Watchmen: The Film Companion (Hardcover)

~ Peter Aperlo (Author)

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Book Description
It is the most eagerly awaited comics-to-film adaptation of them all. The graphic novel that changed an industry is now a film from Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures in association with Legendary Pictures, directed by Zack Snyder (300), and Watchmen: The Official Film Companion is the essential guide to this cinematic event. A complex, multi-layered mystery adventure, Watchmen is set in an alternate 1985 in which costumed super heroes are part of the fabric of everyday American society. When one of his former colleagues is murdered, the masked vigilante Rorschach sets out to uncover a plot to kill and discredit all past and present super heroes. Their mission is to watch over humanity… but who is watching the Watchmen?

Featuring exclusive interviews with the cast and crew, and scores of photos, this is the comprehensive guide to the new movie event.

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: 176 pages
• Publisher: Titan Books (February 17, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1848561598
• ISBN-13: 978-1848561595
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #457,022 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great Watchmen movie book, February 28, 2009

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

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The latest in the Watchmen related books released just prior to the film, this is a bargain at under $20. I am a Watchmen fan and can't wait for the 03/06/09 release. I have not spent as much time on this book as I did not want to see too much before the movie. But I did flip through it quickly, and it does not disappoint. It appears that there is some duplication in material between this book and the "Watchmen - The Art of the Film", but it is presented differently and they compliment each other. If you are a fan, don't miss this. I can't get enough, and hope there will be a few more books that come out after the film.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice companion to the movie, March 25, 2009

By	Parka (Singapore) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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This review is from: Watchmen: The Official Film Companion (Paperback)

Length:: 0:20 Mins

Here's a look at Watchmen: The Film Companion, one of the three tie-in books for the Watchmen movie. The other two being Watchmen: Portraits and Watchmen: The Art of the Film. The copy I have is a paperback version, but there's a hardcover option as well.

The content in the book is split into six parts, namely, Pre-production, World of Watchmen, The Characters, Production, Post-production, Making Manhattan. The pictures included and mainly film stills and set photos. Some images overlap from Watchmen: The Art of the Film but not to the point I would complain.

The section devoted to character introduction is sizble, and includes the lesser known characters from Minutemen and some villains, oh, and Richard Nixon (no JFK though).

I'm actually more interested in production stories. The production writeup talks about the casting, costumes, sets, filming process, using of computer graphics for special effects, motion capture with Dr Manhattan and other stuff. Interesting bits include knowing that the film was actually short from start to end instead shooting all set-based scenes first.

Overall, I felt the writeup could be more because the movie is 160 minutes. But this is not totally a "making of" book anyway.

For viewers who want to find out more about the Watchmen and the movie, this is the book for you, especially so if you've never read the original graphic novel.

There are more pictures of the book on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.

5.0 out of 5 stars Companion in the truest sense, March 31, 2009

By	Clayton G. Harrison (Mesquite, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Incredibly well done companion with tons of detail. Both the story and the visuals are enhanced by this book.