Claim: Watchmen is a comic book.

Before Watchmen is a series of comic books published by DC Comics in 2012 . Acting as a prequel to the 1986 12-issue Watchmen limited series by writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons , the project consists of eight limited series and one one-shot -LRB- though two were initially planned -RRB- for a total of 37 issues .