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Watchmen and Alan Moore

Watchmen was an incredible comic, and what makes it most incredible to me is how well Alan Moore captured the American spirit. As a British writer, Moore was able to realistically capture the American affliction of the 80’s better than other gigantic comics events of the time such as Crisis on Infinite Earths and Days of Future Past. Maybe, this can be attributed to a certain detachment in Moore. As a Brit, he was able to look upon America without an undying love for the nation but also capture the culture without being overly critical.
I found Watchmen superior to Crisis on Infinite Earths or Days of Future Past in part because of the great writing. His narrative structure come from specific places such as Rorschach’s journal or Hollis Mason's memoir. These techniques engage the reader on a personal and somewhat intellectual level where as many comics have a random box of text setting the scene coming from a mystery source.
Also, Moore’s initial transcript of the first panels was incredible. Moore put an incredible amount of detail into his writing even when the only element of a panel was a simple street drain. His meticulous writing process also reveals how important each panel is to the story. When writing, no word should be wasted, and in Comics, no panel should be wasted.

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