The Book in the Mirror: Reading Chapter V of Watchmen

Jessica Furé and Stuart Moulthrop
Spring, 1999

Though Watchmen is in all its parts a work of amazing cleverness, Chapter V stands out as a particular tour de force. The size, structure, and position of every panel obeys a carefully arranged pattern. Each panel in the work corresponds to a panel on another page, such that the entire 28-page chapter can be folded up along its axis or spine. Page 1 folds against page 28, and panel 1 of page 1 (top left of the page) corresponds to panel 3 of page 28 (top right). Page 2 pairs with page 27, 3 with 26, and so forth until we reach the middle of the structure, pages 14 and 15:

the central spread

In order to explore this curious design and its meaning for the work as a whole, we've created this reading project. It too comes in two parts -- though we don't pretend to symmetry, fearful or otherwise.

One is an interpretive essay by Jessica Furé outlining major structural and thematic features of the chapter. The other is a page browser with which you can compare each panel of Chapter V against its mirror twin. Click on a panel within the image of the spread in order to bring up a full-size version of the relevant pair. Jessica has also provided comments for each two-page spread.

The navigation bar at the top of each page provides links to each spread, to the interpretive essay, and to other parts of Watching the Detectives.