Who wrote the original “Watchmen” comic series?

Let me fix "simpler" before Alan Moore reaches through the page to throttle me, because nothing about Dr. Manhattan was ever simple. The 1986 version already rebuilt matter atom by atom and saw past, present, and future at once, because Moore wrote a quantum god who wouldn't read time in order. Back then, he kept that godhood inside one story instead of reaching out to rewrite DC's canon. Nothing simple ends up as the only comic Time ranks among the 100 best novels since 1923. And it doesn't matter which version of Manhattan you use, he's sweeping most one-on-one battles.