I confess that I’ve not come across a superb piece of art called ‘Watchmen’ before. Unlike the west, comics aren’t keenly followed or marketed to a bigger audience in this part of the country. But here’s the thing – it’s usually the artwork that encourages me to buy a comic-book.
The movie version of this comic book was released last year but it’s a misplaced judgment to think that I picked the comic book ONLY for this reason. The artwork of ‘Watchmen’ – colouring, penciling, compositions grabbed my attention, Dave Gibbons has done them so wonderfully. Also all the 12 issues published by DC Comics in a single volume makes it a collector’s item!
Like any other comic-book that you grab, one tends to get caught in the illustrations & colour, same happened here. As the story progresses towards a thrilling climax paying more attention to finer details becomes irrelevant or difficult – aren’t comics supposed to be enjoyed, lived through? but ‘Watchmen’ is different. I noted some nuances which I came across during my reading, you’ll realize why this is NOT an ordinary comic-book we’re talking here. I am still discovering the hidden facets from ‘Watchmen’ and will add them here, perhaps it might take another reading. But these are just a few of my hurried notes.
Comic-within-a-Comic
Scenes appear intermittently of another comic story juxtaposing with the main storyline. At a newsstand in downtown New York City, a teenager called Bernie (Bernard) is reading a comic-book ‘Tales of the Black Freighter’ comprising the story ‘Marooned’, he mentions reading it repeatedly. It’s about a castaway mariner, adrift on a raft made of bodies of his former shipmates, going towards his home at Davidstown to warn his family of the arrival of a phantom pirate ship called the ‘Black Freighter’. When he reaches Davidstown he finds it is already under the occupation of the pirate crew. After murdering a couple at the shores, he returns home and kills a night watchman only to realize it’s his wife he has murdered in panic. Destruction has now befallen upon him. As he escapes the scene & returns to the shore he finds the ‘Black Freighter’ approaching, ready to claim the only life that it truly desired – he boards the ship eagerly. What I’m now trying to understand is the logic behind presenting this story as a comic within ‘Watchmen’; whether it has any moral resemblance to the main story.
The owner of the news stand is an old man called Bernard. It’s been shown that he’s not particularly happy about Bernie spending time at the newsstand reading the comic for free but when he finds out about his namesake, a special affection grows for the young lad. However sadly when the Alien Monster is unleashed upon New York City by Adrian Veidt, Bernard tries to save the teenager and both eventually succumb to the destruction (Page 6, Chapter XII). I believe that the presence of Nite Owl II, Rorschach, Dr. Manhattan & Silk Spectre at Veidt’s Antartic retreat ‘Karnak’ saved their lives from the Alien Monster catastrophe.
Clocks
With progressive chapters, on the title page there’s a clock with the minute hand drawing closer to midnight that’s similar to the Doomsday Clock that symbolizes the end of the world. Finally in Chapter XII the clock strikes 12 when the Alien Monster is dropped & half of the New York City is obliterated.
The Knot Tops
They are a dreaded gang headed by man named Derf. The name ‘Knot Tops’ comes from a Japanese style of knotting their heads. They mistakenly murder Hollis Mason, the first Nite Owl thinking he has freed Rorschach from the prison. Eventually it’s shown in Chapter XII that the Knot Tops perish outside a movie theater on ‘doomsday’. Therefore the illustrations are not merely drawn for effects but to further the storyline. I also found that the ‘Katies’ which the Knot Tops are seen referring is a street drug called KT-28, you can see someone asking for it and popping the contents of a packet in the next box.
Comedian’s Smiley Badge
The yellow badge with a smiley face appears in the first chapter during the murder of The Comedian. He was wearing the badge on his dressing gown when he was thrown out of the window of his apartment, it was lying washed near the gutter on the street with a blood stain on it. Subsequently Rorschach picks up the badge & begins the investigation. That’s where the story starts.
About the blood stain – an interpretation drawn from some websites was an arrow of the minute hand of a clock pointing at 10 minutes to 12, implying symbolically to the Doomsday Clock and the proximity of the catastrophic destruction of the Earth. The smiley face also appears as a crater on Argyre Planitia of planet Mars when Laurie goes to meet Doctor Manhattan and as his clockwork tower starts breaking up (Page 27, Chapter IX). The badge appears on numerous pages in the comic as well.
Rorschach’s Mask
Walter Kovacs a.k.a. Rorschach is the main character of the entire series, he raises the alarm and investigates a murderer who’s after the masked superheroes, confiding the truth in Daniel Dreiberg (Nite Owl II) after The Comedian is killed.
(Chapter VI, Page 10) After being framed in the murder of Edgar Jacobi (the masked hero Moloch, the mystic), he tells Dr. Malcolm Long, the psychologist about the history behind his “face”. In 1962 while working in a garment factory, he received a special order for a dress from a young girl with an Italian name for a Dr. Manhattan spin-off fabric – “viscous fluids between two layers latex, heat and pressure sensitive”, he notes. The girl never collects the dress but Kovacs loves it, telling Dr. Long, “…black and white. Moving. Changing shape…but not mixing. No Gray”. Since nobody wanted it, he takes it home and cuts it to make a mask. And that becomes the true identity of Rorschach, his face.
I am trying to find answers to the following –
(1) what’s that thing President Nixon’s holding in his hand in Chapter X?
(2) Veidt poisons the 3 gentlemen in ‘Karnak’, who are they, servants or scientists?
(3) Is there any significance behind the perfume bottle which Laurie breaks on Mars, recollecting her past to Jon. And some more…as I read the comic book once again for crucial answers.
