Tales of the Black Freighter

TALES OF THE BLACK FRIEGHTER……………

“FELT CLEANSED, FELT DARK PLANET TURN UNDER MY FEET AND KNEW WHAT CATS KNOW THAT MAKES THEM SCREAM LIKE BABIES IN NIGHT” – Rorschach’s Journal.

Exhibit A.- R.T. Gault Master of the Obscure

          The Watchmen series written by the great Alan Moore with Dave Gibbons and John Higgens is arguably one of the greatest comic stories ever told. Recently, I picked up a copy at the USO while serving in Al-Asad, Iraq. Just looking at the distinct cover transported me through time and space to the summer of 1986. I started reading this only at the behest of my local comic shop guru, R.T. Gault. R.T. owned and operated the infamous Centaur Books & Comics of Tullahoma, Tennessee. It was literally a den of obscure grimoires and books that chronicled events and ancient societies that occurred/worked in hushed whispers and indecipherable code. And I, Garry W. Shores was his ardent and paying disciple. He said read, I read. Where the hell were my parents when I was out there listening to middle-aged anarchists and misanthropes sharing their favored reading lists with impressionable 14 year olds? Waiting out in the car, hoping I’d hurry the hell up so they can go home I suppose.             

               The Watchmen was unlike anything I had ever read before. Words such as “captivating” or “fascinating” are mere descriptors, and do little to capture the grandeur or scope this work possesses. Compulsive, obsessive, majestic, and staggering in breadth and meaning are more accurate, for me. Little did I know, The Watchmen would become a touchstone to the past, to quality, and a guidebook for the stories that would continue to resonate in my life. It started when I was 14.

               I didn’t understand. I still don’t understand all the layers and meanings wrapped in this story. In the future, The Watchmen will be studied in the same circles as Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake and Melville’s Moby Dick. It is filled with amazing characters that are given depth and room to move and explore a dystopian America on the verge of nuclear holocaust. How these characters interact, move, and feel are what give The Watchmen much of its appeal and strength. I was obsessed with the madness and savagery of Rorschach, the cruelty of the Comedian and the entire “Dystopian Nixonian” universe they all inhabit. It was amazing and at the first reading, I didn’t get it. I just knew that I loved the story, loved the characters, and treasured my 12 original copies. Lovingly, they were housed in the finest mylar with acid free card board backing, and housed securely in my acid free card board comic storage container. I’d take them out to reread every year or so, or “when I got a hankering”. Going back and rereading, I patiently read the supplemental materials, “Under the Hood” and Rorschach’s file being some of favorites.

“This city is dying of rabies. Is the best I can do to wipe random flecks of foam from its lips?” Rorschach’s Journal.

               Moore’s ability to uplift base genres and transmute them into pure gold is unquestionable. It is truly amazing the elements he brought to bear in The Watchmen. First class storytelling, background details/history, coupled with the allegory of The Black Freighter storyline packs an additional “one-two” punch that the original Nite-Owl would be proud of. The accolades The Watchmen has received go without mention. However, in my world (the only one that matters to me) I easily rank The Watchmen in my top 10 reading list. This series develops characters, and the characters drive the plot to it grim and strangely uplifting conclusion. Moore develops characters, that while superhuman, insane, or misguided are thoroughly identifiable as human. Moore allows you to understand their motivations and desires. He shows you their quirks, and lays the human condition bare. This to me is essential. He creates an unraveling world and populates it not with supermen or mutants but with people, people with a story.

“We gaze continually at the world and it grows dull in our perceptions. Yet seen from another’s vantage point, as if new, it may still take the breath away.” Jon Osterman aka Dr. Manhattan.

The Watchmen is not perfect, but its close and what it gets right, it gets it in spades. The artistic team of Gibbons and Higgens do a remarkable job of pacing and doing all the things to tell story visually. The detail offered in the frames is amazing, propelling the storyline, and visually reinforcing The Watchmen’s themes. The amount of visual information, multitude of literary styles, and depth make The Watchmen worthy of multiple readings.

“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.” C.G. Jung