BY JENNIFER M. CONTINOTitan Books recently released
Watching the Watchmen, a collection of sketches, preview work, thumbnails and more from artist
Dave Gibbons about the perennial fan-favorite miniseries. The book is a handsome edition that no
Watchman fan should be without. Gibbons, who kept just about every single piece he created in preparation for the 1985 blockbuster series, told THE PULSE what it was like working on the
Watchmen and why he thinks it worked better with all-new characters instead of the
Charlton characters.
THE PULSE: So many people have been enthralled and captivated with the story of Watchmen since that first issue made its debut. Why do you think this is a comic book story that has stood the test of time, especially when so many other ones have come and gone?
DAVE GIBBONS: I think it was a question of timing. I think we came along at just the right point to deconstruct the superheroes, which was certainly a mainstay of American comic book publishing. We were of the generation that had grown-up reading American comics and part of the big wave of fandom that had come through from the sixties through to the seventies. I think by the eighties, everybody was ready for some new approaches and I think Watchmen was that. I think also the fact that we were kinda first on the ground in regards to graphic novels. When we did the series, we had no idea that it would be collected together into a big book: a graphic novel if you like. We thought it’d do its 12 issues and then go into the back issue bin! So I think the fact that we were there at the dawn of the graphic novel got us a lot of attention at the time. Finally, I also think because Watchmen deals with classic superhero concerns and is also written and drawn in a very accessible way, it has made it the book which retailers always hand their customers first. If people say ‘I really want to get into graphic novels…what should I read?’, invariably the retailer will say ‘read Watchmen’.
THE PULSE: When you were originally working on Watchmen, did you have any idea then that this was going to be so big?
GIBBONS: No, we didn’t. We were just doing the kind of comic book that we would want to read, doing it as well as we could. It was a wonderful lark between friends: Alan, John and I lived very close to each other, had similar sensibilities and we were enjoying more or less being left alone and telling the kind of story we would like to have read. As I say, we had no idea that it would ever be collected or have the longevity that it has had.
THE PULSE: I was only 13 when Watchmen originally came out, there was no comic book store, so I didn't have a crowd to talk comics with -- I didn't even get to see the series until I was an adult! But what kind of chatter did you hear from peers and fans about the series?
GIBBONS: Largely positive. Certainly when Alan and I went to the States together after we had done the first three issues of Watchmen, before it was published, fellow professionals and editors at DC had seen it and gave us a royal reception when we went to their offices. People wanted to pat us on the back and congratulate us. So we thought ‘well you know perhaps we are doing something quite good’. And then of course there was the fan reaction later. I also recall the retailer reaction when I went to a show in Atlanta, when the first four or five issues had come out. They were really thrilled with Watchmen, because it did come out more or less monthly. They loved the fact that this ‘great comic book’ as they said, was coming out so regularly and bringing people into their stores, to buy other comic books as well. So that was the kind of chatter we heard. Obviously when we went on the tour to publicize the graphic novel, we got a huge reaction then and this was very gratifying. We put a lot of hard work into it and it was good to know that it had been well received.
THE PULSE: How was working on Watchmen different from any other comics project you'd had up until that point in time?
GIBBONS: Well I suppose lots of things were similar such as the working methods: from a script to thumbnails, pencils, letters, inks and then off to be colored was pretty much the same. Obviously the scripts I was working on were excellent, as usual with Alan’s scripts. They were very wordy and very dense with lots to choose from and lots that you had to leave out. I had worked with Alan before, so I knew what to expect. Also I think it was clear that we were telling a story that was so dense, complex and detailed, that we had to put a lot of thought into the continuity and a lot of thought into making things consistent. So it was something that we really wanted to do properly, and doing it properly meant a lot of thought and a lot of work, even before we got to writing the script or drawing the page.
THE PULSE: In 1985 if you could have cast a Watchmen film, ideally who did you envision for your leads?
GIBBONS: I don’t think I ever played that game or particularly saw anybody in it. I mean there were certain actors I kind of had in my head when I was drawing the characters. A British actor called Barry Foster, who was quite big on the TV at the time, for Ozymandias. The person I had in mind for The Comedian was Groucho Marx, though of course he looks nothing like The Comedian except for the moustache and a cigar. A bit later on I thought Burt Reynolds could have made a good Comedian, but I never got into the ‘lets cast a comic’ game, so sorry I can’t be anymore forthcoming on that!
THE PULSE: Oh, it's ok. Seeing now who's bringing these characters to life in the film (if we get to see that film); how well do you fell your characters have been captured by those actors?
GIBBONS: I couldn’t be happier with the actors that they’ve got. First of all, it’s great that the actors are not over familiar, so that you don’t say ‘oh look its Tom Cruise or Jude Law’. They’re great actors with really good backgrounds and bring a lot to the parts. But they don’t bring the baggage of being instantly recognizable faces. I’ve seen a rough cut of the movie and certainly all the characters come amazingly to life. There are certain physical differences, but by and large the physical types are absolutely spot on. I’m very happy with the actors!
THE PULSE: How did Titan Books come to publish Watching the Watchmen? What made that publisher a good home for your memories of making the Watchmen?
GIBBONS: Well I originally suggested the idea to Paul Levitz at DC. I told him that I had all of these roughs and sketches from the time. Speaking as a fan, I love those kinds of books, which go behind the scenes: the sort of thing that Chip Kidd has done before with Alex Ross and the Batman Animated series, which is why I asked for Chip to be the designer of this book. Chip has a great feel for that kind of material and has a way of presenting it so that it feels extremely tactile and vivid. As for Titan Books being the publisher, I understand that people had to bid on the book, but I’m really happy that Titan did end up being the publisher. I’ve got a long association with them and have known Nick Landau (the proprietor of Titan Books) for longer than I’d like to remember. It must be over 35 years! They’ve always published the British edition of Watchmen and they have certainly got a great pedigree and track record of producing books about movies and comics. So I was very happy that they were the publishers.
THE PULSE: What are some of the materials included in this handsome hardcover edition?
GIBBONS: Sketches, roughs, scripts, notes, character designs, costume designs, thumbnails, abandoned and unpublished artwork. Really everything that I had in my draw to do with Watchmen and that hadn’t yet seen the light of day.
THE PULSE: How different do you think Watchmen would have been if you and Alan Moore had been allowed to use the Charlton characters?
GIBBONS: I think it would have been inferior if it had been the Charlton characters. They were second-string characters and the best thing about them was that they were kind of clones or versions of the archetypes of comic book characters. But they did have their own continuity that we would have had to assimilate. So when we were told that we couldn’t use them, it was a wonderful liberation because we could then come up with new characters and tailor them to the kind of story we wanted to tell. We could make them look exactly how we wanted them to look and not be tied to often clunky old character designs. So it was a great liberation to not use the Charlton characters.
THE PULSE: What do you think creating all new heroes gave you that you wouldn't have gotten by using those established heroes?
GIBBONS: It gave us a fresh start and the chance to focus on the look and the qualities that we wanted, without being tied down to past continuity.
THE PULSE: How did you come up with the designs for your heroes?
GIBBONS: Alan gave me some general description and then I messed around and did sketches, roughs and thumbnails until I had them looking in a way that would satisfy what Alan wanted, but what would also satisfy my aesthetic sense. Also to make them different from one another and to make them reminiscent of other comic book characters, but not exactly like them. I always had a kind of operatic feel in mind and kind of Egyptian in a way. I don’t know if seeing an Egyptian opera at an early age influenced me, but there is something about the dustiness and the fadedness of opera costumes and larger than life nature of the characters on stage that I had in the back of my mind. I certainly wanted to make them look novel and of a piece, that none of them stuck out like a sore thumb and that there were no inappropriately bright colors or anything like that. Or that there were a lot of repeated gimmicks like they all had the same belt or same footwear. It was a feel and the way that you do it is that if you’ve got the feel, you keep doing the drawings until the drawings have got the feel.
THE PULSE: You seemed to have saved so much material from this particular comic series. Is that common for you or did you know you had something special here and want to keep as much memorabilia from those twelve issues as possible?
GIBBONS: Because we had to go backwards and forwards and revisit scenes and characters, I had to keep everything in one place. I didn’t throw away any sketches, schematics or plans because I knew I was going to have to refer back to them. So when I finished, I had a pretty neat stack of them and just threw them in a draw. I kept a few other interesting items for personal value and maybe I did think that there was a possibility that someday people might be interested in all of this. Certainly by the amount of interest that followed from the graphic novel being published. So I thought maybe some of these would be interesting and certainly as it has proved, it has become an assembly of things that I think people have found fascinating.
THE PULSE: Why weren't there more Watchmen comics? I mean, you could have done a story of the Golden Age team or a solo spotlight on each character or something ...?
GIBBONS: I suppose we could have. I tend to think that anything we could have added would have diluted rather than enriched the story. Although at one time we had the notion to do The Minutemen who were the Golden Age precursors to the Watchmen characters. It would have been quite interesting as it would have been one of those stories where you knew from the beginning how it was going to end up and you’d have this terrible precedence of how these things which started so well would end so badly. That might have been quite entertaining, but I’m glad we didn’t do it though. As for solo spotlights, well there was a misguided idea where we might do Rorschach’s Journal or The Comedian’s Vietnam War Diary, but I don’t think you need to see that. It’s much better if it’s hinted at.
THE PULSE: What did you think of the hardcover when you had a chance to see it in print?
GIBBONS: I imagine you’re talking about Absolute Watchmen here and that was great to see in print because it was much larger and you could see the artwork much more clearly. The printing was a lot better and the color separations had been completely digitally remastered by John Higgins, so looked the way they should have always looked. Small things like the fact that all the black line had color under-printing, which meant all the black had the same density, rather than in the original printing where the blacks were a varying degree of intensity because they didn’t have a uniform color underneath them. And if you mean the current hardback, which is the size of the graphic novel, that looks very nice as well. I think they’ve done a great job with the dust jacket and the debossing on it. I’m always happy to see more durable versions of my work!
THE PULSE: What's coming up in some of your other comic projects?
GIBBONS: Well a lot of my time at the moment is spent doing Watchmen. I wrote a little Hellblazer for the 250th issue of that title. I’ve done a couple of covers for some magazines and comics. I’m writing a short series for DC, which is kind of under-wraps at the moment…I really can’t say anything about that. Also I’ve got a project with a writer I have never worked with before, hopefully coming up next year. Again, I‘m not being coy and I’m not teasing you, but I can’t really say too much about that. I think from now until the middle of next year, my time will be really taken up with the Watchmen circus! It’s very enjoyable, I’ve been treated very well and I’m having a good time. So that’s what I’m doing!
Watching the Watchmen is available now.
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