Contributed Notes for Chapter IX

Joe Spampinato
May 30, 1996

IX.27.1-2 A note about that smiley face crater on Mars -- there really is one. I found it mentioned on a (professional) skeptics' home page. It was almost as stunning a revelation as when I first noticed it in my fifth or sixth reading of 'Watchmen.' I'll send you a URL if I find the text again.

Paul Adams
March 29, 1997

IX.18.1 While Jon is arguing with Laurie about the fate of mankind, he makes the statement "I am standing in deep snow...I am killing someone. Their identity is uncertain." Taken at face value this would seem to mean that Jon is uncertain of who he will be killing. Rorschach, however, is of very uncertain identity at the best of times. Jon's statement might actually be a veiled comment about Rorschach's inability to accept his identity.

LOUS na Aton da UFRGS
July 24, 1997

I'm from Brazil, and I read Watchmen again lately... One thing that left me REALLY intrigued and I didn't found in your website is in Chapter nine in the letter that Larry wrote to Sally. Larry says something like, "if some of these punks go to the police (...) this would be the end of the Silhouette," when he was talking about H.J. and Nelson. I don't know if in the transaltion something was lost or is it a really intriguing comment? If it is, what does it mean?

Adam Noble
July 17, 1998

IX.8.2-3 "She's vulnerable... fragile..." Throughout this series, Laurie is equated with glass objects. The bottle of Nostalgia, especially. Fragile, and full of sweetness, but when treated without care, break open, "spilling everything" (IX.12.7). A metaphor for women in general, on Alan Moore's part perhaps? Interesting, how, when she's around Dan in VII, nothing gets broken (the lenses to the goggles, the trophy cases, etc.), but when she's with Jon, everything breaks (the glass city, the bottle). She seems much more comfortable and in good hands with Dan than with Jon.

So, then, it's rather ironic that a scene where Laurie is definitely in Jon's hands (III.4.1-3) prompts her to leave him. -- jef

Adam Noble
July 30, 1998

IX.6.6 "Time is simultaneous, an intricately structured jewel that humans insist on viewing one edge at a time, when the whole design is visible in every facet." Like Adrian's observation at the beginning of chapter XI, consider what this says about comics. Everything, past, present and future is visible at once, but we focus on one panel at a time. I believe there was something very similar to this mentioned in Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics:

Understanding Comics p. 104.

Dennette A. Harrod, Jr.
September 10, 1998

I have a URL for IX.27.1: The "Face on Mars:"

http://www.waterholes.com/~dennette/comix/watchmen/mars.htm

This page has a photo from one of the Mars missions that shows the real crater that inspired these panels.

In case Dennette Harrod's original page is not accessible, there's a copy on this site. The NASA photo composite (left) comes from the hardcover edition of Watchmen (thanks to Jonathan Sachsman).