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With Alan Moore severing all ties with DC due to various reasons, it looks like we're not going to get a discussion by him of how the story of Watchmen came about or how he plotted the series, page-by-page and panel-by-panel. However, what we get here is Dave Gibbons' take on things, though primarily concentrating on the glorious artwork that he created over 25 years ago.And my! What a lot of artwork there is. Firstly, this thick, oversized book is a lot bigger than I'd thought it'd be. It feels...
Watchmen is a very special comic. It remains so despite the Snyder movie, despite the two decades that have passed, despite the reveal at the end (which actually makes rereading the comic exciting), despite the strange form - half comic and half book - ... I've reread it recently and got more out of it. A lot more than rewatching the Snyder movie. So a book describing the process of creating the comic should be just as fascinating, right?Well ... I'm not the intended audience.See, I want to read...
I don't believe I've ever given Dave Gibbons the amount of credit he deserves for the creation of Watchmen. It wasn't until my most recent re-reading that I really paid attention to what he managed to accomplish with a 9 panel grid. The subtlety and level of detail he conveys - with absolute clarity - is every bit as genius as Alan Moore's words. There isn't anything flashy about his style, but I can't imagine any of today's big name artists capable of the feat, especially since so many of them
The title omits the fabulous work done by Mike Essl, who designed every page with the velveteen touch and genteel manner one would expect from a gentleman craftsman.
love it great table book and companuion piece to the graphic novel you will love it!
Considered by some as the watershed graphic novel of the late twentieth-century, my best comparison of Moore and Gibbons’ epic comic-book series – for you neophytes out there -- is to Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane. How, you ask? Well, think of the recursive nature of the narrative, as well as the adage that absolute power corrupts absolutely. That and the fact that the ubiquitous smiley face is akin to Kane’s Rosebud in its symbolic power. (Perhaps not in its meaning per se, but in its figurative u...
An absolute must-have for all fans of Moore and Gibbons and their life-changing work on the seminal artistic and cultural achievement that is, was, and will be Watchmen, this book sheds light into the messy and brilliant process of Gibbons, Moore, Higgins, and all parties involved, and provides incredible insights into the inspiration and perspiration behind the greatest graphic novel of all times, written, as it was, to honor the profound medium that is the venerable comic book, no matter what
Look behind the panels, revealing of mind boggling precision.
(More pictures at parkablogs.com)The construct of the book is great. It's hardcover with a dust jacket. The paper stock is good, thick and low gloss.Inside the book are tons of initial sketches, designs, storyboards, comic panels, scripts and scribbles. Dave Gibbons really packed in a lot of stuff from their sketchbooks. The scans are so high in resolution you can see the texture of the sketchbooks' paper grain.The book starts off with the background story on the history of Watchmen, when Da
For a coffee table book about the creation of 'Watchmen' made without Alan Moore's involvement, I thought it was pretty great. Lots of beautiful sketches and other artwork, many fascinating letters and notes from those early days, as well as short remembrances and anecdotes from Dave Gibbons and John Higgins (the colorist). My only complaint is that a large portion of the book is devoted to displaying the initial very rough outlines (in the book they're called 'thumbnails') of almost every page
Watching the Watchmen is artist Dave Gibbons’s description of the events and concepts leading up to Alan Moore’s and his Watchmen comic book series. It’s not Alan Moore’s take on the trials and tribulations of getting the series written, but the book is utterly fascinating nonetheless. Full of storyboards, pencils, and finished page art to supplement the text, I found the book hard to put down.
I've been a big fan of "The Watchmen" since I read it many years ago. It was my first exposure to Alan Moore's writing, and Dave Gibbons' art as well for that matter. In addition to being blown away by the mere complexity and depth of the story, I also found it quite fun to look for all the symbolism, which in my pre-sophisticate days, consisted mostly of finding all the smiley faces.In the subsequent years, I've flipped through my "Watchmen" volume a few times and found other interesting little...
This whopper of a book (which weighs a ton) consists of Gibbons notes regarding the creation of the Watchmen comics with Alan Moore. But the real joy of this are pencil sketches, rough drawings, character variations, etc. Heavy paper, bright colors, and an absolutely perfect companion to peruse after a reading of Watchmen.Love it.
I've always loved Watchmen and it is great to see all this information and beauty behind the scenes
If you are obsessed/in love with WATCHMEN and want to be a comic artist, you WILL LOVE THIS BOOK.This book was written by Dave Gibbons, the artist behind WATCHMEN, who introduces us in the comic world, talk us how he met Moore and how they used to spend hours on the phone chatting about WATCHMEN. Gibbons explains us how hard and complex was to produce only a page and how enjoyable was to create it.When I was reading this book and felt a charming warmth in my chest and my fingers ached with desir...
Set in an alternate history where costumed heroes have helped shape society since the beginning of time, the controversial yet prolific costumed hero Edward Blake (more commonly known by his alias The Comedian) is found dead and the perpetrator is nowhere to be found. Unable to solve such a bizarre murder by conventional means, the masked vigilante Rorschach who once served as a costumed hero alongside Comedian and four others takes matters into his own bloodstained hands to track down a mysteri...
If you just like Watchmen a lot, then I'm not sure this big coffee-table slab is necessary; there are a couple of nice stories about the making of the comic, and some cool character sketches and so on—although not a lot in the way of full-page original art, because most of that was long gone into the hands of collectors before this was put together. Fanatical completists of course will want it—although, for reasons that I'm sure you know, none of it is from Moore's point of view. But if you're i...
I’m still ambivalent about Watchmen: it’s a tremendous achievement but I do think it heralded in several unpleasant habits for comics, and Moore’s writing is technically impressive rather than likeable. So it’s nice to get a book that looks at the art, and specifically Gibbons’ achievement - who gets main credit here, although John Higgins gets a chance in the spotlight too - which I think is massively underrated because focus is usually on the text. It’s a handsome, lovingly researched book - b...
The Definitive Companion to the Ultimate Graphic Novel (Chipp Kid, Dave Gibbons, Mike Essel, 2008) A look into the design process of the seminal comic work watchmen. No additional input from Alan Moore, as can be expected. A good look into a elaborate and complicated process, of a comic book that years went into the design of
Great insights into the genesis and production of the acclaimed work. Naturally, it is very focused on the artwork, hand-drawn sketches, themes, colouring etc. A lot of it went over my head, but it is an inspiring collection.