Dave Gibbons on the Harvey Hall of Fame and the continuing legacy ofWatchmen

The highlight of his decades-long in comics is undoubtedlyWatchmen, the 1988 miniseries he illustrated alongside writer Alan Moore.

30 years on, the legacy of Gibbons' art is very much alive.

EW caught up with him to talk about the honor and how he feels aboutWatchmen’s ongoing legacy.

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ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How does it feel to be granted an award like the Harvey Hall of Fame?

DAVE GIBBONS:It’s like a dream come true.

I live in England, miles away from the heart of the comic industry in New York.

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I lovedMadand tried to emulate it as a 10-year-old.

Eventually I was lucky enough to meet Harvey, and even did a story with him.

To end up receiving an award with his name on it in New York is just brilliant.

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Madwas willing to subvert or parody anything.

Is there any of that spirit inWatchmen, and the way you guys radically interrogated these superhero tropes?

For me, comics in general have always had that slightly underground culture feeling about them.

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Certainly that is something that runs throughWatchmen.

We definitely subverted superheroes.

We did it bc we love them.

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Or the inverse of that, where you have characters in the same place and move the background around.

We quite mercilessly stole the wonderful techniques Harvey Kurtzman had invented inMad.

We tried to inject a bit of that solidity into the Superman story we did together.

The first Harvey Award ceremony was tied toWatchmen’s original release, and you guys won big.

Does this Hall of Fame honor feel like coming full circle now?

There’s a certain circularity to things.

Very recently it turned out to be the 1000th issue ofAction Comics, where Superman started.

They asked me to do a variant cover for that, which I did.

That felt like a circle closing as well.

Next year is the 10th anniversary of Zack Snyder’s movie adaptation ofWatchmen.

How do you look back on that movie and your experience with it?

There was movie interest inWatchmenfrom the very beginning.

There was even talk of Arnold Schwarzenegger playing Dr. Manhattan.

Alan also had a very brief discussion with Terry Gilliam, where I think they agreedWatchmenwas unfilmable.

Have you heard anything abouttheWatchmenTV showthat Damon Lindelof is working on?

I do know a little about it.

I’ve had conversations with Damon, and I’ve read the screenplay for the pilot.

I don’t think it’s gonna be what people think it’s going to be.

It certainly wasn’t what I imagined it to be.

I think it’s extremely fresh.

I’m really looking forward to seeing it on the screen.

It approaches it in a completely unexpected way.

That’s what we tried to do withWatchmenitself.

Other people have done it with some success, coming to the basic material with a fresh approach.

I feel like the comic prequels and sequels don’t really do that.

They’re done by very talented people, but they don’t expand the scope of it at all.

I heartily applauded that.

[Laughs] It is amazing to me that after all this time there is still interest in it.

The fact it’s kept on for so long and hasn’t been out of print is amazing.

I do apologize to the comic-reading public for all that misery.