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I think the Watchmen is the best story ever told in comic book form.

I would say instead that The Watchmen is one of the best-told stories ever in comics, but the further I went along, the less I liked it. This wasn't the main reason for my dislike, but one thing that sticks with me was how Moore viewed all conservatives as scum, except for Rohrshach who was totally nuts. For instance, I vividly remember how the conservative magazine in the story was overtly anti-semitic. I think your assessment of the Moore-Miller-Gaiman effect on the industry is right on. Between that and the collector bubble, we're lucky we still have comics at all.

Like many artists Moore has a distinctly liberal bent. But one thing to remember is that the paranoid freak-out conservatives like Rorschach and the New Frontier (I just reread it a couple of months ago) were right on the money. They had it all worked out, and the holier than though liberal do-gooder killed 3 million people, you could even take it step further back and see that Nixon was right in his distrust of these costumed vigilantes who had put themselves above the law.

I think my favorite aspect of the whole story is Dr Manhatan. He's effectively God, but because of his prescience and the fact that he sees all these future events as unchangable he winds up being the least powerful person in the story. But there's really so much that's amazing about it, the story has amazing depth and is highly original (I can't think of anything like it on more than a superficial level).

I'll never forget picking up that first issue, I was heavy into the comic addiction, had a reserve bag at the local store and everything. Part of my list was all limited issue series. So I found Watchmen 1 in there, looked at the cover thought it was pretty unique bought it, took it home, read the first page and stopped. I knew I wasn't in the right mind set for this one, so I watched TV for a while and got myself in a less comic book frame of mind then went back to it. I knew after 5 pages that the industry would never be the same again, it was like Star Wars in the fact that it was obvious right from the start that it would have a dramatic effect on it's part of entertainment. And to this day you can look at it and see Watchmen as the dividing line, you can pick up a comic and without looking at any date information know immediately if it's pre or post Watchmen.

I should give credit where it's due. Some lady on the DVD extras of Unbreakable is where I stole the idea that Moore-Miller-Gaiman killed the industry (through no fault of their own). I forget her name but it's in that documentary on comics on the second disk. I think she's absolutely right and my own collection proves her right, that's why I stole the line.