Watchmen

Watchmen is a twelve-issue comic book limited series written by Alan Moore, drawn by Dave Gibbons and colored by John Higgins, published by DC Comics from 1986 to 1987. Set in an alternate 1985 in which costumed vigilantes have existed since the 1940s and have altered the course of real historical events, the story follows a group of retired and active heroes who uncover a conspiracy after one of their own, a government-sponsored operative, is murdered. Built around a strict nine-panel grid and interspersed with fictional documents, excerpts and a comic-within-the-comic, it deconstructs the conventions of the superhero genre it draws on. Watchmen is the only graphic novel to appear on Time magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels published since 1923, and its critical and commercial success is widely credited with helping establish the graphic novel as a literary form taken seriously by bookstores and critics alike.