To balance up yesterday’s gloomy post, here’s something I’m really looking forward to: The upcoming Watchmen film. Now, I know I’ve been burnt more than once in the past but from everything I’ve seen this is shaping up to be something special. The trailers seem to show that the original graphic novel is being paid due respect and I recently learned that Dave Gibbons is help promote the film, which I’ll read for now as a good omen.
So what’s all the fuss about Watchmen for anyway? Well, if you’ve ever wondered what the fuss about comics was or what makes one turn into a graphic novel, then this is the place to start. Read it and you’ll realise how much you know and love in modern “super hero” films is owed to it.
And that’s not all. It’s not like looking at pictures, it’s not like reading a book. Your brain has to operate on two tracks simultaneously. As you read the words you have to independently absorb what’s going on in the pictures and not let the narrative carry you away. This is because there’s so much important detail going on in the background that isn’t related to the words but is part of the story. Not infrequently the narrative will be accompanied by a different picture story but one that parallels the words.
When I first read it late last year it was unlike anything I’d read/seen before. If I have one piece of advice on Watchmen, it would be to take your time and digest every frame. On which note, I’m off to start re-reading it right now…