With the Watchmen movie coming up, the number of public inquiries involving it has increased — many asking the simple question of why it’s such an important comics work. The simple answer, “read it,” works for some; others look for a little more context — particularly students working on term papers!
The Comics Chronicles is styled as a resource for academic research — though most of what’s been done here to date relates to circulation history. There is, however, an essay I’ve referred people to frequently by my old friend and small press cohort, Neil Dorsett — a guy who’s forgotten more about film than I ever knew — about the relationship between film techniques and what’s on the printed page in Watchmen. That originally appeared in Comics Buyer’s Guide in 1999, but it has been unavailable since, and Neil has provided the essay here.
Look also to Watching the Watchmen, the official companion book to the series, in building out a Watchmen bibliography. I’m certain there are many, many more.
I do not expect that many pieces will appear here about what’s in comics — writing about the history of the business is a full-time hobby — but it did seem to be of immediate interest to many. I do have some circulation info on the title and how it performed in its initial run — before its many, many reprints; that’s to come in the days ahead.
Comichron founder John Jackson Miller has tracked the comics industry for more than 25 years, including a decade editing the industry’s retail trade magazine; he is the author of several guides to comics, as well as more than a hundred comic books for various franchises.
He is the author of novels including Star Wars: Kenobi, Star Wars: A New Dawn, Star Trek: Discovery – The Enterprise War, and his latest release, Star Trek: Discovery – Die Standing. Read more about them at his fiction site.
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