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Learning history through Watchmen

JEB WALLACE-BRODEUR/TIMES ARGUS

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EAST MONTPELIER – The fictional world of "Watchmen"– set in a 1985 where Richard Nixon is still president and the threat of nuclear war looms over the United States – doesn't have much in common with the idyllic, laid-back Vermont.

But the writer of that comic, which sees its film version debut nationally today, enjoyed a special working relationship with two Vermont comic artists for years – Stephen R. Bissette of Windsor and Rick Veitch of West Townshend.

"I first met Alan Moore as most of you did: as a reader," Bissette wrote in his chapter for the book, "Alan Moore: Portrait of An Extraordinary Gentleman." "And upon first reading, I knew: this was magic."

Two years before "Watchmen" #1 debuted in 1986, Moore, Bissette, Veitch and Pennsylvania artist John Totleben cut their teeth on a comic called Swamp Thing – turning a DC Comics character considered a bit of a joke into an award-winning horror comic.

Bissette said Moore and Totleben visited Vermont in the mid-1980s when he and his family lived in Wilmington, a small ski town on the outskirts of Windham County. That visit inspired at least two famous storylines in their Swamp Thing comics.

Bissette said he fondly remembers walking up Chimney Hill Road in Wilmington with Moore, Totleben and his then-very young daughter, Maia. As the British-born Moore explored rural Vermont, the trio of comic creators discussed, according to Bissette, "the biology of underwater vampirism."

Those underwater vampires – inspired by the 1954 science fiction book "I Am Legend" – later turned up to terrorize a southern town in the Swamp Thing comics.

Moore also visited Wilmington's Green Meadows School, a school for autistic children, during his visit, Bissette said. The school is used as a model for one that Swamp Thing's human girlfriend, Abby, works at in the Alan Moore-penned comics.

Moore's Vermont visit also included a trip to a used bookstore in downtown Brattleboro and a stop in Putney, a picturesque small town complete with a general store and a bustling paper plant.

Originally released as a 12-issue series in the mid-1980s, "Watchmen" is often referred to as the comic that put the novel in graphic novel. That's especially true at U-32 High School in Montpelier, where the comic is taught alongside George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.

"We go from 1984 to 1985," joked Steve Barrows, a U-32 teacher, referring to the famous Orwell novel and the year that Watchmen is placed in.

Barrows said there has been no resistance from school officials in teaching the graphic novel in his future literature course – and one look at the comic could easily convince non-comic fans of its merit, he said.

Watchmen is awash in cultural references, including the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal and the fear of nuclear war between the United States and Russia. Barrows said the book offers young students a glimpse into recent history they might not know a lot about.

"I can recognize Richard Nixon just from his profile in the comic, but my students might not know much about that period in history," Barrows said. "So, we can look at our history through the prism of this alternative world that Alan Moore has created."

Barrows and his students are enthusiastic about the comic and the film. Action figures of Watchmen characters such as Nite Owl and Rorschach decorated Barrows' room at the high school.

And on Friday morning, he'll take 90 students – his future literature and film classes – to see a special 9:30 a.m. showing of the film in downtown Montpelier.

"A lot of the students are actually going to see the movie before reading the book," Barrows said.

Bissette and Veitch both continued working with Moore on other comic projects in the 1990s, including a superhero series called 1963. Bissette even served as the first publisher of two other major Moore comics: His Jack the Ripper epic From Hell and the erotic comic, Lost Girls.

Bissette retired from comics in 1999 and now teaches classes at the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction. Veitch still writes and draws both corporate and independent comics, his latest being a satirical war comic for DC called Army@Love.

The release of the Watchmen film has renewed interest in the early Swamp Thing comics. Although Moore's stories have been in print in six volumes for a number of years, DC this year plans to re-release the comics in a series of hardcover reprints.

The comic company is also reprinting Swamp Thing #21 – which kicked off the Moore, Bissette, Tolteben stories – and selling the comic for one dollar in an attempt to move readers who enjoyed Watchmen to the earlier stories.

Veitch, meanwhile, has seen comic reviewers begin comparing his independent superhero comic Brat Pack, as the logical successor to the deconstruction of the genre that Moore started in Watchmen and creator Frank Miller (also a former Vermonter) continued in his 1980s Batman series, The Dark Knight Returns.

Veitch is a little less excited about the big screen version of Watchmen as others.

"I saw the Watchmen trailer for the first time the other day and was struck by how cheesy it looked," Veitch said last month.

Contact Daniel Barlow at Daniel.Barlow@timesargus.com.





Box:

The R-rated "Watchmen" film opens today.