John Higgins and Dave Gibbon are the visual masterminds behind Watchmen. The book is advanced in artistic style in comparison to other comics books. Artist Dave Gibbons used harsh pen strokes to give the characters a less stylized, more realistic look to them. In fact, the entire novel is drawn fairly realistically. This matches the dark tone of the book very well. Higgins compliments Gibbon's realism with a grimy palette of colors. Watchmen makes use of secondary colors in its world. There are a lot of browns, yellows, and greens used throughout the art. This was very unconventional for its time since the normal palette for comics were made up of primary colors and shades of black. Watchmen did the exact opposite.
Watchmen uses visual motifs constantly. The most obvious and famous one being the blood stained smiley face. The smiley face being a symbol of the tainted classic superhero that Watchmen portrays. Another big symbol is the clock. The clock is used as a heading for each of the twelve chapters, and is a constant reminder of nuclear war in the world.
Overall, Watchmen is one of the most artistically dense comics in existence. Almost every panel contains some sort of visual symbol that furthers the story messages and the world it portrays. All of these little things add up to immersing the reader in Watchmen's unique artistic style. One that uses the artistry of a comic to portray the conventions of comics in a different light.
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