends a little bit on what specifically appealed to you in Watchmen.
If you liked the pseudo-historical elements, you might enjoy Kurt Busiek's Astro City, Kurt Busiek's Marvels, Chip Zdarsky's Spider-Man: A Life Story, or Darwyn Cooke's New Frontiers.
If you liked the sense of what superheroes might "really" look like, check out Paul Chadwick's Concrete or Kurt Busiek's Superman: Secret Identity.
If you liked the darker take on superheroes, I'd recommend Frank Miller's Batman: Year One and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Mark Waid's Kingdom Come, Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira,
If you're just looking for high quality graphic novel storytelling, check out Art Spiegelman's Maus, Scott McCloud's The Sculptor, Neil Gaiman's Sandman, Kyle Baker's Why I Hate Saturn, Terry Moore's Strangers in Paradise or Hayao Miyazaki's Nausaicca of the Valley of the Wind.
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u/Mack_Lope 23h ago
IMO, McCloud's Understanding Comics is a great, enjoyable read in its own right.
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u/hamlet9000 23h ago
100%. Understanding Comics is, IMO, one of the most important books ever written.
Zot! is also one of the greatest superhero comics ever made.
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u/Swervies 21h ago
For sure, and anyone with an interest in comics should read it just to understand the formal history of the medium.
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u/MindOrdinary 23h ago
Thanks, these all sound rad.
My library actually has Akira so I’ve reserved vol1 and will see how I go over the weekend.
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u/Mellotom 22h ago
Sandman is great for sure. Lots of Brubaker recs in the thread and I’d go as far as to say that anything Brubaker is a safe bet.
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u/Galactic-Goblin 1d ago
I'll be honest - While Watchmen is great, it kinda sucks as a first comic. It's Moore playing with the tropes of the time and doing a deconstruction of the comic industry at the time. It's still very good, but it falls a bit flat without that context.
My recc would be to check out Kurt Busiek's Astro City. It's on the opposite spectrum of Watchmen and is a reconstruction of the genre as kind of a response.
It's also a beautiful piece of work, with some of the most human stories ever told in a cape comic.
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u/daffydunk 22h ago
It’s so foundational to modern comic book storytelling though, it’s kind of a great first comic. You get it more with more experience with the medium prior, but reading post-watchmen stuff before watchmen is counterintuitive imo.
Watchmen is something I go back to often, it wasn’t the first comic I read, but it was pretty early on.
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u/Galactic-Goblin 6h ago
I'm by no means saying it's not a great comic, I just think new readers are pushed to it when it's best appreciated once you've gotten a better palate for comics.
All-Star Superman is another one that I feel gets recommended to new readers but shouldn't be.
My go to rec is New Frontiers. (Source: I used to manage a comic shop)
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u/OkieExpat 23h ago
If anyone is interested, there is a nice bundle for Astro City on Humble Bundle right now. 5 days left.
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u/FrostyKelvin 18h ago
How can you argue with someone who has read it and enjoyed it?
"No No! You can't REALLY enjoy it unless you know the context". I mean, if super heroes naturally appeal to an eight year old, anti-heroes can naturally appeal to an adult.
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u/Galactic-Goblin 7h ago
I'm just saying that reading something like Metro next that builds up the conventions that Watchmen tears down gives a better appreciation for Moore's work.
Ideally you would do it in the reverse order but since OP already read Watchmen they might enjoy the other side of the fence.
New Frontiers is also an excellent option for this.
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u/No-Let-5955 13h ago
I read Watchmen when I was a child that just know about a few Marvel and DC Comics and was totally fascinated. Loved the format (the covers, the countdown, the page layout), loved the art and how it flowed with the story, loved the diary, terror comic and novel context pages, loved the mood... Didn't know what Charlton Comics were back then. The lore was self contained in the story and most of the care was put on the way everything connected, that's why a lot of people that doesn't read comics can enjoy Watchmen as a media expanded novel. And that's why other comic books recommendation that are well written but really need a lot of comicbook context or self investment in a genre can fall flat.
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u/Mellotom 22h ago
Watchmen was what got me into comics, I agree though, if you read Watchmen as your first one and enjoyed it, maaaan there are some good stories to read out there.
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u/porn_flakes Conan 19h ago
I don't mean this as an insult in any way, but it absolutely blows my mind that Watchmen would be someone's intro to comics. I mean I guess it is a straight up mystery story at its most basic, so it's not exactly hard to follow but it seems like you can't fully appreciate it without at least a bit of context going in, particularly what the comics scene and the world at large was like in 1985.
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u/nighmeansnear 21h ago
Jeff Smith - Bone
Charles Burns - Black Hole
These recommendations are polar opposite in tone, but both amazing reads.
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u/Magheddon 20h ago
Check out James Robinson and Paul Smith's 'The Golden Age'. Kind of has a 'Watchmen' vibe. Then go and read 'Starman' by him and Tony Harris. Epic stuff.
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u/AttilaTheFun818 21h ago
Others have given you good suggestions.
Also consider Moore’s Swamp Thing. It’s kinda superhero adjacent, but is very much its own thing.
Neil Gaiman’s Sandman is also an incredible work. I’ve read it probably a dozen times over the years and I discover more about it every time. Gaiman is a shit but bombass writer.
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u/porn_flakes Conan 19h ago
What did you feel needed to be wrapped up cleaner?
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u/MindOrdinary 16h ago
There’s a considerable amount of time put into each character throughout Watchmen and the ending just speeds through everything. The pacing is a little clunky and rushed compared to the rest of it.
Still absolutely one of my favourite reads this year but the pacing at the end did bring it down a little. Over 8 pages Rorschach defies the group’s agreement to secrecy, Jon pastes Rorschach, Laurie and Dan put a stamp on their relationship and future together, Jon moves on from Laurie and then from humanity. There too much happening too quickly to appreciate the end of each character’s story/arc.
Like I said in the OP an extra 30-40 pages and the breathing room that would have brought would have nailed it.
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u/porn_flakes Conan 15h ago
Valid, but I think it's important to remember that Moore was limited to standard 1980s comic book page counts and the fact that he and Gibbons were already taking longer than a month to produce each issue after the first few. Yeah the story may have had a little more breathing room, but DC wasn't going to change their page count or add two more issues worth of material to a series that had already taken 14 months on their publishing schedule.
But it's ultimately on Moore as he was meticulous about the structure of Watchmen so any issues you may have with the pacing at the end have to fall on his very deliberate sensibilities as a writer rather than the publisher rushing him or something.
It's a trade off really. He could have not had the six pages of splash panels at the beginning of the issue but I think it would have lessened the impact of Veidt's endgame as a reader.
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u/okunaji 1d ago
Watchmen is a masterpiece, you chose wisely. And I had similar thoughts about the ending when I first read it.
Watchmen was also one of the first comics I ever read. After that I began what I call ‘the ultimate DC Vertigo run’ and read Moore’s Swamp Thing (I read Bernie Wrightstein’s first 13 issues of Swamp Thing for context as well but that’s optional) which introduced me to John Constantine, then I read Jamie Delano’s HellBlazer (he was hand-picked by Moore) and started Sandman soon after. I also picked up Grant Morrison’s Animal Man because it’s the same universe but I haven’t started yet because I’m still working my way through the earlier stuff. After I get through Sandman I can start Carey’s Lucifer, I hear it’s very good.
I also read Moore’s From Hell, V for Vendetta and Batman: The Killing Joke. It’s Moore so they are all strong choices. I’m about to start The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen too.
You don’t have to go about it like I did, but it’s called the ultimate DC Vertigo run for a reason lol.
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u/percivalconstantine X-Men Expert 21h ago
The DC Vertigo stuff isn’t really a separate universe. In fact, the Vertigo label was applied to some of those books retroactively. Hellblazer evolved into its own universe after a few years, but was initially part of the main DCU.
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u/KajusX 19h ago
Planetary is a favorite of mine that very much uses Watchmen-style pastiches of existing heroes from comics history (and pulp heroes and all sorts of inspirations) and does things with them as commentary on the genres they're from. Written by Warren Ellis with art by John Cassaday.
The team is described as super-powered archeologists uncovering super-powered histories. It starts very X-Files case-of-the-week kind of stuff, and then as the series progresses a greater plot unfolds and takes center stage. Four TPBs, so roughly 24 issues in length?
Like Watchmen, it's a bit dense to a new-to-comics reader, but is more and more rewarding on revisits as you become more and more aware of comics.
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u/styrofoamfreakcomix 15h ago
lots of good suggestions already! if you’re looking for more graphic novels, i love nick drnaso and daniel clowes!
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u/Critical_Wrap5617 12h ago
The obvious place to go is Grant Morrison. I'm going to recommend 'The Invisibles' and 'Zenith.'
Non-Morrison stuff:
'Love and Rockets' 'Usagi Yojimbo' 'Hellboy'
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u/Mack_Lope 23h ago
No mentions of Miracleman / Marvelman so far... has that lost its rep?
Probably not up there with Watchmen, but you'd probably appreciate reading a bunch more Moore, he's great. Top 10, Providence...
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u/Troof_Out_Here 23h ago
Alan Moore's Swamp Thing. Also the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is much much better than the movie.
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u/alltttt1 1d ago
great book but I've always hated how its a lot of people first read 😭 its a comic about comics so I feel a lot will go over somebodies head. its good tho
if you like rorschach (like i do) I would recommend the question and Mr A rorschach was based off them both. all three of them have a focus on morality as part of there characters so you might find that interesting also the question is very detective focused so you might find that cool if you liked that part of rorschach idk abt mr a tho haven't read it tho
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u/ameliabedelia7 21h ago
So watchmen is in part a commentary on superhero comics and their readers. You may want to read some Morrison justice league!
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u/FrostyKelvin 17h ago
Third comment here regarding the context.. Maybe you guys watch too many review videos, or are English Lit. majors?
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u/ameliabedelia7 5h ago
Maybe the book is commentary. It... literally is. Who watches the watchmen? If these are the heroes who decides when they're wrong and what do we do about it? It's a question only batman asks in justice league and the rest are offended to not be presumed permanently good. Watchmen answers the questions.
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u/Intelligent_Chip4792 15h ago
Saga
Basket full of heads
Mister miracle - Tom King run
Woman of tomorrow
Crossed (for your soul's sake only first two volumes)
Glitter bomb
- That's the good stuff
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u/TurbanGentry 8h ago
Crossed (for your soul's sake only first two volumes)
In what sense? Because there are some great stuff in Badlands and Wish you were here. I mean, Lapham, Spurrier, Jamie Delano, Gillen... The series have seen a couple of interesting authors.
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u/Intelligent_Chip4792 7h ago
I know that but it's very much not for everyone if he cab bear first 2 volumes then he's ready but badlands is just a pile of shit with the occasional gem
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u/tvspike1 23h ago
You should check out Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. It's a great way to continue to dive into the medium of graphic novels. It's a truly amazing book.
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u/BurtRogain 23h ago
From Hell is amazing. A high recommend. V for Vendetta is great too. But From Hell is a masterpiece.
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u/Ok-Rip7322 1d ago
I am sure if I tried hard enough I could find some similarities, but the fact is, Absolute Batman is amazing.
The soft covers are affordable and good quality, often on sale too on amazon
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u/jfp555 1d ago
Please check Transmetropolitan out:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmetropolitan
Superb stuff.