Watchmen at 40: Weird History of The World’s Greatest Comic

Posted on May 13, 2026

by Eric S

In the world of comics, few series have had a legacy as strange, storied, and carefully examined as Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen. Considered by many to be the single greatest comic of all time, the Watchmen book itself is just as fascinating as the behind-the-scenes drama, personalities involved in making it, production process, and ways it would shape the comic book industry going forward. When issue #1 came out 40 years this week, it was a commercial and critical success, but also a watershed moment in comics which can still be felt almost a half century later. Originally pitched to DC by Moore as a story featuring recently acquired characters from the defunct Charlton Comics, Watchmen was reworked to include a wholly original cast of characters (since Moore would be leaving them “dead or dysfunctional”). With artist Dave Gibbons, Moore crafted a comic that set the standard for superhero comics and proved that these seemingly disposable kids’ books could be literary, mature, and tackle pressing, real-world issues.

At face value, Watchmen is a gritty superhero murder mystery that is deeply concerned with very flawed heroes having unchecked power (basically, if you read the book and think fascism is okay, then…maybe read it again). But it’s also a comic whose intended message has been massively misinterpreted and would, along with Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, go on to inspire countless comics in the late ‘80s and ‘90s that only drew influence from the most superficial aspects of the original text (mainly, “Watchmen has violence and nudity, so my comic will have violence and nudity”—all without understanding the why behind it). Things had gotten so gritty and cynical in superhero comics, that much of Moore’s work thereafter was a direct reaction against it, particularly in the pages of Supreme and Tom Strong, both of which drew on the sincerity and hopefulness of Golden Age comics and pulp heroes.

Unfortunately, despite the huge success of Watchmen, Moore felt that he was swindled out of the rights to the comic, and vowed to never work for DC again (tl;dr version: ownership of Watchmen was supposed to revert to Moore once DC stopped publishing it, but it has never gone out of publication). Much of his work in the ‘90s was from independent publishers, although he did creep back into the mainstream with his successful imprint, America’s Best Comics, which included beloved works like Top 10 and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Watchmen, however, would live well beyond Moore, with numerous other adaptations and spin-offs, including a film, prequel comic, and Emmy-award-winning TV show (see below).

Despite the drama, politics, overwhelming praise, strange interpretations, and massive influence, at the end of the day, Watchmen is still just a really good and really important comic book that everyone should read once in their life (although, you’ll catch new things on subsequent readings). It’s a book made by creators who were just as obsessed with the form of comics and history of superheroes as they were with the political landscape of the 1980s. While Moore gets the bulk of the credit for Watchmen, Gibbons’ penciling is so beautifully and carefully rendered, you could get lost for hours in the art alone (it’s also worth noting that Gibbons did the iconic lettering for the series as well, which, regrettably, inspired Comic Sans). So, on the 40th anniversary of this landmark series, forget everything your insufferable comic nerd friends have told you and check out Watchmen (and its various related media) for yourself.

For more great comics and movies, make sure to check out the offerings of your local branch as well as the Hoopla and Kanopy apps.