In my mind, Watchmen imagery is first and foremost the bloody yellow smiley & Rorschach — they encapsulate everything that is cool to me about Watchmen.

However, this poster is supposed to bring in the “civilians” as we call them –movie-goers or casual fans who haven’t read the book — and that audience is almost solely familiar with Watchmen via the movie trailer, which doesn’t make prominent use of the smiley. And after polling a handful of “civilians” I know, I found the figure who stands out most from the trailer is Dr. Manhattan. More than a few responded, “Watchmen, that’s the movie with the big blue guy right?”

Because of this, all my initial mock-ups featured Dr. Manhattan — and man did they look really lame. Everybody kept saying he just looked really weird and creepy, which was true. I mean, you’re that tall and you’re BRIGHT BLUE. You’re gonna look a little freaky. So, “focus groups” be damned — we finally decided to give in and feature every fanboy’s favorite, Rorschach.

Thanks to DC for coming through with the art assets! :)