watchmen in context: international graphic novels & comics conference
TRANSCRIPT
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