Rorschach (Walter Joseph Kovacs) is a fictional antihero in the graphic novel limited series Watchmen, published by DC Comics in 1986. Rorschach was created by writer Alan Moore with artist Dave Gibbons; as with most of the main characters in the series, he was an analogue for a Charlton Comics character, in this case Steve Ditko's the Question. Moore also modeled Rorschach on Mr. A, another Steve Ditko creation on whom the Question was originally based.
While Watchmen has an ensemble cast, many consider Rorschach to be the protagonist as he drives most of the plot forward and serves as the series' narrator. In the beginning of the story, he is introduced as the only masked vigilante to remain active on his own terms and initiative, a criminal outlaw as opposed to other former superheroes now covertly employed by the U.S. government. A ruthless crime-fighter, Rorschach believes in moral absolutism—good and evil as pure ends, with no shades of gray—which compels him to seek to punish any evidence of evil at all costs. His mask displays a constantly morphing inkblot based on the ambiguous designs used in Rorschach inkblot tests, also his namesake, with the mask's black and white coloring consistent with his sense and view of morality.
The original character was positively received, with multiple references in other comic titles and appearances in other media. He reappears in the Before Watchmen comic book prequel including his own miniseries. Rorschach made his live-action debut in the 2009 film Watchmen, played by Jackie Earle Haley, who also voices him in the video game Watchmen: The End Is Nigh.
A successor to the Rorschach mantle, named Reggie Long, debuted in the sequel limited series Doomsday Clock, which connects the Watchmen universe with the mainstream DC Universe. Another incarnation of Rorschach, Wil Myerson, appears in the DC Black Label limited series Rorschach, a standalone sequel to Watchmen.
Publication history
As with the rest of the main characters of Watchmen, Alan Moore based Rorschach on Charlton Comics characters, using them as a "starting point". The characters Rorschach was specifically based on were the Question (a Charlton character) and Mr. A, two comic book characters created by Steve Ditko.
Ditko, who was inspired by the writings of Ayn Rand's personal philosophy of Objectivism, created both the Question and Mr. A as followers of the ideology. Regarding Rand's philosophy, Moore said he personally found it "laughable". In spite of this, Moore had a healthy respect for Ditko despite having different views politically. Moore recalled that Ditko's very right-wing agenda was quite interesting to him at the time, and that "probably led to me portraying Rorschach as an extremely right-wing character".
In trying to create Rorschach, Moore said he was trying to "come up with this quintessential Steve Ditko character—someone who's got a funny name, whose surname begins with a 'K,' who's got an oddly designed mask". On how he decided Rorschach's name, Moore recalls:
The Question was used as the prototype for creating Rorschach, while Mr. A, being a far more radical right-wing character than the mainstream-suited Question, served as the main inspiration for Rorschach's right-wing views as well as his black-and-white morality. Moore came to view Rorschach as a logical extension of both Mr. A and the Question. On the other hand, upon being asked whether he had seen Watchmen, Ditko himself described Rorschach as being "like Mister A, except Rorschach is insane."
Moore stated that Rorschach was created as a way of exploring what an archetypical Batman-type character—a driven, vengeance-fueled vigilante—would be like in the real world. He concluded that the short answer was "a nutcase". Moore also stated that the tone of Rorschach's diary was inspired by the Son of Sam letters David Berkowitz sent to the newspapers, and that his speech patterns were based on Herbie the Fat Fury.
While Moore came up with Rorschach's name and descriptions, Dave Gibbons was in charge of the character's appearance. In Gibbons' initial designs, Rorschach wore white clothing which had inkblots not only on his head but all over his body. He also wore a large blue trench-coat, red gloves, red-blue hat and items that look like jodhpurs or spats over his boots. When designing the characters of the series, Gibbons said Rorschach was his favorite to draw due to his relatively simpler features. He described: