What is McCloud's theory of comics?

What is sequential art?

How is form distinguished from content?

What role does space play in comics?

To what uses can the medium of comics be put?

How does one's perception of reality relate to the worlds represented in comics?

What is an icon? An abstract icon?

In what ways are comics or cartoons distinguished from photorealism representations?

What does McCloud mean by "amplification through simplification?" Do you agree?

How is your face a mask?

How does McCloud imagine you relate to the comic image?

Does the photorealistic McCloud creep you out a bit, or is that just me? (e-mail me your answers!)

How is this concept of perceptual simplification expanded to objects in everyday life?

What is the masking effect? Do you like or dislike it?

How is style related to content?

What, according to McCloud, is the most abstract form of the icon?

How do words and images interact in the medium of comics?

What is the picture plane?

Where on this pyramid do your favorite comic representations fall? Where is Watchmen?

How are goals and roles related? Television and comics?

In what way does the world cease to exist when you are not there? Seriously.

What elements of trust, expectations and suspension of disbelief go into creating a world (either real or comic)?

What is closure? How are change, time, and motion all involved?

How does film achieve closure?

Where does closure occur in comics?

What is the gutter? Why is there blood in it?

What role do you play in achieving closure in comics?

How does this participation (along with the identification discussed in the second chapter) impact your reading?

What are the six kinds of transitions McCloud describes? How are they different? Can you find example in Watchmen? In Sunday comic strips?

Which transition styles do you find more compelling? Why?

How does transition usage vary by culture and why?

What is your favorite representation of the Carl story? Why?

How are your senses engaged in comic reading?

Watch for repetition of themes and images (like "Who Watches the Watchmen")?

Study the use of space and frame (remember Joe and the varying uses of 9 little boxes).

Consider the kinds of transitions used in the text.

What elements of film style are invoked?

Be aware of the emotional and perceptual participation required in your reading.

What relationship does the text have to image throughout? Does it vary?

What do the chapter titles and the closing quotes contribute to your reading?

What about the text at the end of each chapter? The splash page? The clock?

What kind of world is this? How is it similar to or different from our own?

What is the greatest pressure and threat facing this world?

How is this world layered?

What is going on with representations of race and gender?

What makes a costumed crime fighter a superhero, a vigilante, or a nut case?

Study the first few pages carefully.
Whose journal are we reading?

What kind of world is this?

What's up with Rorschach's face?

How is time used? What impact does placing current dialogue over past events have?

Who are these characters? How are they connected with one another?

What kind of man was Edward Blake?

Why does Rorschach say Daniel quit? What does the framing of this scene say?

Who is Adrian Veidt?

Is there irony on Rorschach's claim that he is "without [a] personality disorder"?

Who is Dr. Manhattan? Why the name?

What does Rorschach consider a moral lapse?

Why does Laurie go to dinner with Daniel?

What does this contribute to your understanding of this world?

Why begin with the story of Moe Vernon?

What role did comic books have in this world? 

Why doesn't Laurie attend the funeral?

How does she move through the space between New York and California?

What is her relationship with her mother like?

Why does her mother say that Laurie sleeps with an H-bomb?

How does the cross-cutting impact the narrative?

What prompts the narrative shifts to the past? How do the different perspectives and time periods inform your understanding of the characters

Who are these people in the first flashback?

How does the attempted rape direct your reading of these characters?

How is the second gathering of costumed crime fighters different from the first?

How has the Comedian changed?

What makes crime fighting irrelevant to him?

How is our involvement in Vietnam different in this world? Why?

What is the big joke?

Why doesn't Jon interfere in the Comedian's actions?

How do Nite Owl and the Comedian interact?

Is the Comedian the American dream?

How is Moloch's memory different from the others?

Consider use of color in the final pages.

Why are the practicalities of creating a costume important?

What role does political leaning, philosophical bent, and sexuality seem to have in creating a costumed vigilante?

What is the voiceover we hear? How is this tied to escape?

What does it mean to have a comic book within another comic book? How do you tell oe from the other?

What is the role of a newsvendor?

How does Jon freak Laurie out? Which extra self is more disturbing?

Who is Janey Slater? Why is her story juxtaposed with Laurie's?

Where does Laurie go and why?

What meaning does seeing her reflecting in the coffee cup convey?

What is Jon's relationship to his body?

How is the scene in the alley related to the scene in the television studio?

Can you cut the sexual tension with a knife?

What happens to the live studio audience?

Strangeness and Charm?

How can you be sure if the world has ended or not?

Why does the kid feel ripped off by his Black Freighter comic? Is this a meta-comment?

What does the invasion presage?

Why do the Minutemen disband?

What is their reaction to the bomb and to Dr. Manhattan?

Why are they questioned by the House UnAmerican Activities Committee?

Why do they need costumed criminals?

How is Jon's relationship to time and space unique? How does the comic style reinforce this?

Why doesn't his father want him to be a watchmaker?  How is a watchman different?

What is the accident? What does the use of the page tell us?

How do Jon's new power and his relationship to time influence his relationships with other human beings? With Janey? With notions of morality?

"The Superman exists, and he's American." Discuss.

He puts Hollis out of business twice, how?

Why doesn't Jon tell his father that he survives the accident? Does he?

Is Jon's memory of the 1966 meeting different from Adrian's?

What does he think of the Comedian?

What is the significance of Jon's diminishing costume?

What is the Keene Act? How do our characters respond?

How is Jon a man to end wars?

Is he a god?

What does it mean to live in the shadow of Manhattan? Which Manhattan are we talking about here? More than one? All three?

Does the splash page remind you of Rorschach?

How does Jacobi (the former Moloch) respond to the invader? How does the use of the cells help you to understand this?

Why does a man murder his children?

How does the continued adventures of The Black Freighter serve as a parallel or counterpoint to our primary storyline?

What is Rorschach's "skin?"

What do you think of the silhouette paintings?

How is the trash can related to the heart of New York City?

Compare the newsvendor's reaction to world events with Adrian's assistant's reaction.

How does the action scene work on the page?

Which set of clothing does Rorschach consider the disguise?

What does he find at Jacobi's?

Does his identity surprise you?

What does the story of a comic book writer (and a photograph) contribute to your reading?

Is it important that we learn that The Black Freighter is a rereun?

How is Rorschach/Kovacs' vision different than his report of it? Why are we allowed to see what he truly sees?

What was Kovacs' childhood like? How is sexuality implicated in his psychology?

Does his childhood presage his adult characteristics and pursuits?

Why does he take the fabric? Why does he cut it? No gray? Is this important?

Who is Kitty Genovese? Why is she significant to Rorschach?

Who is locked in with whom?

What is the difference between Rorschach and Kovacs pretending to be Rorschach?

What does Rorschach cite as an example to prove how he was once too soft on crime?

How is his memory of the 1966 meeting different?

How does Dr. Malcolm Long  see the silhouette paintings?

What do the wordless panels tell us?

What finally turns Kovacs into Rorschach?

What is the saw for?

What kind of meaning does Rorschach find in the world?

How does his time with Rorschach change Malcolm?

What happens at the end of the chapter?

Does Dr. Long's file shed any further light on the character of Rorschach?

Compare and contrast the two literary theories.

What role does a text's historical and social location play in each? The author? The reader?

How does close reading come into play?

Which theory do you find more appealing?

Consider how you would apply either theory to Watchmen.