One of the things people have been so amazed with in regards to The Watchmen movie has been how well Zack Snyder has replicated exact panels from the comic in his live action movie. Those images are all Dave Gibbons from the godlike entity Dr. Manhattan to the grim psychopath Rorschach. Originally The Watchmen was supposed to feature comic characters from Charlton Comics until Moore was convinced to create original characters. When he did that it fell on Gibbons to push that vision into reality. With so much riding on his exceptional artwork it’s hard to believe so many have overlooked Gibbons’ contributions.
All that will change now with the arrival of Watching The Watchman: The Definitive Companion To The Ultimate Graphic Novel. This book, put together by Gibbons himself is an art geek’s dream not to mention utterly fascinating to anybody looking for a deeper understanding of The Watchmen as a comic, a piece of literature and a work of unsurpassed art. Most books like this just slap together artwork, have the artist write a quaint forward and hope to make a buck.
This hardcover gem gets much more involved with the art behind the greatest comic book ever written. Starting with the earliest concept sketches on everything from napkins to scraps of paper Watching The Watchmen goes step by step to show the evolution of each character. One of my favorites being the fact that Rorschach originally had a Rorschach Test body suit before being given the pinstripe suit he wore beneath his iconic trench coat.
The book doesn’t stop there, it’s also narrated nicely by Gibbons who starts the book with a wonderful story about first meeting Alan Moore at a comic book convention where the Hulk kept passing out and Spider-Man couldn’t get his jock strap to work correctly. Gibbons shows us handwritten notes from Moore on everything from lettering to backgrounds.
I was also particularly amped with the pages dedicated to the growth of the panels themselves. By placing beginning, middle and ending strips together we get to experience the way Gibbons used his art to tell stories. In one section you even get stick figure style drawings that Moore himself did to organize his thoughts.
Watching The Watchman supplements the art by keeping a constant thread written by Gibbons on the how the ideas became real, how the book was first received and how it grew into the legend it is now. One of my personal favorite pages is a splash page featuring The Watchmen on the front of regular comic but drawn in the Marvel Comics style. I won’t rest until I figure out how to put that image on a t-shirt.
On a purely aesthetic level the book is a marvel to behold. Clocking in 12 X 9 this full color monster is about as up close as you will ever get The Watchmen without dropping $75 on the Ultimate Edition. For my money this is the better buy at only $40 because you get all of this incredible art, the stories, the old photos of Moore and Gibbons working, the homage to colorist John Higgins the only thing lacking is the comic itself.
I know that seems like a lot but the way I figure it if you are interested enough in The Watchmen to want this book then you probably already own the individual issues and the collection like I do. With that in mind Watching The Watchmen is a perfect companion piece to the comic itself as well as a book that will shine a much overdue light on all that Dave Gibbons did to place The Watchman on it’s well deserved pedestal of genius.
And this is from a guy who hates everything!!
