Watchmen: Portraits (Hardcover)

~ Clay Enos (Author)

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Book Description
As the official photographer on the set of Watchmen, Clay Enos was there at every stage of production as director Zack Snyder filmed the adaptation of the legendary graphic novel.

As well as his day-to-day duties making sure there was a visual record of the production, Enos also made time to work on a very special project: a collection of black-and-white portraits photographs.

From the lead characters, including of course Rorschach, the Comedian, Dr Manhattan, Nite-Owl and all the other Watchmen, to supporting characters and even extras in the crowd, his lens captured them all. With its wealth of exclusive photographs, this stunning book is a unique look into the world of the film.

A Q&A with Dave Gibbons on the Making of Watchmen

Question: You were tasked with drawing new illustrations of key shots from the new Watchmen film. Was it a difficult challenge to re-imagine your work in this movie format?

Dave Gibbons: I don’t think that I actually did many key shots from the film. I had to actually imagine them rather than exactly recreate what was going to be in the movie. But as far as the drawings I did for the licensing purposes, accuracy was the real key so that they looked exactly like the movie. Whereas doing the graphic novel was creating stuff afresh and being very creative, this was more the case of interpreting something that already existed. So it was rather more a commercial art job than a creative thing.

Q: How many scenes from the original graphic novel did you redraw in the new "movie" format?

DG: I kind of did them piecemeal, these licensing drawings. I did do a section of storyboarding for Zack Snyder. There is a part of the movie that isn’t in the graphic novel and he wanted to see how I would have drawn it, if it had been in the graphic novel. So I redid the storyboards as three pages of comic on the nine-panel grid, also getting it coloured by John Higgins so it looked authentic. But I think there were probably only 3 or 4 scenes that I drew, which were from the movie.

Q: What was your working method for producing these new illustrations from the film? And how has it changed from when you originally illustrated Watchmen?

DG: When you’re producing things from existing material, you have to look at and assemble the references... you know, keep looking backwards and forwards to make sure what you’re drawing is accurate to what’s in the photos. I did have lots of photos from the movie and in some cases I had more or less the illustration I was going to do in photo form, which made it a lot easier. On others I had to construct it from various references: really just the usual illustrator’s job of drawing something to reference. And on the original illustrations of Watchmen, I was free to come up with exactly the angles and exactly the costumes and everything that I wanted to. When you’ve designed a costume and drawn it a few times, you actually internalize it and you find you can draw it without having to refer to reference at all. So in some ways it’s more creative and in some ways it’s easier!

Q: In Watchmen: The Art of the Film, there are concept designs by other artists of their visions of your iconic characters. What do you think of their versions and did you offer any guidance while they were working on these?

DG: It’s always really interesting to see versions of your characters drawn by other artists. You tend to see things in them that you hadn’t noticed before. So I really enjoyed looking at those. I certainly didn’t offer them any guidance. The purpose of getting those kinds of drawings done is to get a fresh perspective on what exists. I noticed actually that they really stuck more closely to my original designs than those, but I really enjoyed seeing them.

Q: Watchmen: Portraits is Clay Enos’s stunning black and white collection of photos of each character from the Watchmen movie. What was it like looking through this book at all the characters you had conceived years ago now being brought to life by actors?

DG: It’s rather interesting; you know if you look at the Watching the Watchmen book you can see these characters as fairly sketchy rough conceptual versions. Then when you look at Clay’s book you can actually see them right down to counting the number of pores on the skin on the end of their noses! It’s incredible high focus! It’s like zooming in through space and time to look at the surface of some moon of Saturn or something. I thoroughly enjoyed his book... it had a real artistic quality to it that was really so good. And of course to see these actors who so much are the embodiment of what I drew, that it’s a tremendous thrill to see them made flesh!

Q: Watchmen: The Film Companion features some stills from the animated version of The Black Freighter. What do you think of the look and design of this animated feature?

DG: It looks really interesting! Although I drew my version in the comic book in a kind of horror-comic style, these are very much in a savage manga style. I think they work really well... they’ve got the kind of manic intensity, which I think that work should have and I really can’t wait to see the whole feature. I’ve seen the trailer for it and that looks great and again they’ve used a lot of the compositions that I came up with but just translated them to this kind of very modern drawn animation.

Q: How much time did you spend on the set of Watchmen? Was it a surreal experience to see your work recreated like this?

DG: I was on the set of Watchmen for a couple of days and it really was surreal to walk through a door and then suddenly be in the presence of all these people in living breathing flesh! I was there for what you would call the Crimebusters meeting where they were all there in costume in the same room, which was incredible. They had obviously planned that so I would get to see everyone. It was surreal though quite a wonderful experience to see it come to life.

Review

"I'm overwhelmed by the commitment, the passion, the palpable desire to do this right." - Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons, on visiting the set of the movie.

Praise for Watchmen:-
"Watchmen is peerless" -- Rolling Stone
"The greatest piece of popular fiction ever produced" -- Lost co-creator Damon Lindelhof
"A masterwork representing the apex of artistry" -- Entertainment Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Titan Books (February 10, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1848560699
• ISBN-13: 978-1848560697
• Product Dimensions: 14.2 x 10.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #141,105 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Watchmen Photographic Orgasm, February 27, 2009

By	Tim Lasiuta "Comic Fan 42" (Red Deer, Alberta) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Whew....this is one amazing book. With unfettered access to the Watchmen film set, photographer Clay Enos has captured 'moments' instead of action (which have been captured in the Art of the Film).

The full page portraits freeze the entire cast of the film from the prostitute to Rorschach and inbetween. When you see the film and notice a character you might like to see in more detail, this is the reference you need.

Surprisingly, the black and white imagery accentuates the nostalgaic nature of the film.

Photographs capture the soul, and Clay Enos has a mitful. May they treat him kindly.

[...]

Tim Lasiuta

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Watchmen Portraits - Outstanding Collection, February 28, 2009

By	S. Smith "Crazy about Olivia Munn" (Florida) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This oversized photo book is one of several Watchmen related books published on the eve of the film's release. It is an amazing collection of black and white photos of the cast from the film. They are not so much photos from the actual film, but of persons who are involved with the film. Nearly 200 pages, all full page photos without text. Most are photos of people, and some photos of props. There is an index which identifies the photos. It is a very cool book, a must for Watchmen fans.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing collection of Clay Enos' work, February 13, 2009

By	Mark Inman (Sonoma, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Just received my order of the Watchmen: portraits book today and was overwhelmed by the high level of artistry in this book.

Whether you are a fan of Watchmen or not, Clay's collection of portraits are a must have for fans of photography. I look forward to more books from this impressive artist!