granted, my exposure to comics is not what it could be but this tight effort redefined what the comic genre is certainly capable of. it was much more concise, involved and intricate than any other i've come across. given its development, watchmen reads more like a novel than a funny picture book, rife with meaningful characters. moore and gibbons crafted a world that was both fantastic but possible in that good sci-fi conjecture based way. and, it's no secret that this is a major objective of the genre, both comic and sciene-fantasy.