Watchmen #12 page 1

This featured splash page is from the comic art masterpiece, Watchmen, the story which takes place in a dystopic version of 1985 (according to the movie press). This particular splash page also features the iconic Doomsday Clock from Watchmen, ticking down every issue to the end of the world. These two facts also bring me to an interesting subject for original comic art collectors, WHY WE COLLECT: Reason: TO SAVE TIME IN A BOTTLE. I believe I read somewhere that most collectors "Golden Age of Comics" is when they were 12. This is the period they tend to collected (or recollect in most cases) as they get older. My Golden Age however, was from the summer of 1985 to the summer of 1986. Besides this being my last year of college before going out into the "real world", this was also the year of "Crisis on Infinite Earths", "The Dark Knight Returns", and of course "Watchmen". Some have quoted 1986 as being the greatest year in comics ever So lets get into the old' DeLorean, fire up the flux capacitor, and head back to 1985! 1984 is finally over, so we can be done with all the "Big Brother" jokes. Marvel's Secret War is in full swing, and thanks to "Ghostbusters", we know who we're gonna call!!!. "Crisis on Infinte Earths" begins. "Back to the Future" hits the big screen the summer ‘85. Marty McFly meets Doc Brown to test out the new time machine on October 25th, 1985 (The same time as Watchmen and Crisis. It could mean that, that point in time inherently contains some sort of cosmic significance. Almost as if it were the junction point for the entire space-time continuum. On the other hand, it could just be an amazing coincidence). The fall of the Soviet Union begins with the election of Mikhail Gorbachev. Russians fire one final shot at the West by inventing Tetris (take that, Asteroids!!!!). "New" Coke hits the supermarkets. Consumers hoard cases of "Old" Coke. "Classic" Coke hits the supermarket. Inventor of "New" Coke hits the streets. Super Mario Bros. is found under the Christmas tree in 1985, giving a poor Italian plumber someone to fight besides Donkey Kong, and giving Dennis Hopper his dream roll after "Easy Rider" i.e. King Koopa in "Super Mario Bros. - The Movie" U2 rocks America (HEY GUYS!!! LOOK INTO THE CAMERA!!! WE"RE TRYING TO SHOOT AN ALBUM COVER HERE!!!) "The Breakfast Club" teaches us about teenage angst in middle class America, while "St. Elmo's Fire" teaches us kids from the "Brat Pack" can go from high school detention one day to graduating college all in the same year. Anthony Micheal "The Brain" Hall takes a "Weird Science" class instead (you would think "The Brain" would have been the one to graduate college first). Pee-wee Herman has a big adventure in "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" that doesn't involve jail time. With the Crisis over, Superman #423 and Action Comics #583 feature Alan Moore and Curt Swan's classic farewell to the Silver Age: "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" Watchmen, a 12-issue mini-series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons begins. Some consider this the greatest comic series of all time!!! Marvel unleashes its "New Universe" (it wasn't ALL great that year). Halley's comet returns to Earth after a 76 year voyage around the sun. Missed it (guess I'll see it next time). "Return of the Dark Knight" hits the stores the summer of 1986, redefining Batman for years to come. The first computer virus to affect computers running Microsoft Corp.'s operating system is invented. Dubbed "Brain", I still can't get it off my laptop!!! Transformers: The Movie hits the big screen (yes, there was one before CGI). Orson Wells makes his final screen appearance as the voice of "Unicron" (probably listed this right after "Citizen Kane" on his resume). Rodney Dangerfield goes "Back to School" while it's "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" from school. "One Crazy Summer" plays in the theatres, as I spend one last crazy summer at college and graduate August 1986. Time to go to work!!! Apparently, I spent most of my last year of college eating steamed sandwiches and going to the "Terrace Tap House" for movie night. The Tap House was a small movie theatre that served BEER AND COCKTAILS, along with the standard popcorn and nachos during the $1.50 movies (try open one of those in America today). All in all, a memoriable time period socially, cinematically, musically, and graphically. At the time, I seemed to recall the period as being pretty uneventful, but looking back, it was probably one of the best times of my life (line from the 1986 movie, "Stand By Me" ). And speaking of time, its almost July, so SEE YOU AT THE SAN DIEGO COMIC CON!!!