Squirrel Girl/Watchmen Cosplay Crossover.

Best real-life Doreen Green I have ever seen, but with Watchmen? Talk about contrasting styles. Cah-razy.

Thursday Thirteen: An Art Teacher’s Manifesto.

(Watchmen in the classroom, by biigurutwin.)

I like to reflect. When I sat down to write a Thursday Thirteen this week, I decided to list the things I strive to instill in my students. This is my revolution.

1. Creative Success. Each student will feel the specific joy that only comes from inventive accomplishment.

2. Expansive Ideas. Each student will think about the world in new ways.

3. Wide-eyed Wonder. Each student will be exposed to a view of life as an unfolding gift of infinite potential.

4. Unknown Connections. Each student will see everyday things from extraordinary angles.

5. Controlled Freedom. Each student will have fun with their art and their friends while maintaining appropriate personal discipline.

6. Underlying Principles. Each student will understand why I enjoy each project enough to teach it to them.

7. Unwavering Positivity. Each student will have at least one teacher who is always in a good mood.

8. Modern Myth. Each student will relate some part of the lesson to comic book superheroes.

9. Relative History. Each student will be able to understand the origins of the things they know and love.

10. Convex Consumerism. Each student will flip the script from consumer to creator – from audience to artist.

11. Trading-card Tickle. Each student will get one of my extra Vs. System cards at random as a reward for good behavior and trade them joyously with classmates.

12. Punctual Responsibility. Each student will have an art teacher who is  a model of consistency and is always exactly on time.

13. Unconditional Love. Each student will be valued and loved equally as a creative human being.

New Watchmen Art.

Those are some keen pop variations on the Watchmen characters by Dave Mott. It seems he got inspired upon stumbling across the kids we posted a few weeks ago and went hog wild.

Good times.

Cephalopod Classics.

That’s the full page of the Watchmen squid, for the uninitiated. Aside from Shuma-Gorath in the Capcom video games, wiggly sucker-filled arms never looked better.

Today’s inaugural edition of Cephalopod Classics will unveil the six nominees for Top Mythological Tentacles. Vote in the poll, and squirm with us in the comments, if you dare.

Bring Your Own Squid.

Life is flavored by perception. An infinite array of information bombards the human instrument at every moment. We carry the parenthesis around in our head, and the filters can be adjusted.

Moral of the story? The tentacles are always there if you choose to see them.

Watchmen Easter Egg!

(Easter-colored Watchmen squid by Timberwolf0316.)

A couple days ago, we spoiled the squid-version original comic book ending of Watchmen. Today we reveal it’s subliminal presence in the movie.

You don’t have to take my word for it, shamilton777 dropped it in the comments:

Walter wrote – “When they are scanning the files in the movie, the name of the plan is apparently S.Q.U.I.D.”

The SQUID Acronym also appears in the scene when Dr. Manhattan is videoconferencing with Veidt and transports the Bomb device to Antarctica. (This is the end of the weird multiple hand scene.)

Look at the TV behind Veidt and you’ll see it for a split second. It stands for (something like) Sub Quantum Unifying Intrinsic Device…

And when I caught it during my second viewing of the movie I laughed out loud.

So there you have it.  The giant alien squid who unifies the world has been given a wink and a nod in the film.

Good times.

Weekly Wonder Word: Mask.

(Watchmen cards by katiecookie.)

The mask symbolizes all sorts of deep human meaning and mystery. We don’t know who we really are, so we confuse the matter further and squeeze out just a bit more joy from our existential wounds.

Rorschach’s inkblot mask in Watchmen stretches the twist to exquisite lengths. It morphs and bleeds and portrays the imperfect portrait with precision. There may be no better mask ever made.

That, of course, does not mean we stop the masquerade. Here is a flashback gallery of the face covers from my classroom this year. Happy masking!