DAVE GIBBONS TALKS THE ORIGINALS

[MattBrady]

Announced over a year ago Dave Gibbons’ The Originals will finally see print later this year from Vertigo. The 160 page OGN is kind of autobiographical, kind of not, and kind of about the original Mod scene in Britain.

And kind of not.

“When I was growing up, I was a Mod – and I mean the first time around, the Quadrophenia-setting time around, and that had a huge effect on the rest of my life and my subsequent attitudes and tastes and activities,” Gibbons told Newsarama.

“For a long time, I’d wanted to do something that I’d written and drawn, something other than a single issue or short story, or a short run of issues. Before I could do that though, I had to then figure out what I really cared about, or what I really felt I had something to say about, and it kind of formed in my mind that there were things that happened to me that happened to other people that were fairly universal in their significance in that other people could relate to them.”

But there was a catch for the creator – an autobiographical story a=would be restrictive, he felt, and it wouldn’t be too interesting to anyone else. “I knew I wanted to make it into some kind of interesting and exciting story, and I also knew I didn’t want to be tied to the actual facts of the time, because after all, there has been Quadrophenia, and I knew I would quickly find myself bogged down in trying to find reference to the actual cigarette packs, or cars or all sorts of stuff like that. So I opted to set it in a world that feels like it felt to me then.”

Which explains the setting of The Originals - it’s kind of Britain, but it’s not. It’s kind of the ‘60s, but it’s not. It is, for all intents and purposes, Gibbons’ own little world. Or even simpler and a little more circular, the world of The Originals is the world in which The Originals is set.

In designing the look and feel of the world, Gibbons’ took his cues from his own experience. “I can remember the first time I ever saw somebody riding a really well turned-out scooter,” Gibbons said. “It seemed like a kind of science fiction thing – it was impossibly glamorous and wonderful. So I wanted to do something that had the feeling that those times did for me, rather than the actuality. So consequently, it has got a feel of post-War Britain in some of the certain fashions, but it isn’t intended to be what really happened – it’s an extrapolation. So it’s got the feel, but I’m taking huge liberties with the machinery and with the scooters – they’re things that are much more exciting than the actuality of a little Vespa.”

The story follows two best friends, Lel and Bok, the former being the lead character. “Lel isn’t me, but he’s kind of the top guy in his gang – a natural leader, and Bok is his best friend from early school days. The story is kind of what happens in their relationship, particularly what happens when a girl comes along, and they go their different ways. I suppose it also shows just what people will do for friendship’s sake.

“I want to be fairly enigmatic about it – I don’t want to say it’s all boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back, boy’s best find gets…I don’t want to get into all of that now, but that’s kind of what the personal story is.”

The graphic novel represents two things for Gibbons – first, the massive time commitment to writing and drawing a 160-page story, but also, The Originals serves as an emotional clearing house of sorts for the creator.

“It’s fairly personal without being autobiographical, so it’s got quite a basis in things that have happened to me, or happened to people I know,” Gibbons said. “Actually, I’ve found that there’s been quite a bit of emotional catharsis involved in it – I’ve actually been able to put down on paper a lot of things that I’ve thought about over the years, and it’s been an interesting voyage of discovery I think, if that doesn’t sound too fucking pretentious.

“It’s a story about the kind of things that concern you as you’re growing up – belonging and the way you look, and the things you do; your gang versus their gang, and dare we say drugs and girls, getting around and having adventures. That kind of story. It’s not an introspective story, it’s a straight-ahead, things happen story. But, as I said, it’s based very much on the experiences I had, and a lot of the characters are based on people I actually knew.”

Gibbons also pointed out that the preview art essentially is the art for the book – the book is black and white, which served a specific purpose. “It’s always been very important for me in the comics that I do to give them a graphic identity above and beyond what is actually drawn in the pictures,” Gibbons said. “So I put a lot of work into giving it a particular identity, which led to the black and white and what I hope is a certain style and mood which echoes the kind of scenes that I’ve dealt with.”

Scheduling of The Originals, Gibbons freely admitted, is completely out of his hands at this point. While he spoke, his computer chattered behind him, burning all of the final pages to a CD which would be off to DC offices with the next day’s FedEx truck.

But still, writing and drawing 160 pages can take a toll. “It’s been a lot of work, and unlike being a run of issues, where every 20 pages or so, you get a feeling of satisfaction, because you’ve finished something, and you get feedback from it, working on The Originals has been kind of a feeling of doing it off on my own, alone in the dark. So it’s a good feeling to have finished it, although, when it’s all said and done, I think I may miss the world.”

The Originals is tentatively scheduled for an October release from Vertigo.

[Travel Exiter]

Finally, some previews from this book!!!!!!!!!!

[brazilgilliam]

I'm there.

[Greg T]

Can not wait for this. Just the tip of the iceberg of Gibbon's DC marathon.

[bignappi]

thier is already a comic book called the originals i guess gibbons is going to have to change the name to the New orignials.

(ya its from spinal tap, so sue me)

anyway this looks good, i have no idea what its about though

[XIII]

I'm getting this one. One thing though: what was/is the Mod scene?

[Defunkt]

Looks GREAT! I am so going to buy this book!

[DocBrass]

this looks great. I can't wait.

The Mod Scene was an early 60s scene in England. the US had the Hippies in the late 60s. sorta the same cultural/ fashionable/musical influences on the local society.

rent Quadrophenia. a movie with the Who.

and thanks to google....
http://www.modculture.co.uk/

[Zadillo]

Man, this looks hot. I can't wait for this.

-Zadillo

[Michael C Lorah]

looks cool. can't wait.

[Santo]

Originally posted by XIII
One thing though: what was/is the Mod scene?

Good summary here, more info here.

Aquiver with anticipation,

[Duke Jupiter]

Great to see more visuals attached with this project, and I'm sure the story's gonna be great - Gibbons is a solid storyteller, and it's great to see him producing a work as satisfying for him as it will undoubtedly be for us, come this October.

Sign me up for this one!

DJ

[OM]

...You know who I'd give Matty's left gonad to hear opinions on this one from? Pete Townsend, whose recollections of the Mod era are usually pretty entertaining. Especially when the issue of the Mods vs the Rockers is brought up.

If anything, this one should influence a few comic convention costume contests...

[Jamie Boardman]

Originally posted by OM
...You know who I'd give Matty's left gonad to hear opinions on this one from? Pete Townsend, whose recollections of the Mod era are usually pretty entertaining. Especially when the issue of the Mods vs the Rockers is brought up.

If anything, this one should influence a few comic convention costume contests...

Following his rather unfortunate "No, really, I was just checking some out for, uh, research purposes" online paedophilia-site issues last year, I doubt Pete Townshend'll be talking much to the press for a while...

[kcekada]

In the U.S., I thought MOD was late 60s to very early 70s. Was it different in the U.K.?

[DocBrass]

the never was a "mod" scene in the US. it happened in the UK in the early 60s.

the was a 2nd scene in the early 80s when the kids got into the 1st mod scene. bands like the Jam got into it and started it up.

[OM]

Originally posted by DocBrass
the never was a "mod" scene in the US. it happened in the UK in the early 60s.

...The fashions and The Who were about the only things about the Mod culture that crossed over from Englandland. Female fashions were the majority of what got picked up on, but those zipper boots for guys made major inroads into male fashions. The pompous shirts with all the ruffles, however, never did catch on in the US as much as Nehru jackets did, and those sort of preceeded the "Summer of Love" in '67 by about six months.

...One other interesting point regarding The Who: Depending on who you talk to, either the boys were the exemplification of Mod, or the Mods rejected them as being manufactured. I've read personal recollections of that era over the years, and where the rub seems to be is that those Mods who didn't care for The Who were really those who hated/were jealous/anti-Kit Lambert, who was the Who's manager at the time and was responsible for much of the band's earlier forging into what they became prior to Tommy. Ergo, Lambert was to The Who what Epstein was to the Beatles, McLaren was to the Sex Pistols, and to some extent what some Southern-fried colonel named Parker was to some truck driver named Presley. The praise/derision seemed to go hand in hand respectively; if you were a Mod and you admired Kit Lambert, you admired the Who and vice versa. If you hated Lambert, you hated The Who automatically, and vice versa. There seems to be no middle ground where one liked just one of the two.

...Of course, by Tommy it was pretty apparent that the days of The Who as the Mods' public face were dead and buried as Mod culture itself was. Except for Entwhistle on occasion, for the most part they'd dropped the fashions and looked more like the rock hippie culture that had embraced them as one of their voices for revolution. Still, you have to admit that the Mod culture was far more appealing than those of their Rocker counterparts, but then again pretty much anything that puts on the show of pompousity and elitism tends to be so.

[Taltos]

I give it a thumbs up. There definately needed to be a book about this time period. But kinda not.

[ClarkNova]

Im in.

[alistairUK]

MOd Bands: The Kinks, The Animals...anything Rythm and soul
Mod Fashion: Cool clean, neat lines
Mod Drug of Choice: Speed ( black bombers, blue meanies etc.)
They were never fucking hippies!

[Marty the Mod]

As a Mod and a comic book artist (Kinder Nacht, The Power Of One) I can't say how excited I am about this book. I've known about it for quite a while but thought it was a doomed project, I'm so glad to see it actually happening.