Watchmen is an incredible graphic novel penned by Alan Moore & illustrated by artist Dave Gibbons, and colorist John Higgins. Described by Brandon Wright as “Moore’s obituary for the concept of heroes in general and superheroes in particular.” Watchmen’s iconic imagery and transcendent story have allowed it to carve it’s place among one of the greatest novels of all-time.
Motion comics are a form of comics that combine some elements of regular print comic with computer animation. By adding voice acting, sound effects, and animation to the expanded individual panel art, Watchmen can be enjoyed in a whole new way by seasoned veterans of the story and first-timers alike.
Chapter 1 – Watchmen – Motion Comic
Rorschach’s Journal. October 12th, 1985: Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach. This city is afraid of me. I have seen its true face. The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout “Save us!”… and I’ll whisper “no.” – Rorschach [reading from Journal]
Chapter 2 – Watchmen – Motion Comic
“Heard joke once: Man goes to doctor. Says he’s depressed. Says life seems harsh and cruel. Says he feels all alone in a threatening world where what lies ahead is vague and uncertain. Doctor says, “Treatment is simple. Great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. Go and see him. That should pick you up.” Man bursts into tears. Says, “But doctor…I am Pagliacci.” – From Rorschach’s journal
Chapter 3 – Watchmen – Motion Comic
“I was consciously trying to do something that would make people feel uneasy.” – Alan Moore
Chapter 4 – Watchmen – Motion Comic
“There’s no overt political message at all. It’s a fantasy extrapolation of what might happen and if people can see things in it that apply to the real America, then they’re reading it into the comic….” – Dave Gibbons
Chapter 5 – Watchmen – Motion Comic
This city is an animal, to understand it I read its droppings, its scents, the movement of its parasites. I sat watching the trashcan, and New York opened its heart to me. -Rorschach’s journal
Chapter 6 – Watchmen – Motion Comic
“We, in this country, in this generation, are — by destiny rather than by choice — the “watchmen” on the walls of world freedom. We ask, therefore, that we may be worthy of our power and responsibility, that we may exercise our strength with wisdom and restraint, and that we may achieve in our time and for all time the ancient vision of “peace on earth, good will toward men.” That must always be our goal, and the righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength. For as was written long ago: “except the Lord keep the city, the watchmen waketh but in vain.” – John F. Kennedy [excerpt from the speech he was to deliver the day of his Assassination]
Chapter 7 – Watchmen – Motion Comic
“[Watchmen is about] power and the idea of the superman manifest within society.” – Alan Moore
Chapter 8 – Watchmen – Motion Comic
“Developing its heroes precisely in order to deconstruct the very idea of the hero and so encouraging us to reflect upon its significance from the many different angles of the shards left lying on the ground”. – Iain Thomson [from his essay “Deconstructing the Hero” citing Watchmen as the point where the comic book medium “came of age”]
Chapter 9 – Watchmen – Motion Comic
“In each human coupling, a thousand million eggs vie for a single egg. Multiply those odds by countless generations, against the odds of your ancestors being alive; meeting; siring this precise son; that exact daughter… Until your mother loves a man she has every reason to hate, and of that union, of the thousand million children competing for fertilization, it was you, only you, that emerged.” – Dr. Manhattan
Chapter 10 – Watchmen – Motion Comic
“Some of us have always lived on the edge, Daniel. It is possible to survive there if you observe the rules: Just hang on by fingernails… and never look down.”- Rorschach
Chapter 11 – Watchmen – Motion Comic
“All mark out Watchmen either as the last key superhero text, or the first in a new maturity of the genre” – Richard Reynolds
Chapter 12 – Watchmen – Motion Comic
“Who watches the watchmen?”
