In this case of graphic I don’t mean in reference to the violence but instead to the vivid bright illustrations found in the comic. It took me an incredibly long time to start reading the comic as I found myself looking at the cover and first page where you see chapter one with the half smiley. The cover displays an incredibly close close-up of the blood found later with the bright yellow of the smiley, as primary colors these images immediately pop out and scream for attention. It has a very pop art sort of feeling which can be incredibly visually satisfying for those who have grown up in such a consumerist culture. The beauty of these vivid sometimes loose pop art style illustrations that come up within the comic made it hard to see the violence within these comics as anything other than beautiful. The beauty within the was in part due to the style of illustration but predominantly to the color usage. As was said in class it is colors we associate with a hippie more psychedelic vibe which is a far cry from a harsh violent city image most people have in their head. Me finding this violence beautiful disturbed me as I realized I found something like blood of someone would had been murdered to be visually pleasing to me eye. These techniques they used I think was great because it furthered an idea of a culture that found beauty in the violence and became accustomed to violence in their everyday lives which was disturbing in its own right but really makes you reflect on what and how we are even today in our society and how desensitized we’ve become.
I definitely agree that Moore presents the violence in Watchmen in a very visually pleasing way. I think this has a lot to do with the color palette. I also think you make an interesting point about Moore developing the idea that the society in Watchmen is so used to violence in their daily lives. It is an effective way of showing how messed up that city is is. As we see the blood and violence in Watchmen, we are seeing it as the characters see it, as something that is visually attractive. I also agree with what you said about reflecting on our own culture. Maybe Moore wanted us tho think about this, and he maybe he wanted to make a statement about violence in popular culture.