Hermann Rorschach (1884 - 1922) was a Swiss
psychiatrist and
neurologist who developed the now-
famous ink blot test. By interpreting the patient's
perception of a given blot, the doctor gains insight about the patient's mental state. Answering that you see
flowers or
sunshine is a
good thing. Answering that you see a
german shepherd with its skull split open is a
bad thing.
Walter Kovacs, aka
Rorschach. (1940 -1985) A fictional character from the
Alan Moore/
Dave Gibbons book "The
Watchmen", he wears a
mask made from the fabric of a dress that
Kitty Genovese wore once. It features a metamorphosing pattern of symmetrical blobs, from which he derives his
pseudonym. He is the first character in the book who suspects that someone is killing off the
superheroes. An avid reader of the New Frontiersman and a deadly-serious
conspiracy theorist, Rorshach is easy to dismiss as
crazy. His defining characteristics are
persistence, lack of
mercy, and an absolute refusal to
compromise his principles. Whether these make him a fool or a hero is left as an
exercise for the reader.