This past New York Comic Con 2017, ComicsVerse sat down with artist and writer Dave Gibbons to discuss his work for Dark Horse and DC Comics. Dave Gibbons' list of work includes WATCHMEN and ORIGINALS.
NYCC 2017 Dave Gibbons Interview Transcript
source: https://comicsverse.com/dave-gibbons-interview/
ComicsVerse: Hey I’m Brandon Bloxdorf, here at New York Comic-Con 2017. Sitting here with Mr. Dave Gibbons, and you’re watching ComicsVerse. So Dave, you’ve been with Dark Horse for a good long time now! You’ve done their ORIGINALS, which is a spectacular book, what can you tell me about that?
Dave Gibbons: Well I was nagged into doing THE ORIGINALS by Karen Berger when she worked at DC, and she was the editor of Vertigo books there, and she said to me “Dave, you’ve drawn so many comics, you’ve written a load of comics, you should write and draw your own.” And it wasn’t until I had the inspiration of going back to my youth, when I was a mod, to kinda recapture the excitement and the feeling of those days. So we ended up doing the book at DC, in a smaller format, but now we’re at Dark Horse and we’re gonna do it in a big album format with the new cover and with extra material at the back, notes and sketches and designs and things like that. And it’s great- not only to be sort of here at Dark Horse, but also to be with Karen as well, who I’ve known for thirty years or more.
ComicsVerse: You worked with her in Vertigo too, correct? Or…
Dave Gibbons: Well I first worked with Karen on a LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES ANNUAL. It was shortly after I started working for DC, and she’s a fantastic editor. They put her in charge of looking after most of the English talent, which was a really good idea. Cause you know what boys are like when they butt head. Karen’s a great editor and knows how to get the best out of people without any threats.
ComicsVerse: Nice! So you were a part of that big British invasion with comics when they first came in the 80s and everything. What was it like for you, coming from England into America, bringing this whole new wave of style and everything?
Dave Gibbons: Well, you know, I was of a generation that grew up in England that had read American comics. They started to import them in the late 50s, and I loved American comics particularly DC comics. I loved FLASH, GREEN LANTERN, JUSTICE LEAGUE, and I came to the states in the 70s to try and get work. I got the “thanks but no thanks” treatment. And then, amazingly, DC came to England to recruit writers and artists, and I was part of that recruitment and I very quickly ended up working on GREEN LANTERN, which was one of my boyhood favorites. And I probably worked for them longer than I worked in Britain, you know. So really, although I’m British, my life has been spent in the American comic book industry.
Continue Reading: https://comicsverse.com/dave-gibbons-interview/
