KEEP SMILING!
If you go
over a thing often enough, you might not see everything that’s there ... but
you’re also likely to see things that AREN’T there.
I found a
lot of subtle and not-so-subtle images
in Watchmen
which reminded me of the good ol’ Smiley.
You tell me if some of these are reaching too far. others may have noted them, but gosh-darn it,
this is my blog!
CHAPTER
ONE:
As
Detectives Bourquin and Fine leave the Blake murder scene on page 3, they get
on an elevator already occupied by one of the building’s tenants.
The end of
his pipe has a familiar shape.
CHAPTER
TWO:
In this
1977 flashback to the pre-Keene Act riots, note the charging hydrant to the
right of this panel from page 17. And,
of course, the splatter on Archie the owlship, in the foreground, is shaped
like the blood smear on Edward Blake’s Smiley pin. But back to the Smiley-face hydrant ...
Now do you
see it?
CHAPTER
FOUR:
At
Christmastime in 1963, Janey gets the shivers thinking about Jon Osterman’s
view of time, on page 11.
Check out
the Smiley-like reflections in the Christmas-tree ornaments.
CHAPTER
SEVEN:
Here, on
the cover of the comic, and just inside on page 1, the smear of dust on Dan’s
goggles, left by Janey’s finger, gives a Smiley-like look.
Here’s one
of the more obvious images, from page 18.
And in the
last panel of the chapter, on page 28, there’s another too-obvious-to-miss
Smiley.
CHAPTER
EIGHT:
For a
change, here’s a “Frowny” face that I cannot believe is coincidental. Look at the mouthpiece of Sally Jupiter’s
phone.
***************
Later in
Chapter Eight, a prolonged view of Hollis Mason’s jack o’lantern carving
produces a familiar cheerful face.
CHAPTER
TEN:
This
cheerful radar screen is repeated in the first panel inside.
CHAPTER
ELEVEN:
For the
longest time, I was trying to see a Smiley in the reflective bowl with the
zigzag motif. No, don’t look at the
bowl. Look at Veidt’s plate! The peas are the eyes, the fork is the
bloodstain, and the inner ring of the plate serves as the smile!
CHAPTER
TWELVE:
Along with
“Bodies Beyond Your Wildest Imaginings,” we see the now-detached crown of the familiar
charging hydrant.
This time,
it has an extra blot, to match the Comedian’s badge!
A repeated
angle of the entrance tunnel into Karnak from the frozen-over vivarium has an
ironically brightly smiling countenance.
And as
Rorschach tries to escape Karnak.
You see it
too, don’t you?
Thanks for
joining me on this tour of Smiley faces in the Watchmen comics
maxiseries.
PS: The fun doesn’t stop there!
Watchmen:
The Art of the Film, by Peter Aperlo (2009: Titan Books), contains
three “comics” pages, reproduced on pages 62-63 of that volume. They were drawn by Gibbons and colored by
John Higgins at the behest of film director Zack Snyder to give us “a taste of
what the graphic novel’s climax might have looked like if Adrian Veidt had
followed the film's script. These new
‘pages’ were drawn at Zack Snyder's request during pre-production....”
****************
When you’re
smiling, the whole world smiles with you!
And pretty soon, you may find yourself seeing Smileys everywhere!
For
instance, I’ve had this mini-Mr Coffee for more than a decade. Over time, parts of the Teflon-like coating
of the hot plate have worn off.
Doesn’t my
Mr Coffee hot plate have a cheerful disposition?
So, no matter what life brews up for you, keep smiling!
