YAY to Watchmen

I enjoy graphic novels. There. I said it. If that lowers your opinion of me and you want to stereotype me as a comic book loving nerd, so be it. Ask yourself one question though. If admiring visual art is considered high-brow and reading fiction is intellectual, why is there a stigma attached to combining the two? If someone knows the answer let me know. The stories and writing in some graphic novels far exceed anything that bestselling novelists churn out. Case in point - Watchmen.

With the hype of the movie relentlessly beating me over the head, I went back to give the book another read about a month ago. It really is amazing. I won't bother giving you a synopsis of the plot because that will only take away from the story. If you think you know exactly what it's about from the countless commercials you've seen, you're wrong. This is not a cookie-cutter tale about superheroes.  

The story is bleak. The characters are flawed. The violence is brutal.  The storytelling is complex. The situations are adult. It's an amazing piece of fiction that everyone should read and the artwork compliments the story every step of the way. I highly recommend you make some time for it before you watch the movie. Not because the movie is bad (it's great). I just think digesting the original story at your own pace the way Alan Moore intended will give you the greatest reward. Then you'll be prepped to truly enjoy the inevitable extended DVD and the meticulous way Zack Snyder has brought many frames of the story directly over to the big screen (including plenty of blue wang). 

So YAY to you Watchmen. I'll never look at another smiley face without wanting to scribble a drop of blood on it.