Time Magazine just published a list of the 100 best novels published since 1923. There are plenty on there that you’d expect, some you probably didn’t, and one that shocked the heck out of me.
It’s Watchmen. Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ graphic novel, what used to be called a comic book.
Not only that, but in the Reader’s Choice section of the page (where readers are invited to rate the books on the list, which is presented in alphabetical order), Watchmen is #1.
I’ve read the book — only once, sometime around 1990, I think. It was so intense, and so disturbing, that I haven’t had the guts to go back and read it again. Which means I’m probably way past due to do just that.
“It’s not a comic book, it’s a …”