Watchmen, 10 years later

From Wizard n. 62, October 1996.

Article Watchmen, 10 years later by Craig Shutt.

Watching the Watchmen box.

Here's a sampling of what other creators say about Watchmen 10 years later.

Neil Gaiman: "I was astonished by its sheer technical bravura as well as Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' willingness not to make a big deal out of how impressive it was. If Watchmen has a problem, it's that they didn't realize how big it was going to be. Their rigid and brilliant structure didn't give them enough room to change, and the story outgrew its structure. They started off telling the ultimate superhero story, but it got bigger than that. As a result, it's ultimately less satisfying than it could have been."

Alex Ross: "It showed that something really epic and pure could be created in a multi-character, multi-part storyline. But its importance is not so much in its scale but in its execution and the intelligence with how it was created. It inspired a lot of my thinking today on superheroes. In fact, I went to some Halloween parties dressed as Rorschach."

Mark Waid: "Watchmen was a masterpiece of plot structure. Everything meant something, and everything advanced the story. It's lean and cuts right to the bone, which should be the ultimate goal of any story."

Kurt Busiek: "It raised the level of discourse because it was so well-made. It was thought through on a level that comics hadn't reached before. And we can't hold Alan and Dave responsible for their cheesy imitators. They did something new, interesting and clever, and writers who were inspired by that should have done something else that was new, interesting and clever."

Ron Marz: "Combined with Dark Knight, it reignited my interest in comics, because it showed the possibilities inherent the medium. There are a lot of children of Watchmen out there."

Chuck Dixon: "It was part of an era in which comics were raised to a new level of maturity, and I don't mean just nudity and graphic violence. There was a lot of subtext and deft characterization. We need another Watchmen, something to cut through the clutter." CS