Tuesday, March 17, 2009

The illustrator

Can anyone tell me: does the author instruct the illustrator how he wants each panel to appear in a graphic novel? It seems to me alot of the story is told through the pictures and all the credit is given to the author, not the illustrator.

2 comments:

detecktive said...

I'm not exactly sure how it goes, but the impression I get from some podcasts I listen to from DC is that the story is essentially written first (or at least an outline) and then the writer and the artist collaborate on how to put the two together. That way each can have input into the final narrative. I think the writer though typically is the one who maintains creative control over the project, and so gets the most kudos.

Having said that, there are some wonderful artists that do mind blowing work that will actually surpass the story being told. Alex Ross is an awesome artist whose work looks like paintings on a page.

While Alan Moore certainly gets the majority of the glory for Watchmen, I know Dave Gibbons' art is very well know within comicbook circles and he is quite a public figure (doing conventions, podcasts etc) whicc is ironic as Moore seems to be a bit of a recluce (when he's not bagging someone out!).

Nic said...

Reading the back of Absolute Watchman, Alan Moore said he had a long-standing desire to work with Dave Gibbons on something "substantial" about nostalgic heroes (they weren't allowed to and had to create the Watchmen from scratch, which they were happy about, in the end), after working with him on Future Shocks. Then they found themselves simultaneously looking for a new project. From what AM said, it seems extremely collaborative in this case. There are early visuals with DG's handwritten notes upon reading AM's outline, as per Ben's comment above.

I'm guessing the story would pretty much always drive the artwork, hence "Alan Moore's Watchmen".