Last Tuesday, responding to the Time book critics’ Top 100 list, I suggested that Alan Moore & Dave Gibbon’s Watchmen, which Lev Grossman views as “told with ruthless psychological realism, in fugal, overlapping plotlines and gorgeous, cinematic panels rich with repeating motifs,” was actually “one of the most overhyped comic books ever published.” This got me a note from one fan asking if I was out of my head, but I’m sticking to my guns on this one. It’s a very good graphic novel, but one of the best? I’m not so sure.
Still, Grossman isn’t the only one in the Time Warner editorial ranks who admires the book. Andrew Arnold, the Time “comix columnist,” picked his own ten best graphic novels list, with Watchmen at the end of the alphabetical list.* And the latest Entertainment Weekly features a lengthy article by senior editor Jeff Jensen about the origins of “a masterwork representing the apex of artistry in its respective medium,” on a par with Citizen Kane or Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Jensen spoke with Newsarama about the article, and addressed the fact (undisclosed in the piece itself) that DC Comics, also owned by Time Warner, just released a $75 digitally remastered “Absolute Edition” with bonus materials like script samples and conceptual art:
“When we learned that there was an Absolute Edition in the works, we did decide to time our oral history to its release. But we were doing it, anyway, and it would have run without the news hook. Amazingly, we were smart enough to come up with this on our own. It’s not an ad, nor is it corporate synergy at work. It’s journalism.”
Grossman “had no idea” about the new edition when putting his list together, either, he told me by email over the weekend. “Lovely piece of synchronicity, though,” he added. When I pressed him on his choice, he allowed that other graphic novels—like Art Spiegelman’s Maus or Clowes’s Ghost World—were the equal of Watchmen in quality, “but I couldn’t come up with another one that was as influential.” And if influence is being weighed as heavily as quality, then, yes, even I would concede that Watchmen is a heavy hitter…although I still like V for Vendetta better, or From Hell, or even the underappreciated Skizz…
*It’s hard to fault Arnold’s list, though, which includes great works by artists like Frank Miller, Daniel Clowes, Gilbert Hernandez, and Chris Ware. One of the few glaring omissions is Dave Sim’s Cerebus, recently analyzed in The Believer—and which also wielded significant influence in terms of how independent creators approached the comics marketplace.