Moore’s Watchmen and Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings Are Strikingly Similar Landmarks.

When one talks of landmark works, of vital contributions to the art of comics, one cannot ignore Alan Moore. With a body of work as consistently terrific as his – he has more certifiable classics under his belt than any comic writer of the last 30 years - targeting any given tale as his “best” is an impossible task. But of Alan Moore’s contributions to comicdom, one truly stands as not just an undeniable landmark, but the undeniable landmark, putting its stamp on comic history forever. We speak, of course, of Watchmen, the powerful 12-issue collaboration with Dave Gibbons circa the Reagan-era 1980s.

Just how big a landmark is this now classic tale? Alan Moore’s Watchmen is to modern comics what J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings is to modern fantasy. It’s that simple.

Both vitally important works of their time, these two seeming opposites may have more in common than is apparent at first glance. Hailed as two of the most influential works of their respective art forms and genres, Moore and Gibbons’ Watchmen and Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings changed the face of superheroes and fantasy, respectively. And they did so in remarkably similar ways.

Watchmen is well known even outside comic audiences and has served as a turning point for superhero comics. It remains to this day one of the most influential comics of the last 20 years, reflected in almost every genre work that has followed. It's very difficult to read a modern superhero comic book that cannot trace at least somethsing back to Watchmen.

Meanwhile, The Lord of the Rings stands as one of the most popular, best-selling novels ever. Tolkien’s epic took 12 years to create and, despite being steeped in ancient tradition and taking from stories hundreds of years old, stands as the first work of “modern fantasy.” To this day it remains arguably the single most influential work of genre literature since its release almost 50 years ago.

While the extent of their respective influence varies from creator to creator, it’s undeniable that both have left their mark on the world. Neither were truly “firsts” in the strictest sense – fantasy existed well before Tolkien, and Watchmen was not the first to tackle darker, more “realistic” superheroes – but both became defining creations. The post-Watchmen world of superhero comics is much different than the pre-Watchmen world. The same is true of The Lord of the Rings and fantasy.

But it’s far too easy to say “both of these works were influential” and leave it at that. How did each impact its field?

A Sweeping Influence
Following Watchmen’s release, the market increasingly depicted a “darker” view of the once-noble world of superheroes. And it still does. Super humans have become fallible, and not merely in the sympathetic, “he’s just a regular guy” kind of way pioneered by the early Marvel creators. Today’s “heroes” are often ruthless, willing to hurt, maim and even kill to succeed. Watchmen's heavy focus on the politics of superheroes has become standard, too. Geo-political intrigue has become commonplace. Shady government organizations, power-laden entities with an Orwellian bent, and Machiavellian machinations are at this point superhero clichés. You can thank Moore for that. Since Watchmen arrived on the scene, comics have not been the same.

The scope of Tolkien’s influence is as broad as Watchmen’s, if not more so. Following the release of The Lord of the Rings, the fantasy market became engorged with a never-ending series of Epic Trilogies (despite Tolkien’s tale not being a true trilogy) stuffed with elves, dwarves and Big Important Quests. And it still is. Along with the prerequisite fantasy races, readers have been inundated with Dark Lords and Ancient Ruins, Good Lands under siege by Evil People, and Ancient Items of Great Power, so much so that these are now fantasy clichés. You can thank Tolkien for that. Since The Lord of the Rings arrived on the scene, fantasy literature has not been the same.

On the surface the nature of these influential styles may seem markedly different – anti-heroes, big quests, what’s the link? – but one must look closer. Both Watchmen and The Lord of the Rings were influential, sure, but then so were a great many works. What makes these two so similar is that so many of their imitators got it wrong. In blunt terms, the knock-offs too often did not “get it.” The imitators missed what made both landmark works, swiping the surface trappings while failing to realize their true achievement, swiping the clothes and ignoring the man.

While Watchmen is full of dark politics and societal despair, none of this is what elevates it from a Good Story to a Great Piece Of Art. Imitators swipe the gritty tone and moral ambiguity of Watchmen, but they miss the complex web woven by Moore and Gibbons and the depth of the world put they together. It's all so many shallow takes on “dark” heroes and “realistic” superheroes. They miss the point.

Neither is The Lord of the Rings’ great power in its dwarven tunnels, foul orcs and epic quests. What elevates Tolkien’s effort above that of his imitators is the rich depth of the world he created. Few other authors have approached the grand tapestry of history and language in Middle Earth; it is this tapestry that is the epic’s real power, not the toys copycats have taken from Tolkien’s sandbox.

In noting what the imitators of these seminal works have missed, we have put our finger on another link between them. The richness of the world each author created.

Creating New Worlds
The creation of the fictional worlds that give The Lord of the Rings and Watchmen their power is worth noting. Both are layered with material that does not directly serve the advancement of the story, yet which provides their respective narratives with a degree of believability rarely seen in works of fantastic fiction. Both include extensive non-story material the casual reader can easily skip, yet which rewards the devoted reader with a greater understanding of the characters, themes and nature of what they’re reading. And both accomplished this in remarkably similar ways.

The end of each issue of Moore’s Watchmen included text and “photo” pieces expanding on things shown in the main narrative. These character profiles, newspaper clippings, essays, historical documents and articles about the people, places and events of Watchmen made the world one a reader could sink into, revealing previously hidden layers beneath the narrative and enriching your understanding of the characters and events by creating an intricate backstory for the entire world. We don’t need to read this extra material, but our view of the tale and our appreciation of this fictional world is broadened if we do.

Thirty years before Watchmen’s release, J.R.R. Tolkien did the same in The Lord of the Rings, to a much greater extent. The final book was amended with 100 pages of appendixes featuring detailed histories, family trees, timelines, essays, notes on language – a wealth of material easily skipped, yet which offered great insight into the world of Middle Earth, the events that shaped that world, and the characters who populate it. The depth of those appendixes was like nothing seen before. Like Moore’s non-story appendixes, those willing to brave Rings’ background material found a richer and more rewarding experience greeting them.

This technically unneeded material may be why both stories have a depth rarely duplicated despite scores of imitations. Moore, Gibbons and Tolkien put as much care into crafting their settings as they did their stories, strengthening the stories being told. And lest any think tossing some hastily put together notes at the back of their tome is enough, well, it’s not. There is an inner consistency with this non-story material, subtle connections to the main narrative, which only the truly dedicated can reproduce. If the Moore and Tolkien knockoffs feel emptier, somehow lighter, it's because they are.

Extraneous notes are not all the two tales have in common. They share timeless themes hidden in seemingly simple narratives, setting them apart from stories that miss the heart of their power.

Next week, Eric San Juan will discuss how, despite their deep surface differences, Watchmen and The Lord of the Rings examine very similar moral territory, grappling with larger questions of good and evil. We’ll also look at the unique way each narrative meanders towards its conclusion, forgoing straight storytelling to great effect, in the second and final part of the Hot Pants feature Watching The Rings.

Part 2 can be found here.