Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

It's 1985 and there's somebody out there killing off the masked heroes from the 1960's. One by one they're dying off from either cancer or are being murdered in cold blood. But who is doing it? The police are at a complete loss and the others who haven't been targeted yet are in hiding. There haven't been great heroes like these people since a law was passed that it was illegal to be a renegade. So, some of the retired ones are determined to find out who is killing off their friends - even if they don't socialise with them anymore - because they are the only people they can reminisce with about the good, old days when they kicked butt.
However, there's something else hovering on the horizon. This something is a war. Not the one in the Middle East that the government is concerned about; the one that is going to be waged against the population of New York... and the Earth. But can the remaining heroes figure out who is behind both the murders and the war in time to save mankind?

I have been a very big fan of graphic novels for a long time. However the ones I've read are somewhat thinner than this one; and they were sold monthly. This is one novel that I held out for to read instead of seeing the film all because I know it was going to be better than what Hollywood was going to pump out.

Alan Moore was born in Northampton in 1953. He was the oldest son of a brewery worker and a printer. Moore's childhood and youth was influenced with the poverty of his family and environment. After being expelled from a conservative secondary school in 1971, he was unemployed with no job qualifications. Moore began working with Embryo a magazine he and his friends began publishing; which led to his involvement in the Northampton Art Lab. In 1979, Moore began working as a cartoonist for the weekly music magazine Sounds. Moore decided to focus his efforts on writing and less on arts.
In 1982 and 1983, Moore had The British Eagle Awards for Best Comics Writer. His exceptional writing skills won him his first American series Saga of the Swamp Thing. In addition to this series, he also penned several other DC titles such as Tales of the Green Lantern Corps, Batman Annual and several Superman titles. In 1986, Moore came out with Watchmen when DC was reconstructing their comic's universe.
Currently, Moore has his own imprint, America's Best Comics (ABC), under which he's once again paving new territory with several new series: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Promethea, Tom Strong, Tom Strong's Terrific Tales, Tomorrow Stories and Top Ten. Moore's other projects include CD's and a book or two…in addition to his desire to become a magician.

Dave Gibbons, born April 14th in 1949, has been playing a major role in the world of comics for over 30 years now. He began his comics career in 1973, when he started to contribute to the magazine 2000. Since then he has drawn and written for all the major publishers in North America and his home country Great Britain. His work has been and still is published all over the world. He has depicted the adventures of SUPERMAN, BATMAN, DR WHO, DAN DARE and GREEN LANTERN, amongst many many others.He co-created the long running ROGUE TROOPER for 2000 A.D., where he also worked on HARLEM HEROES In 1982, he began drawing the 'Green Lantern' series for a memorable run. Real big success came when he collaborated with Alan Moore on the famous'WATCHMEN' for D.C. comics in 1986/87, for which he got an Hugo award.
With Watchmen coming out as a major motion-picture from director Zack Snyder ("300") with designs tightly based on Dave's work in the comic, Dave has a book called "WATCHING THE WATCHMEN" coming out (detailing the origin of the comic, including script pages, breakdowns, early designs and lots more).
His contributions to comics are just too numerous to mention them all here, go look at the checklist to find out about all of his work. He currently lives in Britain with his wife and son and you can see him frequently at conventions there.

Check out these guy's fan sites I've put on the sidebar for more info!