Watchmen Reaction Week 2

think the circles like the Smiley Face, besides being constant reminders of the Comedians death, also has a meaning itself. If look at the shape, it forms a 0 (zero) showing the insignifigance of humanity when compared to the larger schemes of things, a major theme of Watchmen, and one echoed constantly by Dr. Manhatten. The circles themselves could also be the idea of fullfilment/completeness, especially when we consider the costant watch imagery we see through the work. Going furthur with that idea, when a circle is fully formed, you get back to your starting point, just as with Watchmen's ending ie Extreme Closeup of a Smiley Face. I think there was only one sequence with red tinted panels that wasn't a flashback, which was Rosharch's prison scene with Big Figure near the end of that chapter. I think as Nate said, it underscores the upcoming violence of the scene, and especially that one when compared to Blake's gruesome death, we never see Big Figure die, except the toilet water/blood overflowing through the door. That kinda reminds me of Hitchcock's Psycho shower scene, how the violence is in the audience's heads, another idea presented by mcCloud about comics, we are in control of what happens outside the panels. Watchmen seems to let the reader be in control of the comic. I mentioned last week about the lack of sound effects, but also motion lines, so we can never tell how fast a character moves, or hard they hit, etc. Best examples are probably the action scenes like when Adrian Veidt catches a bullet, Blake's death, etc. As for the quotes at the end, I think Nate already said it best as a way to reiterate themes, ideas, etc. and essentially sum up the chapter in a short but memorable sentence. The Appendices like "Under the Hood", etc. Give us the chronology and history of characters and events that lead up the book, but I think they also give us a different POV of the characters. One in particular, the last one that interviews Adrian Veidt, really sees a different side of him, especially after killing millions of people. We learn a bit more about his 3 servants (who are barely in the book) and that Veidt in fact rescued them from Vietnam and gave them a home, so you give him a bit more sympathy, of course there's a limit when you consider his actions. And on a sidenote, you told us to think about if other comics used this device, Nate thought of Jimmy Corrigon, which I haven't read. Well I thinking about it, and then I suddenly realized that the various "Escapist" series from Dark Horse do the same thing. If you haven't read or heard of it, you definately know the source material the series is based on, Michael Chabon's "Kavalier and Clay". The first issues were various anthologies of "Escapist stories through history" and in between they had an article or something commenting on the era on which it came from. Brian K. Vaughn wrote an Escapist limited series last year, this time this a linear narrative storyline (and the appendices at the end) and it was quite good. So I though i'd mention it. I think the last panel of Watchmen is one of the best endings for this time of work that touches on the mood/feel/politics of its time. It brought me back to what Scott McCloud said about cartoons and that we relate more to more abstract/cartoony things (like Smiley faces) rather than photo realistic things. We put ourselves in them, we become the cartoons. Therefore, at the end, that's us being addressed by the editor, it's us with the decision in our hands to publish the journal or not. On a similar note, I was reading an article in Time about the video game's Halo Master Chief character, and one thing they noted was that because of his mirror visor, the gamers see themselves as the character, which of course reminded me of the McCloud thing.