This is insanity. We're young lovers, the world could end tomorrow and how are we spending Sunday evening? We're planning to bust a homicidal maniac out of Sing-Sing. 
Watchmen #8 is an issue of the series Watchmen (Volume 1) with a cover date of April, 1987.
Synopsis for "Old Ghosts"
October 31st, Halloween.
Hollis Mason calls his old partner Sally Jupiter in regards to the news reports of the tenement rescue made by his successor and Laurie Juspeczyk. The two former Minutemen express surprise and joy of their proteges taking up their costume heroics again.
In Dan's basement, Laurie tries to talk Dan out of springing Rorschach from jail. But Dan remains firm on saving his friend. He also theorizes the possibility that there is a bigger conspiracy going on in which someone orchestrated Dr. Manhattan's exile in order to cause World War Three to happen. The obvious case to support Dan's idea is that the cancer scare allegedly caused by Manhattan is bogus because Laurie lived with Jon for a long time and didn't contract cancer, unlike the other people who were closely acquainted with Manhattan. Even more suspicious is that these cancer victims all previously worked for a research company called Dimensional Developments. Dan realizes more than ever that breaking Rorschach out is imperative as he might have more information to help uncover what is going on. Dan also considers recruiting Adrian Veidt for help, but only after freeing Rorschach because Adrian would be more likely to stop their attempt.
At Sing-Sing, a dwarfish gangster named Big Figure is granted a five minute meeting with Kovacs. It is then revealed that Big Figure was once a reputable criminal until he was apprehended by Rorschach and Nite Owl twenty years ago. Now Big Figure wants revenge and he tells Kovacs that the prisoner he scalded will likely die and therefore cause a prison riot which Big Figure will take advantage of the chaos to kill Rorschach.
Later that evening, Detective Steven Fine stops by Dan's home to ask him about his ties to Edward Blake. But Fine drops hints that he knows Dan is the Nite Owl and has been in contact with Rorschach and Laurie. After Fine leaves, Dan quickly understands that he and Laurie must act quickly in Rorschach's prison break.
Somewhere on an island, missing comic book writer Max Shea and painter Hira Manish discuss about an odd squid-like creature Manish is sketching that appears under a tarp, being prepped to be transported, on the beach in the distance. According to Max Shea's words, they have been kept on the island by "paranoid movie companies."
Dan and Laurie, in their costumes, take off on the Owlship for Sing-Sing, where a riot has broken out. In the midst of this, Big Figure tells off the other inmates from going after Kovacs. Leaving only him and his cronies Larry and Mike to confront Kovacs. Unfortunately for them, Kovacs proves to be craftier; he binds the hands of Larry to the cell's door when the man lunges for him. Larry's huge physique effectively blocks the door's lock housing and his compatriots are unable to cut him free. Big Figure coldly orders Mike to kill Larry. Mike uses a welding torch to open the door and then uses it to threaten Kovacs. But Kovacs breaks the toilet and lets the water flow out, making contact with the frayed power cable of the welder, fatally electrocuting Mike. Big Figure stares in absolute horror of the loss of his men before fleeing with Kovacs following after him.
Laurie and Dan manage to enter the prison after using the Owlship's screechers that incapacitate the prisoners. The pair soon find Kovacs near a bathroom, where Big Figure had just hid inside. Kovacs tells Dan and Laurie that he need to use the men's room before they leave. He kills Big Figure while Dan and Laurie remain ignorant of what he just did.
The three return to Dan's apartment where they are planning to pack up and leave. Suddenly, Dr. Manhattan appears before Laurie and asks her to come with him to Mars for an important conversation; in which Laurie is predestined to convince Manhattan to save the world. Laurie and Manhattan teleport away, as Dan and Kovacs flee the apartment on the Owlship just as the police with Detective Fine are too late to arrest them.
The news of Rorschach's escape angers and frightens a gang of drugged-up knot-tops who decide to go take their frustrations out on Hollis Mason, thinking that he is the Nite-Owl the news reported that helped break Rorschach out. The gang forces their way into Mason's apartment and beats him to death. When the gang realized what they had done they flee the scene. A group of trick-or-treaters soon finds Mason's body.
Appearing in "Old Ghosts"
Featured Characters:
- Nite Owl (Dan Dreiberg)
- Silk Spectre (Laurie Juspeczyk)
- Walter Kovacs
- Doctor Manhattan (Jon Osterman)
Supporting Characters:
- Hector Godfrey
- Hollis Mason (Dies)
- Malcolm Long
- New York City Police Department
- Detective Steven Fine
- Detective Joe Bourquin
- Sally Jupiter
- Bernard
- Max Shea
- Hira Manish
Antagonists:
- Big Figure (Single appearance; dies)
- Larry (Dies)
- Mike (Dies)
- Knot-Tops
- Derf
Other Characters:
- Aline
- Bernie
- Dolores Shairp
- Joey
- Minutemen (In a photograph only)
Locations:
- California
- Nepenthe Gardens
- New York
- New York City
- Manhattan
- Sing-Sing
- New York City
Items:
- New Frontiersman
- Tales of the Black Freighter
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "Tales of the Black Freighter: Marooned"
After a uncertain time in the sea, the mariner is plagued by thoughts of his dead family. He can not bear living anymore and leaps from his raft into the sea. But he only finds that he has finally reached land and arrives at his destination. Now the man seeks revenge.
Appearing in "Tales of the Black Freighter: Marooned"
Featured Characters:
- The mariner
Synopsis for "New Frontiersman"
A draft for the news article, "Honor is Like the Hawk: Sometimes It Must Go Hooded", written by the far-right daily newspaper New Frontiersman by its editor Hector Godfrey. Inside its content, Godfrey makes an appeal of clemency on behalf of heroes while also strongly criticizing people for attacking "masked lawmen"; Godfrey held in particular contempt for Douglas Roth of Nova Express for smearing Doctor Manhattan and consequently led to America losing its "greatest tactical asset" and exposing it to the threat of nuclear confrontation with the Soviet Union.
The content also includes an article about the missing author Max Shea along with other missing people, which consists of other writers and artists, and as well as scientists and semi-skilled menial workers. An odder yet unconnected incident is the desecration of deceased so-called psychic and clairvoyant Robert Deschaines, whose head was cut off and stolen. The desecration happened on the same week of Shea's disappearance. The police tenuously attributed it to the act of black magic cultists. Godfrey voice his unsupported theory that the disappearances are orchestrated by "sinister Cuban interests."
Appearing in "New Frontiersman"
Featured Characters:
- Comedian (Eddie Blake)
- Doug Roth (Mentioned only)
- Nite Owl (Dan Dreiberg)
- Rorschach (Walter Kovacs)
Items:
- New Frontiersman
- Comedian's Button
Notes
- The title of this issue is taken from Hallowe'en by Eleanor Farjeon. A passage from Hallowe'en appears at the end of the issue: "On Hallowe'en the gold ghosts come about us, and they speak to some; to others they are dumb."
- Dan is seen once again getting a new lock from the Gordian Knot Lock Company, for his apartment, to replace the one that Rorschach broke at the end of issue #3. But the new lock is broken again by the police.
- On page 12, panel 6, Hollis makes a jack-o'-lantern in which the pumpkin juice over the eyes makes a spattered smiley-face image. On page 28, panel 7, when Mason is killed, the blood smeared across his face in his Minutemen photo is similar to the stain on The Comedian's button.
Trivia
- Old Ghosts
- Sally Jupiter's comments on "Nixonomics" refers to U.S. President Richard Nixon's economic performance. This is also a reference to Reaganomics, which was the term given to the economic policy of President Ronald Reagan, who was the U.S. President during the initial publication of Watchmen.
- On the Utopia's playbill is a poster for The Day the Earth Stood Still.
- The Nova Express cover has pictures of Dr. Manhattan, Rorschach, and Ozymandias, and the headline reads, "Superheroes in the News: Spirit of '77." The New York Gazette headlines read, "Tanks Mass In Eastern Europe: "Purely Defensive" Say Reds," and "California: Governor Reagan Urges Hard Line." In real-life, Ronald Reagan was President of the U.S. in 1985, though he was governor of California in the 1970's.
- New Frontiersman
- The Nova Express is mentioned of unfavorably comparing costumed heroes as descendants of the Ku Klux Klan. Rather than denouncing the comparisons, Godfrey comes to defending the portrayal of the KKK and ignoring their violent assertions of white supremacy.
- The retaliatory bombing of Beirut in 1979 referred to the, at the time, Lebanese Civil War which raged from 1975 to 1990.
See Also