Contributed Notes on Watchmen in General

Howard L. Price
Sept. 7, 1995

...I've read Watchmen at least 20 times, and every time I find something else different, some new 5 minutes to 12 design I missed before...

Howard L. Price
Sept. 7, 1995

In XI.28.13, you link the smear shape of the newsvendor and the young black man to two other places. I have found the smear in a few other places (and again, if I had the book with me, I could give you page and panel, so I hope my descriptions are adequate enough for you to find them):

• Laurie's finger smear across the dust on Dreiberg's goggles.

• Dreiberg's finger smear across the grease on his window, overlooking the cityscape from his kitchen.

• The smear on the pyramid poster at the murder scene where the man kills his family.

• And of course, the front cover to issue XI itself.

• For some reason, all the smears are at the 5 till midnight position of the minute hand of the doomsday clock.

Howard L. Price
Sept. 12, 1995

Some more observations, specifically on Rorschach and Ozymandias.

• Alexander the Great started from nothing and gained power. Ozymandias gave up everything to start over, while Rorschach truly started from nothing to attain the power he held. And as for power, who was it that everybody in New York was afraid of... Ozymandias?

• Rorschach is alwasy seen taking the most straightforward path, wading through everything letting nothing stand in his path. Notice in the beginning, Rorschach walks directly through the blood puddle rather than around. There is also a scene where it is raining and Rorschach is seen walking through the puddles.

• Since Rorschach successfully broke into Daniel's house no matter how many times the Gordian Knot company replaced the lock, it could be argued that Rorschach cut through more Gordian Knots than Veidt.

See also Adam Noble's response to Price.

Jason Bergman
Oct. 9, 1995

Just a few comments...there is an interview with Steve Bissette, Neil Gaiman, and Tom Vietch in the back of "The One" trade paperback, that I think you might find of interest. The roundtable discussion is about revisionist superheroes, and naturally Moore's Watchmen comes up and they have some facinating insights to the topic. Also, have you any plans for a V for Vendetta page? I think this is a very underappreciated novel, certainly on the same level of depth as Watchmen. (And of course Moore's recent work, From Hell.)

I obviously can't keep up with Watchmen. Anybody want to take on V for Vendetta or From Hell? Not to mention (heh heh) 1963? -- sam

Mikael Sundstrom
Nov. 29, 1995

I have read your Watchmen pages with thorough interest. A few years back I wrote an essay on Watchmen, where I tried to delve into its subject matter. I had the fortune to have a professor who let me carry on with my project even though it was, and still is, considered suspicious to take serious the comic as an artform proper. I have since moved from the English dept. to the Dept of Political Science where I am a doctoral candidate. I still find that Moore's (to my knowledge unsurpassed) knowledge provides ideas which I can relate to my research -- not a mean feat by any piece of literature.

Although my essay on Watchmen is relatively crude, it may possibly illuminate some new aspects of the novel. If you would like me to e-mail it, please let me know. If that is the case, you must indicate your preferred format.

Alas, the essay never made it to my mailer -- probably through no fault of Sundstrom's. I include his note partly for general reader information and partly because it says what lots of other mail has said: Watchmen is a major piece of narrative art. -- sam

Joe W. Aultman
Feb. 17, 1996

Some things I'd like to add to the discussion, about the knot heads:

1. Pale Horse -- the quintessential knot heads. The link to Death is an easy and obvious one. But it goes deeper...

2. Everyone at the concert dies...

3. Knot heads kill Hollis Mason.

Proceeding, and tying this in to the rest of our knot imagery:

4. Veidt is the mask killer.

5. Veidt is the cause of all the, well, death at the Pale Horse concert.

6. Veidt, by obsession with Alexander and the Gordian variety of knot is, thus, the _ultimate_ knot head.

There is quite a way to go with this along the same themes you identify in your own analysis. Shattered symmetry, similarity of opposites, etc. Just thought I'd share the basics of the idea.

Dennette A. Harrod, Jr. (Abu Hurairah)
Feb. 25, 1996

...BTW, I always hate it when I find people younger than me with a Ph.D., but then, I was a 16 year old college dropout ... I'd heard what Malcolm said about what they call a black man with a Ph.D. in the South, and since I was already too damned smart for my own good, I figured I'd enjoy life before I fulfilled my karma and turned into Strange Fruit. Who knew the barriers would come down so soon?

Something to pass along to your students ... the first black man to fly in space was a Cuban, three years before the Americans sent a Ph.D. who flew 150 combat missions in Viet Nam as a "Payload Specialist" -- the PC term for "baggage handler."

Dear Reader: If you don't see how strongly all this relates to Watchmen (especially the bit about the first black man in space -- that is, Alternative History), read on. For starters, I can recommend Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael Reed and The Autobiography of Malcolm X... -- sam

Eric Weidhorn
April 29, 1996

Your critical analysis proved to be an essential secondary source for understanding the many nuances of Watchmen. And your light revealed Watchmen to contain countless clever, apt allusions (Blake, Scorcese, Dylan, Nietzsche, Siegal, Shuster) making it a veritable LOLITA of the comics field. One of the many things that separates your work from Dr. Frederick Wertham's prudish analysis of comics is the fact that you discussed intentional and crucial motifs; you did not seek to apply misunderstood Freudian themes to show the depravity of the author, and by extention, the audience. (Although I am not sure that Watchmen could be considered a "comic." No comic book has ever, to my mind, come close to the sophisticated presentation of political commentary, mythology and the like.)

One allusion you may have overlooked was to Edgar Allan Poe's longest story, NARRATIVE OF ARTHUR GORDON PYM. This story, which makes a fine read once you get into it, bears a strong resemblance to the pirate's journal in Watchmen, the "play within the play." Like the hapless pirate, the character Pym endures a string of visceral sufferings at sea that are both expertly fleshed out and breathtaking.

In addition to this parallel, there are other similar themes. NARRATIVE OF ARTHUR GORDON PYM has a strong message about duality (black and white, good and evil, passivity and furor) that mirrors Watchmen's notions of symmetry. And the endings are both the same geographically.

As Pym nears the "heart of darkness," he too finds himself immersed in a white environment that contains the South Pole. And, of course, he finds that time is not linear but in fact interconnected at the most unlikely places! I am sure Moore is familliar with this Poe piece.

Gene Chung-ngai Moy
Dec. 11, 1996

I've been toying around with Foucault and Eagleton lately, and I'm reminded of the difference between political and so-called non-political criticism -- that the only difference is, one form is explicit about their criticism, one is not.

Rorschach wears his problematics on his face, the problematics of what may be considered "insane," "not normal," but by whose standards? One looks at a rorschach test. Rorschach both "gives the test" and is the test; he is the psychologist, but hides behind a mask. His "face" is split in the middle . . .

Dr. Manhattan hides his problematics -- he is "the superman," the ubermensch; he has a middle class background, his is the perfection of physics, as opposed to the messiness of humanity and psychology. Ultimately, he is a greater monster than Rorschach could ever be, but is veiled under the gaze which posits him as the superman, the ubermensch. (More nietzsche references.) As opposed to Rorschach, whose humanity is hidden underneath an ugly exterior, an "ugly face."

Howard L. Price
Jan. 9, 1997

1997 is the 10th anniversary of the Watchmen series. Look for various specials based on the series, possibly even a second story by Moore and Gibbons, if the terms are right (in an interview with Wizard Magazine, about 3 months ago).

Pb Sanderson
May 23, 1997

RE: Dan's homosexuality -- Batman and Robin archetypes:

This comes back to Dan as the Batman mirror in this world; Batman has always (so far as I know) always had a 'Robin' figure around him, a boy who wears bright colors and follows him around like a puppy dog and provides a bit of comic relief (especially in the Adam West TV show, the most popular Batman series). However as these boys grow-up (or die), they are replaced by other youngsters (eg Dick Greyson's transformation into Nighthawk). Infact, in the "Lonely Place of Dying" series, Batman's objections to obtaining a new 'ward' are simillar to a widower's objections to taking a new wife. (see also Frank Miller's "Return of the Dark Knight" storyline.)

As a mirror, Dan went "soft" according to Rorschach, giving in to living off his inheritance and chasing his boyhood dreams (Hrm...anyone ever brought Peter Pan into all of this?), living off the nostaligia of his past until he once again dons the cape to recover from the impotency of middle-age. However Rorschach never gave up. It is a twist on the Batman archetype; the 'Robin' caracter (insomuch as Rorschach ever was) grew-up to be one of the most feared, and powerful inhabitants of New York, while Nite-Owl (the second Nite-Owl, now that I think about it) delved back into the realm of myths, growing more and more impotent.

Finally, and perhaps this is already mentioned, the stongest link to Dan and the Batman archetype is his name; Nite-Owl. When one thinks of night-predators, Bats and Owls tops the list. As for Rorschach, the "R" homonym to Robin is obvious, but in his response to the Rorschach Ink-Blot test his images are all nice, cheery Spring images. Like Robins.

Batman and Rorschach? Though you can't ignore the connection, I suppose. -- sam

Robert Schmidt
October 8, 1997

Has anyone else noticed the similarity between the recurring clock faces with hands closing in on midnight, and the smiley face with blood on it? The blood stain almost looks like an arrow, like a clock's hand, to me.

The last image from Hollis' apartment has another "splat across face" if you look at the group photo to the left. A drop of something (probably blood) is crossing the first Nite Owl's face. Also, Dan (as Nite Owl) gets the same blood smear on his chest when Veidt throws the lid into his face.

W. Seth Hanisek
December 12, 1997

Firstly I want to congratulate you on your efforts with this site. I wish it had been around when I was writing my senior thesis...it may have been a more painless process. My thesis was some critical analysis of modern comic works, with chapters on Sandman, MAUS, and of course, Watchmen. I was delighted when I found your site, and hope you keep up the good work.

One of the parallels I discovered in my thesis writing was the similarity between Adrian's plan and the "Tales of the Black Freighter" story. Some points in favor of this argument:

• The sailor builds a raft from the dead bodies of his crew-mates ("...borne on the naked backs of murdered men.") Adrian has "struggled across the backs of murdered innocents to save humanity."

• The sailor runs into a shark that is "neither black nor wholly white, but a pale and mottled yellow" that poses a danger, but eventually becomes a part of the raft. Rorschach (who is referred to in the tip-off call to the police as "raw shark") poses a danger to Adrian's plan, but after he is framed lends credence to the "mask-killer" theory, deflecting attention from Adrian.

• When the moneylender from Davidstown and his companion stumble on the sailor's raft, he kills them to silence them. Adrian murders Blake to silence him.

• When the sailor finds he has beaten his wife in his rage, he swims out to the Black Freighter, which is waiting to collect his soul and send it to Hell. Adrian tells Jon that he has dreamed "about swimming towards a hideous...no. Nevermind, it isn't significant." The implication is obvious.

If we accept this parallel, we can extend it in the other direction, and apply aspects of the pirate story to Adrian's plan. The sailor, spurred on by the purest of motives, becomes in his megalo-maniacal rage, and hurts those he meant to protect. Adrian becomes so caught up in his arrogant need to be the one who saves humanity that he ultimately dooms the world to a worse fate than originally it faced (if we assume that Seymour finds and publishes Rorschach's journal at the end).

The connections go much deeper than I have outlined here (this IS Watchmen, after all). Finding this cross-connection was my proudest moment in my short career as a literary critic. Another that is equally enlightening (but, alas, for which I cannot take credit) is that between Adrian's plan and Dan's article "Blood From the Shoulder of Pallas" in chapter 7, "A Brother to Dragons."

If I may, there is an inquiry I'd like to make, and a comment. In repeated readings of Watchmen, I have noticed that with a few exceptions, the blots on Rorschach's mask are constantly changing and do not repeat. I kind of hypothesized that the blots were supposed to somehow be an actual representation of his emotional reactions... but then again... anyway, there are three distinct blot patterns that make a repeat appearance:

1. What I call the "surprised" blot. It appears three times: In Chapter I, when Rorschach discovers the Comedian's costume in Blake's closet; in Chapter V, when Rorschach discovers that Moloch is dead; and in Chapter VI, when the pre-transformation Rorschach realizes that the kidnapper's dogs are eating what's left of the little girl.

2. The "Happy Harry" blot. It appears twice: On the first occasion Rorschach goes to Happy Harry's; and when he visits there a second time. A variation of this blot appears while Rorschach is interrogating Moloch in Chapter Two.

3. The "Never Compromise" blot (well, I can't think of anything else to call it). It appears twice: Once in Chapter I; and in Chapter XII, during the panels where the heroes are discussing their options over the "all we did was stop him saving the world" situation.

And, well, gee, is there really any sort of meaning to the blots, in and of themselves, save a recurring theme of symmetry?

For more about Rorschach's mask, see James Harvey's note below.

I noticed the comments about possible similarities between Adrian Veidt and actor Conrad Veidt. Conrad Veidt was the Nazi major in Casablanca, but before Casablanca, Veidt was probably most famous for a couple silent films of the late 1920's (and Metropolis wasn't one of them). One of these was The Man Who Laughs (based on a Victor Hugo novel, I believe), about a man whose face is purposefully disfigured into a hideous smile, hence the title. Batman Creator Bob Kane said that this movie iwas one of the inspirations for the Joker... And I'm not absolutely certain, but I think Veidt might have been in a couple of pirate movies...

Veidt also starred in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. This was the tale of a traveling sideshow, where the titular doctor kept his star attraction (Veidt) in the title's cabinet. Veidt was Cesare, a somnambulist (sleepwalker) who would be taken out of the cabinet, awakened, and ordered to predict the future of any audience member who dared ask him. And, perhaps not surprisingly, Cesare predicted some grim futures for those who asked. Ultimately, the film reveals that Caligari is directing Cesare to kill people. But Cesare refuses to kill his last intended victim, and instead flees, carrying her off, with an angry mob after him. What this ultimately has to do with Watchmen has eluded me (gee, it seemed a lot more interesting when I was thinking of it...) and the lines between inquiry and comment have blurred. I only mentioned more about Veidt because it looked like only one other person mentioned Conrad Veidt.

I noticed the shapes of the word balloons throughout Watchmen. The word balloons in the "present-day" sequences and the 70s scenes are mostly round, but kind of hard-egded, as if instead of an actual rounded curve, it's a bunch of little line segments put together to form a sort of round polygon. These are the balloons that appear through most of the book, along with Dr. Manhattan's blue-in-white balloons (suggesting his voice echoes?) and Rorshach's squiggly balloons (suggesting that, to me, he sounds like Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now...) In flashbacks to the scenes of the Minutemen, and the scene where the elder Osterman tells his son that he must look to a future in nuclear science, the word balloons look like puffy clouds. In the flashbacks to the 60s and 50s, the word balloons are smoothly rounded, and not hard-edged like the word balloons of the 70s and present-day scenes.

Wow! -- sam

You don't suppose an "Annotated Watchmen" could ever be published? You know, like Leonard Wolf's annotated editions of Dracula and Frankenstein? I've even seen an annotated edition of The Hobbit: it's a very large hardcover book with all the little footnotes at the bottoms of the pages... How long would we have to wait for an annotated edition? Or, even, heaven forbid, Cliff Notes? Well, admittedly the latter would probably only become necessary if Watchmen were to become required reading for literature classes...

Did you see Rorshach's cameo appearance in chapter two of Kingdom Come? You can barely see him, but he appears standing in the background of a couple panels, apparently trying to get info out of some guy seated at a table by breaking his fingers. Though from what I read in a back issue of Wizard, the character being interrogated is Brother Power, who has no bones to break.

--Duncan "No relation to Max, but who knows?" Shea

DC published a deluxe, hardback edition of Watchmen featuring notes on the origin and conception of the project, particularly its relationship to the old Charlton line of superhero comics. It's no longer in print (Spring, 1999) but may still be available from collectors. Expect to pay upwards of US$100 --sam

Doug Atkinson has also done annotations for Watchmen. He mentions that it is curious that Hollis Mason did not mention any radio super-heroes, since though the Shadow is mentioned, the Shadow radio show is not. However, I noticed that the right-wing magazine in the back of Chapter VIII made reference to the Lone Ranger, who was originally a hugely successful radio show super-hero before the 1950's TV show.

Nova Express makes reference to "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." One wonders if such borderline super-hero 1960s secret agents were very popular in the Watchmen's world, for the existence of Dr. Manhattan might have made them uninteresting. (Note: Though most movie and film 1960's secret agents were armed with Doc Savage-like weaponry, the espionage genre (such as Eric Ambler and Grahame Greene's work in the 1930's, for example) was orginally not borderline super- heroic or science-fiction-like. Even Ian Fleming's 007, in the original novels about the charachter, was not depicted using Buck Rogers-esque weapons and paraphernalia).

A bit of a stretch: Moloch is of course a Biblical name, but I saw the 1937 serial "Dick Tracy" with Ralph Byrd, and one of the villains was named Moloch. (Actually, in Chapter XI, Veidt makes reference to "Republic serial villains.") One wonders how the history of the Dick Tracy strip unfolded in the Watchmen's world; Max Allan Collins points out that most of the Dick Tracy super-villains date from the 1940s, as do such sci-fi touches as the two-way wrist radio (before this, Tracy fought relatively prosaic gangsters modeled after criminals of the era like Al Capone, and did not have a two-way wrist radio; the now DC super-hero Midnight actually had a two-way wrist radio before Dick Tracy got his). Maybe real-life costumed heroes would have discouraged such touches. In our world, of course, Dick Tracy was a major influence on the Batman, and is still in publication after almost seventy years.

The Watchmen hardcover states that the Comedian was supposed to be the [Charlton Comics character] Peacemaker. But that does not preclude other touches like Nick Fury. (After all, Silk Spectre was supposed to be Nightshade (though they couldn't have her have super-powers) but the idea of a 40s and modern version may have come from the mother and daughter Black Canary. (For the record, Ozymandias was supposed to be Peter Cannon:Thunderbolt. The Golden Age Nite-Owl mirrored the Golden Age Blue Beetle, who was a policeman. His adventures were published by Fox, a now defunct publisher that sold the Blue Beetle to Charlton.)

Rorschach was supposed to be the Question, Nite-Owl II the Ted Kord Blue Beetle, and Doctor Manhattan mirrored Captain Atom. Incidentally, though all three of these heroes received series from DC, none of them lasted one hundred issues. (The Question came closest at 60 issues.)

I have a Comics Interview with Alan Moore on Watchmen. See also Amazing Heroes nos. 93, 94, and 130, which included in ads promotional art for Watchmen not used in the series proper. See also Wizard no. 45, which reprinted art for foreign versions of Watchmen.

Since buying the trade paperback a few months ago, I've been madly scavenging the Web for sites relating to the series.... I finished reading some of the contributors' notes and wanted to add my perspective.

I enjoyed reading Mr. Howard Price's comparison between Adrian and Rorschach. I think that they are the best example of symmetry in the series. One is violent, paranoid and with an incredible devotion to punishing the guilty and to the truth. The other is a non-violent, calm, intelligent, and willing to pull off the ultimate lie and sacrifice that which is not his (seven million lives) to "save the world".

Although Rorschach died to stop Adrian's secret from getting out, Rorschach's journal may be able to undo what so many died for.

This may be Alan Moore's way of sneaking in a "happy" ending. Well, maybe not. But, eventually, Rorschach's journal may be discovered, and the truth may triumph over lies (for good or ill).

James Harvey
April 28, 1998

I have noticed something pretty cool: look at Rorschach's mask patterns in I.24.6, and notice what he is saying: "Because there is good, and there is evil, and evil must be punished. Even in the face of armageddon I will not compromise in this." Now look at panels XII.20.4-7. He knows Veidt's plan is not made up, it's actually happened, millions of New Yorkers have been killed. Jon, Laurie and Dan are going to keep quiet about it, but notice Rorschach's face. It's exactly the same (skull like) face as in I.24.6! This is why on this page he says "No. Not even in the face of armageddon. Never compromise." Because he sees what Veidt has done as evil, and it must be punished. And he will not compromise.

It's a bit like how Rorschach puts on his "shocked" face whenever he is surprised--as in I.8.2 when he discovers Blake is the Comedian, and in VI.20.9 when he is shocked to notice how long the dog's bone is, realizing it is the little girl's leg bone. Noticing recurring patterns on Rorschach's mask can help us to understand what kind of emotions Rorschach is feeling.

You know, sometimes I can be reading something entirely unrelated to Watchmen and still get a mind-blowing revelation.

I'm reading a book about Supercolliders and Superconductors. I learned that when two protons are made to collide, scientists measure the subatomic particles and categorize them. The "quarks" are measured and placed into two different types of categories: "STRANGENESS" and "CHARM."

Were subatomic particles not Dr. M's playthings? Check the bulletin board when Dr. M takes down the photo of Osterman and Slater. There's a logo across the picture display: "At play amidst the strangeness and charm."

I couldn't read anymore that night. :-)

Here is to my knowledge a major breakthrough in understanding what the smears mean in Watchmen. I think somebody already mentioned that the recurring splatters look like clock hands--but did he/she notice what I am about to point out? Take the very first splatter in the book: the splatter on the Comedian's badge. Let's say that the smiley face is a clock face with the smear as a minute hand. If we imagine that the hour hand is at midnight, what do we get? We get the same time as on the clock faces at the beginning and end of Chapter I!

This is true of almost all the splatters in the book: they will if viewed as a clock face give the same time as the clocks at the beginning and end of the chapter in which they are found. It is also true of some other images, like the sweeping radar in X.1.1.

Sound far fetched? Try the smears Laurie makes in Dan's goggles and in Archie's windscreen: They are at the same angle, to each other and the smear in Dan't goggles even has its own impromptu hour hand, point at 12 o'clock. This makes the time 5 minutes to 12, not only the time on the clock at the beginning and end of the chapter, but the time on the headline of Veidt's newspaper in Chapter I.

I have my own theories on the symbolism of the few clock faces that do not match the time on their chapter clocks, but I'll post those at a later date.

Roderick Young
June 25,1998

I stumbled across this reference and immediately thought of Ozymandias' plot to "save the world." The reference is as follows:

"When you stop to think that we're all God's children, wherever we may live in the world, I couldn't help but say to [Gorbachev], just think how easy his task and mine might be in these meetings that we held if suddenly there was a threat to this world from another planet outside in the universe."

Ronald Reagan addressing Fallston High School, quoted by Jeff Smith, "Reagan, Star Wars, and American Culture", Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Jan/Feb 1987, p 25.

Adam Noble
July 17, 1998

I don't know if this was the intention of Mr. Moore and Mr. Gibbons or not, but whenever a blot appears on something, I've kind of taken it as a form of symbolism. The blood drop on the button for example. I've always taken it as a kind of streak of violence and harsh reality across simple innocence (perhaps a metaphor for the way Watchmen and its grim and gritty ilk changed comics?). It's ironic that Blake, perhaps the darkest and least-likeable character in the series has a happy little smiley face. Similarly, the smear from the dome in XI is life (and all its casual miracles) across simple white nothing.

JM
July 30,1998

Some similarities between Watchmen and Batman: The Killing Joke, which Moore also wrote:

1. The Joker (of humanity): ". . . one in eight of them crack up and go stark slavering buggo!" Just like the graffito, "ONE IN EIGHT GO MAD" which appears in Watchmen.

2. II.27 The joke Rorschach tells about the Comedian here reminds me a lot of the joke that the Joker tells at the end of The Killing Joke.

3. And if you still don't think that there are any connections between the two, have a look at the raindrop inside the cover of Killing Joke. Turn it upside down, and compare it to the recurring smear in Watchmen. Spooky.

Adam Noble
September 1, 1998

Watchmen is a chronicle of the twentieth century, primarily. It creates a sense of mysticism about Vietnam, Hiroshima, and other defining moments of our age. It uses the superhero as a metaphor for everything right about our era: our white knights and gods or what have you; our current form of mythic storytelling.

Jeff Curtis
October 5,1998

In response to a letter that was posted by Duncan Shea, 23 January 1998 in your general notes section, I just wanted to point out that Rorschach's mask is heat and pressure sensitive (VI.10.2) so it is only logical that the mask is showing his emotions. What is interesting is that when he has his mask off we see little or no emotion on his face except at the end, when Dr. Manhattan kills him. Does the mask betray more feeling than the man?

This is an interesting point, but it doesn't hold quite true. Rorschach/Kovacs "breaks" face in several places, notably in IV.5.4 , where he uses his face as mask in response to Dr. Long's false optimism; when he gives his stare of rage in IV.7. 8-9; and each time he stares at a Rorschach card. For the most part he uses his face as a blank mask, but the mask sometimes slips. This point is very well illustrated by Paul Welch's note on X.6.6-7. -- jef

Adam Noble
December 18,1998

Regarding Ozymandias' name:

Adrian Veidt's initials are "AV," and hence, all of the triangle designs in Karnak are reversed triangles to match the letters in his name. This also accounts for the "Pyramids" all over the place. (I.E.: "Lethal Pyramid" of killers, Pyramid Deliveries, Egyptian themes, etc.)

Adam Noble
January 20, 1999

IV.5.5 "Other people seem to make all my moves for me."

Something that's apparent both in Jon's reluctant attacks on Moloch's vice-den (IV.14.2) and participation in Vietnam. (IV.21.1-2) Echoed again later in IX.5.4: "We're all puppets, Laurie. I'm just a puppet who can see the strings." Jon's long-term manipulation by the American government is one reason he's so bitter about humanity. "Bitter" is also used in I.25.2 and III.10.4 to describe Laurie (directly and in an allusion, respectively).

Adam Noble
January 20, 1999

The reason, I believe, that airships are so prevalent in Watchmen is that their shape is similar to the atomic bomb, and they symbolize the ever-present threat of nuclear war in the Watchmen world.

See for instance IV.24.4: Laurie and Jon are walking in what appears to be a peaceful afternoon outing. But as Jon observes, "Flat intangible blots of gray (implication of Rorschach's fears of armageddon?) slide across the summer sidewalks, the shadows of overhead airships."

Keep watching the skies. -- sam