In 1986, a 12-issue series by writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons asked what superheroes would actually do to the world. Forty years later, Watchmen is still the book people hand to anyone who says comics are for kids.
DC is marking the anniversary across the autumn, with reprints, special editions and a month of new cover art across its biggest titles.
Key Takeaways
- DC is reprinting all 12 original issues as monthly facsimile editions, starting September 2026
- Ten artists drew new 40th anniversary covers for DC's flagship titles through November
- A deluxe hardcover arrived for Local Comic Shop Day on September 26
- An original 1986 Watchmen #1 in near mint condition recently sold for about $275
What DC is releasing
The centrepiece is a reprint. 13th Dimension reported that Watchmen #1 returned as a facsimile edition on September 23, 2026, at $3.99, with the remaining issues following monthly. Facsimiles reproduce the original printing closely, original ads included, which is part of their appeal.
Collectors got more. Local Comic Shop Day brought a deluxe Watchmen hardcover exclusive to participating stores on September 26.
A month of Watchmen covers
In November the tribute spreads across DC's main line. Popverse reports DC commissioned 10 artists to create new Watchmen illustrations for variant covers on titles including Batman and Action Comics.
Bleeding Cool lists the line-up: Frank Quitely, Dan Mora, Clay Mann, Nicola Scott, Rafael Grampa, Chris Bachalo and Mikel Janin among them. The same report notes an oversized edition of Watchmen #1 showing Gibbons' original art.
Why it still matters
Watchmen took superhero tropes seriously enough to break them: masked vigilantes with real psychology, politics and consequences. Much of modern superhero storytelling, on the page and on screen, carries its fingerprints.
There is an irony worth naming. Popverse points out that DC is celebrating with nostalgia, something Moore himself is famously not fond of. The anniversary is DC's party, not its writer's.
Reading Watchmen for the first time
- Read the 12 issues in order. The structure, including the text pages at the end of each chapter, is part of the story.
- Choose your format: monthly facsimiles for the 1986 experience, or a collected edition to read in one go.
- Read slowly. Gibbons' nine-panel grid hides clues in the backgrounds.
- Watch the adaptations afterwards, not before. Each one reinterprets the book.
Forty years on, Watchmen does not need an anniversary to stay in print. It is the rare comic that rewards a second reading more than the first.
If the variant covers send a new reader back to issue #1, the celebration will have done its real job.
Cover photo: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).
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