kalkamel
Master Member
Thought I'd post this thread to show my research into this prop as well as to show you guys pics of my replica.
The only thing for certain is how the front cover looks like. I'm sure you've pics of it posted here before, like the one below, taken from the "Watchmen Portraits" book:
From that pic, we know:
(a) the cover is leather, probably cowhide because of the grain;
(b) it has "JOURNAL 1984 -1985" embossed (not gilded) on it;
(c) it has a ribbon marker;
(d) it has rounded corners.
Some people have suggested modding a Moleskin journal for this but I decided to custom make one.
As for the contents, reference is even more scarce. There's this pic from the "Watchmen Companion" book:
... and of course a screencap from the scene where Rorschach was enjoying a can of pork and beans:
From the Companion book pic, it looks like the journal contained entries from both the comic as well as the movie, side by side. The left side is the movie final entry (notice "entry is misspelled "ENTREY" here) while the left side is the longer comic entry.
From the screencap pic, the wordings on the left page looks like the comic entry (with a reference to President Truman, which is not in the movie entry) while the right side page is ineligible. Another thing to note is that Rorschach likes to mark his page corners with his symbol, which can clearly be seen on the right page in the screencap.
So with these limited references I set upon making my replica. I decided to go with an A5 sized journal so I arranged my pages in that manner. I decided to make the entire journal with both the movie and the comic entries, just like in the Companion book pic, with movie entries on the left and comic entries on the right. The exception was the first entry, as per the screencap, with the comic entry appearing on the left.
Getting the comic entries were simple... I just copied them from the TPB I have. The movie entries required transcribing the dialogue (thank god for subtitles!).
Since the journal contained two versions of the entries, I thought the best way to distinguish them was to add ordinal suffixes to the movie entries dates. So movie entries are October 12th, 13th, 16th etc while comic entries are October 12, 13, 16 etc.
Also, its interesting to note that there are more comic entries than movie entries.
Based on the above, this is what I came up with:
I used cowhide leather for the cover, grainy enough to match the actual prop. The corners are rounded and the ribbon marker is also present. The cover is also distressed, and so are the pages.
The pages:
Note the misspelled "ENTREY" in the final pic.
I found a good handwriting font which looks recklessly scribbled, like Rorschach's handwriting, and tried to match the spacing of the entries in the reference pics.
Because both the movie and comic entries make up only about 12 pages, I repeated the entries set several times plus a few blank pages to make up 200 pages in total.
I also decided I wanted some inserts to go with the journal. I know the journal doesn't contain any inserts but I thought it'd be fun to include some.
Here's what I made:
Rorschach's Wanted poster (from the New Frontiersman Flickr site):
Gunga Diner menu (also from the New Frontiersman Flickr site):
Rorschach's calling card (from the credits):
Screencap
My replica
The letter from Pyramid Transnational to Roy Chess which Rorschach found:
Screencap
My replica
Roy Chess ID tag:
Screencap
My replica
The journal and the inserts:
On a final note, it seems nobody makes those old school pencils with the eraser butt anymore. I had to settle for a regular yellow pencil instead.
The only thing for certain is how the front cover looks like. I'm sure you've pics of it posted here before, like the one below, taken from the "Watchmen Portraits" book:
From that pic, we know:
(a) the cover is leather, probably cowhide because of the grain;
(b) it has "JOURNAL 1984 -1985" embossed (not gilded) on it;
(c) it has a ribbon marker;
(d) it has rounded corners.
Some people have suggested modding a Moleskin journal for this but I decided to custom make one.
As for the contents, reference is even more scarce. There's this pic from the "Watchmen Companion" book:
... and of course a screencap from the scene where Rorschach was enjoying a can of pork and beans:
From the Companion book pic, it looks like the journal contained entries from both the comic as well as the movie, side by side. The left side is the movie final entry (notice "entry is misspelled "ENTREY" here) while the left side is the longer comic entry.
From the screencap pic, the wordings on the left page looks like the comic entry (with a reference to President Truman, which is not in the movie entry) while the right side page is ineligible. Another thing to note is that Rorschach likes to mark his page corners with his symbol, which can clearly be seen on the right page in the screencap.
So with these limited references I set upon making my replica. I decided to go with an A5 sized journal so I arranged my pages in that manner. I decided to make the entire journal with both the movie and the comic entries, just like in the Companion book pic, with movie entries on the left and comic entries on the right. The exception was the first entry, as per the screencap, with the comic entry appearing on the left.
Getting the comic entries were simple... I just copied them from the TPB I have. The movie entries required transcribing the dialogue (thank god for subtitles!).
Since the journal contained two versions of the entries, I thought the best way to distinguish them was to add ordinal suffixes to the movie entries dates. So movie entries are October 12th, 13th, 16th etc while comic entries are October 12, 13, 16 etc.
Also, its interesting to note that there are more comic entries than movie entries.
Based on the above, this is what I came up with:
I used cowhide leather for the cover, grainy enough to match the actual prop. The corners are rounded and the ribbon marker is also present. The cover is also distressed, and so are the pages.
The pages:
Note the misspelled "ENTREY" in the final pic.
I found a good handwriting font which looks recklessly scribbled, like Rorschach's handwriting, and tried to match the spacing of the entries in the reference pics.
Because both the movie and comic entries make up only about 12 pages, I repeated the entries set several times plus a few blank pages to make up 200 pages in total.
I also decided I wanted some inserts to go with the journal. I know the journal doesn't contain any inserts but I thought it'd be fun to include some.
Here's what I made:
Rorschach's Wanted poster (from the New Frontiersman Flickr site):
Gunga Diner menu (also from the New Frontiersman Flickr site):
Rorschach's calling card (from the credits):
Screencap
My replica
The letter from Pyramid Transnational to Roy Chess which Rorschach found:
Screencap
My replica
Roy Chess ID tag:
Screencap
My replica
The journal and the inserts:
On a final note, it seems nobody makes those old school pencils with the eraser butt anymore. I had to settle for a regular yellow pencil instead.
Last edited:
