Watchmen: Chapter XI - The Back-Matter

The Back-Matter

The C.R.E.E.P. acronym mentioned in Veidt’s opening statement of this interview was, in reality, the Committee for the Re-Election of the President, abbreviated as CRP by Nixon’s campaign but circumvented by his adversaries through the CREEP moniker.  It was a fundraising organization for Nixon’s second term as President.  Besides its fundraising activities it was also directly involved with the Watergate scandal that eventually brought President Nixon down, in our reality.

Veidt’s use of humanoids to describe Nixon’s retinue is easily deflected by Veidt with his anecdote, but the use of this term is very much in keeping with Veidt’s character.  Adrian Veidt is detached from humanity.  Ascribed to the much higher functioning of his intellect and physicality, this facet of Veidt is evident in the “secret origin” of this chapter – particularly the nonchalant manner with which he accepted his parents’ passing.  And it is this detachment that allows him to conceive and go through with his horrific plan. 

And, finally, the text in the Nostalgia ad at the bottom of the final page – “The Times They Are A’Changing” – foreshadows the denouement of the next, and final, chapter of Watchmen.  Things are certainly going to change, but will it be for the better or the worse?

Watchmen: Chapter X - The Back-Matter

The Back-Matter

Again, Moore offers something different in this chapter’s back-matter.  This time we see corporate correspondence and promotional material for some of Adrian Veidt’s products and interests. 

The initial letter from Leo Winston, the President of Marketing and Development, is intriguing for the very believable corporate tone it evokes.  This is fascinating when one considers Alan Moore’s stance regarding “corporate” comics and his animosity toward DC Comics, in particular.  Also, when viewed from a place where “Before Watchmen” is now a reality, it carries even more weight than it might have before.

Veidt’s response to Winston’s letter is interesting – vis-à-vis substituting an army of terrorists for the costumed adventurers suggested – in that it reminds the audience of the reality of superheroes in this alternate world.

Perhaps the document most pertinent to the main narrative, though, is Veidt’s letter to Angela Neuberg, Director of Veidt Cosmetics & Toiletries.  His suggestion that the very popular and profitable Nostalgia line be scrapped for the new Millennium line, which looks to the future, sounds somewhat reasonable in the way he frames the argument.  Nuclear conflict seems imminent, at this time, and Veidt is planning for that future – if there even is a future. 

This is yet another clue pointing to Veidt as the mastermind behind the mask killings.  He has a plan to save the world, and this letter asking for the new Millennium line foreshadows the forward-looking, optimistic outlook that will become evident once we reach the culmination of this narrative.

Watchmen: Chapter IX - The Back-Matter

The Back-Matter

Once again, Alan Moore – with Dave Gibbons providing the “photos” – gives us something new in the way of the back-matter.  This time we are able to read some of the items found in Sally Jupiter’s scrapbook, items that end up scattered across the Martian landscape when Laurie tosses them overboard on page 21 of this chapter. 

There are some interesting details to be found in the memorabilia here – consisting of newspaper clippings, letters to Sally, and an excerpt from a Playboy-style interview with the magazine Probe.  A movie was made based around Sally’s (Silk Spectre’s) exploits as a masked adventurer.  We also learn that this film met with a critical backlash in a rather humorous review that makes light of the “unconvincing and dated footage of a stuntwoman” who happens to be Sally herself.  We also learn that Sally’s relationship with Hooded Justice – whom Laurie believed was her real father – was merely a ruse to cover up his homosexuality, while providing some provocative PR for the Minutemen. 

While these details afford us, the audience, a broader picture of Sally Jupiter’s character, they add little to the overall narrative.  However, there is one item in this scrapbook that does.  In the Probe interview Sally questions how much responsibility she bears in the sexual assault b Blake.  This is a sad, misplaced, but not uncommon reaction for rape victims, which adds another human layer to this character while also helping explain, a little, how she could become intimate with him, and help conceive his daughter, years later.

Watchmen: Chapter VIII - the back-matter

The Back-Matter

As noted earlier, the back-matter for this chapter consists of the edition of the New Frontiersman Hector Godfrey and his assistant, Seymour, were putting together on page 10.  The main piece is an editorial on patriotism and masked adventurers by Godfrey, meant as a response to Doug Roth’s piece, “The Spirit of ‘77” in Nova Express, which we can assume denounced the recent spotlight on masked adventurers.  Moore, again, writes this piece in a distinct voice, one appropriate in its skewed, conservative ideals – even going so far as to defend the inception of the Ku Klux Klan as a righteous endeavor intended to avoid the “mongrelization” of society from a “culture far less morally advanced.” 

As with any extreme article of this nature – regardless of whichever end of the spectrum the writer may be coming from – this piece, “Honor is Like the Hawk: Sometimes It Must Go Hooded,” reveals its biases throughout its arguments, vindicating like-minded ideologues while inviting ridicule from those on the opposite arc of the pendulum.  There is little new that we can glean from this piece, with two exceptions.  First, we get yet another example of how this world differs from our real world with the mention of the United States’ “justified retaliatory bombing of Beirut in 1979,” an event that never took place.  Second, if we missed it in the background of Page 11, panel 3 in Chapter V, we get confirmation of Rorschach’s collection of the New Frontiersman, emphasizing his conservative principles.

More important, though it may not be obvious at this point, is the article on page 4 of this edition of the New Frontiersman.  “Missing Writer: Vanished Persons List Grows as Hunt Called Off,” deals with Max Shea, whose disappearance has been alluded to in the background of the main narrative a couple of times.  The argument of whether the New Frontiersman possesses any journalistic integrity cannot refute the fact that, in this instance, they are correct to put forth the conspiracy theory surrounding Shea’s disappearance – though tracing it back to Cuban interests is a dead end.  The Frontiersman cites the disappearance of other prominent creative figures around the same time of Shea’s disappearance as the main evidence for their supposition. 

Architect Norman Leith, painter Hira Manish, science fiction writer James Trafford March, and composer Linette Paley are all mentioned in the article, as well as a large number of people from the scientific community, including eugenics specialist Dr. Whittaker Furnesse.  Ms. Manish we have already seen, as she and Shea were introduced on page 11 of this chapter.  From their conversation, we can surmise they believe themselves part of a motion picture company working secretly on a new film and, judging from Manish’s drawing, it would take little effort to conclude that Leith was integral in the crafting of the beast under the tarp.  Likewise, having a second sci-fi writer, a composer, and a number of “semi-skilled menial workers” from the scientific community along with Dr. Furnesse – as a possible consultant – would make sense within this context of a movie production.

The most tantalizing bit of information, described as most likely unconnected, is the disappearance of a corpse’s head in the same week that Max Shea went missing.  The cadaverous head of Robert Deschaines, a noted psychic and clairvoyant, is indeed connected with the secret activities on this island.  The reason behind its disappearance, and those of the other notables mentioned above, will all be made clear with the final chapter of Watchmen.

Watchmen: Chapter VII - the back-matter

The Back-Matter 

Again, Moore offers readers a very different piece in this chapter’s back-matter.  This time we delve more deeply into Dan’s background – appropriate considering the content of the main chapter.  Next to his love of costumed adventuring, Dan’s appreciation of birds, particularly owls, is probably what motivates him most in life.  In that regard, this short piece of prose mirrors the main text of the chapter.  In both instances, as Adam Murdough pointed out in the aforementioned CGS Footnotes episode examining this chapter, it is “all about the rekindling of passion for one’s favorite pursuit through personal hands-on experience.”  In the main narrative, Dan Dreiberg is rekindling his passion for costumed adventuring, while in the back-matter, he is rediscovering his love of owls and ornithology. 

The title of this article, “Blood From the Shoulder of Pallas,” is appropriate, as Pallas Athena – better known as Athena – is celebrated, among many attributes, as the goddess of wisdom or war or justice.  Owls are her sacred birds, in keeping with the attribute of wisdom, and the blood represents her warlike aspect.  This all links in nicely with Dan’s history as a costumed adventurer.  Taking the guise of Nite Owl is appropriate, as he was seeking justice while finding it necessary to utilize the war tactics to take down the criminals he face. 

Within this text, we are able to discover a bit more about Dan.  The most obvious nod to his costumed adventuring life comes in the remark that he was in Maine to visit a sick acquaintance. Cross-referencing this with Sally Jupiter’s offhand remark, “…poor Byron Lewis, in the bughouse in Maine…” in Chapter II, it is safe to assume that the sick acquaintance is Mothman, who, from the little we see of him, was a terribly nervous man, who eventually succumbed to his demons and was admitted to this mental hospital. 

More importantly though, we are able to see, through Dan’s writing, the passion he so rarely exhibits.  His love of owls comes through in this article, and it helps us to better understand how someone such as he might plunge into the tense and adrenaline-filled “occupation” of costumed adventuring.  And, as described on the third page of this article, Dan’s appropriation of Nite-Owl is wholly appropriate.  Like the owl that patiently waits in the dark for its prey, Dan, as we will learn in subsequent chapters, is methodical, willing to follow any line of inquiry to its end in order to learn the truth behind the conspiracy.  And like the owl, Dan is currently hidden from his ultimate prey, Ozymandias, who believes him insignificant.  It is that apparent irrelevance that cloaks him like the darkness does an owl.  And it is that fact that allows him to achieve as much as he does.

Watchmen: Chapter VI - the Back-Matter

The Back-matter:

As with the past few chapters, Moore again offers up a very different text pieces as a means to flesh out this chapter’s narrative.  With Chapter VI focusing on Dr. Malcolm Long’s attempt to rehabilitate Walter Kovacs (Rorschach), it is only fitting that we should get a glimpse into the file Long had on his infamous patient.  We get the police report, a summary of Kovacs’s life from the New York State Psychiatric Hospital, two essays – with accompanying artwork – from Kovacs’s time at boarding school, a photo of a young Kovacs, and a note from Dr. Long expressing his enthusiasm to commence his work with Kovacs.  These shreds of Kovacs’s personal history, like the moments chosen in the main narrative by Moore & Gibbons, provide, when combined, a relatively broad view of Kovacs. 

Most of what is found on these few pages speaks for itself, recounting – and in some instances expanding slightly – events already seen in the main chapters of the story.  But there are a few things of note that can be taken away from these documents.  The essay title, “Dream 5/27/63” and the accompanying artwork emphasize how scarred Kovacs was by his mother’s prostitution.  The second essay, “My Parents,” provides better insight into Kovacs’s fixation with President Truman – attributing it to his father, as recounted by his mother.  Of course, realizing that President Truman did not take office until a few years after Walter’s father had already left, one must question his mother’s motivation for sharing such a fallacy with her son.  She could have been confusing Kovacs’s father with one of her johns, or it might have been fabricated on a drunken whim.  You can draw your own conclusions as to that, but it’s these little pieces of humanity (even the sadder parts of humanity) that add depth to even the most minor characters in this story.  And the police report provides the names of the detectives working this case, Detectives Fine and Bourquin, who have gone nameless up to this point. 

Perhaps most interesting, though, is the name of the boarding school Kovacs attended, as noted on the letterhead of the stationary used for his essays.  The Charlton House.  Originally, the story that became Watchmen was initiated by Moore as a treatment for the Charlton characters DC had recently acquired – characters such as Blue Beetle, Nightshade, and the Question.  But when DC editorial realized how radical Moore’s story was going to be, they balked at utilizing the Charlton heroes.  So Moore & Gibbons were free to create their own characters for this story.  The letterhead on this stationary is a recognition of that. 

Watchmen: Chapter V - the Back-Matter

The Back-Matter

With this fifth chapter, Moore offers something new again in the back-matter, a chapter from a retrospective volume of pirate comics titled Treasure Island Treasury of Comics.  This particular chapter examines a much-lauded series published by National, later DC, comics, “Tales of the Black Freighter.”  This is significant because Bernie, the young boy at the newsstand, has been reading a reprint of one of these Black Freighter stories.  In fact, it is the two-parter, “Marooned,” which is highlighted within the text of the back-matter as writer Max Shea, and then-artist Walt Feinberg, at “their blood-freezing best.”  

This retrospective’s chapter, “A Man on Fifteen Dead Men’s Chests,” opens with a distinct variation in the history of the world of Watchmen, with respect to our own.  It notes that the “brief surge of anti-comic book sentiment in the mid-fifties” was soon quashed, allowing EC comics to come through even stronger for it.  The fact that actual superheroes were employed by the government is the main reason given for the favorable attitude toward the comic publishers by Uncle Sam, and is yet another bit of detail added by Moore to flesh out this world in a logical fashion.  In reality, the U.S. Senate subcommittee hearings on juvenile delinquency chaired by Estes Kefauver saw the comics medium enter a period of decline as publishers worked to overcome the stigma that became associated with their product.  In an effort to appease the public, the Comics Code Authority was created, and, directly or not, EC comics – which published a line of sophisticated and beautifully illustrated crime, horror, and war comics – soon went out of business after these hearings.

According to this Treasury, “Tales of the Black Freighter” was National’s answer to the EC sales juggernauts “Piracy” and “Buccaneers.”  And though it did not achieve the sales figures of these two books, in this alternate history, Black Freighter became an influential book that cast a long shadow over pirate books that followed.  Ironically, Watchmen became that book in our world – its presence still felt within the medium twenty-five years after its initial publication.  Another ironic connection between Freighter and Watchmen can be seen later in the retrospective, as the author details friction between writer, Shea, and original series artist, Joe Orlando, due to, among other things, the “impossibly detailed panel descriptions” of Shea, a quality famously attributed to the scripts of Alan Moore.  But unlike Shea, Moore, by all accounts, is very open to input from those artists with whom he collaborates.

Perhaps the most important bit of information offered here, which could easily be seen as a throwaway detail, is the name of the writer who helped create Black Freighter, the aforementioned Max Shea.  For first-time readers, this name may hold no significance.  But Shea is the missing writer whose picture was seen on page 1, panel 3 of Chapter III of the main narrative.  And though it isn’t obvious yet, he will become important later in the story.

And one final note – a bit of trivia.  The full page from “The Shanty of Edward Teach” seen on the second page of this Treasure Island Treasury of Comics is the only piece of artwork within Watchmen not drawn by Dave Gibbons.  Joe Orlando, a noted artist who did work for EC before coming to DC comics where he was an editor as well as an artist, actually drew that page.  And, as one can see, he would have been perfect if the medium had gone down the “pirate” road it did in Watchmen rather than the superhero road we have experienced.

A NOTE ON THE BACK-MATTER IN WATCHMEN - part II (chapters 1-4)

On my first reading of Watchmen, I expected the text pieces in the back of each issue would all be excerpted chapters from Hollis Mason’s autobiography Under the Hood, as each of the first three chapters included these excerpts.  I found it interesting – delving into Mason’s psyche to see what prompted him to become a costumed adventurer humanized him in a way that could not be fully realized in the main comic.  And, by way of Mason’s inside knowledge, I also got to know the other members of his “spandex set.”  Of course, once I read chapter four, it was evident Moore planned on utilizing a variety of “resources” from the world of Watchmen to fully flesh out these characters. 

Much of the text in Under the Hood only tangentially relates to the main narrative, as it mostly deals with Hollis Mason’s personal history.  But Moore also peppers these excerpts with little details that flesh out the world of Watchmen, providing insights into this alternate reality not as easily conveyed through the comic narrative.  The biggest hurdle comic books have as a storytelling medium is the lack of space within the format.  Moore’s use of prose at the end of each chapter was an elegant solution to this disadvantage.

One interesting detail gleaned from Mason’s autobiography was the fact that comic books began in exactly the same manner as they did in our “real world.”  Hollis Mason, during his time as a beat cop, discovered Action Comics #1 and the Superman story therein, when he saw the kids on his beat reading it.  Mason asked one boy if he could read his copy – ostensibly to forge bonds with those he was sworn to protect – and was immediately captivated by the costumed hero from Krypton.  Like the pulps he’d enjoyed when younger, this new adventurer spurred Mason’s imagination and inspired his own later costumed exploits.

It was no coincidence that in the world of Watchmen, “real superheroes” came to the fore in 1939, just as their four-color analogues in our world were exploding in the public mindset.  But with real superheroes like Hooded Justice and Nite Owl and Silk Spectre, the allure of superhero comics quickly faded.  With the real thing who needed a second-rate, static version printed on cheap newsprint? This was the first of many differences between the world of Watchmen and our own, a difference that also accounted for the popularity of pirate comics in this alternate reality.

Moore knows his comics history, which probably explains why he chose to have superheroes arrive in the world of Watchmen at the same time as their rise as comic book characters in our own world – along with the obvious narrative uses an older generation of heroes could provide his story.  Similar to this costumed adventurer fad in the 1939 of Watchmen, the era of this golden age of heroes spanned roughly the same decade that the golden age of superhero comic books did in our own.  The popularity of costumed adventurers burned hotly during the early part of the 1940s, but with the successful conclusion of World War II, that popularity waned.  In 1949, the Minute Men disbanded and things became quiet on the costumed adventurer front, coinciding roughly with the decline of the golden age of superhero comics.  But the Silver Age was just around the corner, as, in the back-matter for Chapter IV, Dr. Manhattan was introduced to an unsuspecting world in March, 1960 (which falls somewhere in between the birth of the Silver Age of superhero comics – with 1956’s Showcase #4 introducing the new Flash – and that of the Marvel Age of comics – in late 1961 with the publication of Fantastic Four #1).

Perhaps the most interesting detail in the back-matter for these first four chapters can be found at the end of Chapter III (in Chapter V of Under the Hood), when Hollis discussed Hooded Justice and his exit from adventuring.  Hooded Justice was the first superhero, and when the Minute Men disbanded, he was the one who disappeared like a wisp of smoke.  Even his fellow adventurers did not know his true identity.  But the New Frontiersman wrote an article linking the disappearance of circus strong man Rolf Müller with that of Hooded Justice – both figures vanished shortly after the hearings before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC).  This was followed, three months later, by the discovery of a decomposed body that washed ashore near Boston and was believed to be Müller. 

This might seem like some innocuous, titillating conjecture, but when the connections are made with scenes from Chapter II, page 7 and Chapter XI, page 18, the truth falls into place.  The first scene takes place just after the Comedian’s rape of Silk Spectre.  Hooded Justice comes in on them and physically beats the Comedian, who threatens Hooded Justice, telling him “…I got your number, see?  And one of these days, the joke’s gonna be on you.”  In the latter scene, Ozymandias is recounting his formative years as a costumed adventurer.  Early on, he decided to research his masked predecessors and investigated the disappearance of Hooded Justice.  This investigation led him to the government operative responsible for the initial investigation after the HUAC hearings, one Edward Blake, the Comedian.  Blake reported he was unable to find Hooded Justice and the case was closed.  Ozymandias contemplates the possibility that Blake may have found Hooded Justice and killed him, reporting his failure so that it would not be pursued further.  Add this to the speculation that Hooded Justice was Rolf Müller, and we realize that Ozymandias’s conjecture is correct.

I know there are some who refuse to read the text pieces at the end of each chapter of Watchmen.  That is certainly their right, and the main story can be enjoyed without them.  But those who don’t include the back-matter as part of their reading are missing out on a lot of details that enrich and expand the main narrative in so many ways.  Moore infused this book with seemingly insignificant pieces of information that, when formed into a whole – like the bits regarding Hooded Justice’s exit from adventuring and the subsequent discovery of the decomposed body of Rolf Müller – provide a fuller, richer, and more satisfying experience.  That, above almost everything else, is what sets Watchmen apart from so many other comic stories.

-chris