No more “Watchmen” comics, says co-creator Dave Gibbons
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – Dave Gibbons illustrated “Watchmen,” the comic-book series that is the basis of the film opening today. He said he and collaborator Alan Moore – who isn’t involved and doesn’t want his name on the movie – never anticipated the series would become a film.
“It was never the pinnacle of my ambition or Alan’s ambition that there be a movie,” Gibbons said at a recent press junket for the film. “They’re two completely different beasts. There was very early on interest in it, I think to make it into some type of action movie, which would have been horrible.”
In fact, Gibbons said, the creators never anticipated “Watchmen” would be in print as a graphic novel for now 24 years. Gibbons said he anticipated it would be 12 issues and then consigned to the back-issue bins of comic-book shops. In 1986 and 1987, when “Watchmen” was being made, there was little in the way of always-in-print graphic novels.
Gibbons said “Watchmen” the comic book is a complete series, and, like the makers of the film, he has no intention of returning for a sequel.
“We’ve got no plans at all to add anything to ‘Watchmen’ the comic book,” he said. “We did at one point toy with the idea of maybe revisiting those early characters and doing it in a really innocent kind of way. The dramatic twist being we all know the terrible things that are going to happen down the line. But we decided not to do that. I think anything that you added to ‘Watchmen’ would probably dilute it rather than enrich it.”
While “Watchmen” led to a host of “grim and gritty” comic books through the late 1980s, Gibbons said that was never his or Moore’s intent.
“We were really sorry about (it),” Gibbons said. “We love superheroes … and what we were trying to do was get to know them better, as it were. And we went down some dark pathways with it.”
Had he and Moore teamed again, they likely would have taken a crack at a lighter character. “In fact, if Alan and I talked about doing anything after ‘Watchmen,’ apart from going back, it would be to do a character like Captain Marvel, who’s light and fantastic, something for the kids almost.”
Gibbons says his favorite character from the series is Nite Owl.
“Nite Owl was a character that I came up with the name, and the costume of the earlier version of him, when I was a kid, when I used to make up my own comics,” Gibbons said. “When Alan and I were creating ‘Watchmen,’ we knew we had to have kind of a Batman equivalent, and I suggested that. … And probably if I was a superhero, I’m probably Nite Owl; I’d be the guy set in the basement with all the gadgets rather than the psychopath out stalking the alleyways.”
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