So, I finished reading Watchmen today....

"The Beginning is the End is the Beginning"

<sub>Send a heartbeat to
The void that cries through you
Relive the pictures that have come to pass
For now we stand alone
The world is lost and blown
And we are flesh and blood disintegrate
With no more to hate

Is it bright where you are
Have the people changed
Does it make you happy you're so strange
And in your darkest hour
I hold secrets flame
We can watch the world devoured in its pain

Delivered from the blast
The last of a line of lasts
The pale princess of a palace cracked
And now the kingdom comes
Crashing down undone
And I am a master of a nothing place
Of recoil and grace

Is it bright where you are
Have the people changed
Does it make you happy you're so strange
And in your darkest hour
I hold secrets flame
We can watch the world devoured in its pain

Time has stopped before us
The sky cannot ignore us
No one can separate us
For we are all that is left
The echo bounces off me
The shadow lost beside me
There's no more need to pretend
Cause now I can begin again

Is it bright where you are
Have the people changed
Does it make you happy you're so strange
And in your darkest hour
I hold secrets flame
We can watch the world devoured in its pain
Strange
Strange
Strange</sub>

~ The Smashing Pumpkins

I can't stop listening to this song.... It gives me shivers every. Single. Damn. Time. I listen to it. A YouTube user posted a download link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybULQm-IAGY

It is the alternate version of "The End is the Beginning is the End". Lyrically, the song is all too befitting of the events and characters of Watchmen.

March 6, 2009 cannot come quickly enough.

If the film adaptation of Watchmen is faithful to the novel - I read an article yesterday suggesting that it will be three and a half hours long - it should prove quite phenomenal.

And, yes, I have yet another antihero to add to my list of favorite fictional characters: none other than Rorschach. Seeing photos of Jackie Earle Haley, I've got to admit... I think I can see Rorschach in him. He's nearly the same age and same height as Rorschach is described in the novel. Psychoanalyst Dr. Malcolm Long, a secondary character in the novel, describes Rorschach as "fascinatingly ugly"; I look forward to seeing how the vigilante is portrayed. He lives under a strict moral code in which evil must be punished, and, oh, what punishments evil endures at Rorschach's hands....

Rorschach is fond of breaking your pinky fingers before he asks his questions.

I am also eager to see how Rorschach's voice and demeanor are handled. Once we see Rorschach without his mask, we see a face without notable expression, complemented by a perpetual monotone. Rorschach kills without conscious; he is deadpan throughout the novel, except during certain flashbacks and glimpses into his severely pessimistic view of the world.

Really, the entire main cast of the novel are complex and interesting, each of them flawed and all so human. The novel is an intriguing read. I look forward to reading it again. Very shortly. I also look forward to studying the different panel layouts to practice adapting scenes from Brainsick into sequential format. There are scenes from Watchmen which brought to mind scenes from Brainsick as I read it.

Anyway... HOLY CRAP IT'S A RORSCHACH ACTION FIGURE (on the right): http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/comicbooks/library/watchmen_l.jpg

I WANT IT. ;___;

I could gush more about my love for this novel and its characters, and relate how saddened I was by the ending, but... I must go draw now. Rorschach-y and Brainsick-y goodness await.