This WATCHMEN archive contains the bulk of the discussion generated by the comic "Watchmen" on the bboard rec.arts.comics (net.comics) from June 1986 to August 1987.

The following material has been edited out to save space:
Parts of each header (including the unique message identifier, which may have been a mistake)
Most of the line-eater food
Some signature files duplicated from earlier postings
Irrelevant parts of lengthy messages which were only partly about 'Watchmen'.

There has been no attempt to perform editing based on content, so the archive contains hoaxes, debates on due dates, and other material that started too materialize whenever posters had been too long without a new issue of 'Watchmen'.

NOTE:  This archive is incomplete.  Judging by the number of postings referring to earlier postings not in the archive, it may be missing as many as 5% of the items that were posted to the net.  If I get a hold of a more complete archive (or, at least, one missing different material) I will merge the two and prepare an update file containing the new material.  (See notes below on New Files.)


This archive contains the following material at this time:

readme -- this file.  (Short)

15 months of postings:

watch.jun.Z  	 31K	( 64K uncompressed)
watch.jul.Z	 23K	( 45K)
watch.aug.Z  	 33K	( 68K)
watch.sep.Z  	136K	(310K)
watch.oct.Z  	 88K	(189K)
watch.nov.Z  	 32K	( 64K)
watch.dec.Z 	 52K	(108K)
watch.jan.Z  	 60K	(126K)
watch.feb.Z  	143K	(326K)
watch.mar.Z  	204K	(444K)
watch.apr.Z  	117K	(261K)
watch.may.Z  	110K	(238K)
watch.jn2.Z  	 89K	(189K)
watch.jl2.Z  	136K	(303K)
watch.au2.Z	 72K	(151K)	
		-----	-----
		1.3M	2.9M

Note that the files with the ".Z" extensions are compressed.

contents    	76K    
This file contains a very condensed (1 line per posting) table of contents which I produced as a byproduct of putting the archive together and am including because it couldn't hurt and might come in handy.  Entries preceded by an asterisk are late additions, also collected separately in watch.aux.Z.  Entries preceeded by a double asterisk are later additions, also collected separately in watch.ax2.Z.

New Files

watch.aux.Z	37K  (73K)

The original watchmen archive contained 14 files, with postings up to the end of 7/87.  Since then, two new sets of messages have been obtained.  "watch.au2.Z" (listed above) contains the messages from 8/87.  (It also contains its own table of contents, a duplicate of the new material in "contents").

"watch.aux.Z" is a file of  material dating from 1/87-7/87 which was not in the original archive.  That material has been merged into the appropriate files.  (The new material can be distinguished in the "contents" file by the asterisks preceeding the new entries.)  For those who already have the first set of files, the new messages have been collected in this one file.  (It also contains a duplicate of its own table of contents.)

This means that anyone who already obtained the archive earlier need only ftp these two new files (watch.au2.Z and watch.aux.Z) though, of course, you're welcome to re-ftp them all.


watch.ax2.Z	 51K  (102K)

This is the second auxilliary file, containing updates which were obtained later than those in watch.aux.Z.  The material has been merged into the appropriate files, but if you already have those you may want to just get this file separately.  It also has its own table of contents.