From: [d--u--a] at [yang.earlham.edu] (Doug Atkinson)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc
Subject: Watchmen Annotation #12
Date: 16 Mar 93 05:35:47 GMT


                           THE ANNOTATED WATCHMEN

                   Chapter 12: "A Stronger Loving World"

     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 spattered blood, and free-
associating scene changes.
     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
"Santies" by John Cale.  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 midnight.

Cover: Blood running down the big clock at Madison Square Garden.

Page 1: Mass death and spattered blood at the Pale Horse concert.  The
shattered glass is ironic, since "Krystalnacht" refers to the broken
windows of Jewish-owned businesses in Germany.  Notice the prominence of
the knot-top hairstyle.  The blood above the sign in the lower left is in
the same shape as that on the smiley-face button.

Page 2: Mass death and spattered blood on the street.  There's an airship
crashed into the building on the upper left.  We see the source of the
tentacle on page 6.  The watch seller's wares lie in the front.  Notice the
"War?" headline.

Page 3: Mass death and spattered blood at the utopia.  That's the watch
seller in the front, and the Gunga Diner's elephant on the right, and
"War?" headlines on the street.

Page 4: Mass death and spattered blood at the Gunga Diner.  More "War?"
headlines.  Joe lying against the police car, and, presumably, Steve on the
right.

Page 5: Mass death and spattered blood at the Promethean.  Left to right:
Joey, Aline, Steve, Mal and Gloria, the Gordian man, and Milo.  Scattered
Rorschach blots and "War?" headlines.

Page 6: Mass death and spattered blood (and ichor) at the Institute and the
newsstand.  Bernard is covering Bernie.  "War?" headlines, a no longer Mint
copy of "Tales of the Black Freighter," and the poster torn so "Gay Women
Against Rape" reads "WAR" at a distance.  The spatter on the plug from the
spark hydrant also brings back the smiley-face.

Page 7, panel 2: They left early on the first, and it's very early on the
third.

Panel 3: Tachyons are theoretical particles that move faster than light,
and hence travel backwards in time.  They're messing up Jon's time sense.

Tandoori is presumably an Indian dish sold at the Gunga Diner.

Page 10, panel 6: Not quite everyone; he missed Roy Chess.  Interesting
that he'll freely admit to killing half of New York, but not his own
servants.

Page 13, panel 1: Another radiation symbol.

Panel 4: "Stand Back When I.F. Subtractor is Activated."
I.F. stands for Intrinsic Field.

Page 19, panel 1: "A pregnant woman, convinced her unborn child was eating
her..." Reference issue #8, page 11, panel 5: "Illustrating that sequence
where the young chew their way out of their mother's womb was quite an
_experience._"

Page 22, panel 7: The silhouette calls to mind the Hiroshima lovers
graffiti.

Page 24, panel 5: More spattered blood.

Page 28, panel 1: A jump ahead to Christmas '85.  The Christmas cards speak
heavily of peace.

Panel 7: These are presumably some of the emergency identities Dan had set
up.  (Odds are Laurie and Dan were presumed dead in the mass destruction,
and able to disappear without trouble.)

Page 29, panel 1: Veidt's business has continued successfully, and
Millennium has just come out.

Page 30: Laurie's suggestions here mimic the pattern her father's career
took; he switched from a flimsy yellow costume to a leather one with facial
protection, and began carrying a gun.  No wonder Sally's upset.

Panels 4-5, 7: Sally still has the Nostalgia bottle.  Symbolism?

Page 31: This page shows many of the changes Veidt's brave, new world has
brought to the established themes.  The world has changed greatly in just a
few months.

Panel 1: The Gunga Diner has been replaced by Burgers 'N' Borscht,
reflecting new friendliness with the Soviets.  The sign on the door reads,
"Happy New Year All Our Customers." (Seymour is just leaving it.) A workman
is scrubbing off the Hiroshima lovers.  Pyramid Construction is rebuilding
at the Institute for Extraspatial Studies site.  (The poster says "New
Deal," possibly referring to this new friendliness; the graffiti below it
reads, "One in eight [eight crossed out] 3 gone" and an anarchy symbol.)
The New Utopia's playbill reads, "Tarkovs Season This Week: The Sacrifice
and Nostalgia." The new spark hydrant is a different shape.

Panel 2: At the site of the newsstand, there's a redesigned spark hydrant
and a _Gazette_ box; the headline reads, "RR To Run in 88?" The fallout
shelter sign is gone from the Promethean building.

Panel 3: The workman is putting up a sign reading, "One World: One Accord"
with crossed Soviet and American flags over the Earth.  The redesigned
Promethean sign reads, "Promethean Cabs + Limo: Bringing Light to the
World," with an "Under New Management" sticker.

Panel 4: A Millennium sign has replaced Nostalgia.  The graffiti read,
"Quantum Jump" and "New Deal."

Panel 5: Seymour is wearing Veidt sneakers.  The graffiti on the left
reads, "Watch the Skies."  The headline reads, "NY Survivors Reveal
Nightmare Under Hypnosis." Next to it is a copy of "Tales From The Morgue,"
a horror comic (which may be increasing in popularity now) in the EC vein
(so to speak).  Notice the similarity between the double-P Pioneer logo and
the Rumrunner logo.  (The box by Seymour's left foot also has something
akin to the Rumrunner logo.)

Panel 6: The graffiti has been painted over.  Across the street at
Woolworth's, a "Sunbursts" sign has replaced "Mmeltdowns" (a more peaceful
image).  Notice the clock.

Page 32, panel 4: A reference, of course, to ex-cowboy actor Ronald Reagan.

Panels 6-7: As Seymour reaches for Rorschach's journal, the spatter of
ketchup across his T-shirt brings us back to the beginning.

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