Giving the Watchmen Motion

Tuesday, October 7th, 2008

A new Watchmen movie is coming out, but that’s not the only new version of the story audiences can expect. Dave Gibbons, the original artist, discusses giving the Watchmen motion in what’s called a motion comic:

One of the attractions for me of having Watchmen made into the first Motion Comic was just that — it was breaking new ground. It was pretty good candidate for Motion Comics as the line style was very clear as I had drawn it years ago and therefore very easy to animate. John Higgins used a very flat, interesting color palate which made the technical aspect of animating easy. Also the story is a complete story — you know a beginning, middle and an end. The person who happens upon the Watchmen Motion Comics does not need to have any previous knowledge of continuity. So I suppose it’s another way to look at the material.

When I first looked at the samples of the Motion Comics, I thought they were quite well done but there are a few things that need tweaking, some things and that could be improved quite easily. One of the problems with the Watchmen material is that I’m so familiar with it and it’s hard to get an unbiased view on it. So I showed it to some friends and family who are in the business of games and animation. Of course we discussed the technicalities of it, but everyone remarked how well it was done. The “civilians” that I showed it to, particularly my two teenage stepdaughters, just thought it was great. They thought it was so exciting. They wanted to learn more and see what happened next in the story. So I think that really convinced me that this was a way of getting the material out to people who might not be aware of the comic, who might not pick up the comic and get some great entertainment value out of it.

Perhaps this will drive people to the original graphic novel.

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