The current issue of Entertaiment Weekly includes a five-page article by Jeff Jensen celebrating Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen graphic novel.  Jensen begins his 'Oral History' of Watchmen with an introduction in which he places Moore & Gibbon's 1980s comic book saga in a very select group of pop culture masterworks including Citizen Kane, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and The Sopranos.  After noting Watchmen's influence on such key creators as Neil Gaiman and Joss Whedon, Jensen then quotes Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof, who describes Watchmen as 'the greatest piece of popular fiction ever produced.'

The bulk of the article consists of quotes from interviews with Moore and Gibbons as well as DC editors Len Wein and Barbara Kesel, colorist John Higgins, Neil Gaiman and Jude Law. 

Jensen also briefly discusses the numerous attempts to make a Watchmen movie, the latest of which was scuttled by a management change at Paramount studios earlier this year (see 'Paramount Boots 'Watchmen'').  One positive note concerning the latest attempt at a screen adaptation is Alan Moore's comment that 'David Hayter's screenplay was as close as I could imagine anyone getting to Watchmen,' though Moore remains adamant against any movie adaptation, saying 'My book is a comic book. Not a movie, not a novel. A comic book.'  Of course he is right, but that didn't stop Time Magazine from naming Watchmen as one of the Top 100 novels (see 'Watchmen Makes Time's Top 100 Novels'), and that probably won't stop Hollywood from making a film version either, though it's impossible to argue with Moore's observation that his graphic novel masterwork was 'made in a certain way, and designed to be read in a certain way; in an armchair, nice and cozy next to a fire, with a steaming cup of coffee.'