Dave Gibbons, Alan Moore’s artist-collaborator on the now-classic superhero epic Watchmen, provides a behind-the-scenes peek into the creation of the revolutionary graphic novel in his new book Watching The Watchmen: The Definitive Companion to the Ultimate Graphic Novel, just released by U.K. publisher Titan Books. Designed by Chip Kidd and Mike Essl with text by Gibbons, the book contains early character sketches, Alan Moore’s notes and scripts, thumbnail sketches, and a detailed description of the entire process and history behind the creation of Watchmen.
Because of intense interest in the forthcoming film adaptation and Moore’s complete disdain for it (he refuses to have anything to do with the Zack Snyder film), Gibbons' recollections and commentary is generating a huge demand for the book. According to Titan Books spokesperson Ellie Graham the house released a first printing of 100,000 copies and is about to go back to press for more. Gibbons has toured 4 cities in the U.K. , as well as making appearances in New York and Toronto. Despite the prospects of a dicey economy, Graham said Titan was “feeling positive on sales in the run-up to Christmas.”
While some of the material in Watching The Watchmen was in DC Comic’s Absolute edition of Watchmen, the majority of the material has never been published. In an interview, Dave Gibbons said he wanted to put together “the kind of book fans would like, showing how a familiar thing has its birth.” Structured to mirror the twelve-chapter format of the original comic, Watching the Watchman begins with Gibbons' account of how he met Alan Moore and how they started working together. The images then move the book into the early stages of the project: character sketches, notes from phone conversations between Gibbons and Moore, and scripts and notes from Moore. With the inclusion of these more personal snapshots of the creation of The Watchmen, Gibbons said, “I wanted to add a human level to the process, and show how the book was a dialogue between the two of us.” He also noted, “it is interesting to see the changes that were made from the beginning of the process,” pointing to an early design for Rorschach that featured a full body suit. “I don’t know what we were thinking, it was a bad idea.”
Gibbons insisted on Chip Kidd as the designer for the book. After sifting through his archives, Gibbons handed all the material and merchandise he had accumulated over the twenty years the book had been in print over to Kidd. Kidd and Essel then did a rough photo shot of all the material and made the first choices for what should be included. “There were many personal things to me in it, so it was good that they made all the first picks,” said Gibbons.
The book also incorporates an essay written by Watchmen colorist John Higgins . “John is not given enough credit, not as much as Alan or me, yet he made an important contribution to the book,” Gibbons said, noting that Higgins’s essay on the coloring process provides a look at how comics were created at the time.
More than just an art book, Gibbon intends for the book to “function as a memoir.” In addition to detailed descriptions of his technical process, he includes a chart of his work schedule while making The Watchmen and his reflections on the reactions to the book. “It was strange to go through all this old material, I thought to myself ‘what was I thinking about,’ and I had no recollection of some of the stuff,” Gibbons said, emphasizing that he and Moore were merely making a comic “we would want to read at the time.” The pleasure he felt while working on The Watchmen is reflected in his comments and he said he was delighted to be able to “go back and see the enthusiasm.”
Titan Books, the U.K. publisher of Watchmen and other DC titles such as The Dark Knight Returns, is also releasing a companion title for the Watchmen movie, set to be released in March 2009. “It wasn’t a calculated decision to release with the impending movie, but we landed at a really good time with this book,” Gibbons said. “We have the field to ourselves, more books will probably come out closer to the release of the movie, but no more Watchmen comic material will ever come out, and fans are hungry for new Watchmen stuff.”
“We asked questions of the superhero that had never been asked before,” Gibbons said of the making of Watchmen. “The Watchmen movie will force people to rethink their conceptions of the superhero movie, like the comic did for superhero comics. The movie is coming out at just the right time, and this book is like the snack before the main course.”
Of course Moore’s antipathy towards the film and toward his long-time publisher DC Comics is well known. “We thought once the series was done, the book would go out of print and the rights would revert back,” said Gibbons. “We didn’t think the book would stay in print for 20 years.”. But while he acknowledged that Moore remains unhappy that he doesn’t control the publishing rights to Watchmen, Gibbons is less sure that, “If we had the rights, we could have made more of it.”
“As a fan, this is exactly the kind of book I would want on my shelf,” Gibbons said about Watching the Watchmen. “As an artist, I like to look at sketches and see how different they look than the published work. I was glad to have the opportunity to put together and release this stuff I kept in a drawer for twenty years. It pleases the fan-boy in me.”
