SpringfieldNewsSun.com

The animal kingdom can sense when disaster is close at hand.

So can Alan Moore — a guy who, judging by his shaggy mug shot on the back of the "Watchmen" graphic novel, might well belong to a different order than the rest of us.

Like a water buffalo stampeding to higher ground right before a tsunami, the celebrated comic book writer has ordered his name off the credits of the "Watchmen" movie.

It's a sensible move.

"Who has ever been to a movie based on their favorite book and said they liked the movie better than the book? No one's ever said that," said Matt Smith, who teaches a class on comics at Wittenberg University.

As a comic book movie, the worst thing that could befall "Watchmen" — based on the landmark comic book series by Moore and artist Dave Gibbons — is that it winds up at a dollar theater with the kind of speed usually reserved for a Punisher flick.

It's over and forgotten and it's on to "Iron Man 2."

The source material, however, will have enjoyed a few weeks of boosted visibility.

And that, contrary to whatever its cantankerous creator thinks, is a great thing.

After all, it's not often that a graphic novel can make it onto something like Time magazine's list of the 100 best novels since 1923.

"They're saying it's in the same company as 'To Kill a Mockingbird' or 'Catcher in the Rye,' " Smith said. "That's the significance of 'Watchmen.' "

In his class, Comic Books as Culture, "Watchmen" has a permanent home on the syllabus.

"I wouldn't think about teaching the course without teaching 'Watchmen.' It's that essential to the medium," said Smith, co-author of the soon-to-be-published "The Power of Comics: History, Form and Culture," quite possibly the first textbook for the field of comic art studies.

The importance of "Watchmen" can't be overstated — if superhero comics were born with Superman in 1938, then they came of age with "Watchmen" in 1986.

Smith was going on 16 when "Watchmen" thundered into existence.

"These were things I was unfamiliar with," Smith recalled. "The blood, the gore, the sex. To see that in comics form was jarring."

Movies had long explored and exploited that territory.

But comics?

Let's just say that the last time somebody in comics tried a stunt like that — EC Comics in the 1950s — Congress called for hearings and the PTA organized burnings of "indecent" comic books.

Told across 12 issues, then collected into a single graphic novel, "Watchmen" tells the story of flawed superheroes in a real-world murder-mystery.

With "Watchmen," the superhuman was made all too human.

"It allowed for far greater storytelling opportunities," Smith said.

In its wake, though, the copycats came out in force.

Green Lantern became an alcoholic. Ant-Man became a wife beater.

No joke.

But there was — and is — only one "Watchmen."

"It's helped us to see that heroes can have feet of clay," Smith said, "like finding out Barry Bonds is a bit enhanced."

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0352 or amcginn@ coxohio.com.