Just Arrived!

Watchmen by Alan Moore

In honor of the impending DVD release of the film, I would like to introduce all my graphic novel lovin' YA'ers to THE BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL OF ALL TIME*!

Amazon.com Review
Has any comic been as acclaimed as Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen? Possibly only Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, but Watchmen remains the critics' favorite. Why? Because Moore is a better writer, and Watchmen a more complex and dark and literate creation than Miller's fantastic, subversive take on the Batman myth. Moore, renowned for many other of the genre's finest creations (Saga of the Swamp Thing, V for Vendetta, and From Hell, with Eddie Campbell) first put out Watchmen in 12 issues for DC in 1986-87. It won a comic award at the time (the 1987 Jack Kirby Comics Industry Awards for Best Writer/Artist combination) and has continued to gather praise since.

The story concerns a group called the Crimebusters and a plot to kill and discredit them. Moore's characterization is as sophisticated as any novel's. Importantly the costumes do not get in the way of the storytelling; rather they allow Moore to investigate issues of power and control--indeed it was Watchmen, and to a lesser extent Dark Knight, that propelled the comic genre forward, making "adult" comics a reality. The artwork of Gibbons (best known for 2000 AD's Rogue Trooper and DC's Green Lantern) is very fine too, echoing Moore's paranoid mood perfectly throughout. Packed with symbolism, some of the overlying themes (arms control, nuclear threat, vigilantes) have dated but the intelligent social and political commentary, the structure of the story itself, its intertextuality (chapters appended with excerpts from other "works" and "studies" on Moore's characters, or with excerpts from another comic book being read by a child within the story), the fine pace of the writing and its humanity mean that Watchmen more than stands up--it keeps its crown as the best the genre has yet produced. --Mark Thwaite


*Time magazine wrote "A work of ruthless psychological realism, it’s a landmark in the graphic novel medium. It would be a masterpiece in any."

Check It Out!

Easily one of the best websites about graphic novels on the Internet is No Flying, No Tights. This website reviews graphic novels for teens. You can browse by genre (superheroes, fantasy, historical fiction, nonfiction, crime and suspense, science fiction, and "realism") or skim the "new sensation" section. Resources particularly appropriate for younger teens are starred. Updates are also available through a free email subscription service.

Read an article that was published (by one my of favorite geek magazines) about this site School Library Journal! (In the article creator Robin Brenner explains where the wacky name of the site came from.)

Recommendation from the Librarian

The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg

This is a little gem of a book I stumbled upon recently. It's a graphic novel, meaning it's "a kind of comic book, usually with long and fairly complex storylines and often aimed at more mature audiences" (definition from the Comics: Encyclopedia)

From Booklist
*Starred Review* For the first book in a new series aimed at teenage girls, DC comics recruited novelist Castellucci (Boy Proof, 2004, and The Queen of Cool, 2005) to write this story about outsiders who come together, calling up themes from the author's popular YA novels. Relocated to suburbia after a brush with disaster in the big city (and fueled by an urge not to be terrified of the world as a result), Jane rallies a small group of outcasts into a team of "art terrorists," shaking the town from its conservative complacency by putting bubbles in the city fountain and wrapping objects on the street as Christmas packages. Their activities end up rallying the local teenagers to their cause and working the adults into a dither. The book has its share of stereotypes--the science geek, the psychotically overprotective mother, the irrepressible gay teen--but this is thought-provoking stuff. The art, inspired by Dan Clowes' work, is absolutely engaging. Packaged like manga this is a fresh, exciting use of the graphic-novel format.

Jesse Karp
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