In 1986 a piece of literature was published that would soon be known as a work of art. It was written by an eccentric genius named Alan Moore. It was called "Watchmen," and to the random Joe on the street it was just a comic book.

But to comic books aficionados, it was more than a comic book. It became an event. In literary terms, it's a graphic novel, a novel length comic book. Many write graphic novels that are entertaining or used as time filler while bored, but not "Watchmen." When you ask a hard core comic book fan about graphic novels, there are two that come up more often than any other: Frank Miller's epic "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns," and Alan Moore's masterpiece "Watchmen."

"Watchmen" is set in what was the present day of the mid 1980's. In this world, being a costumed superhero/vigilante has become outlawed, unless you are legally authorized by the government to be so. The story starts out at the scene of a murder of a seemingly average man. He has been brutally beaten and thrown from his penthouse apartment window to the street below. All that is known about him is that he did some work for the President of the United States. Why should we care?

Well, we next meet an outlawed costumed vigilante named Rorschach. Rorschach investigates the scene and discovers that this is his old teammate and friend known as "The Comedian." Who killed him and why? Rorschach, along with other retired heroes begin to investigate a series of murders that will stretch far beyond what they could have imagined. This is the start of what would become what many consider to be the "Citizen Kane" of all comic book stories.

What Alan Moore did was take the superhero genre and flip it completely on its head. He dissected the generic good guy versus bad guy superhero story and crafted a dark noir crime story. The premise of "somebody is killing off old heroes" was unique and never heard of. Putting these super beings and crime fighters in vulnerable position was ahead of its time. Moore's writing matches that of any writer of his time in depth of character and story telling, with a ending that would make anybody respond with, "you've gotta be kidding me!" It can make any mystery writer jealous! Any science fiction writer jealous! It could make just about any novelist alive jealous. And it did just that and continues to do so.

In 2005 "Watchmen" was honored by Time Magazine as one of the 100 Greatest English Novels. It was the only graphic novel to receive such an honor. "Watchmen" took its place next to classics such as "The Grapes of Wrath," "1984," "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Slaughterhouse 5." These are classics of literature, and "Watchmen" well deserves to be on that list. There are even colleges that teach "Watchmen" in their literature classes. It's a textbook! I don't know that even Alan Moore could have seen that coming. To mark it's 20th Anniversary, DC Comics, the publisher of "Watchmen," has released "Absolute Watchmen." The new oversized hardcover edition contains the complete graphic novel. DC has digitally remastered the color and line art with the help of Dave Gibbons and John Higgins, the original illustrator and colorist, respectively, of "Watchmen." The edition also contains Moore's original proposal for the series and script pages (complete with highlighted sentences!). it also includes Gibbon's original character sketches, cover art, and promotional pages. Tons of really cool stuff for any addict of this series, or even for new comic book fans so that they can prove to people that their hobby is an art form.

DC Comics "Absolute" editions are not cheap. "Absolute Watchmen" as a sticker price of $75.00, but it's well worth the price for any collector. DC has a great heritage of characters and has long been the premiere comic company publishing graphic novels. They have just recently released an "Absolute" edition of Mark Waid and Alex Ross's apocalyptic superhero epic "Kingdom Come" ($75.00). And on August 16th, they release "Absolute Dark Knight" which collects Frank Miller's seminal "The Dark Knight Returns" and it's sequel "The Dark Knight Strikes Again" ($99.99) which is sure to be just as huge of a hit as "Absolute Watchmen." With "Watchmen," DC respectfully pay homage to a masterpiece of modern literature and it's creators.

It was also just announced by Warner Brothers (parent company to DC Comics) that Zack Snyder, director of such films as the remake of "Dawn of the Dead" and the upcoming "300," has signed on to direct a big screen version of "Watchmen." Snyder hopes to do what other great directors like Terry Gilliam and Paul Greengrass could not; bring a definitive, faithful version of "Watchmen" to the screen. Hopes are high as the popularity of "Watchmen" is greater than ever. I have my copy of "Absolute Watchmen," do you?