A Sense of Doubt blog post #2469 - WATCHMEN ANALYSIS REVISITED for FALL 2021 ENGLISH 101
So, I may have mentioned that my students are tackling literary analysis this quarter.
Last week, I analyzed the first page of the Watchmen graphic novel as an example of literary analysis:
A Sense of Doubt blog post #2460 - Literary Analysis of Watchmen - chapter one, page one
The first page contains so much that sets up the entire book in many ways.
I also shared this text and these resources:
A Sense of Doubt blog post #2456 - Sylvia Plath's "Lady Lazarus" - partial reprint - for teaching ANALYSIS
So, that's a lot of parts.
I go into more depth about all of this stuff here in arguably the second part
A Sense of Doubt blog post #2459 - Examples with James Joyce's "Araby": How to Write Literary Analysis
Okay, so, now I have laid out the landscape. Tales from Topographical Oceans.
My students are writing a literary analysis essay on the novel Watchmen or if they choose, comparing a hero's story in Watchmen to the hero story in Binti based on the ideas of archetypal hero myth:
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1576 - Hero's Journey
This is essentially part four or even six of a series to provide them with materials and ideas, but I am calling it part three.
I did the first part here:
This is essentially part four or even six of a series to provide them with materials and ideas, but I am calling it part three.
I did the first part here:
A Sense of Doubt blog post #2450 - How to write a literary analysis essay
I did some brainstorming, though arguably I ran out of time to do what I wanted with the brainstorming:
I did some brainstorming, though arguably I ran out of time to do what I wanted with the brainstorming:
A Sense of Doubt blog post #2451 - WATCHMEN Brainstorming - Writing a Literary Analysis about the Watchmen novel for College Composition
and I did some modeling with "Lady Lazarus" by Sylvia Plath and in class with "The Second Coming" by WB Yeats:
and I did some modeling with "Lady Lazarus" by Sylvia Plath and in class with "The Second Coming" by WB Yeats:
A Sense of Doubt blog post #2456 - Sylvia Plath's "Lady Lazarus" - partial reprint - for teaching ANALYSIS
So, that's a lot of parts.
A Sense of Doubt blog post #2459 - Examples with James Joyce's "Araby": How to Write Literary Analysis
Okay, so, now I have laid out the landscape. Tales from Topographical Oceans.
Right.
I have thrown tons and tons of resources at students, but these only work as teaching tools if students take the time to examine or even study the resources prior to writing and while revising their analysis essays.
It's easy enough to share a definition of a literary analysis as one that argues for an interpretation of a text, interpreting a meaning of that text, using the text as evidence.
It's easy enough to share a definition of a literary analysis as one that argues for an interpretation of a text, interpreting a meaning of that text, using the text as evidence.
But that definition alone is not enough to turn on the light bulb in a student's head if they have never written analysis before, literary or otherwise.
I like to think of analysis as a series of deeper and deeper investigations of an aspect of a text through questions and answers.
Students are often very good at asking questions in their essays but not usually very good at answering those questions.
Let's start with an easy one.
Why do superheroes wear masks?
Batman wore his mask as much to frighten the criminals he described as a "cowardly lot" as to hide his civilian identity. Later on, he armored it, and it became part of his protective gear.
Batman wore his mask as much to frighten the criminals he described as a "cowardly lot" as to hide his civilian identity. Later on, he armored it, and it became part of his protective gear.
Spider-Man is not trying to scare the villains. Instead he is trying to protect the people he loves because the Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Kraven, the Kingpin, and many others would go after the people he loves, hurt or kill them, if these enemies of the web-slinger knew that Spider-Man was Peter Parker.
Other heroes wear masks to protect themselves because what they are doing is illegal, and they would face arrest and incarceration if their real identities were known. They are vulnerable when not costumed-up, and so to protect themselves during these down times they wear masks. This idea has been well explored by Mark Millar and the writers who have followed in the Kick Ass comic book series, especially the new iteration, an ex-military single mom with family members involved in crime from whom she is trying to save others, like her sister.
I checked the Internet to see if it has more on this subject than I thought of on my own.
The first link was dubious and possibly full of Malware: pass.
Then, there's this:
Why Do Superheroes Wear Masks?
by Eva Grape
Grape came up with one I had not thought of: humility. Not wishing to be boastful or to receive any recognition for their good deeds, some heroes hide who they are. This is very true of Batman, who hides in the dark and disappears in the middle of conversations with allies like Police Commissioner Gordon.
The article poses some really good questions and answers about helping with humility and not hoping for either recognition or quid pro quo.
by Eva Grape
Grape came up with one I had not thought of: humility. Not wishing to be boastful or to receive any recognition for their good deeds, some heroes hide who they are. This is very true of Batman, who hides in the dark and disappears in the middle of conversations with allies like Police Commissioner Gordon.
The article poses some really good questions and answers about helping with humility and not hoping for either recognition or quid pro quo.
"Would you still do it if no one was looking?" the author asks.
Some on Quora answered with some history, such as the Scarlet Pimpernel and Zorro:
“The Scarlet Pimpernel, Mademoiselle,” he said at last, “is the name of a humble English wayside flower; but it is also the name chosen to hide the identity of the best and bravest man in all the world, so that he may better succeed in accomplishing the noble task he has set himself to do.”
It is generally agreed upon that we owe the idea of the masked superhero to a woman named Emma Orczy. She wrote a play that premiered in 1903 and was soon followed by a novel in 1905. Both were titled “The Scarlet Pimpernel” and told of the adventures of a daring hero, a British man who operated in France during the Reign of Terror. He had two identities, a foppish Englishman named Percy Blakeney and the heroic Scarlet Pimpernel. He used masks and disguises to prevent his enemies in France from learning who he really was. I think that Orczy liked the metaphorical parallel in her story that a romantic interest in the book saw him as wearing an emotional mask.
Fourteen years later, in 1919, an American pulp writer Johnston McCulley premiered a character called Zorro, in a novel called The Curse of Capistrano. Zorro was the heroic identity used by a man named Don Diego Vega, although we don’t actually find out the two are the same man until the end of the book. The story is set in Spanish California, in the late 18th or early 19th century. Don Diego Vega is portrayed in somewhat similar ways to Percy Blakeney. It is a safe bet McCulley read Orczy’s work. Don Diego is an aristocratic fop, who hides great daring and swordsmanship. Zorro fights against injustice, taking on corrupt politicians and soldiers and businessman, to help the downtrodden. The people he takes on would destroy him if they knew who he really was. Don Diego Vega would lose his lands, life, and family. As Zorro, his only weakness is defended by his sword.
In 1936, a pair of masked heroes became established in comic books. They were the Phantom and the Clock. But the real next step in our lineage is Batman. Batman was very much inspired by Zorro. Batman wore a mask to protect the identity of Bruce Wayne. Batman became so hugely popular that it would be hard to claim that all future mask wearing heroes were not somewhat inspired to do so by Batman.
The idea of the mask is that these heroes take on very dangerous opponents. If their identity was known, they could never rest. They would lose whatever resources they had and their family and friends would be endangered. Wearing a mask protects all of that.
From the very beginning i.e. The debut of Superman and Batman (and Captain America, and the Lone Ranger, and Zorro, and the Shadow, and on and on) the appeal of superheroes has been that the reader could fantasize being these larger-than-life characters. Sure, people may only see the ordinary you in school or at your humdrum job. But you could imagine that that was because they weren't privy to the secret, that deep inside there was something more extraordinary. The condescending adults or schoolyard bullies mock Clark Kent, but they know not what they do. That fantasy, that not-chemically-induced escape from reality, is what enables many ostracized and introverted youths to endure their adolescence.
The fantasy idea is another to add to the list, though it's about the reader and not the fictional character. The fantasy of wearing a mask and doing good work allows the reader to embody a secret destiny, an inner truth, a special uniqueness that others lack. Metaphorically, this is the appeal of the superhero: the ability to live a secret life, do great things, have great adventures, and be who you truly are with protection from consequences or the pitfalls of normal civilians, who do not feel that they can fight back against the bullies who terrorize them or others. BUT masked-up, they become someone else, a different person, the inner hero, and in that new persona, by unleashing that true self, they can do anything, overcome any adversity, triumph over all foes.
How am I doing so far?
The mask content I have just shared should show my students what I mean by adding "cultural and/or historical context" to their essays.
So, now, I dig into a character in Watchmen. Why does Rorschach wear a mask?
Walter Kovacs was abused and bullied, but at a young age, he learned to unleash his fury "like a mad dog" (Moore & Gibbons, CH.06, pg. 7).
Of course, Walter wears a mask to "pretend to be Rorschach" as he does at first before he "becomes" Rorschach, back when he was soft on the "scum" he "let them live" (CH.06, pg. 14).Born in poverty and abused by his mother, Walter Kovacs was not regarded by anyone as special or on course for greatness. As a child, he was removed from his mother's custody and later when he learns she was murdered his only reaction is one word: "good" (CH.06, pg. 08).
Kovacs takes a manual labor job in the garment industry and that's where he finds the fabric from which he will make his mask.
What does the Rorschach mask "mean"?
In it he sees his own world view, right and wrong, black and white, no gray area, no compromises, but ever shifting, ever changing, and yet always the same black shapes in white space, yin and yang (Ch 06, pg. 10).
What Walter Kovacs sees in the mask fabric also mirrors the title of Chapter Six and the experiences of both characters, Kovacs and psychiatrist Dr. Malcolm Long: "The Abyss Gazes, Also," which originates with Nietzsche's writing on Narcissism in Beyond Good and Evil that Moore quotes at the end of the chapter:
Like the abyss that looks back at the viewer, much like Narcissus gazing at his reflection that looks back, Walter Kovacs' mask reflects his inner psychological state. When he first cuts up the material, he mentions that when he had "cut it enough, it didn't look like a woman anymore" (Ch 06, pg. 10). The fabric reflects his own attitudes toward women. He seems to hate them, as he hates his mother, but he also protects them as he does with Kitty Genovese and Blaire Roche. And yet, of all the characters, Rorschach is the most asexual. He seems to have no sexuality at all. Because of his childhood traumas, the very idea of sex repels him.
And yet he is a champion of justice for the perpetrators of rape. Kitty Genovese is the woman who ordered the special fabric who is, years later, the victim of rape and murder, killed next to her apartment building as her neighbors looked on and did nothing.
And so Walter Kovacs adopts the Rorschach identity to do something, and he dons the mask as he describes it as "a face that I could bear to look at in the mirror" (Ch 06, pg. 10), which again invokes the reflecting pool of Narcissus, the abyss that gazes back, what will be the flipped-identity of Rorschach, and the very nature of the mask that matches the Rorschach ink blots, the same used by Dr. Long to try to draw out Kovacs to talk about Rorschach.
What do you mean by "the flipped-identity" of Rorschach? What does that mean?
Moore uses the character of Rorschach to explore the idea of identity and the superhero.
Rorschach is the real identity of Walter Kovacs. His unmasked Kovacs identity is actually the mask, the alter ego. Like the fantasy explanation of mask wearing from Quora posted above, becoming Rorschach, being Rorschach, allows him to let his true self out, much like the Comedian who has the freedom to do whatever he wants, true nihilism, with no belief system while masked (Ch 04, pg. 19, panels 5-6).
Rorschach thinks of his mask as his face. Kovacs is the secret identity as he points out while investigating: "nobody knows who I am" (Ch 05, pg. 11, pan03).
Rorschach thinks of his mask as his face. Kovacs is the secret identity as he points out while investigating: "nobody knows who I am" (Ch 05, pg. 11, pan03).
Often when the mask is shown, as in this image from Chapter Five (page 17, panel 07), the mask is shown in a tight close up and the blotches are always in a different configuration than the last time we have seen it. Here, in this panel, as Rorschach holds his mask readying to put it on, it is much like the pool of Narcissus, he sees his face, his reflection as he gazes at it lovingly. It's in extreme close up not just because he is holding it and he is close to it, but it blots (ink blots?) out the entire world because it is his world; it depicts how he sees the world around him in stark black and white with no grey.
He stares into the abyss and it stares back: it's his own face (Ch 05, pg. 18, pan07).
When captured, it is revealed that Rorschach is a constructed identity, using elevator shoes to be taller, and wearing his true face as he cries out when unmasked: "No! My Face! Give it back!" (Ch 05, pg. 28, pan07).
Rorschach is not so much an alter ego but Kovacs' true self, one he seems to be channeling from another space, channeling the abyss. He is super human though he has no powers. He is more capable than Walter ever has been, though he showed some of his abities as a child, using available means to thwart bullies by taking the cigarette out of one's mouth and burning the bully's eye with it is much like using the tray of scalding food in the prison. Use what is at hand. As a boy, Rorschach was already inside him.
He stares into the abyss and it stares back: it's his own face (Ch 05, pg. 18, pan07).
When captured, it is revealed that Rorschach is a constructed identity, using elevator shoes to be taller, and wearing his true face as he cries out when unmasked: "No! My Face! Give it back!" (Ch 05, pg. 28, pan07).
Rorschach is not so much an alter ego but Kovacs' true self, one he seems to be channeling from another space, channeling the abyss. He is super human though he has no powers. He is more capable than Walter ever has been, though he showed some of his abities as a child, using available means to thwart bullies by taking the cigarette out of one's mouth and burning the bully's eye with it is much like using the tray of scalding food in the prison. Use what is at hand. As a boy, Rorschach was already inside him.
Though some heroes put on a special voice to better disguise themselves, the suggestion in Watchmen is that Rorschach's voice, shown in special word balloons, is not so much made up as the mask speaking for him, the real identity, the "terror of the underworld," the monster he channels from the abyss.
These ideas have also been explored in other comics, such as the Hulk comics at Marvel, in which the Hulk is constructed as the unleashed rage of a man who suffered abuse as a child and constructed multiple personalities in his unconscious mind to survive.
See?
See?
Analysis with some cultural and historical context. And pictures, which students are required to use.
I could go farther. I am stopping due to time constraints.
I could interpret some of these images more closely, what the art means in light of the concepts, characters, dialogue, and narration. I expect students to closely analyze these elements, which is why I have required them to use images from the book as our text is not text only like most literature. It is text and pictures forming a synergy of meaning as literature.
I had also hoped to analyze the theme of time some more, building on previous posts, the most obvious theme in the book, but this analysis will have to wait for another post (though it is covered somewhat in the following).
To close, I am reprinting my analysis from a few years ago with some short bits on connections in text, time, "raw shark," and the meaning of the journal and "the shadow."
I had also hoped to analyze the theme of time some more, building on previous posts, the most obvious theme in the book, but this analysis will have to wait for another post (though it is covered somewhat in the following).
To close, I am reprinting my analysis from a few years ago with some short bits on connections in text, time, "raw shark," and the meaning of the journal and "the shadow."
I plan to talk about all of this with students in class this coming week to give them more food for thought as they revise their analysis essays before the Thanksgiving break.
Huzzah!
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1445 - My Watchmen Analysis for class - LCC - ENGLISH 101
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1445 - My Watchmen Analysis for class - LCC - ENGLISH 101
I interrupt the normal flow of events on this blog to bring special content for class.
Usually I share MUSICAL MONDAY on a Monday each week, but I am postponing my musical mix until tomorrow to share analysis that I shared with students last week on the Watchmen graphic novel.
For the uninitiated, I already shared the assignments (both solo and group):
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1439 - Watchmen Assignments English 101 LCC
and some good commentary for re-reading the comic:
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1440 - Re-Reading WATCHMEN
CONNECTIONS
One thing I am trying to get students to see is the connections within the text. Elements of the text refer to other things in the text to create a resonance between image and text or between two images or two instances of text.
Comprehending Comics and Graphic Novels: Watchmen as a Case for Cognition
By Travis White-Schwoch and David N. Rapp
Northwestern University
states that:
"In comics, pictures and text support each other; these supports emerge through
complementary depictions and descriptions rather than by presenting redundant information. For
example, in chapter 6, page 15, of Watchmen an unmasked Rorschach describes his origins as a
crime fighter to his prison psychiatrist. In that discussion Rorschach talks about the Comedian
understanding more than his contemporaries, while the illustrated narrative shows the Comedian
behaving in an obnoxious and confrontational manner. This juxtaposition helps to exemplify the
traits of the character. The pictures and words provide complementary details that, when
integrated, encourage the construction of a more complex model of the story characters and
narratives. In most cases, these combined presentations provide richer examples containing more
information, and in less space, than would be available in traditional text-only narratives" (Schwoch, Rapp, 3).
Also, See the Strings: Watchmen and the Under-Language of Media
by Stuart Moulthrop
Moulthrop talks more about the external connections. Elements of Watchmen that connect with ideas outside the novel, such as these references to "Fat Man" and a famous Time Magazine cover.
"In the fatal event, Osterman is betrayed by a pair of timepieces. In 1959, he enters an experimental chamber to retrieve a wristwatch he has repaired for his fiancee, Janie Slater, becoming trapped by a time lock on the door, thus dooming him to disintegration (IV.8.2). Albert Einstein, or the collateral result of his physics, is still very much to blame. Slater's wristwatch is smashed by a "fat man," connecting it by allusion to the image of a blasted watch on the cover of Time magazine in 1985, commemorating the fortieth anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing (IV.6.5; IV.24.7)."Fat Man" was the nickname for the plutonium bomb dropped on Nagasaki. The Hiroshima device was called "Little Boy." For what it's worth, the panel preceding the fat man's tread (IV.6.4) shows a young boy in tears" (Moulthrop, 9-10).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/2014/newsspec_8079/index.html
I am more interested in students seeing the internal connections. Like this one.
Or this.
Clearly the pirate story's narrative mirrors the Watchmen novel's narrative. Dr. Manhattan has left earth, no longer caring for the people of his "home." The juxtaposition here is clear: the hero of the pirate story is caring for the dead, those slaughtered by the Black Freighter, which is a clear foreshadowing and symbol of Veidt's "apocalypse" to come, but then we cut to the news stand owner and the kid reading the comic, two people who will die, for the connection with the line "who would care for them, now I was gone?" (Watchmen, pg. 22 chapter four)
I want students to see the way the connections resonate and make meaning.
For instance, there's this one. From chapter five, entitled "Fearful Symmetry," which is a quote from William Blake's "Tyger Tyger."
This is the chapter in which Rorschach is captured by the police after Veidt (as we learn later) tips them off as to where he will be when Rorschach discovers Moloch has been murdered in his apartment.
In this chapter, scenes of Rorschach's investigation are intercut with the "Marooned" episode and a few other plot lines, such as the staged attack on Veidt.
At the beginning of the chapter, Rorschach visits Moloch to put the screws to him, thinking he knows who the "mask killer" is or may be able to find out.
Also, to bring the cops into it, those who will arrest Rorschach, there's another murder/suicide, unrelated to the mask killer, from someone "worried about nuclear war."
The main character of "Marooned" has made a raft of dead bodies, trying to beat the Black Freighter back to his home and have a chance to save his family from the horrors the pirates said that they would visit upon them.
The rotting corpses attract a huge shark that becomes entangled in the raft's roped and decking, giving the character enough time to kill it.
On the bottom of page 21, we see the panel shared below as he is eating "raw shark" to avoid starving.
"RAW SHARK"
Note the language as the character notes the "natural inversion" of how the predator has become prey (he's eating the shark; the shark is the predator).
The connection Moore makes is playful. When Veidt calls in the tip (assuming it is Veidt), he is asking the cops if they want to know where to find Rorschach, but the cops mistakenly think the caller is saying "raw shark."
As below from the very next page, page 23:
But the connection proves to be an extendable metaphor on multiple levels.
On one level, like the "Marooned" character eats "raw shark," both the cops and Veidt "eat" Rorschach because he needs to be removed from the scene so as not to interfere with Veidt's plans, and if he gets killed all the better.
On another level, examining the ideas implicit in "Marooned," the character in that comic book has made a raft of dead bodies to literally sail across the ocean in an attempt to save his family and his town from certain and total destruction.
This is the same thing that Veidt is doing. He creates his own raft of dead bodies to push the nations of the world to save themselves, to band together for a single, though fraudulent, purpose.
Also, Rorschach is doing the same thing. He sees himself as a savior, a fighter of evil, no compromise. He is sailing on his own raft of the dead -- Blake, Moloch -- to find a way to save those who remain.
Rorschach is the shark of the pirate story, attempting to destroy the raft, stop the savior, and thwart the rescue. But the man kills and eats the shark, adding its corpse to his raft, the bodies that will allow him to save the world.
DELIVERED - STEP INTO THE SHADOW WITHOUT COMPLAINT
In chapter ten, pages 22-23, there's another connection.
Rorschach finishes his journal and "delivers it" sends it to the New Frontiersman, a newspaper that he idolizes as the only one that tells the truth.
Here, in the last line of it, Rorschach notes that he "steps into the shadow without complaint."
This "delivery" connects to the pirate narrative again, on the bottom of page 23, in which the narrator of "Marooned" writes: "Dear God, let me have vengeance, then die swiftly, delivered at last into the hands of higher judgment."
Again, this connection works to make meaning on multiple levels.
The "Higher Judgement" is God, who is very much like Veidt, who has set himself up like a God, though Dr. Manhattan, greater still, may actually be a God, with the power of God.
Rorschach delivers himself to Veidt much as the "Marooned" narrator delivers himself to God.
Both seek vengeance. Both are uncompromising. Both take extreme actions to safeguard people and "do the right thing."
But what is the "shadow" Rorschach speaks of? Could this be Jung's shadow? Could this be the dark side, even farther into the belly of the whale than Rorschach went when he "became Rorschach" as he explains in chapter six?
But like Rorschach who delivers himself to the enemy, the narrator of "Marooned" ends up joining the Black Freighter in the end, becoming the horror he hoped to avert, becoming the evil he hoped to prevent.
This is a good start for the analysis I want my students to perform. I could go deeper and expand, but these passages I have written here show clearly the way these "connections" work in Watchmen.
Thanks for reading.
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1902.04 - 10:10
- Days ago = 1311 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1440 - Re-Reading WATCHMEN
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1440 - Re-Reading WATCHMEN
As I explained in yesterday's blog -- posted late, like this one -- I have been immersed all week in writing materials for my English 101 classes at Lower Columbia College to teach one of the one hundred best novels of all time according to Time Magazine: Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
And so, of course, I am going to make all that work do double duty here.
I just did my own re-read of Watchmen and now I am re-re-reading it and studying other people's analysis (for which there are many links posted here).
I LOVE my job. What a joy.
I was not just encouraged to teach comics; I was more or less told to do so as my new colleagues recognized this art form as an area of expertise for me. And comics are more popular than ever before, if not in sales, at least in content (because, you know, MOVIES and BILLIONS of dollars).
I am having fun.
Life is good.
The heart of this entry is a share of two of the four entries by Tim Callahan published on TOR back in 2012 as part of a larger series in which Tim re-read ALL OF the Alan Moore comics to date (so not including the recent Providence or the Crossed 100 stuff that he has done for Avatar). They are long and very well written posts, so I only shared two, but I did share the links to the others.
Following Callahan's Watchmen analysis/review are a bunch of links, most of which I have shared with my students, for Watchmen resources, and there's one here immediately, which seems to be free access to the entire comic book in digital form:
SEARCH - "Watchmen comic book script" the full comic
https://www.scribd.com/doc/13749342/Watchmen-comic-full
Lots of content in this entry, but I am okay with that. :-)
And then this other thing.
HBO is making a Watchmen series that is NOT an adaptation of Watchmen.
It takes place after Watchmen the comic.
So, no Rorschach?
Or will there be flashbacks?
WATCHMEN TV SHOW - HBO
https://io9.gizmodo.com/these-watchmen-set-pictures-seemingly-reveal-the-fate-o-1826760037
and
https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-cast-of-hbos-watchmen-has-been-revealed-and-the-fan-1826269382
DAMON LINDELOF'S LETTER about the new TV show for HBO
https://io9.gizmodo.com/damon-lindelof-unveils-his-bold-plans-for-the-watchmen-1826239088
Current DC launch of Doomsday Clock:
ALAN MOORE RE-READ
https://www.tor.com/series/the-great-alan-moore-reread/
ALL OF THE WATCHMEN PAGES OF THE ALAN MOORE RE-READ
https://www.tor.com/2012/02/27/the-great-alan-moore-reread-watchmen-part-1/
https://www.tor.com/2012/03/05/the-great-alan-moore-reread-watchmen-part-2/
https://www.tor.com/2012/03/12/the-great-alan-moore-reread-watchmen-part-3/
https://www.tor.com/2012/03/19/the-great-alan-moore-reread-watchmen-part-4/
https://www.tor.com/2012/02/27/the-great-alan-moore-reread-watchmen-part-1/
COMIC JOURNALISM
http://www.tcj.com/reviews/journalism/
WATCHMEN STUFF
Watchmen and Intertextuality:
How Watchmen Interrogates the Comics Tradition
by Julian Darius | in Articles | Mon, 21 March 2005
http://sequart.org/magazine/2664/watchmen-and-intertextuality-how-watchmen-interrogates-the-comics-tradition/
Why does “Watchmen” use the 9-panel grid?
https://literature.stackexchange.com/questions/2558/why-does-watchmen-use-the-9-panel-grid
WATCHMEN - LIT STACK EXCHANGE
https://literature.stackexchange.com/search?q=Watchmen
Why Is Watchmen So Important?
https://io9.gizmodo.com/why-is-watchmen-so-important-5162302
http://graphicnovel.umwblogs.org/2015/09/28/a-reflection-on-watchmen-the-power-of-color/
Banned Books - Watchmen
https://thecomicbookteacher.com/2014/09/25/banned-books-week-watchmen/
COMICS JOURNAL - ALAN MOORE INTERVIEW 1987
http://www.tcj.com/the-alan-moore-interview-118/
Watchmen: Comics and Literature Collide
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1604&context=etd
Alan Moore, Watchmen and some notes on the ideology of superhero comics
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233486774_Alan_Moore_Watchmen_and_some_notes_on_the_ideology_of_superhero_comics
ARCHIVE OF THE FUTURE: ALAN MOORE’S WATCHMEN AS HISTORIOGRAPHIC NOVEL
https://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/english-association/publications/peer-english/4/2%20Tony%20Venezia%20-%20Archive%20of%20the%20Future.pdf
“Watchmen: Deconstructing the Superhero”
https://library.ndsu.edu/ir/bitstream/handle/10365/22356/Watchmen.pdf?sequence=1
On the Boundaries of Watchmen-Paratextual Narratives across Media
https://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:869023/FULLTEXT01.pdf
‘‘Who Watches the Watchmen?’’: Ideology and ‘‘Real World’’ Superheroes
JAMIE A. HUGHES
Under the Mask_Non-Normative Sexuality in Alan Moore’s Watchmen
https://libres.uncg.edu/ir/unca/f/T_Smith_Superhero_2017.pdf
GENERAL DISCUSSION AND INTERVIEWS
https://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/24093/what-are-the-qualities-of-watchmen-unique-to-comics-and-in-which-way-did-the-mov/24131
REVIEWS
https://geekreply.com/uncategorized/2015/05/08/10-recommended-comics-watchmen
COMIC BOOK SCRIPTS
http://www.scriptsandscribes.com/sample-comic-scripts/
http://www.comicbookscriptarchive.com/archive/the-scripts/
MAIN : http://comicbookscriptarchive.com/archive/
http://www.comicsexperience.com/scripts/
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ORIGINAL POSTS DATA: - Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1901.30 - 10:10
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1445 - My Watchmen Analysis for class - LCC - ENGLISH 101
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1445 - My Watchmen Analysis for class - LCC - ENGLISH 101
I interrupt the normal flow of events on this blog to bring special content for class.
Usually I share MUSICAL MONDAY on a Monday each week, but I am postponing my musical mix until tomorrow to share analysis that I shared with students last week on the Watchmen graphic novel.
For the uninitiated, I already shared the assignments (both solo and group):
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1439 - Watchmen Assignments English 101 LCC
and some good commentary for re-reading the comic:
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1440 - Re-Reading WATCHMEN
CONNECTIONS
One thing I am trying to get students to see is the connections within the text. Elements of the text refer to other things in the text to create a resonance between image and text or between two images or two instances of text.
Comprehending Comics and Graphic Novels: Watchmen as a Case for Cognition
By Travis White-Schwoch and David N. Rapp
Northwestern University
states that:
"In comics, pictures and text support each other; these supports emerge through
complementary depictions and descriptions rather than by presenting redundant information. For
example, in chapter 6, page 15, of Watchmen an unmasked Rorschach describes his origins as a
crime fighter to his prison psychiatrist. In that discussion Rorschach talks about the Comedian
understanding more than his contemporaries, while the illustrated narrative shows the Comedian
behaving in an obnoxious and confrontational manner. This juxtaposition helps to exemplify the
traits of the character. The pictures and words provide complementary details that, when
integrated, encourage the construction of a more complex model of the story characters and
narratives. In most cases, these combined presentations provide richer examples containing more
information, and in less space, than would be available in traditional text-only narratives" (Schwoch, Rapp, 3).
Also, See the Strings: Watchmen and the Under-Language of Media
by Stuart Moulthrop
Moulthrop talks more about the external connections. Elements of Watchmen that connect with ideas outside the novel, such as these references to "Fat Man" and a famous Time Magazine cover.
"In the fatal event, Osterman is betrayed by a pair of timepieces. In 1959, he enters an experimental chamber to retrieve a wristwatch he has repaired for his fiancee, Janie Slater, becoming trapped by a time lock on the door, thus dooming him to disintegration (IV.8.2). Albert Einstein, or the collateral result of his physics, is still very much to blame. Slater's wristwatch is smashed by a "fat man," connecting it by allusion to the image of a blasted watch on the cover of Time magazine in 1985, commemorating the fortieth anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing (IV.6.5; IV.24.7)."Fat Man" was the nickname for the plutonium bomb dropped on Nagasaki. The Hiroshima device was called "Little Boy." For what it's worth, the panel preceding the fat man's tread (IV.6.4) shows a young boy in tears" (Moulthrop, 9-10).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/2014/newsspec_8079/index.html
I am more interested in students seeing the internal connections. Like this one.
Or this.
Clearly the pirate story's narrative mirrors the Watchmen novel's narrative. Dr. Manhattan has left earth, no longer caring for the people of his "home." The juxtaposition here is clear: the hero of the pirate story is caring for the dead, those slaughtered by the Black Freighter, which is a clear foreshadowing and symbol of Veidt's "apocalypse" to come, but then we cut to the news stand owner and the kid reading the comic, two people who will die, for the connection with the line "who would care for them, now I was gone?" (Watchmen, pg. 22 chapter four)
I want students to see the way the connections resonate and make meaning.
For instance, there's this one. From chapter five, entitled "Fearful Symmetry," which is a quote from William Blake's "Tyger Tyger."
This is the chapter in which Rorschach is captured by the police after Veidt (as we learn later) tips them off as to where he will be when Rorschach discovers Moloch has been murdered in his apartment.
In this chapter, scenes of Rorschach's investigation are intercut with the "Marooned" episode and a few other plot lines, such as the staged attack on Veidt.
At the beginning of the chapter, Rorschach visits Moloch to put the screws to him, thinking he knows who the "mask killer" is or may be able to find out.
Also, to bring the cops into it, those who will arrest Rorschach, there's another murder/suicide, unrelated to the mask killer, from someone "worried about nuclear war."
The main character of "Marooned" has made a raft of dead bodies, trying to beat the Black Freighter back to his home and have a chance to save his family from the horrors the pirates said that they would visit upon them.
The rotting corpses attract a huge shark that becomes entangled in the raft's roped and decking, giving the character enough time to kill it.
On the bottom of page 21, we see the panel shared below as he is eating "raw shark" to avoid starving.
"RAW SHARK"
Note the language as the character notes the "natural inversion" of how the predator has become prey (he's eating the shark; the shark is the predator).
The connection Moore makes is playful. When Veidt calls in the tip (assuming it is Veidt), he is asking the cops if they want to know where to find Rorschach, but the cops mistakenly think the caller is saying "raw shark."
As below from the very next page, page 23:
On one level, like the "Marooned" character eats "raw shark," both the cops and Veidt "eat" Rorschach because he needs to be removed from the scene so as not to interfere with Veidt's plans, and if he gets killed all the better.
On another level, examining the ideas implicit in "Marooned," the character in that comic book has made a raft of dead bodies to literally sail across the ocean in an attempt to save his family and his town from certain and total destruction.
This is the same thing that Veidt is doing. He creates his own raft of dead bodies to push the nations of the world to save themselves, to band together for a single, though fraudulent, purpose.
Also, Rorschach is doing the same thing. He sees himself as a savior, a fighter of evil, no compromise. He is sailing on his own raft of the dead -- Blake, Moloch -- to find a way to save those who remain.
Rorschach is the shark of the pirate story, attempting to destroy the raft, stop the savior, and thwart the rescue. But the man kills and eats the shark, adding its corpse to his raft, the bodies that will allow him to save the world.
DELIVERED - STEP INTO THE SHADOW WITHOUT COMPLAINT
In chapter ten, pages 22-23, there's another connection.
Rorschach finishes his journal and "delivers it" sends it to the New Frontiersman, a newspaper that he idolizes as the only one that tells the truth.
Here, in the last line of it, Rorschach notes that he "steps into the shadow without complaint."
This "delivery" connects to the pirate narrative again, on the bottom of page 23, in which the narrator of "Marooned" writes: "Dear God, let me have vengeance, then die swiftly, delivered at last into the hands of higher judgment."
Again, this connection works to make meaning on multiple levels.
The "Higher Judgement" is God, who is very much like Veidt, who has set himself up like a God, though Dr. Manhattan, greater still, may actually be a God, with the power of God.
Rorschach delivers himself to Veidt much as the "Marooned" narrator delivers himself to God.
Both seek vengeance. Both are uncompromising. Both take extreme actions to safeguard people and "do the right thing."
But what is the "shadow" Rorschach speaks of? Could this be Jung's shadow? Could this be the dark side, even farther into the belly of the whale than Rorschach went when he "became Rorschach" as he explains in chapter six?
But like Rorschach who delivers himself to the enemy, the narrator of "Marooned" ends up joining the Black Freighter in the end, becoming the horror he hoped to avert, becoming the evil he hoped to prevent.
This is a good start for the analysis I want my students to perform. I could go deeper and expand, but these passages I have written here show clearly the way these "connections" work in Watchmen.
Thanks for reading.
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1902.04 - 10:10
- Days ago = 1311 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1440 - Re-Reading WATCHMEN
A Sense of Doubt blog post #1440 - Re-Reading WATCHMEN
As I explained in yesterday's blog -- posted late, like this one -- I have been immersed all week in writing materials for my English 101 classes at Lower Columbia College to teach one of the one hundred best novels of all time according to Time Magazine: Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
And so, of course, I am going to make all that work do double duty here.
I just did my own re-read of Watchmen and now I am re-re-reading it and studying other people's analysis (for which there are many links posted here).
I LOVE my job. What a joy.
I was not just encouraged to teach comics; I was more or less told to do so as my new colleagues recognized this art form as an area of expertise for me. And comics are more popular than ever before, if not in sales, at least in content (because, you know, MOVIES and BILLIONS of dollars).
I am having fun.
Life is good.
The heart of this entry is a share of two of the four entries by Tim Callahan published on TOR back in 2012 as part of a larger series in which Tim re-read ALL OF the Alan Moore comics to date (so not including the recent Providence or the Crossed 100 stuff that he has done for Avatar). They are long and very well written posts, so I only shared two, but I did share the links to the others.
Following Callahan's Watchmen analysis/review are a bunch of links, most of which I have shared with my students, for Watchmen resources, and there's one here immediately, which seems to be free access to the entire comic book in digital form:
SEARCH - "Watchmen comic book script" the full comic
https://www.scribd.com/doc/13749342/Watchmen-comic-full
Lots of content in this entry, but I am okay with that. :-)
And then this other thing.
HBO is making a Watchmen series that is NOT an adaptation of Watchmen.
It takes place after Watchmen the comic.
So, no Rorschach?
Or will there be flashbacks?
WATCHMEN TV SHOW - HBO
https://io9.gizmodo.com/these-watchmen-set-pictures-seemingly-reveal-the-fate-o-1826760037
and
https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-cast-of-hbos-watchmen-has-been-revealed-and-the-fan-1826269382
Damon Lindelof Unveils His Bold Plans for theWatchmen TV Show in an Emotional Letter to Fans
DAMON LINDELOF'S LETTER about the new TV show for HBO
https://io9.gizmodo.com/damon-lindelof-unveils-his-bold-plans-for-the-watchmen-1826239088
Watchmen is heading to television—but in a way you might not expect, according to producer and writer Damon Lindelof. In a new letter to fans, the creator channels some of the series’ most beloved moments to explain what’s in store when it eventually makes its way to HBO.
Posted to Instagram today in reaction to discussions about the show adapting one of the most highly-regarded comic series of all time, Lindelof’s letter—formatted in the style of Dr. Manhattan’s pensive thoughts on Mars in Watchmen #4—is deeply and surprisingly personal. It charts his own history experiencing Watchmen for the first time as a child, his relationship with his father, all the way to being given the opportunity to bring the series to TV. And why, at first, he declined to do so:
It’s pretty lengthy—there’s multiple pages that you’ll have to head on over to Instagram itself to see, but Lindelof not only makes it clear that he ardently loves Watchmen as a body of work, but firmly believes in Alan Moore’s wishes that the story told in Watchmen is a story that can only be told in the medium of comics. And so, Lindelof’s revelation: The Watchmen TV series won’t actually adapt Watchmen itself.
HBO’s Watchmen will be set after the events of the comic, and tell an original story in the supposedly peaceful world left in the wake of Adrian Veidt’s shocking plan to avoid nuclear war:
We have no desire to ‘adapt’ the twelve issues Mr. Moore and Mr. Gibbons created thirty years ago. Those issues are sacred ground and will not be retread nor recreated nor reproduced nor rebooted.They will however be remixed. Because the bass lines in those familiar tracks are just too good and we’d be fools not to sample them. Those original twelve issues are our Old Testament. When the New Testament came along it did not erase what came before it. Creation. The Garden of Eden. Abraham and Isaac. The Flood. It all happened. And so it will be with Watchmen. The Comedian died. Dan and Laurie fell in love. Ozymandias saved the world and Dr. Manhattan left it just after blowing Rorschach to pieces in the bitter cold of Antarctica.
Which, interestingly enough, is something DC Comics itself is currently doing in the pages of Doomsday Clock. But, Lindelof continues, the story will not follow the familiar faces of the original Watchmen, but feature new characters and new perspectives, and a tone more in line with the modern world we live in rather than the ‘80s that the original Watchmenwas soaked in:
But we are not making a “sequel” either. This story will be set in the world its creators painstakingly built…but in the tradition of the work that inspired it, this new story must be original. It has to vibrate with the seismic unpredictability of its own tectonic plates. It must ask new questions and explore the world through a fresh lens. Most importantly, it must be contemporary. The Old Testament was specific to the Eighties of Reagan and Thatcher and Gorbachev. Ours needs to resonate with the frequency of Trump and May and Putin and the horse that he rides around on, shirtless. And speaking of Horsemen, The End of the World is off the table… which means the heroes and villains–as if the two are distinguishable–are playing for different stakes entirely.
Lindelof’s letter goes on to note that this doesn’t mean Watchmen’s past is off the table for the show—he teases that “a surprising, yet familiar set of eyes” will look back into the costumed history of the Minutemen and the old heroes of Watchmen’s history. But beyond that, it turns out the new Watchmen show is going to be unlike anything we expected out of it.
What do you make of these latest updates?
[Variety]
Current DC launch of Doomsday Clock:
ALAN MOORE RE-READ
https://www.tor.com/series/the-great-alan-moore-reread/
The Great Alan Moore Reread
ALL OF THE WATCHMEN PAGES OF THE ALAN MOORE RE-READ
https://www.tor.com/2012/02/27/the-great-alan-moore-reread-watchmen-part-1/
https://www.tor.com/2012/03/05/the-great-alan-moore-reread-watchmen-part-2/
https://www.tor.com/2012/03/12/the-great-alan-moore-reread-watchmen-part-3/
https://www.tor.com/2012/03/19/the-great-alan-moore-reread-watchmen-part-4/
https://www.tor.com/2012/02/27/the-great-alan-moore-reread-watchmen-part-1/
THE GREAT ALAN MOORE REREAD
The Great Alan Moore Reread: Watchmen, Part 1
Tim CallahanTor.com comics blogger Tim Callahan has dedicated the next twelve months to a reread of all of the major Alan Moore comics (and plenty of minor ones as well). Each week he will provide commentary on what he’s been reading. Welcome to the 18th installment.
The Watchmen: Absolute Edition from 2005 reprints important supplemental material from a limited edition Graphitti Designs hardcover, where we get to see the early versions of the ideas that would inform the final miniseries. In Alan Moore’s original proposal for the series even the original character descriptions – there was no Dr. Manhattan, or Rorschach, or the Comedian. Instead, Watchmen was conceived as a revamp of DC’s then-recently-acquired Charlton Comics characters. Captain Atom. The Question. Peacemaker. Etc.
Those Charlton characters were long gone by the time the first issue of Watchmen hit the stands in the late summer of 1986. Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons created their own original characters to replace the Charlton archetypes. But Watchmen was never really about those specific characters. It was about a superhero universe in decline as a reflection of a modern world in decline.
And though it may be popular these days to dismiss Watchmen, to write it off as overrated because it’s been held up as the ultimate superhero comic book for so long, or to diminish its importance because of the weak movie version or controversial spin-offs, when I sat down to reread Watchmen I found that it hasn’t lost its edge. What it does may not be as revolutionary in these 26 years since, but it remains a dense, textured, substantial work of narrative. It’s hailed as one of the greatest comics maybe the best comic for a reason: it’s two creators, in top form, telling a shocking story that resonates because of the way it’s told.
It deserves an issue-by-issue look, even if I don’t address every single point that might be made.
Watchmen#1 (DC Comics, September 1986)
Will Eisner was the first prominent comic book artist to use the reader’s eye as a kind of cinema camera and guide it through the scene, but few artists followed The Spirit‘s lessons with regularity, and there’s very little in Dave Gibbon’s style that pairs it with Eisner’s bombastic, melodramatic approach to cartooning. So the Eisner connection is easy to miss. As is the Harvey Kurtzman influence, but the rhythms of Watchmen owe as much to the EC Comics work of that legendary figure as they do to Eisner’s storytelling patterns.
The thing is: the influence of those two comic book icons shows up more in the script, and when translated to the page by Dave Gibbons, the entire production takes on an air of austerity. Gibbons is a remarkable draftsman, and his fine attention to detail creates a palpable reality for the characters in this series. It’s just that Alan Moore’s typewritten, all-caps, extremely long scripts for each issue dictate a kind of panel-to-panel storytelling that takes the teachings of Eisner and Kurtzman and uses them to tell a fully-realized story about a superhero world gone wrong. Deadpan. Serious. Tragic.
The weight of Watchmen is immense, from the first pages of its opening issue. The techniques nine-panel grid, camera moves, first-person captions may not have been wholly original, but employed as they are here, they don’t look like any comics that had come before. This is an ambitious comic from page one. It aspires to become a masterpiece of the form, and, amazingly, it succeeds.
It has a sense of humor about itself, but it’s a nasty one, drenched in irony.
The first issue, after all, features a smiley face awash in blood on the front cover.
Before I dig into the issue, I need to point out that Watchmen, in 1986, demanded a different kind of reading than any other superhero comic. It was so unlike everything else, in its delivery of narrative. And though decades of Watchmen-lite comics have filled the marketplace, it’s still unlike everything else. What struck me most as I reread issue #1 was the quantity of moments in just a single comic.
A quick comparison and these numbers may not be exact, but the proportions are what matters: I counted 196 panels in Watchmen #1, plus a text piece in the back that further explored the world presented in the comic. A quick flip through an average issue of a recent comic from 2012, Green Lantern Corps, showed a total of 70 panels 70 moments in that one issue. That seemed about right for a contemporary comic, but then I remembered that Ed Brubaker and Butch Guice’s Winter Soldier had plenty of inset panels and virtuoso storytelling tricks of its own, so I added up what I found in there. More, with 107 panels, but still far fewer than Watchmen #1.
I think it’s safe to say, based on those statistics and a few more comics I flipped through just to confirm, that each issue of Watchmen has about twice as much “stuff” happening as a normal superhero comic book. But a sizeable percentage of the “stuff” the panel to panel transitions is not one dynamic incident after another. It’s slow burn revelations and reactions. Methodical movement through time.
And one of the things you get when reading it in a collected edition like my preferred version, the Absolute edition are the echoes throughout the past and present. In this first issue, as the detectives try to reconstruct what happened in Edward Blake’s apartment, Moore and Gibbons intercut flashback panels showing the beaten Blake thrown through the window. The third panel on panel three Blake battered and bloody, his broken nose dripping red onto his small Comedian button is just a single slice of narrative here. But the composition of that panel with Blake/The Comedian staring toward the reader, recurs several times in Watchmen as a whole.
So does the photograph of the Minutemen. Or the pieces of clockwork. Or the graffiti, “Who Watches the Watchmen?” in a comic where no one ever calls the superheroes by that name, even though it’s the title of the series.
These are the kinds of patterns and layers that enhance the structural power of Watchmen. They underline that the how is as important as the what. Yes, as in the case of the recurring Comedian headshot, the style reinforces the meaning of the story. The Comedian, Edward Blake, is at the center of Watchmen. It’s his death that spurs the plot that drives the twelve issues. It’s easy to forget that Watchmen opens as a murder mystery, because it becomes so much more, but that’s what kicks everything off. The death of the Comedian. And everything that follows from that.
Besides the opening murder mystery, the first issue also introduces us to all of the main characters. We see Rorschach’s investigations (and, notably, we “hear” him before we ever see him in costume, through the journal entries on the first page), and we meet both Nite Owls, establishing that this series takes place in a world where costumed characters have existed for at least two generations. We meet Ozymandias, in his tower. Dr. Manhattan, 20-feet tall, glowing blue, completely naked. And the woman who once was the Silk Spectre.
There’s something else about Watchmen that makes it stand out from other examples of the superhero genre: the sense of exhaustion.
In Silver or Bronze Age comics particularly the ones from Marvel you might get heroes who struggle and fall down and have to rise up against impossible challenges. Spider-Man might have to punch bad guys while fighting a nasty cold. But in Watchmen, the whole world seems exhausted. All of these superheroes past and present that we see in the comic are barely holding it together. They are beaten down by life, or, in the case of Dr. Manhattan, hardly interested in what remains in the human world. They are all world-weary, and the world around them is just as exhausted.
Most readers, I suspect and this is an interpretation echoed by the unsuccessful film adaptation think of Watchmen as set against a backdrop of global violence and impending nuclear war. Ozymandias’s machinations are an attempt to bring unity through external conflict. Or so he seems to believe.
That notion creeps into the series soon enough, but it’s almost completely absent from the first issue. There’s no “brink of war” histrionics in this opener.
After rereading Watchmen #1, I can’t help but think Ozymandias’s plot has more to do with waking people up, with snapping them out of their exhausted boredom. Or, perhaps, his own.
Watchmen#2 (DC Comics, October 1986)
The mystery unfolds, and Alan Moore uses the scene at Eddie Blake’s burial as a device to flash back into the memories of Ozymandias, Dr. Manhattan, and Nite Owl. But this issue will always be remembered for what comes before that. The devastating bombshell that follows Laurie Juspeczyk’s visit to her mother at Nepenthe Gardens. The infamous rape scene.
The glint of sunlight on the old photo of the Minutemen throws us back through, presumably, Sally Jupiter’s memories to the sequence of events immediately after the photograph was taken. Eddie Blake our now-dead Comedian, then a junior Pagliacci-adorned crimefighter pushes himself onto the first Silk Spectre, Sally Jupiter, in her prime. She claws at him, and he beats her up. It’s brutal, unheroic, terrifying.
Hooded Justice walks in to find Eddie Blake, pants down, mounted atop the prone Jupiter. We never see the extent of the violation, and the gutters between the panels allow us to fill in the gaps with what might have occurred, but what we do see is horrible enough.
Blake is a rapist. Jupiter, his victim.
And this is where Moore gets himself into trouble, because though there’s no titillation in the scene, we later discover that Blake and Jupiter did have a later relationship. Jupiter fathered Blake’s child, even if the young Laurie Juspeczyk never knew the paternal truth. Because Jupiter seemingly forgave even possibly fell in love with her rapist, Moore falls into the depths of misogynistic cliché. At least, that’s what some have argued.
The whole situation is indeed troubling, but it’s at the heart of Watchmen. It’s not as simple as an easy romance between rapist and victim. It’s not that all is forgiven and the terrible, violent act is forgotten. No, it stands as the emotionally tumultuous center of the story. Blake’s death is the catalyst for the detective plot that eventually ties the series together, but his life is what led everything to this point. Edward Blake the Comedian is never more than a selfish, violent man. He is never redeemed, just because others sometimes forgive him for his awful offenses.
And Sally Jupiter lives, as she closes out her life, at Nepenthe Gardens, a rest home. “Nepenthe” is “anti-sorrow” through forgetfulness. But nothing indicates that Jupiter has forgotten, or forgiven. At least not permanently. Through Alan Moore’s characterization, she just seems to recognize that life is more complicated than simple clichés.
Issue #2 also provides more clues to lead to later conclusions, and more moments to echo into the future, as we see the failed first meeting of “The Crimebusters,” Captain Metropolis‘s aborted attempt at gathering a team of 1960s do-gooders. The Comedian literally burns Metropolis’s plans to ashes, but the repercussions of the meeting would linger to the present day in the mind of Ozymandias, as we’ll see by the end of the series.
And even the Dr. Manhattan flashback, to Vietnam, does more than just show the vile nature of the Comedian (and explain where he got that nasty scar on his face). We see a Dr. Manhattan challenged for his non-interventionism. And that confrontation between the Comedian and Manhattan would linger into the present as well, as Dr. Manhattan (the only true superhuman in the series) would ultimately leave Earth entirely, and ponder his relationship to humanity.
Then there’s the militant crowd control flashback with the Comedian and Nite Owl, ending with Nite Owl’s lamentation, “What’s happened to the American Dream?” and the Comedian’s reply: “It came true. You’re lookin’ at it.” He might be referring to himself, or to the police state and civil unrest around him. Either way, the result embodies the failure of the Dream, by any rational measure.
Rorschach doesn’t earn a flashback in this issue his memories will come later but he forces one out of Moloch, the vampiric Lex Luthor former super-villain who attends Blake’s funeral. From Moloch, we learn of a list and a disturbing visit by the Comedian shortly before he died. It furthers the mystery plot and exposes the corners of a vast conspiracy which will ultimately draw in all of the major players in the series. And the entire flashback is told from one point of view one camera angle as we look through Moloch’s eyes toward the foot of his bed, where the manic, and clearly frightened, Eddie Blake whimpers and rages.
The issue ends with the same flashback to Blake’s murder that we saw in issue #1 only this time the other flashbacks echo throughout, like a refrain and Rorschach’s journal provides the narration: “[Blake] saw the true face of the twentieth century and chose to become a reflection of it, a parody of it. No one else saw the joke. That’s why he was lonely.”
Over the panels of Blake, falling to his death in the past, we see Rorschach tell a joke about the clown who cried.
Watchmen #3 (DC Comics, November 1986)
After two issues of what is ostensibly a superhero comic, even if, at the time, it was conceived as the superhero comic to end all superhero comics we still haven’t had a fight scene. We’ve had Eddie Blake beat up a woman in her underwear, before getting beat up himself for his attempted rape. We’ve seen Rorschach tackle an old man. But we haven’t seen that staple of superhero conventionality, the old-fashioned brawl between good guys and bad.
But in issue three, we do get Dan Dreiberg and Laurie Juspeczyk the former Nite Owl II and the former Silk Spectre II battling some street punks. And Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons present it as a sexual release, complete with the couple gasping at the end and then some shame and cigarette smoking.
So much for the conventions of superhero comics. Not only is nothing sacred to Moore and Gibbons in Watchmen, but the series is built to punch holes in the traditions of the genre. The great American hero, the Comedian, is an utterly loathsome bastard. The glittering past of the Golden Age heroes is filthy with corruption and repression and dirty little secrets. Costumes are fetishes. The one character seemingly in the pursuit of the truth is a sociopath who breaks fingers and hides inside refrigerators. The one superhuman being on the planet gives his loved ones cancer.
That last point is at the center of this issue.
Though the fallout shelter detail on the cover closes in to the city block where the two Bernies stand (or sit) at the newsstand, it’s a more apt symbol for what happens in the major sequence in the issue as Dr. Manhattan is accused, on live television, of killing those close to him. We learn that many of his former acquaintances, and even enemies, have been stricken with cancer, and the clear implication is that his blue, glowing form would have irradiated those nearby, and over the years that exposure has killed some and put a death warrant on the rest.
Dr. Manhattan, confronted with that information, flees. But since he’s superhuman, he doesn’t run away, he teleports. First to Arizona, where his story began (as we will see in the future of this series – time is an intricate machine in this comic), and then to Mars. He doesn’t have a Fortress of Solitude to retreat to. But Mars will do. It’s suitably remote.
And with Dr. Manhattan off the board, the world is more precipitously close to all-out nuclear war. Manhattan had been the ultimate Doomsday device, the ultimate defense against foreign aggression. With him off planet, the clock towards Armageddon ticks away. President Nixon – yes, Nixon is still in charge in the mid-1980s of this series. Dr. Manhattan’s presence, historically, changed everything in the reality presented in this series.
But now he’s gone. And as Dr. Manhattan sits on Mars and looks at an old photograph from before he was “born,” Nixon’s voice overlaps this Martian scene: “humanity is in the hands of a higher authority than mine. Let’s just hope he’s on our side.”
A few final notes before I leave you for the week: (1) Moore and Gibbons and letterer/colorist John Higgins completely remove thought bubbles or sound effects from the series. Those comic booky techniques are never used, and their absence here influenced an entire generation of creators to abandon them. (2) The series takes place in 1985 but the fashions are completely unlike any 1980s fashions in our world. Gibbons draws everyone in thick fabrics, styled like some mod/bohemian fusion of the best of the 1960s and the more understated of the 1970s. That attention to parallel universe detail is emblematic of Watchmen as a whole. (3) John Higgins recoloring job on the Absolute Edition really cleans things up, more than I remembered. But when I went back to read the original issues, I found the browns and purples to make the issues a bit too sloppy for such a well-chiseled series. I believe the most recent hardcover and softcover reprints – even at the smaller size – use the new coloring, and it’s a significant improvement over the look of the original issues.
It’s nice when a great comic book series ends up looking even greater.
NEXT: Watchmen Part 2. Still Very Good.
Tim Callahan writes about comics for Tor.com, Comic Book Resources, and Back Issue magazine. Follow him on Twitter.
COMIC JOURNALISM
http://www.tcj.com/reviews/journalism/
WATCHMEN STUFF
Watchmen and Intertextuality:
How Watchmen Interrogates the Comics Tradition
by Julian Darius | in Articles | Mon, 21 March 2005
http://sequart.org/magazine/2664/watchmen-and-intertextuality-how-watchmen-interrogates-the-comics-tradition/
Why does “Watchmen” use the 9-panel grid?
https://literature.stackexchange.com/questions/2558/why-does-watchmen-use-the-9-panel-grid
WATCHMEN - LIT STACK EXCHANGE
https://literature.stackexchange.com/search?q=Watchmen
Why Is Watchmen So Important?
https://io9.gizmodo.com/why-is-watchmen-so-important-5162302
A Reflection on Watchmen: The Power of Color
http://graphicnovel.umwblogs.org/2015/09/28/a-reflection-on-watchmen-the-power-of-color/
Banned Books - Watchmen
https://thecomicbookteacher.com/2014/09/25/banned-books-week-watchmen/
COMICS JOURNAL - ALAN MOORE INTERVIEW 1987
http://www.tcj.com/the-alan-moore-interview-118/
Watchmen: Comics and Literature Collide
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1604&context=etd
Alan Moore, Watchmen and some notes on the ideology of superhero comics
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233486774_Alan_Moore_Watchmen_and_some_notes_on_the_ideology_of_superhero_comics
ARCHIVE OF THE FUTURE: ALAN MOORE’S WATCHMEN AS HISTORIOGRAPHIC NOVELhttps://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/english-association/publications/peer-english/4/2%20Tony%20Venezia%20-%20Archive%20of%20the%20Future.pdf
“Watchmen: Deconstructing the Superhero”
https://library.ndsu.edu/ir/bitstream/handle/10365/22356/Watchmen.pdf?sequence=1
On the Boundaries of Watchmen-Paratextual Narratives across Media
https://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:869023/FULLTEXT01.pdf
‘‘Who Watches the Watchmen?’’: Ideology and ‘‘Real World’’ Superheroes
JAMIE A. HUGHES
Under the Mask_Non-Normative Sexuality in Alan Moore’s Watchmen
https://libres.uncg.edu/ir/unca/f/T_Smith_Superhero_2017.pdf
GENERAL DISCUSSION AND INTERVIEWS
https://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/24093/what-are-the-qualities-of-watchmen-unique-to-comics-and-in-which-way-did-the-mov/24131
REVIEWS
https://geekreply.com/uncategorized/2015/05/08/10-recommended-comics-watchmen
COMIC BOOK SCRIPTS
http://www.scriptsandscribes.com/sample-comic-scripts/
http://www.comicbookscriptarchive.com/archive/the-scripts/
MAIN : http://comicbookscriptarchive.com/archive/
http://www.comicsexperience.com/scripts/
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ORIGINAL POSTS DATA: - Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1901.30 - 10:10
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2111.21 - 10:10
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- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2111.21 - 10:10
- Days ago = 2333 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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