Passing the Roshaach Test

IN 1986, still getting my feet wet in the world of comic books, I picked up a new book Watchmen. Even as a 15 year old kid not knowing much about Alan Moore beyond that he wrote some freaky Swamp Thing issues, I immediately saw that there was something different about it. Beside having a sleek design sense and taking place in a mysterious alternate where Nixon still reigned of a dystopian America, it's main characters were more more fully realized and more deeply flawed than nerdy Peter Parker ever could be. They had deep, psychological dreams of dominatrix "adversaries" and nuclear explosions and their own impotence. They dressed up in costumes and "fought crime" for complex reasons and they were in WAY over their heads with mysteries who's clues trickled out as the issues ever so, slowly nit the stands.

Now Watchmen is widely regarded as the first and perhaps the greatest comics masterpiece, perhaps of all time. And after many, many failed efforts Zach Snyder, known for his film adaption of Frank Miller's, 300, is in the midst of produces a Watcheman movie. I'm cautiously optimistic, as are many fans. But one of the things that had to be spot on for me was the look of Rorschach, the nihilistic , worn down shell of a man, that refuses to give up and continues to doggedly follows clues in his black and white world. The first shots of the main characters have been released and while not all the costumes areentirely faithful to the book, at least Rorschach is right in his grimy jacket, beaten up hat and enigmatic "face".
See more at
One Year to Midnight (Watchmen)