I’ve read too many comics – I read that first balloon as ‘…A short time to live, and is full of mini-series.’

SPOILER: http://s474.photobucket.com/albums/rr109/onion3000/?action=view&current=JIM75.jpg

I like the Silk Spectre/Manhattan/Jane interaction going on through body language in this.

gotta love some foreshadowing.

Just gotta love some foreshadowing!!!

You gotta wonder why The Comedian showed up in the meeting in the first place, if he had such a low opinion on Crimebusters? Maybe he just wanted to give the performance he did, in order to shame “Nelly”? Maybe he wanted to see his daughter and thought this would be a good opportunity?

@ Tuomas,

Probably a combination of all of them, although as we see in Sally’s flashbacks later on, he did take the opportunity to speak with her afterwards (to her mother’s chagrin).

another moment that gave me chills. not to mention that part showed what a nasty guy the comedian is and love the someone has to save the world foreshadowing of things to come .

Geez, Cap’n M woulda been right there with the cops at the ’68 Democratic Convention, wouldn’t he?

Excellent job by Moore and Gibbons on making Captain Metropolis look exceedingly pathetic. The DIY-looking costume, the flabby build, the puppy dog face, and the railing against ” promiscuity ” and ” campus subversion “. But though the Crimebusters fell through, Nelly still could have found a lucrative career as a member of the 2000-2008 Democratic Party…

Nasty or not, the Comedian was sort of right in this scene. The world was coming to an end…

I just love how well thought out this is- Rorschach isn’t using his “Rorschach voice” yet.

I’m curious as to why Veidt is the only one seated in that scene.

Man that is some great storytelling!!!
I really wish Gibbons could do more work.

“I like the Silk Spectre/Manhattan/Jane interaction going on through body language in this.”

Not only that, look at every panel that Silk Spectre, Manhattan and his wife are in. Even when their heads are tiny and they’re far from the center of the panel they’re ALWAYS telling a non verbal story.

Great stuff!

“I’m curious as to why Veidt is the only one seated in that scene.”

Obviously, his superior intellect first manifested itself with a mastery of “Musical Chairs,” which in this case, took the wind out of the sails of Metropolis’s presentation and ticked the Comedian off to no end.

Ether that or he wanted to be known as Chair Man of the Crimebusters.

I liked his recent run on Green Lantern Corps, seems like he was having fun with that. Too bad GLC had to be so tied up to all the Big Important Stories in the main GL book (which hasn’t been as good as GLC), I would’ve preferred it to be a separate entity with only an occasional crossover with Green Lantern.

(That comment was to Richard.)

The best thing DC did was tell Moore and Gibbons to create their own characters (rather than use the Charleton characters) and increase the series from six to twelve issues. Gave them all kinds or room and all kinds of freedom. This wouldn’t have been half as good at half the length. That’s three pages, like 20 panels of talking heads with a whole heck of a lot going on. What would have been lost if it had been forced down to one page?

I don’t know if I ever picked up on the fact that Rorschach is actually speaking like a normal, non-paranoid person in this flashback. There’s just so much good stuff in this comic.

I don’t know if I ever picked up on the fact that Rorschach is actually speaking like a normal, non-paranoid person in this flashback.

Same here. Also, I love that Rorschach is, at this point, actually wearing a costume with the pin-striped suit and the scarf done up in a natty fashion

One of the coolest parts of this scene that I never noticed until I read some annotations, is the panel caption before the first panel where Sally says “It rains on the just and unjust alike… except in California” and then it switches to Ozymandias, shielded from the rain by the umbrella being held by his servant.

Even Rorschach’s body language conveys a much more “normal” vibe. The hands casually in his pockets, the straight back. I’ve always admired Gibbons’ body language work in this scene regarding the Manhattan love triangle, as Joe noted, but I’m getting even more impressed as I look at these pages at everything else he did, too. Such an amazing job by Moore and Gibbons.

” I don’t know if I ever picked up on the fact that Rorschach is actually speaking like a normal, non-paranoid person in this flashback. There’s just so much good stuff in this comic. ”

Even better is the fact that while Rorschach is speaking calmly and coherently, his ideology is the same as in the book’s present– talking about how a big public ” Crimebusters ” group would render itself ineffective harkens back to his story about the Kitty Genovese incident inspired him to act ( because the masses wouldn’t ). The difference is that he’s still Kovacs enough to express it as a rational argument and not as the disjointed mutterings of a conspiracy theorist.

Scott MacIver-yeah The Comedian is right pretty much the whole book. He also seems to be the first one to realize how detached Dr. Manhattan had become from humanity

Brian, just post a scan of the whole 12 issues, that’s the only way to get all the cool moments in.

Wonderful few pages.

I love the body language between Dr Manhattan and Silk Spectre, even in that first in panel.

Rorschach wearing the same clothes as he does later, but they look new, speaking in a normal voice.

How pathetic Captain Metropolis is, the look in his eyes, he just wants some glory back, and the fact that things like “Black Unrest” are on his list.

And already, Ozymandias seems to know more than he would like to.

Right you are, Oz, Rorschach IS wearing the same outfit we see him in in 1985 (it could be a coloring thing or it could be deliberate, but the pinstripe suit is much darker in 1966–perhaps he washed it a lot and it faded to the lighter 1985 color). Besides the body language, notice he’s also got the coat open. When we see him in 1985, he NEVER opens the coat. He’s constantly buttoned up and bundled up, even in Dreiberg’s kitchen. You’d think he’d relax a little bit in the company of his oldest (only?) friend, but no.

“Not only that, look at every panel that Silk Spectre, Manhattan and his wife are in. Even when their heads are tiny and they’re far from the center of the panel they’re ALWAYS telling a non verbal story.”

I’m pretty sure that’s what Joe was talking about in the first place, and yeah, it’s great.

Absolutely terrific scene – I only noticed the difference in Rorschach’s dialogue (and, in fact, I think everyone’s speech balloons are rounder and more conventional looking here than the rougher looking ones in the ‘contemporary’ parts of the story) when I re-read it a few months ago. I think it went totally over my head the first time.

I love the attention to detail – not only do all the periods (40′s, 60′s, and 80′s) that appear in Watchmen have their own distinct word balloons, they also have their own coloring styles.

This is type of scene is what “The Watchmen” so special.

In the years since, we have seen good mysteries with superheroes (i.e. “Who Killed Retro Girl”, “Identity Crisis”). We have also seen superheroes made more three-dimensional by putting them into a historical context (i.e. “New Frontier”, “Marvels”). We have also seen a post-modern perspective on the tropes of traditional comic book storytelling (i.e. “Kingdom Come”, “All-Star Superman”).

However, we have never seen since is all those elements used at once. It is so dense and well conceived.

I’ve seen A LOT of criticism of Gibbons’ artwork over the years, like Watchmen was great just because of Moore’s writing and that the art had no part on it. This sequence proves the naysayers are WRONG!

Dave Gibbons IS a big part of what makes Watchmen the masterpiece it is. Very few, if any, artists would be able to draw that scene as efficiently as he was.

He should draw more, I miss his artwork.

Best,
Hunter (Pedro Bouça)

Every time I read the comments and see scans of the comic I can’t help but marvel at how well constructed this comic is.

I did notice how normal Rorschach was in the scene. I missed this when I read it until now. Nice call.

Look at the row where the Comedian is stretched out across all three panels — The last panel, where he says “bullshit” the second time is completely framed in brown and being fouled up by his cigar smoke.

The only other character in that sequence to cross panels is Dr. Manhatten who is also displaying some weird symmetry with the clock face in the neighboring panel.

Is it just me or does the headline on the interior newspaper page spell out “Giant Dick”.

Damn it, I’m going to start re-reading Watchmen ASAP.

[...] Steve Ditko). The Comedian is an utter nihilist who rapes and murders his way through life because he’s certain nuclear annihilation is around the corner and nothing matters. And it is only the Comedian who is  identified as a Republican, as Nixon’s right hand man [...]

BURRUP!

When I first read Watchmen, I perceived the Comedian’s burp as a deliberate act of disrespect to Captain Metropolis. So I was interested by the way that the Motion Comics and (IIRC) the movie portrayed the burp more as an unintentional thing, that the Comedian was starting to go to seed.

The Comedian may be right, but he’s still as ass.