NORTH

Smiley face connection

Craig S. Semon TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
Original “Watchmen” artwork shows Rorschach holding a blood-splattered smiley face.

A world-renowned logo created in Worcester prominently pops up in the big-screen treatment of the much anticipated “Watchmen” movie. But don’t expect it to make you feel all warm and fuzzy.

Arguably, the most iconoclastic image from “Watchmen” is a smiley face button stained with a single line of blood across the badge’s left eye.

A smiley face is a recurring image in the story, appearing as a badge on the costume of one of the Watchmen characters and later with a splash of blood over the smiley face when the character is murdered.

As any good Worcesterite knows, Harvey R. Ball created the smiley face (minus the bloodstain) in December 1963 as part of a campaign by Worcester Mutual Fire Insurance to promote good will in its merger with State Mutual.

The insurance company bought the smiley face from Ball, a freelance commercial artist, and ordered about 100 buttons. The company later ordered 1,000 more buttons. Soon, others were producing smiley faces on their own. The insurance company later tried to copyright smiley, but it was too late. Smiley was in the public domain.

Mr. Ball made about $45 for his creation, while the new Watchmen movie, which prominently displays the smiley face, is estimated to be at $100 million.

On July 18, 1998, Mr. Ball did an in-store appearance at That’s Entertainment, 244 Park Ave., and while he was there signed covers of the “Watchmen” graphic novel.

“I think it amused him to see it on the cover,” Ken Carson, manager at That’s Entertainment, recalled. “He did ask me a little bit about what the story was about, and he did autograph it. He signed it like everything else: ‘Smile, Harvey Ball.’ I wish we still had some. We sold them.”

At the time, Mr. Carson explained to Mr. Ball that “Watchmen” was a dark story in which the smiley face doesn’t really fit in.

“I explained it to him that it’s kind of ironic that this is the symbol of the story,” Mr. Carson recalled. “A smiley face with a splatter of blood on it says more about the story than there’s a smiley face on it.”