The story concerns a group called the Crimebusters and a plot to kill and discredit them. Moore's characterization is as sophisticated as any novel's. Importantly the costumes do not get in the way of the storytelling; rather they allow Moore to investigate issues of power and control--indeed it was Watchmen?? and to a lesser extent Dark Knight?? that propelled the comic genre forward?? making " comics a reality. The artwork of Gibbons (best known for 2000AD's Rogue Trooper and DC's Green Lantern) is very fine too?? echoing Moore's paranoid mood perfectly throughout. Packed with symbolism?? some of the overlying themes (arms control?? nuclear threat?? vigilantes) have dated but the intelligent social and political commentary?? the structure of the story itself?? its intertextuality (chapters appended with excerpts from other " and "studies" on Moore's characters?? or with excerpts from another comic book being read by a child within the story)?? the finepace of the writing and its humanity mean that Watchmen more than stands up--it keeps its crown as the best the genre has yet produced. --Mark Thwaite
A Q&A with Dave Gibbons on the Making of Watchmen
Question: You were tasked with drawing new illustrations of key shots from the new Watchmen film. Was it a difficult challenge to re-imagine your work in this movie format?
Dave Gibbons: I don??t think that I actually did many key shots from the film. I had to actually imagine them rather than exactly recreate what was going to be in the movie. But as far as the drawings I did for the licensing purposes?? accuracy was the real key so that they looked exactly like the movie. Whereas doing the graphic novel was creating stuff afresh and being very creative?? this was more the case of interpreting something that already existed. So it was rather more a commercial art job than a creative thing.
Q: How many scenes from the original graphic novel did you redraw in the new "ie" format?
DG: I kind of did them piecemeal these licensing drawings. I did do a section of storyboarding for Zack Snyder. There is a part of the movie that isnt in the graphic novel and he wanted to see how I would have drawn it if it had been in the graphic novel. So I redid the storyboards as three pages of comic on the nine-panel grid also getting it coloured by John Higgins so it looked authentic. But I think there were probably only 3 or 4 scenes that I drew which were from the movie.
Q: What was your working method for producing these new illustrations from the film? And how has it changed from when you originally illustrated Watchmen?
DG: When youre producing things from existing material you have to look at and assemble the references... you know keep looking backwards and forwards to make sure what youre drawing is accurate to whats in the photos. I did have lots of photos from the movie and in some cases I had more or less the illustration I was going to do in photo form which made it a lot easier. On others I had to construct it from various references: really just the usual illustrator??s job of drawing something to reference. And on the original illustrations of Watchmen?? I was free to come up with exactly the angles and exactly the costumes and everything that I wanted to. When you??ve designed a costume and drawn it a few times?? you actually internalize it and you find you can draw it without having to refer to reference at all. So in some ways it??s more creative and in some ways it??s easier!
Q: In Watchmen: The Art of the Film?? there are concept designs by other artists of their visions of your iconic characters. What do you think of their versions and did you offer any guidance while they were working on these?
DG: It??s always really interesting to see versions of your characters drawn by other artists. You tend to see things in them that you hadn??t noticed before. So I really enjoyed loo