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Watchmen #1 - Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons
If you're interested in comics you should know that the Watchmen series is the best series ever made (of course, if you collect comics, you would already know that). There are very few comics in which the writing and art gel together. Watchmen is one of those.
The first issue very much appears like a storyboard for a film. It flows from panel to panel, showing at the beginning, for example, the death of a man called Blake and the investigations of a psychotic hero named Rorschach (after the psychologist who evaluated patients using blot tests; in fact Rorschach the hero/vigilante actually has changing blots on his mask). Watchmen #1 introduces some of the most important characters, including Hollis Mason (Nite Owl) whose fictitious autobiography begins at the end of the comic.
Dave Gibbons' artwork is crisp and amazingly detailed, but it's the use of perspective that blew me away. Scenes zoom in and out, Dr Manhattan, the giant alien, towers above the rest, buildings fade away from every angle and just about every panel is technically accomplished. Alan Moore is also at his best, really getting inside the characters' minds and creating believable speech. What better way to start a groundbreaking series?
Reviewed by 
5/5
