Matt, Citizen Kane owes much of its dynamic camerawork to the German expressionist movement from years, even decades previous. Citizen Kane may have been one of, if not the first American film to use much of that in the manner which it did, and therefore popularized those techniques for an audience, but Watchmen, too, was one of, if not the first superhero comic to use the techniques employed as well as it did. Both are not important because they were the first to tell their stories the way that they did, but important because they were the first to reach large, mainstream audiences (for their times and with consideration of their respective mediums) and therefore become influential.

(Hey, sorry that I missed your earlier post Jim. Must not have seen it.)

And for works as "sophisticated" (if not moreso) than Watchmen, I agree with

Eisner's The Spirit

Sim's Cerebus.

And the work of Robert Crumb

I'll also add

Neil Gaiman's Sandman

and (if you even consider it comparable), the first thirty years or so of Mad Magazine.

A caveat on Master of Kung Fu:

Do NOT mistake the recent Marvel MAX mini-series MoKF: Hellfire Apocalypse for the real thing.

Pete York wrote: Ford, Murnau, Lang, von Sternberg, Renoir are influences, but KANE doesn't look (or sound or tell its story) like anything else; it is the first to look and sound and watch like it does because it was a film made in ways that had never been used before.

Seems we're on the same page, Pete.

I've read interviews in which Eisner, Kirby and other artists and writers from that era convey how influential "Citizen Kane" was on how they told stories in comics, how much potential was untapped.

While there are some parts of "Watchmen" I enjoyed, the whole "it's a realistic depiction" notion is offset by Dr. Manhattan (how is a big blue guy "realistic"?).  I don't hate the story, but I also don't appreciate being treated like someone riding the short bus for not falling to my knees in praise of it and also due to that I only first read it a few years ago. 

That thing sure was a disappointment, wasn't it?  Moench was really hamstrung by the ridiculous editorial mandate against thought balloons, something the old series made brilliant use of.  And it was so decompressed... six issues to tell a story that would have fit in a single Giant-Size Master of Kung-Fu in the old days.  Not to mention, a plot that was basically a rehash of several old stories.  Too bad.