INTERVIEW: Watchmen legend Dave Gibbons

QUESTION: Who would win a fight between Rorschach and Batman?

"That's a meaningless question, I will not answer. Only joking, but I don't have an opinion."

QUESTION: Can you recommend a book or movie?

"I really love a book called Carter Beats The Devil written by Glen David Gold, which is about conjuring and stage magic at the turn of the century. It's wonderfully written book that got me off on a whole new area of interest about the beliefs and the technology of people that lived almost exactly 100 years ago.

"And a renewed interest in stage magic, which leads you into some really interesting areas of perception and psychology. Also Glen David Gold happens to be a huge collector of original comic book art and very, very knowledgeable man. So, it’s a good read."

QUESTION: What are you currently working on?

"Professionally I am working on a series with Mark Millar called The Secret Service which is a sort of espionage thriller with a bit of a twist. I’m also working with a company called Madefire who developed a wonderful new reading experience for the iPad primarily, which is available at the moment, free on iTunes.

"Clearly electronic readers are the way that publishing is going and a lot of people are trying to figure out the way to do comic strip type material on tablets. It’s kind of like the wild west but I think Madefire has got a really, really good chance of succeeding. I’ve let them use one of my creations called Treatment, which is appearing regularly on the platform."

QUESTION: How do you feel about Before Watchmen?

"Well, this is difficult in that I either say everything or nothing. And I don't have the time or the inclination to say everything I feel about it, so probably best to just say nothing."

QUESTION: Which of your character designs is your favourite and why?

I like a lot of my character designs for Watchmen because I had the time to work on them. Frankly I think all of the Watchmen characters are pretty well designed, differentiated, and evocative of the characters and their personalities. So they would have to be my favourites.

QUESTION: You've worked alongside many talented people. Is there anyone you haven't worked with but would like to?

"No, I've been really lucky, I think I've worked with most of my heroes. I would’ve loved to have worked with somebody like Wally Wood or Steve Ditko or someone like that who was a great influence when I was a kid.

"I guess it must be like the Beatles or the Rolling Stones in the terms that they grew up listening to American music and then ended up being part of that music and playing with musicians that they’d admired. That’s very much how I feel with these people.

"I remember having a phone call with Stan Lee to discuss the plot of something we did together and taking it in my kitchen and thinking, ‘Oh my god, I’m in my kitchen talking to Stan Lee. This is Stan Lee, whose comic books I collected as a kid who I’d have melted on the spot if I’d ever met back then’.

"But most of the talented people that I admire turned out to be really nice people, really friendly, very professional and good to deal with. And that's generally what I've found so I’ve had some good experiences there. I don’t know who there is left that I would really, really like to work with. There are some modern people but if I list them I am bound to leave some out!"

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