abstract
| - The smiley face image seen throughout the book comes from a badge worn by the Comedian. It is unknown how the Comedian (Eddie Blake) first acquired the badge. In his days as a member of the Minutemen, he wore a different symbol attached to his belt buckle: a purple-red grinning face resembling a comedy mask from ancient Greek theatre. By the time Nelson Gardner attempted to recruit Blake into his new organization, the Crimebusters, Blake was wearing a new uniform without any sort of badge. The more familiar smiley badge became a part of the Comedian's uniform at least prior to 1971, when he wore it at the V.V.N. Day celebrations that marked the end of the Vietnam War. He wore it consistently from that time until 1985. In 1985, Blake was wearing the badge on his night robe when he was attacked in his apartment. When Blake was beaten about the face, blood from his nose and mouth stained the badge in its familiar pattern: a single line of blood across the badge's left eye. When Blake was thrown out of the window, the badge flew free of his clothes and was washed into the gutter. It remained there until Rorschach came across it the night after the murder, on October 12th. Rorschach subsequently gave the badge to Dan Dreiberg when he came to inform Dreiberg about Blake's death. Dreiberg removed the blood and kept the badge with him, even when he went to dinner with Laurie Juspeczyk at the restaurant Rafael's. At Blake's funeral, Dreiberg dropped the badge into Blake's grave, on top of the coffin.
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