Who Advertises The Watchmen?
by Brian CroninThis is "I Saw It Advertised One Day," a feature where I take a look at old comic book advertisements that interested me for whatever reason.
Today, we take a look at how DC promoted Watchmen in their comics back in the day.
A while back, I did an I Saw It Advertised One Day on some of the most memorable house ads ever, but I only included one of the Watchmen ads in that piece and I really think that they deserve their own individual spotlight.
First off, one of the ways that DC advertised Watchmen was by using the corner boxes on their direct market comics to advertise it with a simple "Who Watches the Watchmen?"
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This is fitting, since Watchmen was one of DC's most prominent direct market only titles at the time. The corner box was used for UPCs on news stand items, but then used with various ads for the direct market titles. Stuff like, "The New DC! There's no stopping us now!" or whatever.
One of the most amazing things about the Watchmen house ads is, beyond the striking designs, it is impressive how they actually add to the whole story, as you get new Dave Gibbons art for each one AND you get a little snippet, which I believe was original for all of them (Rorschach's was definitely not something that he said in the actual comic book)...
It's amazing to note that not only did they manage to come up with striking ads, but they are ads that gave you a deeper understanding for all of the characters within the comic book. It's amazing to see the levels of depth that were achieved by Watchmen. Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons really were on a whole other level with this project and it is impressive to see DC be so willing to give them the freedom to try out these unusual advertising attempts.
Be sure to drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com if you have ideas for future installments of "I Saw It Advertised One Day"!!
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