Thus Spake Russ

Posted By Russ Emerson on March 6, 2009 at 4:23 pm

I may be a geek, but I’ve never been a comic book geek, either as a kid, or since.
Once, though, while in the throes of boredom between trips up to the DMZ during my service in Korea, I borrowed a friend’s copy of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. I’d never heard the expression “graphic novel” before; I thought it was just a bigger-than-usual comic book, but I was quickly corrected, and was convinced to give it a look. I was impressed. This was no mere kid’s comic book, and it helped set the tone for the Batman film which followed not too long after.
I really was impressed, but not enough to get me into the genre as a whole.
Fast-forward to the present. It’s been 20 years, and exactly one other graphic novel has joined the ranks of the hundreds of books I have owned and read: Watchmen, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons.
I was drawn to Watchmen by its inclusion on someone’s list of 100 great works of English literature; I saw it referred to, looked it up, and had my curiosity piqued enough to buy a copy. There’s no way I can describe it and do it justice, except to say I was far more impressed than I remember being by The Dark Knight Returns.
And now, 14 years after the book was published, there’s a Watchmen film, which opens today. I’m working, of course, so I won’t be able to go see it until Monday — but see it I will. I don’t get out to see movies all too often (the last was the eminently regrettable Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) but sometimes something comes along that makes the sheer physical hassle worthwhile.
I hope the film does the book justice.

Categories: Books, Movies
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