The Annotated Watchmen, Doug Atkinson [fb2 epub reader txt] 📗

4: The fluid-filled sphere again.

Page 24, panel 1: The broken sphere again, and notice the splash

across her right slipper's right eye?

Panels 2-7: We find out here what this issue's motif actually means.

Page 27, panels 1-2: The coincidental smiley-face (tying in to Jon's

thesis) once again calls to mind the motif of issue #1. This is a

real crater, by the way, although the "eyes" are formed by cracks in the

crater floor, not rocks as shown here. Jon is undergoing a change of

attitude here that will become clearer in later issues.

Pages 29-32: Pages from Sally's scrapbook.

Page 29, "Daily World" article: See the annotations for the "Under

the Hood" section of #1 for commentary on the dating of this article.

Paragraph 5: The movie takes years to be made; the review is on page

31.

Page 29, clipping, upper right corner: That's all it is, publicity.

See page 31 again. Incidentally, from the perspective of the readers, he

does keep the costume on all the time.

Page 31, letter, paragraph 2: This paragraph is extremely important

to a lot of the underlying stuff in the story. Nelly is, of course,

Captain Metropolis, and H.J. is Hooded Justice. The date of 1948, however,

must be regarded as wrong; according to Under the Hood, Dollar Bill died in

1946, and Sally married Laurence in 1947.

Page 32, paragraph 6: "One died recently" confirms page 31

(Rorschach, #1: "Captain Metropolis was decapitated in a car crash back in '74").

As mentioned earlier, three known homosexuals (and two unknowns) out

of 13 costumed heroes is an unusually high percentage. The costumed heroes

can't be considered representative of the population (otherwise one of them

should be black, for example). Compare the end of #7, and Captain

Carnage from #1: is Moore trying to use the "sex thing" as an underlying

theme?

�

--

�

Chapter 10: "Two Riders Were Approaching..."

Watchmen is a trademark of DC Comics Inc., copyright 1995.

These annotations copyright 1995 by Doug Atkinson. They may be freely

copied and distributed, provided the text is not altered.

Certain notes are true for each issue. Each one is written by

Alan Moore, drawn and lettered by Dave Gibbons, and colored by John

Higgins.

Moreover, each issue has a continuing motif, a reoccuring object

or pattern that is seen on the cover, the first and last page (usually),

and throughout the issue. This issue's motif is computer/TV screens, as

well as a "two riders" theme.

Another trend is the title, which is always an excerpt from an

apropos quote shown in its entirety in the last panel. This issue's title is

from Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower."

The clock appearing on the covers counts the minutes to

midnight, similar to the clock in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,

which is an estimate of the world's closeness to nuclear war. The clock

stands at 2 minutes to midnight.

Cover: A control tower radar screen. The position of the two

incoming blips and the seep, plus the white curve on the bottom, give us

another spattered smiley-face.

Page 1, panel 1: Notice the time and date: 10/31/85 (a jump backwards

in time), 11:59:30. "DEFCON 2" refers to the state of military

readiness (from DEFense CONdition); DEFCON 5 is complete peace, and DEFCON 1 is

outright war.

Panel 4: Note that two riders are approaching in the truck.

Page 2, panel 1: President Nixon, carrying the control to launch the

U.S.'s nuclear arsenal. He and Vice-President Ford constitute two riders.

Panel 6: VP Ford, losing his balance. In our world, Ford stumbled

down some airplane steps while President, thus acquiring a reputation as a

klutz.

Panel 7: Both the cars have two riders (counting the driver as a

rider). If not, there are still two riders, just in different vehicles.

Page 4, panel 3: The change in Rorschach's manner is beginning.

While the bit about Laurie may be politeness, this is warmer than he's been in

years.

Page 5, panel 4: Lots of ongoing themes on the fence in the

background. From left to right, a Pale Horse "Krystalnacht" poster ("Sold Out"),

a "The End is Nigh" sign, a Nostalgia ad, a Gunga Diner box, a "Four More

Years" sign, a sign reading "Badges Not Masks: Support the Keene Bill," an

Ozymandias Famine Relief poster, another "Four More Years," another

"The End is Nigh," "Krystalnacht," "Badges Not Masks," "Nixon the One,"

"Badges Not Masks," "The End is Nigh," "The End is Nigh," "Nixon the One"

and, finally, a Pink Triangle poster. (The downward-spiraling arrow has

been around for a while, too; maybe it's symbolic of the way the world

situation is going. The way they go from the Pale Horse poster and "the one"

sign to the trash can may be foreshadowing.) Across the bottom is another

"One in eight go mad" graffito.

Page 6, panel 2: A really old coat; that's the bloodstain from the

dog he killed. Next to it is his journal.

Panel 7: Another sign of his humanization.

Page 7, panel 1: This is Karnak, Adrian's Antarctic retreat. Named

after the site of an ancient palace/temple complex in Egypt. At least part

of it was built by Rameses II, the original Ozymandias.

Panel 4: Lots and lots of triangles, with TV screens in the lower

left.

Page 7: TV screens.

Page 8, panel 1: Slight artistic slip here: the "Mmeltdowns" ad in

the lower left is missing an "M." Above it and to the right is a

political ad (?) for "R.R.", who we're probably meant to think is Ronald Reagan,

but most likely isn't, though it does look like him (see #12). There's a

Nostalgia ad hidden under Adrian's first balloon.

Panel 5: The shape of the recording reels is reminiscent of the

radiation symbols.

Page 9, panel 1: Computer screens.

Page 11, panel 4: The Chrysler Building is visible on the far left.

Page 12, panel 3: The two people in the background were just recently

riders.

Page 13, panel 1: The headline reads, "Eastern Europe: Tanks Mass as

Conflict Escalates." The back of the comic reads, "The Veidt Method:

I Will Give You Bodies Beyond Your Wildest Imagination." Those are

Jehovah's Witnesses in the background (two of them, riding).

Panel 7: The Watchtower is a real-world magazine, but it refers

back ironically to the source of this issue's title.

Page 14, panel 2: Daniel is discreetly changing the sign to "Closed,"

a nice artistic touch that's easy to miss.

Page 17: Notice the symbol on the side of the boat. All the people

referred to as missing in the New Frontiersman except James

Trafford March show up or are referred to on this page, and he may be among

the unidentified people in panels 2-4. The brain is that of Robert

Deschaines.

Also, doesn't this beach bring to mind the one from _Tales of the

Black Freighter_?

Page 18, panels 1 and 7: That's the picture Mira was drawing in issue

8, page 11. This is foreshadowing.

Page 19, panel 7: Notice the pyramid on Adrian's desk...

Page 20: Another computer screen. The computer is a Veidt product,

but that's hardly surprising.

Panel 4: A reference to the '75 Roche kidnapping, presumably.

Panel 8: The rider here gives another "II rider." The weakness of

the security is intriguing, and suggests that Veidt is either a)

extremely careless, b) extremely overconfident, or c) wanted to be found. A)

seems unlikely in view of what we know.

Page 22, panel 1: The Chrysler Building again, with a geodesic dome

in the bottom.

Panel 3: They're flying over Madison Square Garden, where Pale Horse

is playing tonight. Notice the time on the clock. (This page can be

used to trace the geography of the region. Assuming they went straight,

Veidt's building is east of the newsstand corner of 40th and 7th. The

Chrysler Building, the most useful landmark, is shown as due east of the

newsstand in 3:22:1.)

Panels 6-7: This is the mailbox next to Rorschach's trashcan

mail drop: next to the Promethean offices, across from the Gunga Diner and the

newsstand. In panel 7, Rorschach's sigil is miscolored and looks like a sign on

the wall.

Page 23, panel 1: The mailman's getting Rorschach's journal out of

the mailbox.

Panel 2: Two riders again.

Panel 9: The journal is the "Urgent" package. The watch salesman is

in the background.

Page 24, panel 4: The graffiti read "Sieg Heil," a swastika, and

"Scum." Apparently not everybody approves of the Frontiersman. We see

through the window that Pioneer Publishing is opposite Woolworth's, which has a

Mmeltdowns ad.

Panel 5: Feinberg drew the cartoon in issue #8 (it was signed just

"F."). This may well be the same Walt Feinberg who drew "Tales of the Black

Freighter."

Panel 6: Odd that the journal is from 1984-1985, but the 10/12/85

entry is on the first page. (In issue #1, it read "Dog carcass," not "Dead

dog." Either Seymour is paraphrasing or the captions were from his notes,

not the final version.)

Page 28, panels 4-6: More TV screens, and the final set of two

riders.

Pages 29-32: Various papers from Adrian's desk.

Page 29, paragraph 1: He vetoed them in issue #5, page 13.

Page 30: Notice "Call Laurie" and the beginning of a phone number on

the left. This blotter's layout is interesting; internal evidence

suggests that it begins on Saturday (the opposite of Dan's). Clumping the

weekends together on one line is a useful idea, actually.

One wonders if the Rorschach figure's mask would shift patterns; it's

theoretically possible, but might be expensive for a cheap plastic

action figure.

Page 31, paragraph 5: In issue #12 we see some of the Millennium

advertising.

Page 32: The new "Veidt Method" ad (looking like it was printed on a

Macintosh).

By the way, Adrian's signature is identical on all three pages.

(Obviously Gibbons had a stat made of the first signature on the art, but it

looks a little odd in the context of the series.)

�

�

--

�

Chapter 11: "Look on my Works, Ye Mighty..."

Watchmen is a trademark of DC Comics Inc., copyright 1994.

These annotations copyright 1994 by Doug Atkinson. They may be freely

copied and distributed, provided the text is not altered.

Certain notes are true for each issue. Each one is written by

Alan Moore, drawn and lettered by Dave Gibbons, and colored by John

Higgins.

Moreover, each issue has a continuing motif, a reoccuring object

or pattern that is seen on the cover, the first and last page (usually),

and throughout the issue. This issue's motif is the pure white field.

Another trend is the title, which is always an excerpt from an

apropos quote shown in its entirety in the last panel. This issue's title is

from Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem Ozymandias.

The clock appearing on the covers counts the minutes to

midnight, similar to the clock in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,

which is an estimate of the world's closeness to nuclear war. The clock

stands at 1 minutes to midnight.

Cover: Veidt's vivarium, seen from the outside through a snowstorm.

The shape of the opening is that of the blood spatter on the smiley-face;

it will reappear later this issue.

Page