Watchmen was published by DC Comics as twelve monthly issues from September 1986 to October 1987, collected as a trade paperback in 1987. Written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons, with coloring by John Higgins, it is widely considered the single most important work of graphic fiction published in the English language — the book that, along with Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns and Art Spiegelman’s Maus, permanently elevated the medium’s literary ambitions.
The premise: in an alternate United States, costumed vigilantes have operated since the 1940s. Most are ordinary humans in costumes, but one — Jon Osterman, transformed by a nuclear accident into the godlike Doctor Manhattan — has fundamentally altered the geopolitical balance. Nixon remains president. The US won Vietnam. The Doomsday Clock stands at five to midnight. When Edward Blake, the Comedian (a brutal government-sanctioned operative), is murdered, the paranoid vigilante Rorschach investigates — uncovering a conspiracy that implicates the smartest man in the world.
Moore’s achievement is to take the absurd conventions of superhero comics and subject them to realistic scrutiny: what would costumed vigilantes actually be like? (Damaged, authoritarian, sexually dysfunctional.) What would a genuine superman do to geopolitics? (End it.) What moral framework justifies killing millions to save billions? The formal structure is equally ambitious: each issue is self-contained yet interconnected, with parallel narratives (a pirate comic-within-a-comic, found documents, symmetrical panel layouts) creating layers of meaning.
Collecting Watchmen
Original issues (DC Comics, 1986-1987): Twelve issues, standard comic format.
Market values:
- Issue #1, near mint (9.4+): $500–$2,000
- Complete set of 12, high grade: $1,000–$3,000
- First printing trade paperback (1987): $50–$150
- Absolute Watchmen slipcased edition: $50–$100