From: [d--u--a] at [yang.earlham.edu] (Doug Atkinson)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc
Subject: Watchmen Annotation #11
Date: 16 Mar 93 05:34:09 GMT


                           THE ANNOTATED WATCHMEN

                Chapter 11: "Look on my Works, Ye Mighty..."

     Watchmen is a trademark of DC Comics Inc., copyright 1993.  These
annotations copyright 1993 by Doug Atkinson.  They may be freely copied and
distributed, provided the text is not altered.

     Certain notes are true for each issue.  Each one is written by Alan
Moore, drawn and lettered by Dave Gibbons, and colored by John Higgins.
     Moreover, each issue has a continuing motif, a reoccuring object or
pattern that is seen on the cover, the first and last page (usually), and
throughout the issue.  This issue's motif is the pure white field.
     Another trend is the title, which is always an excerpt from an apropos
quote shown in its entirety in the last panel.  This issue's title is from
Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem _Ozymandias._
     The clock appearing on the covers counts the minutes to midnight,
similar to the clock in the _Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists_, which is
an estimate of the world's closeness to nuclear war.  The clock stands at 1
minutes to midnight.

Cover: Veidt's vivarium, seen from the outside through a snowstorm.  The
shape of the opening is that of the blood spatter on the smiley-face; it
will reappear later this issue.

Page 1, panels 1-7: A white field.  The speaker is Adrian.

Panel 2: The reference is to William S. Burroughs.  It is said that he
wrote _Naked Lunch_ by writing all the components and then scattering them
randomly on the floor.  Other books written using this technique include
_Nova Express_, 1964.  As Burroughs was a particularly '60's sort of
writer, this novel may have inspired the name of the magazine.

Page 2, panel 2: It's not dated, but this is the second of November.

Panel 4: Veidt's clock is wrong, or in his nervousness he read it too
quickly; it says only eleven fourteen PM.

Page 3, panel 3: That's "Sweet Chariot" sugar Rorschach's eating.  (Where
did he get it?  Surely it wasn't in the coat.)

Page 4: Turned off, all the screens show white fields.
Once again, the tape reels bring to mind the radiation symbol.

Panel 5: The "no time like the present" line is ironic, as the balloon
overlaps the painting of Alexander the Great.

Page 5, panel 2: The sign reads, "Do Not Enter When Red Light Is On."

Page 6, panel 1: Referring to the Pale Horse concert.  That's Aline walking
by the mailbox, and the woman by the radiation sign is Gloria Long.

Panel 5: The _Gazette_ headline reads, simply, "War?"  Aline is referring
to the "Pink Triangle" poster.

Panel 7: Notice the Gordian Knot truck.

Panel 9: Tying into the "escape" reference, the magazine in the background
is titled "Holiday" something-or-other.

Page 8, panel 4: Adrian's parents were named Friedrich Werner and Ingrid
Renada Veidt.  Clearly his background is Germanic.

Page 9, panel 2: The supporting cast are beginning to gather.  Interesting
that the Gordian man calls Joey "fella."

Also, notice Aline's jacket and haircut; apparently it's in imitation of
Red D'Eath, and not gang colors.

Panel 6: The Hiroshima lovers.

Panel 7: "Knots," by R.D. Laing.  This is a real book, published in 1970.

Page 12: The snow forms a white field.

Page 13, panel 2: This is page 9, panel 6 from another angle.

Panels 4-5: Interesting that practically every popular term for African-
Americans up to that time gets used in these two panels.

Page 16, panel 3: The reflections in the dish bring to mind a) the motif
from issue #7, and b) Mason's jack o'lantern from issue #8.

Page 18, panel 9: This is the earliest version of his wall of screens;
notice the time on the clock.

Page 19, panel 2: He's breaking up one of Moloch's gambling dens; the
picture on the wall brings to mind Hell, and "Dante's" (the den Dr.
Manhattan attacked).

Panel 4: Once again, notice the time on the clock.

Page 22, panel 4: The spark hydrant patent must be worth a fortune.  Is
Dimensional Developments the forerunner of the Institute for Extraspatial
studies?

Page 23, panels 2-6: The background here replays page 20.

Panel 7: Steve probably got suspended for the raid on Dreiberg's building.

Pages 24-25: This explains Blake's speech to Moloch from issue #2.

Page 27, panel 2: Yet again, look at the clock.

Panel 3: Something's starting to happen at the institute...

Page 28: This page marks the only time the nine-panel grid is more finely
subdivided.  The supporting cast rollcall, one last time:

Panel 1: Joe and Steve.  The clock in the car is 35 minutes early.

Panel 2: Joey and Aline, surrounded by Mal's Rorschach cards.

Panel 3: Mal and Gloria with more of the cards.

Panel 4: Milo and the Gordian Knot man.

Panel 5: The watch seller.

Panel 6: Bernard and Bernie.

Panel 12: This shape brings to mind the spatter on the smiley-face, and the
cover/first panel of this issue.

Panel 13: A white field...

Pages 29-32: "After The Masquerade: Superstyle and the art of humanoid
watching." An _Nova Express_ interview by Doug Roth with Adrian, 7/12/75.

Page 7, paragraph 1: CREEP stands for Committee to Re-Elect the President.
A real-world organization, it had the same purpose (in 1972).

Bottom: "Photo Courtesy of Triangle, Inc. (c) 1975." The triangle image
again; presumably it's another one of Veidt's organizations.

Page 8, paragraph 7: D'Eath is lead singer of Pale Horse.

Paragraph 11: The Constitutional amendment scam refers to
the repealing of the 22nd Amendment, allowing Nixon to go beyond 2 terms.

Page 10, paragraph 5: These are real composers.  I gather he likes Linette
Paley, too.

Bottom: An early Nostalgia ad.

[d--u--a] at [yang.earlham.edu]             Doug Atkinson