Watchmen Part 5 of 12.
Writer, Alan Moore.
Illustrator, Dave Gibbons.
Described by Liana Kerr https://twitter.com/lianaleslie
Last modified March 2, 2015.

Chapter 5.

Cover.
The words "Chapter V" are printed vertically in purple on black over the left third of the page. Above them is a purple and black clock with no numbers or markings that indicates that the time is 11:53. The right two-thirds of the page show a picture of a large puddle of water near some garbage cans, in which is reflected the bottom part of the Rum Runner sign, a logo of two back-to-back Rs that together look like a stylized skull with a pair of crossed bones underneath it. The sign is lit, making the puddle appear red, and the logo is a shiny gold. Drops of rain hit the puddle, breaking its smooth surface in several places with ripples. A newspaper lies on the ground at the edge of the puddle. We only see its edge, and the photo on the front page is a map showing the Soviet push into Afghanistan. In the corner is a box with the forecast. It reads, "Forecast. Cloudy, heavy rain later." On the opposite edge of the puddle is a discarded Gunga Diner takeout box, with scattered grains of rice coming from it.
Page 1.
Panel 1.
The same puddle as was in the cover image, perhaps seen at the same time, as the puddle reflects the glowing red neon sign, but shown from a few feet away instead of up close and from a slightly different perspective. The full map on the front page of the newspaper is visible, but not the headline. The back-to-back Rs and crossed bones glow bright yellow, and drops of rain create circular ripples all over the puddle.

Panel 2.
The light of the neon sign blinks off, turning the scene shades of dirty, grayish-blue. A man wearing pinstriped blue pants walks towards the puddle, his boot hovering a half inch above the surface of the puddle. The perspective is the same as the previous panel, and so we only see the man's leg.

Panel 3.
As the light from the sign blinks bright red, the man's foot splashes into the puddle, splashing the Gunga Diner box and causing a large ripple to cover the whole puddle.

Panel 4.
The man continues walking past the puddle as the light blinks off. The full headline from the newspaper can be seen, and it reads "Russians Invade Afghanistan."

Panel 5. 
The man starts to walk up a small flight of stairs leading to a doorway. He is wearing a long-sleeved coat and gloves. The light from the sign turns the entire scene bright red and orange.

Panel 6.
The reader sees the whole front of the apartment, with Rorschach huddled close to the front door. With the light from the sign off, the scene is green and dreary.

Panel 7.
As Rorschach slips inside the front door, the light from the sign turns on. The reader's viewpoint travels up, and we can see the whole thin, rectangular sign mounted on the building next door. The logo with the two Rs and the crossbones is at both the top and the bottom of the sign, and it reads The Rum Runner. We also see here that this is a three-story building, with one window by the front door, a window that juts out on the second floor and two windows on the third floor.

Panel 8.
A close-up of the right window on the third floor. The Rum Runner sign is level with the middle of the window, and it is off. The window's shade is pulled down.

Panel 9.
The sign blinks red as a voice comes from behind the closed window, saying "Hwuh...? H-Hello? Who's there?"
Page 2.
Panel 1.
The reader sees the window from inside the dark room. Outside, the light is off. A voice says "C'mon... I heard a *noise*. I know *somebody's* there..." 

Panel 2. 
Moloch is sitting on the edge of his bed, tying the sash of his robe in front of him. The light from the Rum Runner sign illuminates him and his collection of religious materials.

Panel 3.
As the light turns off, he pushes himself off of the bed, saying "Uh-*huh*. I see."

Panel 4. 
He walks to the dresser on top of which the Bible and the statue of an angel or a saint are sitting, opening the top drawer and reaching for a gun. The statue casts a long shadow as the light turns on. He says, "Well, okay. Okay, if that's how it *is*..."

Panel 5.
He removes the gun from the dresser, holding it in his left hand with his finger on the trigger. The light blinks off as he says "If that's how you want to play it."

Panel 6.
Holding the gun to his side, he opens the door to his bedroom, saying "You think I'm *scared*, huh?" The light turns on and the statue is positioned as if it's watching him go. He continues, "You think I'm scared of some shaky little junkie with a switchblade?"

Panel 7.
He peeks through the open door, his eyes open and worried, his mouth toothless and his lips sunken in. He holds the gun out in front of him as he says "Huh? Is that what you think, I'm scared?" Behind him, the light has gone out.

Panel 8.
He opens the door fully, stepping out of his bedroom. The light turns the room red.

Panel 9.
With the light off, the area has turned dark again. Moloch looks over the balcony and down the stairs, saying "Hello?"
Page 3.
Panel 1.
Moloch goes down the stairs, holding on to the railing and carrying the gun in front of him. His steps are illuminated by the red light from the Rum Runner sign.

Panel 2.
Carrying the gun out in front of him, Moloch passes through the second floor and continues down to the first floor. The second floor has his TV and a comfortable chair, and a TV Guide sits on the coffee table in front of it. The light has flickered off.

Panel 3.
As Moloch reaches the bottom of the stairs, he looks around. Behind him, the door is open a crack, letting the light from the sign shine through.

Panel 4.
The reader sees Moloch turn towards the hallway, gun in front of him, as if we are looking from outside the slightly opened door. The lock, which reads "Gordian Knot Lock Company" has been broken. It is dark once again.

Panel 5.
Moloch walks cautiously into his kitchen, holding the gun in front of him. The light from the sign illuminates him through the open kitchen door, but the kitchen itself is dark. The garbage can is filled to overflowing, and empty pizza boxes and frozen food boxes are stacked up to its sides. A piece of brown fabric is sticking out of the fridge.

Panel 6.
In total darkness, Moloch reaches for the fridge door, holding the gun out in front of him.

Panel 7.
The fridge is almost empty. Only the top shelf remains, and on it is a small folded note. The other shelves have been taken out. At the bottom of the fridge is a disheveled coat that looks as if it has been shoved in quickly. A bottle of cologne is tucked in the fridge door. Moloch leans in towards it, holding the gun in front of him. 

Panel 8.
His face fearful as it is illuminated by the light of the refrigerator, Moloch reaches for the folded note. Sweat is dripping from his forehead, and his face looks sickly.

Panel 9.
The unfolded note says, in uneven, childish print, "Behind you." Underneath the message is Rorschach's symbol, two lower-case Rs and two dots written as if reflecting each other. The symbol is centered on the fold in the paper.
Page 4.
Panel 1.
A large panel the size of three regular panels. Moloch opens his eyes wide, looking to the side without turning his head, the note still up by his face. Behind him is Rorschach, the symmetrical black and white pattern of his mask as jarring as ever.

Underneath this panel is the chapter's title, Fearful Symmetry.

Panel 2.
Moloch turns his head to look at Rorschach, dropping the note and lowering the gun. Rorschach, wearing his pinstriped suit and fedora, stands behind him. He is still and silent.

Panel 3. 
Moloch's whole body has turned to face Rorschach. He looks down and to the side. His gun is at his hip, and he still has his finger on the trigger but is pointing it to the side, away from Rorschach. Rorschach has not moved, but the pattern on his mask is slightly different.

Panel 4.
Still holding the gun in the same position, Moloch looks up at him tentatively. Rorschach still hasn't moved, but once again his mask's pattern is slightly different.

Panel 5.
Moloch drops his gun and spreads his hands in a conciliatory gesture. A forced smile on his face and sweat dripping from his chin, he says "I... I wasn't... I wasn't going to point it at you." Rorschach remains motionless, save for the pattern on his mask.

Panel 6.
Rorschach moves forward, grabbing on to the front of Moloch's robe with both hands, knocking the older man slightly off balance. Moloch looks down at Rorschach's hands, making a "*Hhuhhh!*" noise and then saying "No, *please*, what...?"

Panel 7.
Bringing his face very close to Moloch's face, Rorschach says "Gun. No license. I checked. Very bad." Moloch's jaw hangs open and he looks terrified.
Page 5.
Panel 1.
A large panel the size of two regular panels. Rorschach shoves Moloch bottom first into the fridge, saying "Also, you're sweating. Looks unpleasant. Should cool down." Moloch, knocked off balance, puts his hands out and cries in large type "*Aak!*"

Panel 2.
Moloch sits on top of Rorschach's coat in the fridge. The top shelf has come out of place and is on the back of the fridge behind him. He shivers but makes no move to escape, staring at Rorschach and raising one hand as he says "Oh, *God*... Look, please, what do you *want* with me?" Rorschach turns away from him, raising the bottom of his mask to reveal an unshaven chin. He says "Nothing. Just passing. Old and alone. Thought you might appreciate company."

Panel 3.
Moloch gestures with his thumb and says "Then, uh, c-can I get out of the *fridge*?" Rorschach opens a carton of eggs as he says "No. Thought we might discuss Comedian. He visited here. Mentioned a list: you and Janey Slater on it. Talked about someone messing with Dr. Manhattan."

Panel 4. 
Rorschach breaks an egg against the edge of the counter as he continues, "Days later, Manhattan publicly disgraced. Forced into exile. Allegations he'd given people cancer: you, Janey Slater. Tough break." Moloch, hugging himself with both arms, looks up at him with a worried look on his face.

Panel 5.
From inside the fridge, Moloch says "But... I don't *understand*. Why are you laying all this heat on *me*?" Rorschach drops the top of the eggshell onto the floor as he turns towards the fridge and answers "Because I think Blake's list was cancer list. Somebody wrote it. Somebody put your name on it. Somebody gave it to the media. Wonder who?"

Panel 6.
Rorschach leans one arm on the open fridge door and tips the raw egg out of the eggshell and into his mouth. He says, "Funny... Dr. Manhattan and Comedian were always your biggest enemies. Now they're both gone. Very convenient. Who is it, Moloch? Who's behind this?" Moloch looks up at him, his toothless mouth open in dismay.

Panel 7.
Moloch answers "I...I don't *know*. I already *told* you. I don't know *anything*." Rorschach flings the empty eggshell onto the floor and, holding the door, replies "No good. Wrong tone of voice. Not convincing enough."

Panel 8.
As Rorschach pushes the door closed, Moloch pleads "Oh no. Oh *no*, God, *don't*... Rorschach, *please,* it wasn't *me*. I don't *know!*" In larger type, he continues, "I don't *know* who it was!" 
Page 6.
Panel 1.
Rorschach stands outside the fridge for a moment, his hand pushing the door closed. He puts his other hand to his chin thoughtfully and makes a "Hurrm" noise.

Panel 2.
He opens the door wide, saying "Better." Moloch tumbles out, arms stretched in front of him, making an "Ouhh" noise and saying "Oh God. Oh *God*..."

Panel 3.
Rorschach steps past Moloch, retrieving his coat from the bottom of the fridge. He says "Going now. If anything should refresh memory, contact me by leaving note, trash can opposite Gunga Diner, at Fortieth and Seventh. Plus, get gun license. Soon." Moloch, still on his hands and knees in front of the open refrigerator, says "Yes. Ahhuhh. Oh, God, yes, anything..."

Panel 4.
Moloch remains on the kitchen floor as Rorschach puts on his coat and leaves the kitchen, saying "Sorry about mess. Can't make omelette without breaking few eggs."

Panel 5.
A large panel the size of two regular panels. Rorschach pauses on the front steps outside of Moloch's door, adjusting the lapels of his coat. The Rum Runner sign is blinking on, its stylized skull and crossbones logo level with his head. Far in the distance is the Chrysler building and a zeppelin. A note indicates that the following text is from Rorschach's journal, October 21st, 1985. "Left Jacobi's house 2:35 a.m. He knows nothing about any attempt to discredit Dr. Manhattan. He has simply been used."

Panel 6.
A large panel the size of two regular panels. Rorschach starts walking, his hands in his pockets, going the same direction he arrived by. The partially detached epaulet on his left shoulder flaps in the wind and rain. His journal continues, "By whom? Russians seem obvious choice: Manhattan and Comedian both key military figures. But Comedian referred to an island, artists and writers living on it. Doesn't fit. Can't concentrate. Too tired. No sleep since Saturday."

Panel 7.
Rorschach's boot splashes in the same puddle outside Moloch's home as the sign blinks bright red, turning the colors of the puddle into a mass of bright reds, yellows and oranges. A line of yellow water splashes up towards his pants. His journal continues, "Walked home past trashcans stuffed with rumors of war, weighing factors; bodies; motives... Waiting for a flash of enlightenment in all this blood and thunder."
Page 7.
Panel 1.
A poster, taped to a door, depicting the Buddha. He is sitting cross-legged, one hand in his lap and the other held up, facing palm out. He is floating above a pond filled with lotuses in a field of red flowers, and in the background are tall mountains and a sun with stylized rays radiating to the tattered edges of the poster. A purple triangle is superimposed on the image, making it look as if the Buddha is contained in it. Underneath the picture, next to the doorknob, is a large splatter of blood, part of which has splattered as far as the base of the poster. One line of blood has fallen over the Buddha's face, its shape mimicking the line of water splashing on Rorschach's pants leg and recalling the blood on the Comedian's pin. A voice from offscreen says "We need to know *everything*, Mrs. Hirsch..."

Panel 2.
The door on which the poster is taped opens, and the detective Joe Bourquin steps inside the room, his face stoic. In front of him are the hands of a woman wringing a handkerchief  and the hands of a man who is taking notes on a small notepad. The woman replies, "War. He said there was gonna be war with the *Russians*. Said he wanted to *spare* the *little ones*."

Panel 3.
The woman has black curly hair and large, round glasses, and as she speaks to the detective a female police officer has her hands comfortingly on her shoulders. She continues, "*Dominique,* she kept saying quote '*Wah*' unquote, which is, like, quote '*war*' unquote. She's just *three*, she *repeats* things, and then... Oh." She looks to the side and makes an "Ooohhhhhhh" noise. The man sitting across from her is Steven Fine. He reaches inside his coat pocket and says "Okay, Mrs. Hirsch. No more *questions*. Officer *Capaldi* will drive you to the *hospital*." There are bloodstains on the wall next to the door, and a poster on the wall decorated with images of flowers reads "Today is the first day of the rest of your life." A round light hanging from the ceiling has a zig-zag pattern with evenly placed dots on it.

Panel 4.
As Officer Capaldi escorts the crying woman from the apartment, Joe comes up to Steven and asks "Jesus. What *happened*?" Steve lights a cigarette, scowling, and says "Guy worried about *nuclear war.* Killed both kids in front of their mom, then opened his *jugular.* There's gonna be *more* like this."

Panel 5.
Joe walks over to the corner, where the three bodies have been covered up by a sheet. He gestures with one hand, saying, "Yeah, well, me, I think it's *astrological*. *Halley's Comet* is coming back around now. That's an omen of doom." Steven takes a long drag on his cigarette and replies "Yeah. So's *Russia* invading *Afghanistan.*" There are bloodstains all over the walls, and between the two men, a blood-stained teddy bear lies on the ground.

Panel 6.
Joe kneels by the bodies, raising the sheet. He says "Ahh, that'll blow over. World War Three, it'll never happen. Nobody's *crazy* enough. Boy. What did he use on *these*?" Steven answers "Kitchen knife. Their names were *Claire* and *Dominique.*" Behind him is a Grateful Dead poster with an image of a skull and crossbones on it.

Panel 7.
Joe stands up, saying "Nice *names*. Sorta *film star* names." Steven replies, "Yeah." Joe continues, "So ya wanna go get some *breakfast*?" Steven replies, "Yeah." The foot of one of the girls sticks out from under the tarp, surrounded by bloodstains on the floor. She is wearing a shoe with a Snoopy decoration on it. 

Panel 8.
Joe holds the door open for Steven and gestures with his thumb as he says "Good. Listen, don't let this ruin your day. These *psych-outs* are mostly *media inspired*." As Steven walks through the door, his cigarette smoke trailing behind him, he says "The media inspires *boredom* not waking up one Monday morning and butchering your *kids*. That takes something *else*, man."

Panel 9.
An image of the poster on the now closed door, nearly identical to the one in the first panel of the page. From outside the door, Steven is saying "That takes a whole different *kind* of inspiration."
Page 8.
Panel 1.
The comic book text reads, "My home and family were doomed, my world reduced to ruin. Fate had dealt its hand casually, despite my bitter protestations." The comics-reading boy, sitting in his usual spot and wearing the newsvendor's hat, is being splashed by a purple vehicle with a logo of a triangle within a circle by the side. The splash of water on his back mirrors the splash of blood on the door and poster from the previous page, with one drop of water superimposed on the pyramid. He looks up from his comic and calls out, "Hey, *turkey!* Quit *splashing!*"

Panel 2.
The driver of the van, a hefty white man with a little mustache wearing an orange jacket with the purple circle and triangle logo on the back, steps out of the van carrying its electric cord as he answers "Where *should* I recharge? Now quit obstructin' the *current*..." The boy returns to his reading, and the comic book text reads "The same waves gnawed my island and *Davidstown* alike, yet swimming would surely be *madness.*" Near the boy, the newsvendor is getting up from his folding seat, a cup of coffee in his hand. A newspaper and some magazines are tacked to the side of his stall.

Panel 3.
The driver plugs in the cord and says "S'better. Got today's *Gazette*?" The newsvendor takes the newspaper down from the side of the stall, answering "Sure. This *war's* lookin' serious. Makes a guy start figuring *escape routes*, y'know?" The comic book text reads, "It was then I conceived of building a *raft*..."

Panel 4.
The newsvendor, gesturing with his thumb, continues "I mean, my *father*, when things deteriorated in 'thirties *Germany*, he *split.*" The driver, holding the newspaper in one hand and gesturing with the other, answers "Sure. In World War *Two*. In World War *Three*, where's to *split* to?" The headline of the newspaper reads "Afghanistan Fighting Spreads." The comic book text continues, "...Although inwardly I doubted it would *float*." 

Panel 5.
The driver unplugs the cord and says "Anyways, that's enough juice to make *Connecticut.* See you next *delivery day.*" The newsvendor replies, "Yeah. Sure..." The comic book text continues, "The island's trees did not look *buoyant* enough to reach Davidstown. Not *unaided*..."

Panel 6.
The van driver gets in his vehicle as the newsvendor watches him go, saying "quote Where's to split to? unquote. Humm." The boy continues to read, and the comic book text continues, "Suddenly, I recalled the gas-bloated stomachs of the buried men, then shuddered at the idea I found myself *considering*."

Panel 7.
The comic book text continues, "I attempted to banish this repulsive notion..." The newsvendor, sitting on his folding chair and looking to the side, says "Ahh, it'll never *happen*. Wonder what's delayin' the *New Frontiersman*?" The comic book text continues, "...But it would not let me be."

Panel 8.
A closer shot of the boy sitting against the spark hydrant, his comic folded in half to make it easier to read. To his side, the newsvendor gestures with one hand and says "Next month's *comic books* arrive early, today's *Frontiersman* arrives *late*. Goddamn war's screwin' *everything* up." The comic book text continues, "Finally approaching the shallow grave, I began digging. My scheme was loathsome, but I had no *choice.*"

Panel 9.
The comic book text continues, "Not when I considered the *nature* of my situation." As the vehicle starts, it splashes the boy's shoulder. He leans away from the water and says "Shee-*it!*" The folded over page of the comic book is fully visible. The newsvendor continues, "Absolutely *everything.*"
Page 9.
Panel 1.
A large panel the size of two regular panels. This page shows the comic book page that the comics-reading boy was holding out in front of him in the last panel of page 8. The comic book text reads, "Everything I loved, everything I lived for depended upon my reaching Davidstown in advance of that terrible freighter. Clinging to the memory of my wife's eyes, I dragged men up from underground, sand trickling from their sockets." The sailor, his pants torn at the calves and his shirt nearly a white rag, is pulling a rotting, partially dismembered corpse from the sand by its ankle. Blood has pooled under the corpse's skin, giving it a mottled red and green look over sick yellow skin. All around him, parts of other corpses stick out from the sand; a hand here, a knee there, an open mouth and nose near the front. Gulls are flocking around the sailor, one landing on an outstretched finger on one corpse's hand and tearing at the skin.

Panel 2.
The comic book text continues, "Removing their clothing, I tore it to ribbons, binding them together. Occasionally, I would pause in my work, entranced by the startling beauty of a tattoo or the enigma of an old scar." The sailor is sitting on a corpse's chest, a determined look on his face, tightly binding a pair of forearms together with a scrap of fabric. On one of the arms is a tattoo of an anchor wrapped in the middle with a banner. The gulls flock around him.

Panel 3.
The comic book text continues, "By afternoon, I'd felled enough young palms to build the deck of my conveyance, affixing it to the human float beneath. Satisfied, I waited for dusk and ebb tide, then embarked, heading east." The sailor is lifting the final tree trunk into position. He has created a simple raft made of two layers, with the top layer consisting of tree trunks lashed together and the bottom layer consisting of corpses lashed together. It has a simple mast and a sail made of a large rectangle of soiled, torn fabric. In the foreground are the stumps of some of the trees that the sailor has cut down, along with his hatchet, and in the background the sun is starting to set, gulls silhouetted in the distance.

Panel 4.
A large panel the size of two regular panels. The comic book text continues, "East, across the night seas. East, borne on the naked backs of murdered men." The sailor's raft is borne on the top of a rolling wave, the seas dark and sinister shades of black and murky green. The clouds at the horizon are a threatening red, and the sky pitch-black, covered in clouds.

Panel 5.
A large panel the size of two regular panels. The comic book text continues, "With dawn came the gulls, drawn to the carrion upon which my transport rested. Lent speed by my hunger, I was able to rip one from the air. I had not eaten since the shipwreck." The sailor, standing on his raft and holding on to the mast, catches a gull by its legs.  Other gulls flock in circles around his raft. The reader views the sailor from above, and we can see that the tree part of his raft looks like a ladder, with large spaces between which the corpses are clearly visible. The raft leaves green trails in the water as it goes.

Panel 6. 
The comic book text continues, "Stomach filled with raw meat; gull blood caked upon my chin, I drifted on towards Davidstown. My *home* was there. Nothing would take it from me." A close-up of the sailor's face. The sailor, his hair matted and his shirt torn, is grasping the gull in both hands. He has taken several large bites out of its breast, creating a large hole and exposing its ribcage. The sides of the hole are stained with blood. His eyes are desperate and his teeth gritted, mouth and chin stained with blood. The blood drips off his chin, a lighter red than the rest of the panel, which is colored entirely in shades of red.
Page 10.

Panel 1.
A close-up of Dan's face. Dan is holding a napkin in one hand and a chicken drumstick in the other, just underneath his chin. He has taken a large bite out of the middle of it,  some flecks of food on his lips and chin. His eyes under his large, thick glasses are intense. A voice from offscreen says, "They said I can't *live* there anymore, now that *Jon's* gone. Plus, they suspended my *expense account*, so all I have is my *savings*. It was just quote 'Okay, we're taking your home and money. Chew on that unquote.'"

Panel 2. 
Dan moves his head back slightly, a dismayed expression on his face. He says, "So, where will you *stay*? Did you call your *mother?*" Laurie, looking disgruntled and adjusting her coat collar, says "Oh, she'd *love* that. I'd sooner sleep on a *grating.* Nah, I'll get by. It just burns my ass to be so damn *disposable.*" Although the two of them are obviously the ones talking, the speech bubbles appear to be coming from outside the panel, not from their heads.

Panel 3.
The reader sees that the images in the previous two panels were images of the two in a large mirror. Laurie stands up, a downcast look on her face, and says "Anyway, thanks for buying me *lunch*. I better go find a *cheap room* somewhere. Say, are you okay? You look kinda *uncomfortable*..." Dan wipes his chin with a napkin. We can see from the reflection in the mirror that he is looking at her nervously. He says "No. No, I'm fine. I guess I'll see you *around* sometime." She says "Sure. 'Bye, Dan."

Panel 4.
A large panel the size of three regular panels. Dan turns to watch her leave. We see the reflection of her back in the mirror as she heads for the Gunga Diner exit. Dan looks worried, frowning and knitting his brows together. On the table in front of him are the remnants of their lunch and a couple of messy bottles of sauce. The large mirror also shows the waitress and the other customers, and beyond that the Utopia theater and pedestrians on the sidewalk.

Panel 5.
Dan stands up and, gesturing with his thumb, calls to Laurie, "Laurie, *wait*. You *know* there's, uh, there's always *my* place." Laurie turns her head slightly, a weary look on her face. The background is bright yellow.

Panel 6.
The reader sees the two of them at an odd angle, such that we only see their torsos and hands as they stand across from each other. Behind them is their table and the large mirror, and in the mirror, we see their full images. She gestures and says "Oh, I couldn't *impose*... He puts out his hands in a gesture of explanation and says "Oh, it'd be no *imposition*. I have a lot of *room* there. I mean, we're both *friends*; we're both in the same line of *work*; we're both, uh... we're both..."

Panel 7. 
The reader sees their reflections in the mirror, behind the table still strewn with a takeout box, an empty cup and the two sauce bottles. They are leaving the Gunga Diner side-by-side, looking at each other. Dan continues, "We're both *leftovers*."
Page 11.

Panel 1.
The reader sees only the hands of a white man who is pushing his white shirt and green coat cuff to the side with his left hand, checking his watch on his right hand. It is eleven o'clock. Behind his hands is a table covered with haphazardly placed cracked and dirty dishes and an open can of beans with a spoon sticking out of it, and underneath the table is a carefully stacked pile of newspapers or magazines. A panel shows that the following text is from Rorschach's journal, October 21st, 1985: "Woken at eleven by shouting outside. Disturbed to find I had fallen asleep without removing the skin from my head. Tireder than I thought. Should be more careful." 

Panel 2.
The man's hand pulls an old green curtain to the side. The windowsill underneath is dirty, and the window is broken in a couple of places, repaired with pieces of tape. Outside the window, a street gang of five young men is gathered in a cluster on the sidewalk. They all wear the knot top hairstyle, leather jackets with a faux-Japanese character on the back, long shirts, pants and boots. Rorschach's journal continues, "Across street, boys with spray cans were defacing abandoned building. Memorized their descriptions, then prepared for work."

Panel 3.
The journal continues, "First, peeled off face. Folded it, hid inside jacket. Without my face, nobody knows." The reader sees Rorschach's hands holding his mask. Behind it is his bed, spartan and dirty, and underneath the bed is a neatly stacked pile of The New Frontiersman magazines. His journal continues, "Nobody knows who I am."

Panel 4.
His journal continues, "On way out of room, met landlady. Usual complaints re hygiene and rent. There were purple bite marks on her fat white neck. Fresh ones. She reminds me of my mother." The reader sees his hand opening his front door. Outside the door is a slatternly white woman with a puffy, unkept updo, a scowling face and a cross necklace, its pendant hanging above her generous cleavage. She has one hand on her hip and is gesturing with the other as if she is asking for something. Three children surround her, two white, one black. The one in front is crying, rubbing his eyes, and the one closest to her seems scared of Rorschach.

Panel 5.
His journal continues, "Out in street, inspected defaced building: silhouette picture in doorway, man and woman, possibly indulging in sexual foreplay. Didn't like it. Makes doorway look haunted." The abandoned building has a sign on it that is mostly covered up, but part of it reads "Distribution." Underneath it is a lot of graffiti, such as squiggly lines, a starburst pattern, another instance of "Who Watches The Watchmen" partially visible and now, in the boarded-up doorway, a image of a man and a woman embracing. The man seems to be holding the woman against the side of the door and kissing her. It is life size and looks like a black shadow on the wall. Next to the door is a large oil drum full of trash, with the spraypaint can used to make the graffiti poking out of the top, and some litter has fallen into a puddle on the sidewalk. A man is sitting on the ground near the building, knees huddled to his chest.

Panel 6.
His journal continues, "On Fortieth and Seventh, saw Dreiberg and Juspeczyk leaving diner. They didn't know me." The reader sees the two of them from Rorschach's perspective, apparently as he is crossing the street toward the Gunga Diner. Dan is holding the door open as Laurie walks through, her hands in her coat pockets. A woman in a pillbox hat is walking a dog, and a man is leaning on the lamp post. Rorschach's journal continues, "An affair, perhaps? Did Juspeczyk engineer Dr. Manhattan's exile to make room for Dreiberg? Also, she hated Comedian. Must investigate further."

Panel 7.
His journal continues, "Entering diner, bought coffee, then sat watching my maildrop immediately across street. Passers-by made various deposits: candy wrappers, newspapers, a pair of Keds strangled by own laces, tongues lolling out horribly." The man is sitting at a table facing out towards the trash can on the corner of the sidewalk  near the Promethean Cab Company's building. An old woman using a cane to walk drops a piece of trash in the trashcan. There is a paper posted to the trashcan, but the writing on it cannot be made out. In front of her, a gang of young men, some carrying cans of spraypaint, walk towards the building. A portly man is walking towards the corner, and a car passes by. Inside the diner, Rorschach holds a paper Gunga Diner placemat in front of him like a newspaper. It has the words "Gunga Diner" on its top, sides and base, with the Gunga Diner's elephant logo in each corner, and it's been folded into four squares and unfolded. With one hand, he takes a bottle of sauce and lets it drip onto the placemat into the shape of a question mark. His steaming cup of coffee rests on the bar in front of him.

Panel 8.
His journal continues, "This city is an animal, fierce and complicated. To understand it I read its droppings, its scents, the movement of its parasites..." Rorschach starts to fold the two halves of the placemat together, the upside down question mark on the right side. In front of him, the gang of young men is standing in a huddle, spraypainting something on the wall of the building. The portly man drops a piece of trash in the trashcan. 

Panel 9.
His journal continues, "I sat watching the trashcan, and New York opened its heart to me." The upside down question mark made of sauce has been squished flat and onto both sides of the placemat, and as he unfolds it it resembles a Rorschach blot, a symmetrical set of random shapes. The man who just threw away the trash continues across the street towards the diner, and the gang has moved away from the building, leaving a spraypainted shadow of a man and a woman facing each other and embracing, their heads touching at the forehead and their bodies stiff. One of the gang members kicks the can of spraypaint into the trash can on the corner as the others move on.
Page 12.
Panel 1.
A pair of hands are holding a newspaper. The headline reads "Afghanistan: Is Pakistan Next?" It is accompanied by a map showing troop movements with arrows and several small lines of text. A voice says "Tellya the truth, this whole bloody mess, it gives me a funny feelin' *inside*, y'know?" The comic book text reads, "There was a gull in my stomach." Across the street from the raised newspaper, there is a gang of knot-tops standing on the street corner next to the Promethean Cab Company building, with its bright yellow fallout shelter sign under one of the windows. One of them is kicking a can of spray paint into the trash can.  A shiny, rounded car is passing by.

Panel 2. 
The voice continues, "It's like, I dunno how long we can hold *on*." The comic book text continues, "As the sun clambered precariously over the world's slippery rim, the enormity of my savage breakfast struck me and I grew faint." The panel image is from the comic book, and it shows the hands of the sailor hanging on desperately to the mast as the sun begins to rise in front of him.

Panel 3.
The comic book text continues, "I'd swallowed too much birdflesh. I'd swallowed too much horror." The reader sees that the person reading the newspaper and speaking earlier was the newsvendor. He's standing in front of his folding chair, facing the Promethean Cab Company building, the newspaper still in front of him. To his side, the boy is still reading his comic, his legs crossed in front of him. The newsvendor continues, "I mean, World War Three, it's a *nightmare*. The only people who can even *think* about it are the *arms companies*." A taxi passes, and the gang continues down the street as another person tosses something into the trashcan.

Panel 4.
The newsvendor continues, "You *watch*. You watch the *financial pages*. Those guys, they're gonna make a *killing.*" The comic book text continues, "Everything tilted. Above, scavengers wheeled hungrily, just screams dressed in feathers." The sailor, still clinging to the mast, looks up at the flock of seagulls circling him.

Panel 5. 
The newsvendor continues as he holds the paper in front of him, "They're *greedy*. Greedy for cash they won't have the time to *spend.* I mean, don't people see the *signs*? Don't they know where this is *headed*?" The boy looks up, his face annoyed, and says "Hey man, I'm *reading.*" Cars and pedestrians pass by, and across the corner, the man with the "The End Is Nigh" sign leaves the Gunga Diner.

Panel 6.
The newsvendor replies, "*See*? *Apathy!* Everybody escapin' into comic books an' T.V.! Makes me *sick.*" The comic book text continues, "The gulls' slaughterhouse chorus afforded no distraction from my nausea, and I fell, retching, to my knees. Between my raft's timbers, Bosun Ridley stared up at me." The sailor, his clothes tattered and one shoe missing, is on his hands and knees. His head is cut off by the border of the panel. Underneath him, the corpses of the men who make up his raft are reflected in the still water, two pairs of eyes staring out towards the sea.  Seagulls fly in the background.

Panel 7.
The comic book text continues, "This sudden confrontation with mortality induced an odd clarity within me." The newsvendor, holding the newspaper with one hand and gesturing with the other, looks around him, his face anxious, and says "I mean, all this, it could all be *gone*: people, cars, T.V. shows, magazines... Even the word quote '*gone*' unquote would be gone." The boy continues to read. Behind the newsvendor is his stall with copies of Nova Express clipped to the side. Visible beyond that is the Promethean Cab Company sign, and beyond that is the Chrysler Building.

Panel 8.
The newsvendor continues, "See, newsvendors *understand*. They get to see the *whole picture*." The comic book text continues, "Light-headed, I gazed into the inverted world beneath, where drowned gulls circled. A madman with blood-caked lips gazed back at me." The sailor is hanging over the side of the raft, looking into the calm water. His reflection looks back at him, wide-eyed, aged before its time, disgusting and unearthly. The seagulls above him are reflected in the water, their reflections dark and eerie.

Panel 9.
The comic book text continues, "His eyes, his nose, his cheeks seemed individually familiar, but mercifully I could not piece them together. Not into a face I knew." The newsvendor continues, "It's our *curse*. We see every damned *connection.* Every damned *link.*" As with the first panel on the page, we see his hands holding his newspaper. Behind it, a car passes by and the man with the "The End Is Nigh" sign is leaning it against the trash can on the corner, going through the trash.
Page 13.
Panel 1.
Adrian is adjusting his gold V-shaped cufflinks, and the reader sees his hand, raised over his desk, and his other hand putting the cufflink into place. The other cufflink is resting on his highly polished desk, and the reflection makes it look as if it forms an X symbol. A woman standing near him says "Time's running *out*, Mr. Veidt. You better *hurry.*" Only part of her body is shown in the panel, but her face is reflected in the polished surface of Adrian's desk. She is a smiling young white woman with bobbed light brown hair with the ends flipped up. On the desk is Adrian's golden nameplate, also reflected in the desk, and a push-button telephone with the Veidt logo on it.

Panel 2.
Adrian walks away from his desk, adjusting his other cufflink. He is wearing a purple suit jacket, black pants and a yellow rose in his lapel. He says "Yes. Yes, I know. It's the *toy* people I have to see this morning, isn't it?" His secretary, wearing a long-sleeved red dress and carrying a clipboard, has walked ahead of him. She gestures to the open elevator, saying "That's right. They want some new *characters* in their *Ozymandias* line. Maybe some of your *major villains* or something." The whole city skyline is visible in the wall-to-wall window behind Adrian's desk, and he and his secretary are reflected in the polished floor.

Panel 3.
Inside the elevator, Adrian replies, his face serious, "The major villains are all dead." Smiling, his secretary replies "Oh *wow*, what *is* it with everybody today? Everybody's on this total *death trip*. Like on the *news* this morning, some guy went nuts, killed his *kids*. You see that?"

Panel 4.
As they leave the elevator, Adrian replies "No. No, I didn't." She gestures as she says "Apparently, he was scared there was gonna be a *war!* Isn't that *dumb*? Nobody would be *crazy* enough to *start* one, so why's everybody on such a *downer* about it?" The floor they are on also has a polished floor and vaguely Egyptian decor, such as columns and tall metal ashtrays with Egyptian patterns on them. A guard by the elevator salutes Adrian, and a handful of people are waiting for the other elevator. In front of them, a man is getting on the escalator going down and a couple of people are getting off of the two escalators going up.

Panel 5.
As they get on the escalator going down, Adrian replies "Perhaps they don't have your youth and optimism." She replies, "Well, I dunno. I think maybe it's the *decor* round here. All this *Egyptian* stuff. It's very *morbid*. Very obsessed with *death.*" The reader sees them as if we are standing on the next floor down. There are four escalators total, the two on the outside going down and the two on the inside going up. Some people are milling around on the bottom floor, one sitting on a bench and reading a newspaper.

Panel 6.
As they get off the escalator and walk through the lobby, Adrian replies "Death wasn't morbid to the ancient Egyptians. They saw it as launching on a voyage of spiritual discovery. Don't you find that a comforting thought?" She puts her hands out, looking at him, and says "Are you *kidding?*" A man with a futuristic looking hat and a briefcase passes them, and a man with a greenish-grey trenchcoat is standing by one of the tall metal ashtrays, his hands in his pocket.

Panel 7.
Adrian's secretary, smiling, continues "I mean, losing ten *pounds*, *that's* a comforting thought. My next *raise* is a comforting thought. Gloria Vanderbilt, M.T.V., *these* are comforting thoughts... *Spiritual discovery*, on the other hand, I can take it or..." Adrian listens to her patiently. In the foreground, the man in the greenish-grey trenchcoat takes one hand out of his pocket.

Panel 8.
The man in the greenish-grey trenchcoat pulls a gun out of his pocket, pointing it at Adrian and his secretary. She starts to lose her grip on her clipboard, bringing her other hand to her mouth and crying "Oh, God. Oh, *God*. Look *out*, he's..." Adrian looks at the man, taken aback. 
Pages 13-14

Panel 1.
The gunman, a hard-faced white man in his late 20s or 30s with reddish hair, shoots the secretary through the chest. The bullet passes through her, and blood spurts out of her back. The blow knocks her backwards. Beside her, Adrian rushes forward, one hand reaching for one of the tall metal ashtrays. Behind them, people start to notice what's going on. In the background is the last four letters of the Veidt logo on the wall, rendered in large gold letters, and red flowers in long flowerpots with a zigzag pattern on the sides.

Panel 2.
The secretary starts to fall backwards, her arms flying out in front of her, blood spurting from her front, her back and her mouth. The papers clipped to her clipboard flare out as she drops it. The gunman points the smoking gun at Adrian and takes a step back as Adrian, holding the ashtray in one hand, runs toward him. The gigantic golden V of the Veidt logo in the background is visible behind the gunman, and underneath it is a small, low fountain decorated with golden Egyptian death masks. There is a similar fountain on the other side of the gunman as well, with lily pads floating on the surface of the water. A man in the background watches with alarm.

Panel 3.
The gunman shoots at Adrian at close range. Adrian, holding the tall ashtray like a baseball bat, deflects the bullet with it. The bullet ricochets off of the ashtray and up towards the ceiling. The gunman looks stunned, while Adrian has a determined, serious look on his face. Behind him, the secretary is falling backwards, blood shooting out above her.

Panel 4.
The first three panels were on the left two-thirds of page 4. This panel is on the right third of page 4 and on the left third of page 5. To a sighted reader, it appears to be centered on the book's spine, and it appears to be one large panel although it is printed on two pages. The three panels after it will be on the right two-thirds of page 5.

Adrian, standing with his legs apart and swinging the metal ashtray like a baseball bat, hits the gunman full in the face with its heavy base. As he finishes his swing the ashtray is raised over his head, an arc of the man's blood flying off of the edge of the ashtray and creating a thin half-circle in the air. The man falls backward, seconds away from hitting the surface of the water with his head. Blood is gushing from his nose, his eyes are squeezed shut and the gun is falling out of his outstretched hand. His head is level with one of the golden death masks decorating the edge of the fountain, and although they are being reflected by the same pond, the reflection of the death mask is calm and beautiful, but the reflection of the man's bloody face looks dark and warped in the shadowy water. Adrian has an intense, fierce look on his face as he glares down at the man. He is standing in front of the giant golden V in the Veidt logo, and the angle of his legs and the gunman's body combines with the V to produce an X shape, centered on the book's spine. A mail carrier and a man and a woman watch the scene in horror.

Panel 5.
The gunman hits the water, back first, his hands stretched out in front of him. Adrian throws the ashtray to the side and starts to jump on top of him, reaching for his neck, a look of angry concentration on his face. Behind him, the mail carrier appears to be retching and the man and the woman are clinging to each other and trying to hide behind the other fountain. The gun falls to the side.

Panel 6.
Adrian stands up and hauls the man out of the water by the back of his coat and his upper arm. The man is limp, and blood is still pouring from his face. In the background, a man in a suit shields a woman with his arm, and she raises her arm to her face. The secretary's blood pools on the polished floor.

Panel 7.
Adrian has a savage look on his face as he kneels in the fountain and, holding the gunman by the back of his collar and his shoulder, rams him face first into one of the golden death masks decorating the side of the fountain. Blood gushes from the man's face, flying in all directions, and his arms jerk out to the side. Behind him, the man and woman look on in horror. A drop of blood falls on the yellow rose in Adrian's lapel.
Page 16.
Panel 1.
A large panel the size of two regular panels. The gunman is sitting in the fountain, thoroughly beaten and making an "Unnngh" noise. Security guards in green and gold uniforms with the Veidt symbol on the lapel come running as Adrian, standing over the gunman and holding his limp body up by the collar, reaches down towards his face, saying "What have you got in...? No. Open your *mouth*. *Open* it!" In the background, the mail carrier is sitting on the edge of the other fountain, one hand to his head, and the man and woman are hugging each other.

Panel 2.
The hands of two of the security guards are in the foreground, their guns out and pointing in opposite directions, almost a mirror image of each other. One says "Oh, jeez," and the other says "Mr. Veidt, stand *back*. *We* can handle it now..." Adrian, bending over the man, doesn't even turn around, saying "Shut up. He's got a *poison capsule.*" The discarded ashtray lies on the ground, a couple of puddles of blood around it, and the golden V of the Veidt symbol is in the background.

Panel 3.
The security guards look on, jaws wide open. Adrian's fingers are inside the gunman's mouth, his other hand still holding the man's collar tightly. Blood is coming from the man's nose and mouth, getting all over Adrian's hand. Adrian says 'Don't bite *down!* Don't bite down, you *scum.* I want to know who *sent* you!" The background is red.

Panel 4.
A close-up of Adrian's face. He is looking down at the man with an intense, cold look in his brown eyes as he says "I want to know who's *behind* this." His hair is disheveled, his purple suit jacket wet and sweat or water is running down his face and dripping off of his chin. Behind him is the golden V from his logo. The blood on the yellow rose in his lapel recalls the blood on the Comedian's badge.

Panel 5.
A close-up of the gunman's face. His eyes are wide as he looks up at Adrian. He's bleeding from a wound on the bridge of his nose, and the blood drips down his face and down his neck. He's also still bleeding from his nose and mouth, and his blood is all over Adrian's hand, which is still in his mouth. He makes an "Ak" noise.

Panel 6.
Adrian straightens up, taking his hand out of the gunman's mouth as the man's limp body falls away from him. The gunman's head is tilted back at an unnatural angle. One of the security guards watches, motionless. In the background a man gets on the escalator going down.

Panel 7.
Adrian stands up straight, saying "Damn" as he curls his bloodied hand up into a fist by his chest and looks at the gunman's body. The man's body splashes into the small pool of water at Adrian's feet. The man on the escalator and other bystanders look over at the scene.

Panel 8.
Adrian sits on the edge of the fountain, his shoulders slumped. The gunman's body is behind him in the water, and his secretary's body lies to the side next to the bloody metal ashtray.  The large golden V of his logo is both behind him, reflected on the floor and also inlaid in gold into the floor in front of him. His security guard stands next to him, touching his hat, as Adrian says "Call the *toy people* and cancel the extension of the *Ozymandias line.* If they ask *why,* just tell them I don't have any *enemies.*"
Page 17.
Panel 1.
A tattered black flag with the image of a skull and crossbones on it. The sky is orange-red and gulls are flying overhead. The comic book text reads, "During the afternoon, I dozed fitfully, my enemies' hideous banner flapping dismally in my dreams." A voice from offscreen says "*War, child murder,* attempted *assassination*... This front page is a *nightmare!*"

Panel 2.
We see only the newsvendor's hand, gesturing, as he continues "Somebody chops up their *kids*, somebody else shoots at Adrian *Veidt*... I *mean*, who'd wanna kill a guy like *that*?" The boy, sitting next to the spark hydrant, continues to read his comic. He is wearing the newsvendor's cap and smoking a thin cigarette. The comic's cover reads "Tales Of The Black Freighter" and on the back is an advertisement for the Veidt Method, with its image of a skinny man and a muscular one. The comic book text continues, "That deaths-head banner; it flies above us all..." 

Panel 3.
An image of a prow of a wooden ship. Several rotting severed heads are hung by their hair on its railing and sides, with bloodthirsty pirates standing on the deck, leering and waving swords. The comic book text continues, "...And the heads nailed to the ship's black prow, those heads are *our* heads." The newsvendor continues, "It's like, if somebody wants to off a saint like *Veidt*, what chance do *any* of us got?"

Panel 4. 
The newsvendor, sitting on his folding chair and gesturing with his cup of coffee, continues "Veidt's a *real* hero. Did *charity* work. Revealed his *name* like he had nothing to *hide*. Jeez. Where's it gonna *end*?" The boy continues reading, not paying attention, and the comic book text continues, "Truly, whoever we are, wherever we reside, we exist upon the whim of *murderers.*" Across the street behind them, the man with the "The End Is Nigh" sign is walking down the sidewalk past the Promethean Cab Company building. On the corner, a stocky white woman with curly hair is dropping something in the trash can.

Panel 5.
The sailor is kneeling on the edge of his raft, cupping his hands and bringing some water to his mouth. It drips off of his hands and splashes back into the sea. The sky is getting darker, colored in shades of lurid red and yellow, and the seagulls are circling overhead. Underneath him, the bloated corpses are reflected in the green and gold waters. The comic book text continues, "I awoke at dusk and drank a little salt water. I have heard that on less than a pint daily, a man might survive." The newsvendor, offscreen, continues "Hell, no *wonder* people go *crazy*."

Panel 6.
The newsvendor continues as he holds the paper out in front of him, "Like this guy killed his *kids*. A *week* ago, that was a *normal* family. You never *know*. You never know *what's* bearing down on you." The boy continues reading, and the comic book text continues, "Beneath my raft, something moved." The reader sees the two from behind as if we are standing on the sidewalk opposite the street, by the Promethean Cab Company building. Steam from the coffee cup the newsvendor is holding and smoke from the boy's cigarette drift off to the left, by the sign on the building near them, "Institute for Extraspatial Studies." In the foreground, we see the arms and hands of the man with the "The End Is Nigh" sign, holding his sign tightly out in front of him as he walks.

Panel 7.
The sailor, standing up in the middle of his raft, clings to the thin mast as something pushes it up from underneath. The comic book text continues, "Irrationally, my first thought was of the *corpses*, bursting their bonds, attempting to clamber up into the *air* and *dryness*, but no. Something had brushed *beneath* me." From offscreen, the newsvendor continues, "I mean, all we *see* is what's on the *surface*."

Panel 8.
The newsvendor looks up from his newspaper and, a thoughtful look on his face, says "I bet there's all *kinda* stuff we never notice..." The comic book text continues, "My platform lurched again. Ahead, in the darkening water, I heard a *splash*. Shadowy *forms* approached. Were they *boats* come to *rescue* me?" Behind the newsvendor, a police car is passing by, and the man with the "The End Is Nigh" sign is bent over the trash can on the corner.

Panel 9.
The newsvendor continues, "...Until it's too late." The comic book text continues, "No. not *boats*. Fins." An image of the sailor holding on to his mast as the sun sets over the calm sea, his raft and sail reflected in the water. In the foreground are two sharp, thin shark fins heading straight for the boat.
Page 18.

Panel 1.
A panel shows that the following text is from Rorschach's journal, October 21st, 1985. "Someone tried to kill Veidt. Proves quote 'Mask Killer' unquote theory. Murderer is closing in. Checked maildrop. Message from Moloch. Connected, perhaps?" Rorschach's ungloved hands are holding a piece of paper that had been folded in two out in front of him. The note on it reads "R- Call tonight, 11:30 p.m. Have information. Urgent. Jacobi." The handwriting is clean and slanted to the left, and the "Urgent" is written in capital letters. Behind the note is graffiti of a man and a woman standing together and embracing, and underneath it is the top of a garbage can, close to overflowing with litter. What looks like a board is leaning against the garbage can.

Panel 2.
His journal continues, "Next, went to retrieve face from alley. Outside Utopia, police restrained a youth on KT-28s. He was screaming something about President Nixon. Something about bombs." Two policemen are struggling to hold back a knot-top in a short jacket, long shirt and boots, as a third policeman opens the door to the patrol car. The car's lights are blaring. A sign for the Utopia advertises the movie "Things To Come" and a line of people is waiting behind a sign for the ticket office to open, not paying attention to the scene in front of them.

Panel 3.
His journal continues, "Is everyone but me going mad? Over 40th street, an elephant was drifting." The underside of a massive elephant-shaped blimp advertising the Gunga Diner, seen as if we are on the sidewalk looking directly up at it. The elephant is surrounded by the tops of skyscrapers, and there are two zeppelins and the stars in the sky beyond it. Rorschach's journal continues, "Beyond that, unseen, spy satellites. If they so much as narrow their glass eyes, we shall all be dead."

Panel 4.
His journal continues, "This relentless world: there is only one sane response to it. The alleyway was cold and deserted." Rorschach is in a narrow, filthy alleyway, faced with overflowing garbage cans and boarded up windows. There are tattered posters for Pale Horse and Adrian performing at the Indian Famine Relief event, and squiggly graffiti and part of the phrase "Who Watches The Watchmen?" The ground is covered with puddles and litter.

Panel 5.
His journal continues, "My things were where I'd left them. Waiting for me." He moves a piece of litter between two overflowing garbage cans, revealing his fedora and neatly folded clothes. On the wall next to the pile of clothing is a ragged advertisement for Nostalgia perfume.

Panel 6.
His journal continues, "Putting them on, I abandoned my disguise and became myself, free from fear or weakness or lust. My coat, my shoes, my spotless gloves." We see his hands out in front of him. He has already changed into his suit and shirt, and one gloved hand is pulling the glove on his other hand. Seen up close like this, it is clear that his clothing is very worn out and his gloves are filthy. The full Nostalgia ad is visible, and it shows a long-haired woman with a strong-jawed face in a sleeveless silk nightgown, adjusting a stocking and smiling at the camera. She is in a room with soft curtains and flowers, and a bottle of perfume is on the table behind her. The ad copy reads, "Oh, how the ghost of you clings."

Panel 7.
His journal continues, "My face." In his gloved hands, he holds his mask out in front of him. It is pure white with three large, symmetrical black blotches in the middle.

Panel 8. 
His journal continues, "Had three hours before calling on Moloch. Away down alley, heard woman scream, first bubbling note of city's evening chorus." He is starting to put on his hat as he heads out of the alley. Near the entrance to the alley, a man is pushing a woman up against a wall.

Panel 9.
His journal continues, "Approached disturbance. An attempted rape slash mugging slash both. Cleared throat. The man turned and there was something rewarding in his eyes. Sometimes, the night is generous to me." Rorschach has wrapped part of a length of twisted, dirty fabric around one wrist, and holds the rest of it in front of him in both hands. In front of him is a man in a thick jacket with close-cropped hair. He is pushing a woman against the wall, pushing her chin back with one hand and holding a knife an inch away from her throat, but as he looks at Rorschach he looks fearful and stunned.
Page 19.
Panel 1.
In a large dresser mirror, we see the reflections of Dan and Laurie. Dan is holding a door in his home open for Laurie, who gestures happily with both hands at the room and smiles brightly. She says "Dan, really, you don't know how *grateful* I am for this. After where I *thought* I was gonna be sleeping tonight, this is like *heaven.*" Laurie is obviously the one talking, but the speech bubble seems to be coming from outside the panel. On top of the dresser is her open suitcase, one twisted stocking leg coming out of it and lying across the surface of the dresser. Next to the suitcase are a few bottles of cosmetics.

Panel 2. 
Dan and Laurie are standing across from each other, and the reader sees their hands and torsos facing each other. In the mirror to their side, behind the open suitcase and dresser, we see their faces as they speak. Dan gestures with one hand and says "Well, you know, it isn't much but it should be *comfortable* and I'm sleeping right down the hall if you wake up and *need* anything*. Uh, like *coffee*. Or *aspirin.* Stuff like *that*." Laurie looks up at him, her hands clasped in front of her.

Panel 3.
Laurie sits at the dresser, her face reflected in it. She starts to unbutton her shirt and looks back at Dan as she says "Oh, I'll be *fine*. I'm so *tired* I'm gonna sleep till *Thursday*. Thanks for looking *out* for me, Dan. You're like a big *brother*, you *know* that?" Dan, standing in the doorway with one hand on the doorknob, answers "Sure. Well, glad I could *help*. Goodnight, Laurie."

Panel 4.
A large panel the size of three regular panels. Laurie continues unbuttoning her shirt, looking down at something in her suitcase and saying G'night, Dan. Sweet dreams." Seen from behind, her long dark brown hair falls down her back, and her reflection in the mirror shows her cleavage and the underside of one breast, though her hand is covering most of her chest as she unbuttons her shirt. She is wearing simple white earrings and her expression is tired and relaxed. In the mirror, we see Dan's reflection as he stands in the doorway. The door is half closed, but he is standing there, looking at her, both longing and dismay in his expression.

Panel 5.
He closes the door, standing in the dark hallway and looking suddenly worn and defeated. In the foreground is the door to his room, which is open.

Panel 6.
He enters his room, closing the door and starting to unbutton his shirt, his tie draped around his neck. His bed is neatly made, and there is a large wardrobe against the other wall with some boxes on top of it. On the endtable next to his bed is Hollis Mason's book, Under The Hood.

Panel 7.
Dan's room is dark, and he lies face down and naked on his bed, the blankets covering him from the middle of his back down. His clothes are in a messy pile on the foot of the bed, his shoes are poking out from underneath it and his glasses are lying on top of Hollis' book. He rests his head on his bent left arm and stretches his right arm out over the pillow on the empty side of the bed. In small type, he says "Hell and damnation."
Page 20.

Panel 1.
The comic book text continues, "Good readers, know this: Hades is wet. Hades is lonely. Teeth that seemed to move independently of the lips tore at my raft's supports. Tiny prehistoric eyes glistened, seeming mad with rage even in repose." At least four sleek, dark sharks are attacking the sailor's raft, churning the water all around it as the sailor hangs on to the mast. One of them drags one of the corpses away from the raft by its outstretched right arm. The corpse is lying face down, naked, and its head rests on its bent left arm. 

Panel 2.
A large panel the size of two regular panels. The comic book text continues, "Whatever was beneath my boat commenced a violent thrashing, almost spilling me amongst the gnawing horrors. I clung to my mast as the platform tilted further. The water began to boil white. Something was surfacing." The sailor, still clinging to the mast with both hands, looks down as water splashes up between the slats of his raft. Sharks are surrounding his raft, swimming towards its collection of corpses, as seagulls fly in the air above.

Panel 3.
A large panel the size of two regular panels. One of the sharks shoves itself through the slats of the rafts, leaping towards the sailor, its mouth wide open. It has one beady little eye, dark spots on its skin and a very large number of sharp teeth. It's larger than the sailor by far, and the ropes of the raft are binding its body, looping over one of its large fins. The sailor rears backward, keeping his feet on one of the slats and holding on to the mast with one hand. His hair is coming out of its ponytail, and the fabric of the sail is curling around his body. The comic book text continues "How shall I *describe* it? It was massive, like no shark I'd ever heard tell of, with skin neither black, nor wholly white, but a pale and mottled yellow. Further, it was entangled in my ropes." Bits of corpses bob in the churning waters near the raft.

Panel 4.
The comic book text continues, "Terrified lest it should re-submerge and drag me with it, I fell to my knees clutching a splinter of mast that had snapped off in my hand. The shark's stained marble eye looked up at me..." The sailor, colored entirely in red, holds the mast in both hands, a savage look on his face as he positions the jagged, broken end of the mast over the shark. The reader sees him as if from the shark's perspective, with the mast out in front of him. Behind him fly a couple of seagulls.

Panel 5.
The comic book text continues, "...And, in that instant, we knew each other." The sailor plunges the broken mast into the shark's eye with all his strength, and red blood spurts up from its smooth body.

Panel 6.
A large panel the size of two regular panels. The comic book text continues, "Half blind; half dead; wholly deranged by agony; the yellow leviathan attempted to swim away, dragging my raft in its bloody wake. I hung on desperately, cursing in the bitter, stinging spray." The shark swims away, its tail thrashing in the lurid green wake. The mast is still sticking out of its head, and it is still entangled in the ropes and slats of the sailor's small raft. The other sharks, who are much smaller and a sleek purple color, start to follow, and bits of corpses fall off the disintegrating raft. The sailor is holding on, his body spread across the raft, his left arm stretched out and his hand holding on to the wood and his right arm above his head, his hand holding on to the ropes wrapped around the shark's body.
Page 21.
Panel 1.
It's raining, and the newsvendor is clipping a transparent plastic tarp over the front of his stall, his left arm stretched out to the side and his right arm above his head. He says "This goddamn pain in the butt *rain!* Don't it *ever* let up?" The comic book text continues, "Eventually, the shark died..." Beyond the newsvendor are the windows of the Promethean Cab Company, with the company name written on them, and to his side is smoke presumably coming from the comics-reading boy's cigarette. Inside the newsvendor's stall are some magazines clipped to the top shelf, including Hustler, Field and Stream and Body.

Panel 2.
The comics book text continues, "...And shortly thereafter stopped *swimming*." The newsvendor places the final corner of the tarp up and continues "Who *needs* it? This whole *job's* like paddling against the *tide*! Working the streets these days takes a real *mensch.*" The boy, sitting by the spark hydrant, continues reading. Tacked to the side of the stall are two magazines, Music and Nova Express, the latter with a picture of Jon on the cover. A woman walks up behind the newsvendor. She's white, has curly hair, a broad, surly face and freckles, and is wearing a newsboy cap and chewing on a toothpick.

Panel 3.
The curly-haired woman points to the stall and says "Man, cab driving's busting my nuts! Gimme a copy *Hustler*." The newsvendor looks back at her as he adjusts the tarp, smiling, and says "Hi, Joey. How's the *Promethean*? Still bringing light to the world?" The comic book text continues, "Relief was fleeting, my prospects still *dark.*"

Panel 4.
Joey, opening the magazine, says "We sure *need* light with this *Afghanistan* crapola. Who's this month's *centerfold?*" The newsvendor gestures and says "Ahh, Afghanistan's a long way away." The boy continues to read as a car passes by, and the comic book text continues, "The other sharks circled, closer than was comfortable." The reader sees the trio as if we are across the street looking at them and the building they're standing next to, the Institute for Interspatial Studies.

Panel 5.
The newsvendor continues, "It's *Pakistan* oughtta *worry.* They're wide *open*." Joey, holding the magazine out in front of her opened to the month's centerfold, says "Mmm. Well, we're *all* pretty *vulnerable.*" The centerfold is a naked dark-haired white woman, standing up and with her legs spread apart, her hands covering her crotch. The boy continues reading, and the comic book text reads "They worried the morsels from my raft, which I prayed would *satisfy* them." The reader sees the trio as if we are right behind them.

Panel 6.
Joey, holding the centerfold upside down in one hand, takes a rolled up pink poster out of her pocket. She says "That *reminds* me. I gotta *poster* maybe you could *display*, so it won't get *torn up*. The boy takes his cigarette out of his mouth as he continues reading. The comic book text continues, "After eating, they departed, replete. For the moment, I was *safe*." We see the trio now as if we are standing right behind the boy, looking over his shoulder at the comic book he's reading.

Panel 7.
The comic book text continues, "That night, eating shark, I would have chuckled at the inversion of natural roles had not my parched laughter seemed so *hateful*." The sailor is kneeling by the shark's dead body, which is still tangled up in his raft, its open mouth reflected in the still water and blood drying around its eye socket.  He has one arm wrapped around the shark's fin, and is eating a hunk of its flesh. From offscreen, the newsvendor says "*Gay Women Against Rape?* Is this a *joke*?"

Panel 8.
Joey is holding the unrolled poster in front of her, her expression looking menacing above it. She answers "It's a *benefit gig*. Now you gonna nail it *up* or am I gonna alter your *looks*?" The poster reads "Pink Triangle Live at the Gay Women Against Rape Benefit Concert." The words in the phrase "Gay Women Against Rape" are written on top of each other, with the first letter of each word highlighted, so that it reads "G W A R." In the middle of the poster is an emblem of a hot pink triangle and a female symbol with jagged edges, possibly representing teeth, in the circle part. The comic book text continues, "My raft grew increasingly grotesque, reflecting my own gradual transformation."

Panel 9.
The comic book text continues, "With such thoughts to comfort me, I drifted on, mastless into the dawn." As Joey walks away, reading her Hustler as she goes, the newsvendor is tacking the poster to the side of his stall, his right arm stretched out to the side and his left arm over his head. He looks back at her and grimaces, saying "quote Bringing light to the world unquote. My ass." On the back cover of her magazine is an advertisement for a long, thin cigarette holder with a ball by the tip. Next to the holder are some small balls of tobacco. The ad copy reads, "For Smokers With Balls."
Page 22.
Panel 1.
Joe is sitting in a swivel chair holding the bloodstained poster of the Buddha up in front of him, his right arm outstretched. In the foreground, Steve is walking away from him, holding the Grateful Dead poster in front of himself and smoking a cigarette. Next to him is a desk, on which is a telephone resting on an inbox full of paper and a full ashtray. There is a bright red light on the front of the telephone. Joe says "Y'know, the way the world is today, I guess none o' these *messiahs* and *illuminated types* really *amounted* to a whole hill of *beans*. That's the phone."

Panel 2.
Steve, standing by the window and looking at the poster, answers "Well, there's *never* been any market for peace and enlightenment. Heh. I used to *own* the record had this *sleeve design*." Steve, bringing the poster up towards his face, answers "Hands off. It's *evidence*. Incidentally, the *phone's* ringing." Joe's desk is messy, covered with papers, and with an overflowing wastebasket to the side. Out the window beyond Steve is the city skyline at night.

Panel 3. 
Steve, his reflection facing him in the window, answers as he looks outside, "Sure. Y'know, all today I've had this funny *feeling*. It's like there's something in the *air*..." From offscreen, Joe answers "That's *sound waves*, man. They're coming from the *phone*." The Gunga Diner elephant zeppelin floats in the air outside the window, above some of the skyscrapers.

Panel 4.
Steve, walking over to the desk and laying the poster down on it as he stubs out his cigarette in the ash tray, answers "No, I mean, first that *kiddie murder*, then somebody tries to whack Adrian *Veidt*. It's like there's a *pattern*, *leading* somewhere. It's..." Joe, who has stood up from his chair and is standing in front of a file cabinet, opening the top drawer, gestures with his thumb and says "*Steve*, willya just answer the goddamn *phone*?" The reader is looking at the two of them as if we're seeing them through the open window, and it's still raining heavily.

Panel 5.
Steve, picking a file out of the file cabinet, looks grouchy as he says "*I *mean*, I'd do it *myself* if I didn't have all this *Blake case* paperwork that you *forgot* about..." Steve answers "Okay, okay, I'm *answering* it." he picks up the phone, getting another cigarette out of his pack, and says "Hello? Yeah, Detective Fine *speaking*."

Panel 6.
In the foreground, Joe is standing near the open file cabinet, reading a large file labeled "Blake E B00108", with a picture of the Comedian's head and profile clipped to it. Behind him, Steve is flicking his lighter, preparing to light the cigarette in his mouth and saying "A *tip*? Sure. What's your *name*...? No name, huh? Okay, that's acceptable. So what do you *have*? Raw *what*? Did you say *shark*? Raw *shark*? Why should I want to know where to find..."

Panel 7.
Steve repeats, "...Raw shark." He has stopped flicking his lighter, and has a wide-eyed, intense look on his face. In the foreground, Joe looks up from the folder, his face suddenly very alert and startled.

Panel 8.
Steve starts to stand up in his chair, his unlit cigarette still in his mouth, and reaches for his jacket as he says "Okay. Yeah, I know who we're talking about. Now where...? Okay. Got that. When will he *be* there? Is he...? Yeah. Understood. We're on our way. 'Bye." Joe, replacing the folder in the file cabinet and pointing at Steve, says "Steve, you're *kidding*! That wasn't about...?"

Panel 9.
Steve holds the door open for Joe, who is putting on his coat as he leaves, and lights his cigarette as he says "Damn *right* it was. After all these years, somebody just handed us that bastard's *head* on a *plate.* C'mon, man. We got a *date*. Let's go ignore some *red lights*." On the desk behind them, the Grateful Dead poster, with its skull and crossbones motif, lies face up.
Page 23.

Panel 1.
A puddle on the sidewalk that is reflecting the glowing red neon Rum Runner sign and its yellow stylized skull logo, the reflection broken up by ripples from drops of rain. The newspaper that was there this morning is now torn and scattered apart, the Gunga Diner box has been squished flat, and there's some more garbage near the edge of the garbage can.

Panel 2.
The light of the neon sign blinks off, turning the scene shades of dirty, grayish-blue. A man wearing pinstriped blue pants walks towards the puddle, his boot hovering a half inch above the surface of the puddle. The perspective is the same as the previous panel, and so we only see the man's leg.

Panel 3.
As the light from the sign blinks bright red, the man's foot splashes into the puddle, splashing the Gunga Diner box and causing a large ripple to cover the whole puddle.

Panel 4.
A large panel the size of two regular panels. Rorschach is standing outside Moloch's door, hunched over the doorknob in the darkness. The only change from this morning is that next to the Rum Runner's door, someone has spraypainted graffiti of a shadow man and woman standing up and embracing each other.

Panel 5.
Rorschach stands in the doorway, opening the door as the neon light blinks on. He casts a long shadow over the entryway.

Panel 6.
As Rorschach enters, the reader sees his back as if we are looking at him through the opened door. The lock appears to have been newly installed by the Gordian Lock Company since Rorschach's last visit, and it has been broken. The light is off.

Panel 7.
As Rorschach enters the kitchen, the red neon light blinks on, illuminating his fedora and trenchcoat in soft yellows and oranges as he steps into the dark room. Moloch is sitting in the kitchen, facing away from Rorschach, and the reader sees the side of his head and his shoulder. To his side is the tea kettle and some other things on the table, and behind him, next to the open door, are two light-colored dots on the dark wall. Rorschach, his hands in his pockets, looks towards Moloch and says "Eleven thirty. Good evening, Jacobi."
Page 24.

Panel 1. 
Rorschach, his hands still in his pockets, steps behind Moloch, who is sitting in a kitchen chair, facing away from him. The room is dark as Rorschach says "Got your note. Been wondering why you wanted to see me. Somebody tried to shoot the world's smartest man today. Hear about that?"

Panel 2.
A large panel the size of two regular panels. Rorschach walks towards Moloch, standing behind him and facing the same direction. Moloch is sitting stiffly, his face still straight forward, his hands on his lap with their palms up and his fingers slightly curled in. The Rum Runner light blinks red as Rorschach continues, "The Comedian, Dr. Manhattan, Ozymandias... Somebody's killing masks, Jacobi. Somebody wants us dead. Maybe some old enemy. Maybe someone you met in prison."

Panel 3.
Rorschach takes a step forward, gesturing with one hand and turning his head towards Moloch, as he says "Been running through names. Was it Underboss? Was it Jimmy the Gimmick or The King of Skin? Lot of questions. No answers. Maybe you can enlighten me." Moloch remains where he is, giving no answer. The room is dark.

Panel 4.
A close-up of Moloch's face. There is a bullet hole in the middle of his forehead. Blood drips from it, running down both sides of his nose. His eyes are open and his false teeth in place. The light blinks on, coloring his skin and irises in a bright, ghastly shade of red, and the whites of his eyes and his teeth are a yellowish green.

Panel 5.
A close-up of Rorschach's mask, with its symmetrical black splotches, as he looks down at Moloch in the darkness.

Panel 6.
Rorschach looks by Moloch's feet. A gun gleams bright yellow and orange as the light blinks on.

Panel 7.
Rorschach squats down and picks up the gun by the muzzle. The light is off.

Panel 8.
As Rorschach examines the gun in the orange light of the sign, he turns his head towards an amplified voice from outside saying "*Rorschach*?"
Page 25.

Panel 1.
A large panel the size of three regular panels. A team of at least ten men and five police vehicles has gathered outside of Moloch's home. Some of the men position themselves outside the home while others are rushing towards it. Two of the men stand to the side, talking and gesturing at the building. Steve speaks into a megaphone, with Joe standing behind him, and says "This is the police, Rorschach. We know you're in there. It's all over." The police car sirens blare, flashing bright red and yellow.

Panel 2.
Steve continues, "Now, if there's anybody in there with you, I want you to send them out first unharmed..." Rorschach, the light from the sign turning him and the kitchen table bright orange, says "No. No, no no," as he reaches towards the table.

Panel 3.
Steve continues, "...Then you follow them with both hands clearly visible. I'm going to give you thirty seconds..." Rorschach unscrews the bottom of Moloch's pepper shaker, saying "Framed. Set up. Walked right into it. Stupid stupid stupid." In the foreground, Moloch's body is still sitting straight up, garish shadows falling on his bloody face in the dark.

Panel 4. 
Steve continues, "...After that I can't make any promises for your safety. C'mon, Rorschach. Let's make this a nice clean surrender." Rorschach empties the contents of the pepper shaker into one of the pockets of his trenchcoat, saying "Hehn. Never. Never surrender." The light turns on, coloring both him and Moloch bright orange.

Panel 5.
Steve continues, "Time's ticking away, Rorschach. Listen, we've got men out front and back, we've got guns and teargas, we got a whole lot of hardware here." Rorschach is looking through the kitchen cabinets, mumbling "Weapons. Yes..." It's dark again, and Moloch's bloody face is visible in the foreground.

Panel 6. 
Steve continues, "Fifteen seconds. Ten seconds. Rorschach, you're making this tough on yourself. Five. Four... Okay. That's it. Time's up and we're coming in. I hope you're ready." Rorschach is looking at a can of Veidt For Men Hair Spray as the light blinks on.

Panel 7.
Rorschach tucks the hairspray into the other pocket of his trenchcoat, picking up a box of matches from the kitchen table. He stands by the kitchen door in the darkness looking towards the front door, saying "When you are."
Page 26.
Panel 1.
One of the policemen, wearing a bulletproof vest and a baseball cap turned backwards, kicks in the front door. Two other men are behind him, one standing to the side of the door and one kneeling on the stairs. All of them are holding automatic guns. The Rum Runner sign blinks on, flooding the space behind the front door with lurid red light.

Panel 2. 
Two of the policemen walk in the front door as the light behind them blinks off, holding their guns in front of them and looking around cautiously. The one with the backwards cap calls out "Hello in there?" The one who was behind him, a man wearing a knit cap, says "Jeez, he better *be* here. If that was a *bum tip*..." The reader sees the two as if we are looking from within the kitchen towards the front door. To the side, just past the door to the kitchen, Rorschach's hands hold an unlit match and the hairspray can, his finger poised over the top of the can.

Panel 3.
The one with the backwards cap answers "You see that *lock*, man? He's *been* here alright. We'll take the ground floor first and work *up*." As the man with the knit cap goes in front of him, the man with the backwards cap continues "And *remember*, here be *tygers.* Watch out he doesn't..." In the kitchen, Rorschach lights the match. The light blinks on behind the two men.

Panel 4. 
Rorschach steps forward, holding the lit match to one side and spraying the hairspray near it, catching the hairspray on fire. He continues spraying, quickly moving the can of hairspray to create a thin line of fire in an arc in front of him. The arc of fire catches the policeman in the knit cap on the chest and the man drops his gun and screams, making a "*Yaaaaagh!*" noise." Behind him, the man with the backwards cap says "Oh, shit..." The light outside turns off.

Panel 5.
Rorschach runs up the stairs, using the hairspray to burn them behind him. At the foot of the stairs, the man in the knit cap yells "I'm on *fire!* Oh, *God*, I'm *burning!*" as he looks down at the fire on his chest. The man in the backwards cap puts his hands up, looking as if he's trying to help put out the fire on the other man's chest, and cries "Watch *out!* Watch out, he's torching the *stairs*..." The light outside blinks on.

Panel 6.
Another man comes inside, looking at the first two men and saying "Oh, Christ, what *happened*? Get some water from the *kitchen* and put this *out!*" Another man looks up the burning stairs, yelling "Get *after* him. There's no way out!" In the foreground, Rorschach's foot can be seen as he runs up the stairs. The flames and the light from outside make the men on the first floor look bright red.

Panel 7.
On the second floor, Moloch's chair and coffee table are already on fire, black and red smoke rising to the third floor as the sign outside blinks back on. Two men look at the scene as they go up the stairs, one saying "Oh, jeez" and the other saying "*Hey!* We need more *water* up here! And where's our goddamned *backup*?" 

Panel 8.
Rorschach looks behind him as he reaches the darkened third floor, putting one hand into his trenchcoat pocket. From the second floor, one man says "Where *is* he? All this *smoke*..." Another man, breathing heavily, says "He's, huff, he's just ahead on the, hurrf, on the third floor. Damnit, are they *following* us, or *what*?"

Panel 9.
The sign turns on, illuminating the third floor as the two men reach it. The first one, wearing a baseball cap, says "They're right behind us. Okay... Okay, he's up here somewhere..." The other one, a man wearing glasses, says "Man, I don't *like* this. The guy's an *animal*..."
Page 27.

Panel 1.
As the two policemen walk forwards in the darkness, the policeman in glasses continues, "...But at least according to the *fact sheets* he don't usually go *armed*. He..." From the other side of a doorframe leading to a room on the third floor, Rorschach tosses a handful of pepper into the eyes of the policeman with the baseball cap. The man lurches backwards, his eyes closed in pain and his mouth wide open.

Panel 2.
The sign blinks on as the policeman with the baseball cap puts his hands over his eyes, leaning forward, and says "*Aaah!* Jesus *God*, my *eyes!* *Help* me, man. I can't *see*..." He is right in the middle of the doorframe, and the other man tries to push past him, looking at Rorschach and holding his gun up. He says "Get out of the *way!* Get out of the way, I don't have room to..." The smoke billowing behind them is bright yellow, lighted by the Rum Runner sign outside. In front of the men, Rorschach starts to pull his grappling hook gun out of the inside of his trenchcoat.

Panel 3.
In the darkness, Rorschach points his grappling gun at the man with glasses. The man with the baseball cap leans forward in pain, and the man with glasses looks over at Rorschach as he continues "...shoot..."

Panel 4.
As the sign blinks back on, Rorschach fires the grappling hook point-blank into the man's chest. The man drops his gun and flies backwards, his arms and legs akimbo.

Panel 5.
The man with the baseball cap, still holding his hands over his eyes and struggling to stand, says "Charlie, what's *happening*? My *eyes*, man. My *eyes*..." Rorschach has pushed past him in the dark hallway, heading to Moloch's room. In the foreground, we see the man with glasses lying on the ground, the grappling hook buried in his chest. His glasses have been knocked off by the impact, and he's making "*Aahuh. Aaahhhuhg*" noises. Three other men are coming up the stairs, one of whom says "Willis and Greaves are *hurt*. Forget the *fire* and for godsakes get *up* here!"

Panel 6.
Rorschach runs inside Moloch's bedroom, his unattached epaulet flying straight up in the air. The neon sign is turning the billowing smoke bright red behind him. In front of him is Moloch's statue of an angel or the Virgin Mary, positioned as if she's watching him come in. Behind him, one person calls out "He's in the *bedroom!* We've *got* him! The man with pepper in his eyes says "*Charlie?* Is Charlie hurt? I can't *see*. What's going *on*?"

Panel 7.
In the darkness outside, Joe turns to Steve, asking "What's going on up there, Steve? That was someone *screaming*... Steve continues looking up at the third floor as he says "It's okay. It's okay, we've got him trapped. We *must* have."

Panel 8.
In the light of the Rum Runner sign, the mostly drawn shade on the window in Moloch's bedroom as seen from outside turns bright orange. Steve continues, "It's a *dead end.* He can't get *out.*" The rain continues to fall.

Panel 9.
As the light blinks out, Rorschach jumps out the window. The glass shatters, falling out all around him. His hat falls off, and he makes a "*Rraaarrl* noise as he starts to fall.
Page 28.

Panel 1.
Rorschach is falling through the air feet first, his hat flying behind him and a shower of broken glass surrounding him. He passes the second floor window of Moloch's house. The Rum Runner sign is on, blinking bright red behind him, its skull-like symbol of back-to-back Rs and the crossed bones level with his feet.

Panel 2. 
Rorschach's fall is broken by a garbage can full of trash, and he makes a "Kaaah!" noise as he hits the ground, twisting one ankle. Two police officers rush towards him as Steve, in the background, yells "*Get* him! *Get* him, he's *down!*" The lights of one of the police cars blares in the darkness.

Panel 3.
Rorschach, leaning over a puddle, tries to push up his upper body with great difficulty. He makes a "Uuuw" noise, mumbling "...No. No pain. Get up. Must get up. Been framed... Who? Who has done this to me? Get up get up get up get..." The garbage can is leaning over his back, and the puddle reflects the skull and crossbones logo on the bright red Rum Runner sign. The pattern on his mask looks almost like two symmetrical question marks.

Panel 4.
The light blinks off again, and a policeman kicks Rorschach squarely in the face as he lies on the ground. Rorschach's mask looks like black dots are radiating from the spot where the man kicked him, and he makes an "*Uuk*" noise.

Panel 5.
The reader sees the scene as if we're watching it from above. Rorschach is lying on his front, his head turned to the side, and his mask pattern is no longer symmetrical, but instead just a random collection of small black dots on a white background. The policeman who kicked him kneels on his arm, raising his baton and saying "You *like* that? You like that, you goddamned *queer*?" Rorschach makes an "*Aaanh* noise. Another policeman kneels on his other arm and says "Get his *mask* off! Get that sucker off his *face*, man!" Other police officers surround him, all of them colored red by the light from the sign.

Panel 6.
As the sign blinks off, one of the officers twists Rorschach's arm behind his back and starts peeling the mask off of his face, exposing his nose and mouth, both bleeding. The officer says "No problem. Boy, he stinks. Is that *after shave?*" Rorschach yells "*No! No no no no no!*" Another police officer says "*Hey!* His *shoes!* They got *pads!* The runt wears *elevator shoes!*"

Panel 7.
A close-up of Rorschach's face. It is now fully exposed as he looks up into the light, enraged, and cries "*No!* My *face!* Give it *back!*" He is a freckled, red-haired white man with high cheekbones, ears that stick out and a long space between his nose and mouth, instantly recognizable as the man who had been carrying the "The End Is Nigh" sign. Blood is pouring from his nose and the side of his mouth, and his eyes are bulging out as he yells. One of the policemen asks "*Well?* Who *is* he?" Another one answers, "Who *is* he? This ugly little zero is the *terror of the underworld*... and we're gonna lock him *up* with them. It's *karma*, man. Everything evens out eventually."

Panel 8.
The policeman continues, "Everything *balances.*" Rorschach is being dragged away, and his legs and feet are going through a puddle side by side, passing his hat. One shoe is off, and we see that the sole of the remaining shoe has a hole in it, while his sock has several large holes in it. The rain continues to fall, striking the puddle and creating small ripples in its surface as the Rum Runner sign blinks off.

Panel 9. 
After Rorschach's body has been dragged away, the puddle returns to its original stillness, broken up only by a few small ripples as the rain hits it. Rorschach's fedora lies at the edge of the puddle, and the skull and crossbones Rum Runner logo is blinking bright red, reflected in the puddle's surface.

Underneath the panel are white words on a black background that read "Tyger, Tyger, burning bright, in the forests of the night, what immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry? William Blake." Next to it is  a white clock with no numbers or markings. The time is 11:53.

Supplementary Material Page 1.
A typed note paperclipped to the page reads "The following is reprinted from chapter five of the Treasure Island Treasury of Comics (Flint Editions, New York, 1984) with permission of the author and publishers." To the right of the page are the words "Treasure Island Treasury of Comics" in white text on a black box, and on the opposing page are the words "Chapter 5," with a skull and crossbones logo by them, and also in white text on a black box. The title of the chapter is "A Man On Fifteen Dead Men's Chests" and is also in white text on a black box, with a skull and crossbones logo near it.

As discussed in our last chapter, the close of the 1950s saw E.C.'s line of Pirate titles dominating the marketplace from a near unassailable position. The brief surge of anti-comic book sentiment in the mid-fifties, while it could conceivably have damaged E.C. as a company, had instead come to nothing and left them stronger as a result. With the government of the day coming down squarely on the side of comic books in an effort to protect the image of certain comic-book inspired agents in their employ, it was as if the comic industry had suddenly been given the blessing of Uncle Sam himself -- or at least J. Edgar Hoover. Unsurprisingly, as one of the few companies to anticipate the coming massive boom in pirate-related material, E.C. flourished and their hold upon the field remained unchallenged.

Until May, 1960. That date saw the first publication of an extraordinary new title from National Comics, now DC. The book was called 'Tales of the Black Freighter,' and while its sales never quite topped those of the E.C. giants such as Piracy and Buccaneers, in terms of critical acclaim and influence upon later books of the same type, Tales of the Black Freighter made an impression upon the comic book landscape that remains to this day. Indeed, with DC comics currently reprinting the first classic thirty issues of the title and apparently meeting with considerable success, it would seem that its impact remains undiluted despite the quarter century that has elapsed since the original publication.

What exactly was it that made Tales of the Black Freighter so special? Despite the fact that nowadays most people are attracted by the controversy surrounding the later issues of the book, it should be remembered that this title was very popular from the outset. So: What was it that fascinated all those thousands of readers in the first place?

Well, to begin with, it was almost certainly the artwork of Joe Orlando, who drew the entire book from its first issue through issue nine, with the exception of Galapagos Jones, a rather insipid back-up feature that lasted until issue six. Orlando, having been successfully tempted away from his well-received run of Sargasso Sea Stories in E.C.'s Piracy by National editor Julius Schwartz, was regarded as a star amongst pirate artists, and a prize catch. Having adapted more smoothly from science fiction and horror to the different atmospheric demands of pirate stories than many of his E.C. contemporaries, he was perhaps the best respected artist in a rapidly burgeoning field, and fans awaited the first issue of Tales of the Black Freighter with relish.

Nor were they disappointed. The first issue is classic Orlando. The script -- by then-newcomer Max Shea -- while sturdy enough, is cliched and predictable with the work that Shea did later, and in that first issue was easily outshone by the darkly compelling majesty of Orlando's textures, shadows and faces.

The story served as an introduction to the vessel that lent the book its title, and which was itself apparently borrowed from a ship referred to in Brecht and Weill's Threepenny Opera. In that first story, three men with different paths through life has all been led to the same dockside tavern in search of work. The place is deserted save for a shadowy innkeeper who serves them ale in silence and the large, dark figure of a sea captain who sits at the next table and listens to them recount their stories to each other.

The stories are recounted as small, self-contained tales within the larger narrative that frames them, and are all effective if predictable twist-ending yarns that reveal the various tellers to be utterly unprincipled and worthless creatures capable of almost any act of treachery. Overhearing their stories, the sea captain says he is impressed and offers them passage upon his ship. By the time the men are aboard the ship and have noticed the dreadful, deathly smell that seems to exude from the ship's timbers, it is too late. The three hapless sailors learn that the ship is a vessel from Hell itself to take on board the souls of evil men so that they may walk its blood-stained decks for all eternity.

The identity of the captain is never made clear -- is he meant to be Satan, or is he himself a victim of the ship? But this scarcely matters when confronted with Orlando's breathtaking rendition. From the marvelous scene in the first man's story where two ghouls fight to the death with shovels in the worm-infested tunnels beneath a churchyard, right through the haunting and evocative final shots of the horrible black ship drifting away into the white mist, the art is breathtaking, conveying a tangible sense of doom and evil even in those places where the writing fails to do so.

A black-and-white picture captioned "Joe Orlando, circa 1953." Unlike the other pictures from the supplementary material, this is an actual photograph. Orlando is a white man with a round face, heavy eyebrows and dark eyes. The photo is faded, but he appears to be standing outside the door of E.C. headquarters. E.C.'s logo is composed of the letters E and C in stylized text within a circle, ringed by the words "An Entertaining Company" within a second circle. There are other words underneath the logo, but they cannot be made out.

With the issues that followed, Orlando's art continued to shine while the scripts supplied by Shea.

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also began to gradually improve in quality as the writer became used to the medium. With rapidly increasing confidence, Shea began attempting ideas for stories which at the time seemed wildly radical and innovative. The third issue's story, "Between Breaths," is told from the viewpoint of a man who is drowning, alternating between memories of his past life as they flash before his bulging eyes and horrific descriptions of what it is like to drown. Even read today, the story induces an almost tangible sense of suffocation, so that finishing the story and putting the book down is actually a relief. The closing images, with a multitude of dead and drowned men walking across the ocean bed towards the anchor rope of the Black Freighter which they climb to take their rightful positions on board the ship, remain some of Orlando's most haunting work on the series.

By issue five, reader reaction was obviously in favor of the title, and the praise seemed to be divided equally between Orlando and Shea. According to insiders, receiving fan mail for the first time in his life had an adverse effect upon the writer, who began to see himself as the driving force of the book, becoming increasingly resentful of Orlando's clearly important role and harassing the artist with impossibly detailed panel descriptions and endless carping requests for revisions of artwork already drawn.

Despite growing friction within the creative team, both lasted on Tales of the Black Freighter until the ninth issue, which Orlando asked Schwartz to take him off the book, citing the ego of the writer as being the major factor in his decision. During those nine issues they crafted many memorable stories together, including the most famous of all, 'The Shanty of Edward Teach,' in issue seven. In this story, narrated in rhyme by the dead pirate Edward Teach (otherwise known as Blackbeard), we first begin to see the dark and pessimistic moral sensibilities showing that were later to form most of Shea's work on the series. These are more than adequately matched by Orlando's artwork, and there can be few readers of that period who will forget the heart-stopping close-up shot of Blackbeard, portrayed as violent and leering evil incarnate, in which he seems to look out at the reader and remind them that their own position is perhaps no more noble than Teach's own: "I tread a lurching timber world, a reeking salt-caked hell, and yet perhaps no worse a world than yours, where bishops stroll through charnel yards with pomanders to smell; where vile men thrive and love crawls on all fours."

An image of a full-page comic panel, showing Blackbeard and other pirates on the deck of the Black Freighter. The artwork is in a different style from the comic that has been part of Watchmen, "Marooned." Marooned is drawn with more simple, thin lines and relies heavily on color for its atmosphere. When panels do make heavy use of shadow, it is unusually striking in comparison with the more basic panels. This panel is entirely black and white, and makes heavy use of strong yet delicate shadows and lines placed closely together to denote different tones and textures. It is filled with detail, but its masterful composition prevents it from looking busy. Blackbeard is standing in the top left corner, a hefty, strong looking man in a loose coat and a large, floppy-brimmed pirate hat. He wears a large hoop earring in one ear, and has a mustache and a thick, flowing beard that fans away from his face and extends halfway down his chest. Thin lines of smoke appear to be coming from the tips of his mustache and curls of his beard, drifting straight up. He is holding a sword in one hand, its blade pressed against the neck of a young boy, perhaps twelve years old, and his other hand is draped across the boy's shoulder. The boy has long hair and a round, innocent face, and Blackbeard is holding his upper body back, so that he's not steady on his feet. He has a frozen, wide-eyed expression. Behind Blackbeard is the tattered flag of the Black Freighter. To his side is a pirate with beady eyes and a excited smile, holding the severed head of a bald man in both hands next to a cannon, and next to that pirate is another pirate who's not wearing a shirt, revealing tattered, lumpy skin that looks as if it's melting off in places. Between the two men is a large cannon, and the second pirate holds the cannon's lit fuse and a cannon sponge and looks out towards the sea. At Blackbeard's feet is the body of a pirate who appears to have been shot in a duel. His pistol lays by his head, and blood is pooling up underneath his chest. To the right is, presumably, the man with whom he had been dueling, but he is mostly covered up by an inset panel. Above the cannon is a text box, and the text reads "This cabin lad's grown haggard, so in the pot he goes, and from the skin we'll make a little drum. To beat as we fire human heads from cannons at our foes, and set the seas ablaze with burning rum."

The inset panel in the bottom right side of the page is a close-up of Blackbeard's face. He is smiling nastily, revealing two rows of misshapen, dirty teeth, and his dark eyes, framed by bushy, pointed eyebrows, radiate a sadistic exuberance. There is a two-inch long cut on his left cheek, which has been stitched shut inexpertly. His face is more heavily shadowed than it was in the larger panel, making him look warped and evil, and his beard extends over the borders of the inset panel, spilling onto the larger panel. Underneath his barbaric smile is a text box that reads "I tread a lurching timber world, a reeking salt-caked hell, and yet perhaps no worse a world than yours, where bishops stroll through charnel yards with pomanders to smell; where vile men thrive and love crawls on all fours."

After Orlando's departure, the art for the series was taken over by a relatively unknown but supremely capable artist named Walt Feinberg, previously best known for his work upon numerous western titles where he would often provide excellent fill-in issues that nevertheless seemed.

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to go unnoticed when slotted in between the work of great western comic artists such as Gil Kane and Alex Toth. Despite having Orlando's early work on the series to live up to, on Tales of the Black Freighter, Feinberg was finally given a chance to shine. For some reason, there are few incidents on record relating friction between Feinberg and Shea, and indeed the two of them continued to work together on the book until issue thirty-one, at which point Shea quit (perhaps the moody and temperamental writer was making a deliberate effort to control his behavior, having been taught an expensive lesson by Orlando's departure).

At the top of this page is a panel from Marooned, reproduced in black and white. The text reads, "East, across the night seas. East, borne on the naked backs of murdered men." The sailor's raft is borne on the top of a rolling wave, the seas dark and sinister and the sky covered in clouds.

In any event the next twenty or so issues of the book became every bit as much instant classics as the Orlando issues had, a fact not hindered by Shea's gradually developing skill as a writer.

The stories that came from his pen in this period are uniformly dark and sinister, balancing metaphysical terrors against an unnerving sense of reality, particularly when applied to matters of mortality or sexuality. Readers who came to the series expecting a good rousing tale of swashbuckling were either repulsed or fascinated by what were often perverse and blackly lingering comments upon the human condition. Tales such as "The Figurehead," which deal unflinchingly with male homosexuality, and the harrowing "Marooned" spring most readily to mind.

In "Marooned," a two-part story occupying issues twenty-three and twenty-four of the book's run, we see Feinberg and Shea at their blood-freezing best. Unusual in that it is a one-character story narrated mostly in captions, "Marooned" tells the story of a young mariner whose vessel is wrecked by the Black Freighter before it can return to its hometown and warn it of the hellship's approach. Cast adrift on an uninhabited island with only his dead shipmates for company, we experience the frantic mariner's torment at the knowledge that while he is trapped on his island, the bestial crew of the Freighter are surely bearing down upon his town, his home, his wife and his children. Driven by his burning desire to avert this calamity, we see the mariner finally escape from the island by what may be one of the most striking and horrific devices thus far in pirate comic books: digging up the recently buried and gas-bloated corpses of his shipmates, the mariner lashes them together and uses them as the floats on an improvised raft on which he hopes to reach the mainland (hence the title of this chapter). On reaching the mainland safely.

Between the middle of this sentence and the rest of it is an inset image of Blackbeard holding his sword to the young boy's neck, with ripped edges.

upon his horrific craft we see the increasingly distraught and disheveled mariner trying desperately to reach his home, even resorting to murder to acquire a horse for himself. In the final scenes, thanks to the skillful interplay of text and pictures, we see that the mariner, though he has escaped from his island, is in the end marooned from the rest of humanity in a much more terrible fashion.

Problems set in for the book around issue twenty-five, when Shea began his controversial.

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run of issues based around the contents of plundered books in the library of the Freighter's captain, including banned tomes supposedly originally headed for eternal suppression within the vaults of Vatican City when stolen en route by the pirates. 

Above this sentence is the logo of the series. On the top line are the words "Tales Of The" and then, in two lines underneath that, "Black Freighter." The words are in capital letters, printed in a 16th century style font. The edge of the image is made to look ripped.

At the top of this page is part of the panel from Marooned showing a close-up of the sailor's face, reprinted in black and white. The sailor, his hair matted and his shirt torn, is grasping a seagull in both hands. He has taken several large bites out of its breast, creating a large hole and exposing its ribcage. The sides of the hole are stained with blood. His eyes are desperate and his teeth gritted, mouth and chin stained with blood. The blood drips off his chin.

Described as quote "blatantly pornographic" unquote, four of the projected five stories were rejected by DC, which brought about the argument in which Shea quit the book and comics as well, going on to write such classic novels as the twice-filmed Fogdancing. 

At the time of this writing, Shea's whereabouts are unknown. In circumstances as strange as those in any of his stories, the writer apparently vanished from his home one morning and has not been seen since, although police are continuing their inquiries. In his wake he leaves not only a string of excellent novels and screenplays, but also an exemplary run of pirate stories which today fetch mint prices of almost a thousand dollars according to the Overstreet Guide. Stories there to be rediscovered and reexamined, like so many of the fascinating sunken treasures lurking just beneath the surface of this fabulous and compelling genre.

Underneath the text is part of a panel from Marooned, reprinted in black and white. A seagull lands on an outstretched finger on one corpse's hand and tears at the skin.

This is page number 62 in the full book. 

The page opposite the last page from the Treasure Island Treasury of Comics is black. At the very bottom is half of a clock, with a red, white and black edge and Roman numerals. The time is 11:53. Blood has covered the top couple inches or so of the page, and it continues to make its way down over the field of black between it and the clock.