watchmen in context: international graphic novels & comics conference

Daniel Gómez SalamancaThe Graphic Novel and Comic Conference COMICS: CULTURES & GENRES

Genre: Is Watchmen a superhero comic book limited series? Intertextual references

Dramatic parody▪ Application of the real

world logic to the superhero characters

▪ Human side of the masked adventurers▪ Moral, mediocrity and

dysfunctions.

▪ Hooded Justice’s sadism▪ Nite Owl’s erectile dysfunction

Science fiction: the literature of cognitive estrangement▪ Science fiction quotations

▪ Warning: nuclear confrontation

Watchmen’s main motif as an example of genre hybrydation

▪ End of the inocence▪ Nuclear Danger

1938

“Novum”

1938 1945

Atomic Bomb - Hiroshima

1938 1945 1963

JFK assassination

1938 19631945 1963

Vietnam war

1938 19631945 1963

Vietnam syndrome

1963-…

19631945 1963

Watergate

1963-…1973

1963

Hostage Crisis

1963-…19731979-1981

Irangate

1963-…19731979-1981

1985-1986

Roosevelt 1935-1

945

Trum

an 1945-1953

Eisenhower 1953-1

961

Kennedy 1961-1963

Nixon 1969-1974

L.B. J

ohnson 1963-1969

Nixon 1974-1977

Ford 1974-1

977

Nixon 1978-1981

Carter 1

978-1981

Nixon 1981-…

Reagan 1978-...

1938 19631945 1963 1963-…19731979-1981

1985-1986

1938 19631945 1963 1963-…19731979-1981

1985-1986

détente process

“I also wanted to write about power politics. Ronald Reagan was president. But I worried readers might switch off if they thought I was attacking someone they admired. So we set Watchmen in a world where Nixon was in his fourth term — because you're not going to get much argument that Nixon was scum! For me, the '80s were worrying. ''Mutually Assured Destruction.'' ''Voodoo economics.'' A culture of complacency... I was writing about times I lived in.”

ALAN MOORE

Ideological message: Watchmen as the last recreation of Cold War’s science fiction.

“I also wanted to write about power politics. Ronald Reagan was president. But I worried readers might switch off if they thought I was attacking someone they admired. So we set Watchmen in a world where Nixon was in his fourth term — because you're not going to get much argument that Nixon was scum! For me, the '80s were worrying. ''Mutually Assured Destruction.'' ''Voodoo economics.'' A culture of complacency... I was writing about times I lived in.”

ALAN MOORE

Ideological message: Watchmen as the last recreation of Cold War’s science fiction.

Moore’s criticism▪ End of détente process▪ War-mongering rethoryc▪ Defence budget increase▪ Strategic Defence Initiative▪ Reaganomics

1938 19631945 1963 1963-…19731979-1981

1985-1986

détente process

End of Cold War