Up to now, we’ve looked at supplements for DC Heroes that draw exclusively from the DC comic universe. But here we have something outside that (or at least, it was, when it was originally published): the Watchmen Sourcebook (1990). It is one of three Watchmen-related products for the line; the other two are adventure modules.

At first glance, I think the reasonable thing is to say that the sourcebook is pretty good evidence that DC always wanted more Watchmen, even if it was slow to cash in. The long-desired film appeared in 2009, the Beyond Watchmen comics in 2012, the Doomsday Clock series which crossed over with the DC universe in 2017 and the TV series sequel in 2019. Only one of these (the TV show) is worth experiencing, and I don’t blame folks for being skeptical of this book. But, well, it’s extremely good.

The secret is, that the Mayfair Watchmen material is built in large part out of interviews conducted by Ray Winninger with Alan Moore beginning in 1986, while the original comic series was still in production, and ending around 1988. A lot of the module material was messed up by Mayfair’s editorial team, but by 1990, Winninger was Mayfair’s Editorial Director. This feels very much like a book that was un-meddled with.

Why is this so special? There are attribute blocks for all the characters, as you’d expect, but there are no encyclopedic bios. Rather, the bulk of the book’s material is presented as a scrap book of documents, letters, newspaper clippings and similar ephemera that chronicles the lives of the characters in an in-universe style. There is a lot of detail, much of it displaying a keen insight into the minutiae of the comic series, but other material being brand new. Is it from Winninger or Moore? It doesn’t really matter — it feels like a natural and authentic extension of the comic book, which I can’t honestly say is true of any of the other Watchmen media, even the TV show.

Someone at DC agrees with me, too. This material was reprinted in (and forms the bulk of) the 2019 Watchmen Companion, which was released to support the TV show. It’s still in print and you can get it pretty cheap, if you’re interested!