GFF 2011: Dave Gibbons

Comics and movies go together like horse and carriage in a modern day marriage of convenience, but like any pair in wedlock the nuptials don’t always run so smoothly. When it came to adapting Watchmen for the big screen, co-creator Alan Moore was so enraged with the debacles that were made of his previous works (From Hell, V For Vendetta) that he removed his name entirely from the project.

Luckily for Warner Brothers they had an ace in the hole: the far more willing illustrator and co-creator Dave Gibbons. The artist, however, bears no ill will towards his collaborator: “Although Watchmen was a joint product of Alan and myself, we are two different, independent people and I completely understood Alan’s reasons for not wanting to be involved,” muses the illustrator. “Everyone working on the movie was working at a really high level of commitment and enthusiasm and I had a very nice time for a couple of years being flown around the world meeting a lot of interesting people.”

Though he may be most embedded in the public’s consciousness from his work on Watchmen, what else can we expect from Dave Gibbons in Conversation? “I was originally going to do the ‘story so far’, but I’m over familiar with my career details and I suspect people who know of me also are, so I’m going to go off on a bit of a tangent and show a few things that people haven’t seen before. A section of it is specifically going to be about the Watchmen adaptation and about films in general. Hopefully it’s not quite what people have come to expect from me, but there will be a comprehensive slideshow of my work to accompany it.”

Patrons of the event will be settling in for a showcase by an industry legend: from his humble beginnings working on 2000AD he has gone on to bring his own interpretations of Dan Dare, Superman, Green Lantern, The Hulk and Captain America, as well as bringing to life new characters such as Martha Washington in Give Me Liberty. Next on the horizon is his top secret project with GFF curator Mark Millar, bringing two of the biggest names in the business together.

Gibbons remains tight-lipped about his upcoming venture but speaks highly about his alumni: “I have the greatest admiration for Mark’s talents from his run on The Ultimates and the Millarworld books [a publishing line that includes Wanted and Kick-Ass]. It’s a great joy to work with him.” The feeling seems mutual. Not only did Millar ask Gibbons to attend this year's event, but the admiration has a little history: “I know he’s said he wrote me a letter back when he was seventeen and I was considerably older, apparently. I have no recollection of that! [Although I'm told] I did send him a gracious note and a sketch as well," says Gibbons. "I’m really looking forward to getting stuck into working with him, it’s just as well I treated him nicely back then!”