WATCHPANELS, Part the Fourth

WATCHPANELS

One compulsive reader’s observations ...

after gazing into Watchmen for the umpteenth time

 

PART THE FOURTH

All right, I’ve got photons in my teeth and my wrist brace on ...

      This is a brief one, folks!

            For a change, in Chapter 4, the “chapter title” bar is the same as in bound editions.

           On page 3 we’re treated to an Osterman flashback to the August 7, 1945 New York Times.  Just for fun, I looked up the actual front page.

            As you might have imagined, in the real world of 1945 there wasn’t any way to get a “photograph” of a mushroom cloud into the papers so quickly.

            The black bar containing the epigraph is the same in comic as in bound editions, except: 

·         There are quotation marks in the comic.

·         In the comic, the clock-face image is black-and-white REVERSED – in the comic, the clock outline and hands are white, the clock face is black.

            Thanks for joining me in this nitpickery.  Eight chapters to go!

BUT FIRST ..

Be with us beginning next Monday and all throughout April, for ...

April Foolishness, the 2018 Edition!

  

 

WATCHPANELS, Part the Third

WATCHPANELS

One compulsive reader’s observations ...

after gazing into Watchmen for the umpteenth time

PART THE THIRD

All right, I’ve got photons in my teeth and my wrist brace on ...

CHAPTER 3

            In panel 1, we encounter the first excerpt from the Tales of the Black Freighter comic book.  Being someone who is sometimes analytical and often obsessed with the WRONG minutiae, I wondered, “Where is Davidstown,” the home that the “Marooned” sailor is so desperate to save from the supernatural evil of the pirates?  Here’s our first clue, “the yellow Indies sky.”  So, which Indies, the West (centered on the Caribbean), or the East Indies, the seas around South and Southeast Asia?

            And, by the way ... Where is Davidstown?

            Our information points are

·         The just-noted “Indies sky.”

·         the sailor sails his ghastly raft “east, borne on the backs of murdered men” (5:9:4).

·         When he arrives home, a few miles from Davidstown, the sun is setting behind him (10:12:1).  This means he arrived from the west.

·         He views the moneylender and his doxy “through a curtain of whispering maram grass” (10:12:3).  According to Wikipedia, “marram grass” (the common spelling) is found in the US, the UK, and Australia. 

            Putting these clues together ...

            My guess is that Davidstown is located on the western edge of Australia.  The western half of the continent was designated the “Swan River Colony” in 1829.  If this is correct, then the atrocities of The Black Freighter represented the last gasp of the Pirate Rounders, who plundered the valuable treasure ships of the East Indian Sea.

            In Annotated Watchmen, Leslie Klinger makes a kind of boneheaded suggestion.  He theorizers that the magazine closest to the head of Bernie the newsdealer is titled Home Baker.  It is a lot more likely to be Home Maker, don’t you think?  Especially since there was a Homemaker magazine in the UK in the 1960s, and nowadays too.

 In the comic, the chapter name is in quotation marks, with the credits underneath.  The bound versions contain no credits, and have no quotation marks around title. 

In this and subsequent chapters of the bound editions, the chapter title is printed in a larger font, filling the same width as “title + quotation marks” in original.

           At the end of Laurie’s fight with Jon, we have this non-response from Ol’ Blue-Butt:  “If you think there’s a problem with my attitude, I’m prepared to discuss it.”

            It’s sort of the same answer that Dr Malcolm Long gives his wife in 6:13:7-8.

            And both of these scenes remind me of HAL’s words in 2001: A Space Odyssey, as Bowman is beginning to decerebrate him:  “I know I’ve made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal.”

             When Janey Slater talks about “three packs a day,” she is smoking a ball-pipe – do you suppose she’s talking about “three packs” of the little balls of tobacco which go into the bowl of the pipe?

           Dan’s clock is on 24-hour time, it’s 18:03 = 6:03PM.  This is only notable because a later chapter depicts the clock using 12-hour time.

            Here’s one of the Briticisms in Watchmen that sounds odd coming from an American – when the lock guy says that now Dan is “safe as houses.”

            In the comic, there’s no black bar at the bottom of page 28.

            In bound editions,  the added black bar contains the scripture, its citation, and a clock face.

             On the last page of the comic, the “next month’s Milton Glass” clipping is not in bound editions.

            Thanks for stopping by.  We have nine chapters to go!
  

WATCHPANELS, Part the Second

WATCHPANELS

One compulsive reader’s observations ...

after gazing into Watchmen for the umpteenth time

 PART THE SECOND

CHAPTER 2:

            On page 3 of the original comic, the chapter title is on two lines, aligned left, with the credits on right.  Also, the title and credits are a little wider than the panel grid.

            In the bound versions, the chapter title is one line filling this whole space, and the title is within the width of the panels.  The credits are gone, too.

            On the same page, I don’t understand why the flag for Blake’s coffin was folded, but not in the ceremonial triangle.

You’d expect that this would take place, hein?  In case you wondered if the triangle is a military-only tradition, it’s not. The triangle fold is a sign of respect for the flag, not for the person being interred.  Of course, one might argue that the non-triangle shape means that Edward Blake was not involved in Adrian Veidt’s Pyramid Deliveries conspiracy!

             Sally Jupiter’s reminiscences of the Minutemen are illustrated with the taking of the group portrait in 1940.  Take a gander at the panel showing the photographer in his shroud.

            Call me weird, but that white shape reminds me of Hira Manish’s illustration of The Infamous Squid (this panel is on page 11 of Chapter Eight.)

            In that same 1940 flashback, we’re privy to Blake’s attempted rape of Sally.

            It’s only appropriate that Sally scratches Blake at the same place where in 1971, Blake’s Vietnamese dolly would slash him.

             In the 1966 “organizational meeting” for the Crimebusters, Blake is reading the New York Gazette.

           It’s only curious because the masthead has the month and year, but no date. “April, 1966.”

             On page 26, can it be coincidental that while Rorschach’s journal talks about “heads between teats,” Blake is hitting the wall with his head between the teats of the nekkid girl on the wall?

             On the last page of Chapter Two, the comic’s final panel has only the clock.

            It’s the bound versions which have Elvis Costello lyrics.

            On “page 8” of Under the Hood, written in 1962, Mason says the vigilantes are on “America’s West Coast.”  Wouldn’t the “EAST coast,” like New York, be much more accurate?  Mothman was in Connecticut, and the Comedian was cleaning up “the city’s” waterfronts, in NYC.

            On “page 10,” the last page of this chapter, the paperclipped note about forthcoming chapters does not appear in bound volumes.

           This is a scan of my Graphitti copy.

            Thanks for obsessing with me!  Stay tuned for my fixations on Watchmen, Chapter Three, next week.

WATCHPANELS, Part the First

WATCHPANELS

One compulsive reader’s observations ...

after gazing into Watchmen for the umpteenth time

PART THE FIRST

All right, I’ve got photons in my teeth and my wrist brace on ...

CHAPTER 1

On page 6, we have the Chapter Title.

Compare the original comic page (with quotation marks and credits) with the reprint versions.

 – In Annotated, Klinger says that Rorschach’s jagged word balloons are reflections of the distortions in his voice caused by the mask. In his first speech balloons, 1:7:3 and 1:7:8, you get the idea.

However, in 1.10 and 1.11, his speech balloons are just as jagged when his mask is up.

             When the detectives investigating Blake’s murder enter the building’s elevator to descend, we get the first sight of the ball-pipes which feature throughout the story.

            Maybe the ball-pipes are newfangled or just plain pricey, because Hollis Mason smokes old-fashioned cigarettes, as seen in 1:9:3.

             On page 19, Rorschach sneaks in to see Laurie and Doctor Manhattan.

            In Annotated Watchmen, Klinger joins me in noting the similarity of the sign’s logo to Superman’s original “S”-shield, shown here from Action Comics #1 in 1938.

           On page 22, these are a few of the only word balloons from Dr Manhattan that somebody forgot to color blue.  (It also happens in Chapter 8, as we’ll notice.)

             In the comic, the Dylan song lines don’t appear – nor in the Graphitti version.

            In the supplemental matter, page 1 of Hollis Mason’s Under the Hood, we have a nice paperclipped note telling us what we’re going to read.  You can see that “corn” in the word “corner” is not touched by the shadow of the note.

            However, for Annotated Watchmen, this page was redone.  There’s slightly more space between the note and the text.  Also, the shadow of the note touches the “rn” in “corner.”

            You’ll note that Mason describes Moe Vernon as a guy with “three chins,” in the comic printing.

            But for Annotated, Vernon had “three thins” – what?

            On “page 2” of Under the Hood, the photo caption mistakenly says that Mason was 21 years old.  In the original comic, that is! 

            In bound editions, this goof was fixed so that Mason is twelve years old.

           On the last page of the comic, we have a “coming attractions” note which does not appear in bound versions.

            Thanks for stopping by.  We have eleven chapters to go!

See you next Monday for our nit-pickings on Chapter Two of Watchmen.