Watchmen as Graphic Art By Abigail Garcia and Marmar Mogharehabed Using Art Principles Line Texture & Shape Size Space Color Value Composition The art principles help tell a story by creating predictions, helping portray mood and tone, and can be a signal of characters’ personality as well. - Seen not only in graphic novels but, regular books, as well as movies and tv shows Graphic Novels How are they defined? Commonly defined as “Comics” - comics are usually much more simple Juxtaposed Images Happens when two images are placed next to one another creating a theme, both with a strong visual point. Layout “Most comics contain not only juxtaposed images but also words both as dialogue and narration” (Barnes 53). Sequential Art Gutter: used as a space filler; used when there is too much empty space Major Principles Applied Color Line Size Major Colors Applied Blue Yellow Purple Red Blue Doctor Manhattan Calm, relaxation Depression, gloom Depth, trust, loyalty “It is a color to think, but not to act” (Bellatoni 83). “You’re driftin’outta touch, Doc. You’re turnin’ into a flake” (Moore 52). Yellow Laurie Juspeczyk “sidekick” or weaker hero Intellect, energy Rorschach Cowardice, deciet, mental illness Yellow is cautionary: a trait that all but paralyzes… it is warm, not hot. It is just edgy” (Bellatoni 36). Purple Rorschach Poison Death Mystery “Rich purple is not only associated with death and delusion it is percieved as having weight” (Bellatoni 6). Red “Red: A guide to what is not said” (Bellatoni 35). Red can symbolize aggression & anxiousness Signal of compulsiveness Symbolizes power - Good guys or bad guys Line Leading lines Movement Shadows and composition Background, middleground and forground Size Doctor Manhattan -can actually change his own size as part of his powers Size can be a symbol of importance Works Cited Bellatoni, Patti. “If it’s purple, someone’s gonna die: The power of Color in Visual Storytelling.” Taylor & Francis, 2012. Print Bernard, Mark S. Carter, James. “Alan Moore and the Graphic Novel: Confronting the fourth Demension” 2015. Web. Barnes, David. “Time in the Gutter: Temporal Structures in Watchmen.” 2009. Brill Academic Publishers. Web. Watchmen & History Presentation April Lopez & David Steemke Alan Moore injects his Watchmen characters into major turning points of American and world history, such as the introduction of masked superheroes during WWII, the U.S. using the Comedian and Dr. Manhattan in the Vietnam War; which directly results in Nixon being elected for 5 terms, and the creation of Dr. Manhattan accelerating the advancement of global technology. Moore’s creation of an alternate timeline reshapes the narratives which determine how the reader perceives the world around them and blurs the lines between fiction and reality. Oct 13 1938 – Hooded Justice stops a supermarket robbery, and inspires Hollis Mason to become the.

1. Watchmen as Graphic Art
By Abigail Garcia and Marmar Mogharehabed
Using Art Principles
Line
Texture & Shape
Size
Space
Color
Value
Composition
The art principles help tell a story by creating predictions,
helping portray mood and tone, and can be a signal of
characters’ personality as well.
- Seen not only in graphic novels but, regular books, as well as
movies and tv shows
Graphic Novels
How are they defined?
Commonly defined as “Comics”
- comics are usually much more simple
Juxtaposed Images
Happens when two images are placed next to one another
creating a theme, both with a strong visual point.
Layout
“Most comics contain not only juxtaposed images but also

2. words both as dialogue and narration” (Barnes 53).
Sequential Art
Gutter: used as a space filler; used when there is too much
empty space
Major Principles Applied
Color
Line
Size
Major Colors Applied
Blue
Yellow
Purple
Red
Blue
Doctor Manhattan
Calm, relaxation
Depression, gloom
Depth, trust, loyalty

3. “It is a color to think, but not to act” (Bellatoni 83).
“You’re driftin’outta touch, Doc. You’re turnin’ into a flake”
(Moore 52).
Yellow
Laurie Juspeczyk
“sidekick” or weaker hero
Intellect, energy
Rorschach
Cowardice, deciet, mental illness
Yellow is cautionary: a trait that all but paralyzes… it is warm,
not hot. It is just edgy” (Bellatoni 36).
Purple
Rorschach
Poison
Death
Mystery
“Rich purple is not only associated with death and delusion it is
percieved as having weight” (Bellatoni 6).
Red

4. “Red: A guide to what is not said”
(Bellatoni 35).
Red can symbolize aggression & anxiousness
Signal of compulsiveness
Symbolizes power
- Good guys or bad guys
Line
Leading lines
Movement
Shadows and composition
Background, middleground
and forground
Size
Doctor Manhattan
-can actually change his own size as part of his powers
Size can be a symbol of importance
Works Cited
Bellatoni, Patti. “If it’s purple, someone’s gonna die:
The power of Color in Visual Storytelling.” Taylor &
Francis, 2012. Print
Bernard, Mark S. Carter, James. “Alan Moore and the
Graphic Novel: Confronting the fourth Demension” 2015.

5. Web.
Barnes, David. “Time in the Gutter: Temporal Structures in
Watchmen.” 2009. Brill Academic Publishers. Web.
Watchmen & History
Presentation
April Lopez
&
David Steemke
Alan Moore injects his Watchmen characters into major turning
points of American and world history, such as the introduction
of masked superheroes during WWII, the U.S. using the
Comedian and Dr. Manhattan in the Vietnam War; which
directly results in Nixon being elected for 5 terms, and the
creation of Dr. Manhattan accelerating the advancement of
global technology. Moore’s creation of an alternate timeline
reshapes the narratives which determine how the reader
perceives the world around them and blurs the lines between
fiction and reality.
Oct 13 1938 – Hooded Justice stops a supermarket robbery, and
inspires Hollis Mason to become the first Nite Owl.
The first divergence from our history and the Watchmen
universe; Hooded Justices’ appearance is the earliest known
historical event that didn't occur in our world, and caused the
appearance of other costumed heroes.

6. Aug 20 1958 -Jon Osterman is accidentally locked in the
Intrinsic Field Test Chamber before an experiment. He is
disintegrated.
The second divergence from our history and the Watchmen
universe; The transformation of Jon Osterman to Dr. Manhattan
changes the political landscape and science advances more
rapidly than in our own world.
“Technological concerns were prominent throughout these
decades,were heightened during the ColdWar” (Rutherford 292)
Technology “is an integral and celebrated aspect of the
American identity, embodied by such exalted figures as Thomas
Edison and Henry Ford, yet it has also played a central role in
some of the most devastating and shameful events in the
nation’s history, such as the bombing of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, the Tuskegee syphilis study, and the Three Mile
Island nuclear accident.” (Rutherford 290-1)
“Meanwhile, expensive arsenals meant less cash to spend upon

7. their old; their sick and homeless; on their children’s education.
As stockpiles grew, as computers reduced human involvement,
the spectre of accidental apocalypse stalked ever closer” –
Ozymandias
(Moore XI, p.21)
“It doesn’t take a genius to see that America has problems that
need tackling…” – Ozymandias
(Moore II, p.10)
“There is no future. There is no past. Do you see? Time is
simultaneous, an intricately structured jewel that humans insist
on viewing one edge at a time, when the whole design is visible
in every facet.” - Dr. Manhattan
(Moore VIII, p.6)
“We do what we have to do. Others bury their heads between
the swollen teats of indulgence and gratification , piglets
squirming beneath a sow for shelter… but there is no shelter…
and the future is bearing down like an express train.” –
Rorschach’s Journal October 16, 1985 (Moore II, p.26)
“Here in the limbo of the gutter, human imagination takes two
separate images and transforms them into a single idea. It
allows us to connect these moments and to mentally construct a
continuous unified reality.” (Barnes 66-7)

8. “In comics both past and the future are real and visible. Unlike
in other media, in comics the past is more than just memories of
what occurred on the screen moments before and the future is
more than just possibilities. In comics you can physically flip
back and forth in time.” (Barnes 67-8)
Past events are given meaning, not existence, by their
representation in history" (Hutcheon 2002, 78, italic original).
Giving meaning is part and parcel of the process of
interpretation, and the revisionary graphic novels of the 1980s
and 1990s radically reinterpreted the conventions of their genre,
forming artistic investigations into the question: How can
history be represented in all its complexity? (Boge, 2)
"As the doomsday clock strikes midnight at the beginning of
the apocalyptic chapter XII, many carefully interwoven strands
of (hi)story are starting to reveal an intricate picture: The scene
visualizes the outcome of the extremist politics of former
Watchman Adrian Veidt who, drawing conclusions from
utilitarian premises, kills millions to save billions“ (Boge,3)

9. “We in this country, in this generation are by destiny rather
than choice, the watchmen on the walls of world freedom.” -
JFK’s intended speech
(Moore XI, p.11)
Works Cited
Moore, Alan, and Dave Gibbons. Watchmen. New York: Warner
Books, 1987. Print.
Rutherford,,Alexandra. "B. F. Skinner and Technology’s
Nation: Technocracy, Social Engineering, and the Good Life in
20Th- Century America." History of Psychology, vol. 20,
no. 3, Aug. 2017, pp. 290-312. EBSCOhost,
doi:10.1037/hop0000062.
Barnes, David. "Time in the Gutter: Temporal Structures in
Watchmen."
Kronoscope, vol. 9, no. 1/2, May 2009, pp. 58.
EBSCOhost, doi:10.1163/156771509X12638154745427.
Chris, Boge. "Visualizing Histories and Stories."
Medienimpulse, Iss 3/2013 (2013), no. 3/2013, 2013.
EBSCOhost,
libraryproxy.sdmesa.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.
com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsdoj&AN=edsdoj.89
355c9ec1134c41ae3f5e7a17aebb31&site=eds-live.