{"id":4632,"date":"2003-07-27T02:48:50","date_gmt":"2003-07-27T09:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=4632"},"modified":"2003-07-27T02:48:50","modified_gmt":"2003-07-27T09:48:50","slug":"bt03_top_twelve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/07\/27\/bt03_top_twelve.html","title":{"rendered":"BT03 – Top Twelve, Part 8"},"content":{"rendered":"

Concluding my list of The Top Twelve Comics Everyone Should Read<\/b>.<\/p>\n

(And, yes, there’s a numbering problem I need to go back and fix.)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

#1 – Watchmen<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Synopsis<\/u>: In a slightly altered world, the heroes of the 60s and 70s were forced to retire, except for a few government sanctioned individuals. Now there seems to be a conspiracy afoot, as these superhumans are being killed or incapacitated. Can the remaining heroes figure out what’s going on in time to stop a horrifying plan?<\/p>\n

Creators<\/u>: Alan Moore wrote it. Dave Gibbons drew it.<\/p>\n

Status<\/u>: After the original 12-issue mini-series was completed in 1987, the book was collected into a single volume, and has remained in print ever since.<\/p>\n

Why Everyone Should Read It<\/u>: Because it was one of the most influential comic books of the 80s. Or even the 70s, 80s, and 90s combined. Heroes with flaws? Heroes that were government stooges? Heroes that were rapists? Or overweight? Or sociopaths? Or, out of the best intentions, plotting mass murder?<\/p>\n

Moore tackled this, using disguised variations of various Charlton heroes that DC had recently acquired. His creation was a rich one, an entire realized world. He and Gibbons played with media, having panels flip back and forth between action, memory, TV screens, and so forth. Substories came and went. Imagery echoed through the volumes, only visible once collected. Everyone — everyone — was a flawed human in one way or another … or else, lacking humanity, was flawed in that way.<\/p>\n

Heady, heady stuff, and outrageous for its time. But, along with Miller’s Dark Knight Returns<\/i>, it turned comics on their ears — and issued in the era of the darkly flawed hero, the big conspiracy, the nothing-is-as-it-seems times. <\/p>\n

Though criticized for its conclusion — both in schedule and in content — the book as a whole stands up very, very well. Rorschach, Dr Manhatten, Ozymandias, the Owl, even the Silk Spectre, all still resonate. As a single tome, Watchmen<\/i> will be one of the works studied a century now, both for what it reflects about comics and the times, and for how it was put together itself.<\/p>\n

Non-comics readers will find Watchmen dark, but approachable. Comics readers will, if they’ve not read it before, discover the sources of echoes that resonate through the medium to this day.<\/p>\n

\nCollections<\/u>:
\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Concluding my list of The Top Twelve Comics Everyone Should Read. (And, yes, there’s a numbering problem I need to go back and fix.)…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogathon","category-media-comics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4642,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/07\/26\/bt03_top_twelve.html","url_meta":{"origin":4632,"position":0},"title":"BT03 – Top Twelve, Part 1","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 26-Jul-03 9:29pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, now that I've exhausted my stack of recent comics (except for the ones I haven't read yet from this week -- and I might be reduced to that by...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":127820,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/27\/dc-heroes-with-style.html","url_meta":{"origin":4632,"position":1},"title":"DC Heroes with Style","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 27-Aug-15 7:42am","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a lovely collection of house style sheets from DC in the early 80s, drawn by the inestimable Jos\u00e9 Luis Garc\u00eda-L\u00f3pez. These served as reference samples for other DC artists, and they are all gorgeous.(With the notable exception of Supergirl's horrific headband outfit, for which sin she eventually died in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4639,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/07\/26\/bt03_top_twelve.html","url_meta":{"origin":4632,"position":2},"title":"BT03 – Top Twelve, Part 3","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 26-Jul-03 10:56pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Continuing my list of The Top Twelve Comics Everyone Should Read....","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15399,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/07\/26\/bt09-t-is-for-time-blogathon.html","url_meta":{"origin":4632,"position":3},"title":"BT09 – T is for Time (#Blogathon)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 26-Jul-09 2:25am","format":false,"excerpt":"Wow. Concentration is definitely running on fumes here. As I review the books for material to comment about, I keep getting distracted and starting to read ... \u00a0 The Twelve, Vol. 1\u00a0(Marvel) [collects #1-6] w. Joe Straczynski; a.\u00a0Chris Weston\u00a0 Writing New reader? Art Non-comics reader? Twelve heroes, buried in suspended\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars5.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":22631,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/09\/11\/the-worlds-most-annoying-or-beloved-comic-book-heroes.html","url_meta":{"origin":4632,"position":4},"title":"The world’s most annoying (or beloved) comic book heroes?","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 11-Sep-11 2:50pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The folks at iFanboy have suggestions for the Top 5 Comic Book Characters You Either Love of Hate. \u00a0And, by golly, their suggestions aren't bad ones: Gambit - I don't mind Gambit all that much, except for his costume and his background (and plotlines driven thereby, which are far too\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comics & Comic Books"","block_context":{"text":"Comics & Comic Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4629,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/07\/27\/bt03_comfort_fo.html","url_meta":{"origin":4632,"position":5},"title":"BT03 – Comfort Food, Part 2","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 27-Jul-03 3:57am","format":false,"excerpt":"I can tell my brain is slowly slowing down -- if for no other reason than I'm saying things like \"slowly slowing\" in them. So I ask forgiveness in advance...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4632\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}