Steven's Reviews > Watchmen

I started watching the HBO series and after one episode realized that I needed to do some homework. Luckily, this compendium was instantly available through my public library's Hoopla service.

So now I know (sort of) what's going on. And I'm really enjoying the show, so I'll probably keep watching it. But I just can't figure out why this story has such a grip on everyone's imagination and why this series ends up on so many best-books-of-the-20th-century lists.

I'm sure it's me and not the material itself. Something I know about myself is that I don't read graphic novels easily. I come at them from a very defensive position to start with, not trusting myself to truly "get" what the author and/or artists are trying to convey with the mix of words and images. Sometimes I do, but more often than not, I don't. In this case, I found the artwork super distracting.

I did like how the comic-within-the-comic had the old school Ben-Day dots (I learned something!) -- that was a nice touch. But I found that whole two-things-going-on-at-the-same-time thing distracting. I'm sure it had some connection with the main story, but I just felt like I was being pulled in and out of the story. And there were points where I felt the authors thought, "hey - this would be a cool thing to draw and for the readers to see" (I'm talking to you, Dr. Manhattan's flying Martian palace). But is a flying palace necessary for someone who can just go wherever he wants? Why? Sooooo many panels taken up with this thing. And the way Sally Jupiter was drawn kept reminding me of Aunt Fritzi from the Nancy comic strip. There was something about every character that made me not like them and it was a real chore to drum up sympathy and care about any of them.

Also noted: for having so many (marginal and undeveloped) LGBT characters, there sure was a lot of homophobic language tossed around. Ah, the 80s.

I just couldn't stop asking myself questions like this, and it took me out of the story too often. I'm glad I read it, but I can't say I liked it. Maybe it will grow on me?