16 Feb Dave Gibbons: reflecting on a life at the heart of the comics industry
Born in London Colney and educated at St Albans School, former comics laureate Dave Gibbons is celebrating half a century in the industry with the release of his anecdotal autobiography Confabulation.
The book charts his path through fanzines and underground comics to working with mainstream publishers like DC Thompson, IPC, Marvel and DC.
“It’s basically a kaleidoscope of things that have happened to me over my comics career,” he explained.
“I’ve been very lucky because I’ve had a long career and I’ve worked on some quite high-profile characters – obviously there’s Doctor Who and Dan Dare, Rogue Trooper, Watchmen, Green Lantern, Batman and Superman – and I’ve also worked with some high-profile creators like Alan Moore and Frank Miller, Mike Mignola, so I felt I had some interesting tales to tell, and tales that were not just about me, but these people and things I’ve been involved with.
“I basically just wrote down a list of possible subject headings that I felt I had something to say about.
“What I wanted to do was not a chronological autobiography, but more of an alphabetical thing, because I felt that gave it more variety. It also saved a long trudge through the school years, all that kind of stuff, although school does get a mention in it.”
The book is written in collaboration with Tim Pilcher, with whom Dave penned a previous book, How Comics Work.
“I’ve done a couple of books in the past – I did a book all about the creation of Watchmen called Watching the Watchmen, which I really enjoyed writing. I’ve always enjoyed writing and it always was my dream when I was younger not just to draw comics but to write as well, which I’ve done a few of over the years.
” I suppose that now with this my 50th year in the business, it’s kind of not why now, but if not now, when?”
He elaborated on the writing process:“So I basically I had a list of subjects, and every now and then I’d sit down at the computer and think, ‘who or what do I fancy writing about today?’ I’d write an essay of whatever length I felt I had something to say in and then with the help of Tim, who was really the editor on it, we knocked the whole thing into shape. He helped me choose the illustrations, provided the wonderful index and the chronological timeline of all the books I’d worked on, so it sort of came together like that.
“t was a really interesting thing to see it all come together and to realise that a lot of the stories I’d told were kind of wrong. Things happened in a different order to how I remember them, which is why I’ve called the book Confabulation, because that’s what people do when they think they’re telling the truth but it isn’t the truth, it’s what they’ve made the story out to be. There’s always an element of polishing your stories up so they make better tales.”
He was also conscious of not repeating the content of his previous books.
“I felt in Watching the Watchmen I said everything I needed to say about the creation of Watchmen. I told lots of little stories and anecdotes in there and I didn’t want to duplicate them.
“So Watchmen actually doesn’t have an entry in my autobiography, but things related to it have, like Tales of the Black Freighter and Before Watchmen. I also talk about Alan Moore because he and I haven’t spoken for a while, and he’s spoken on the internet at some length about his version of events, so I thought it would be interesting to get my view of what happened, because people’s memories vary. So I’ve gone on the record about what I felt happened there, and it was good to do that.
“There is odd Watchmen stuff in there, illustrations which haven’t seen the light of day before, but basically I wanted to do something that has as much new stuff in it. With all of the illustrations, and not just Watchmen, I’ve tried to go with things that people might not have seen before, advertising work, stuff for theatre programmes, record covers. So there is stuff in there which are iconic images, but there’s a lot which I think people won’t have seen before.
“There’s lots of stuff from my childhood, when I was drawing comics for my own amusement up in my bedroom, which I think people will find interesting as you can certainly see the seeds of how I came to draw later. And also if you’re an inspiring artist you might think ‘God, Dave wasn’t much good when he was 12 was he?’ and it might encourage people to keep going.”
“There are some stories in there relating to school, because at the time when I grew up American culture, comic books, rock ‘n’ roll, all that stuff was very much frowned upon.
“There was a certain amount of battling the establishment, and I talk about that at some length as well.
“Some comics were actually burned by the authorities at the school I went to and I talk about the effect that had on me. I also talk about how I met [Judge Dredd, Sláine and ABC Warriors artist] Mick McMahon because the Herts Advertiser had run a piece on me after one of my journalist friends found out that I’d done an album cover for Jethro Tull.
“Mick actually lived in Colney Heath and he wrote me a very respectful letter saying how he’d be thrilled to meet another comic book artist, and later we shared a studio together.
“There’s things from all stages of my career, things that give a general background to what it was like working in comics to interesting stories that stand alone anyway.
“I know a lot of people are interested in what it’s like behind the scenes working as a comic artist and I’ve tried to give a fairly accurate impression of that.
“I’ve also tried to do it very much in my own voice, so the way we might have a chat if we met outside The Chequers pub in Redbourn for example, as I think that’s quite important – rather than make it a dry factual thing hopefully it’s got a lot of my personality coming through.”
So what now? Are we likely to see him return to the drawing board any time soon?
“These days in view of my advanced and senior age, to be honest with you I don’t do a lot of drawing at the moment. I still do life drawing which I really enjoy, and I’ve got an ideal for a sequel to one of the comics I’ve worked on which I may or may not get round to doing.
“I’ve enjoyed doing the autobiography so much that I may do some further work in that direction, but basically a lot of the work I do nowadays is in a consultant role, or appearances talking about the art of comics, which I’m really enjoying. After 50 years of deadlines it’s quite nice not to have any.
“Quite a lot of comics artists don’t tend to be talkative, but I’ve always been a show-off. Public speaking holds no fear for me and I actively enjoy it. I found being comics laureate was a really good fit because I had to do a lot of public appearances and I had to speak very positively about comics. These days, unlike when I was at school when comics were very much frowned upon, in a lot of schools they’re very much appreciated, so I was pushing on a door that wasn’t even locked.
“Really what teachers and librarians wanted to know was a reading list and age suitability of things. I also worked with the Oxford University Press on a line of books that were very educational but told in comic book terms, and I was the designer-in-chief and advisor on that. Having spent a long time manifesting my love for comics in writing and drawing I can now talk about them to a wider audience, which is great.
“I think the range of comics and graphic novels is so much greater now – it’s not just superheroes and war stories – there’s a whole range of stuff.
“People talk about the Golden Age of Comics [in the 1930s-1940s] and I think this is the new Golden Age. It was feared that the move towards digital might affect comic book sales but my understanding is that graphic novels sell better now than they ever have done. People still want to have a physical book – to have a nicely printed and bound book always has value. I think the future’s going to be pretty good for comics and graphic novels.”
Dave will be signing copies of Conflabulation at Chaos City Comics, Heritage Close, this Saturday, February 18th, from 1-3pm, something he is very much looking forwards to.
“I’m really pleased that the first signing I’m actually doing is Chaos City, which is my local comic shop. It’s a great shop and I always do whatever I can to support them.”
