Reading Through 2021 55: The Originals, by Dave Gibbons

The Originals, by Dave Gibbons

originally published in 2004, Essential Edition 2018

Sometimes you don't know what you're looking for until you find it.

He did the cover up like a James Jacket

Dave Gibbons was never an artist I followed around. Of course Watchmen was an amazing work, and his art, design, and layouts were a part of that, but his art isn't flashy. Some of it was my age and what was hot when I collecting mainstream art; in 1990, I was into Art Adams and the school of artists that came out after: McFarlane, Liefeld, Silvestri. Much more style over substance. I went from that art style straight to indie comics and missed out on a lot of mature semi-mainstream stuff, ie. Vertigo.

Last year, I read all of Martha Washington for the first time and enjoyed it wholeheartedly. As an adult, I can now appreciate just how good Gibbons is at what he does. Then I saw this book I'd never heard of and gave it a try. 

It's a perfect comic.

From Gibbons' intro to the book

Up front, I have some sentimental attachment to the content. I was a huge fan of Quadrophenia in high school, so I know some of where he's drawing from. He's not drawing from that movie, but The Originals and Quadrophenia both are coming from the same British subculture. And while I wasn't a mod, in my late teens I was into the music and clothes and sometime stupidity of my subculture, to the extent that I was blinded to the outside world. I did anything to hide my bland suburban roots.  I know exactly where the characters in this book are coming from.

The type of ads that woo in young Lel

While the book has a plot, it's a simple one, and is as much of a character sketch as anything else. For some, that may be a turn off. But it's not a typical comic plot. Despite the sci-fi setting, it's pretty down to earth.

Our introduction to Lel

So what's it about? It's about Lel and his friend Bok, who want nothing more than to join the Originals, the coolest crew in their town.

Our introduction to the Originals

And they look amazing. Gibbons takes the mod aesthetic and tweaks it enough that it's his own vision. You can get why Lel wants nothing more than his own bike.

The Originals are a gang of sorts, and have rivals, bikers called the Dirt (by the Originals, I'm not sure if they call themselves that), who they will fight on a moment's notice. Both crews stupidly antagonise each other until it inevitably comes to a boil.

The Originals are not the good guys. Both sides have problems

The art makes full use of the page, and looks incredible in the oversized Essential Edition. Gibbons frames everything in black and lays white narration over that space to keep the images clear, interrupted only by text balloons. Despite both groups wearing near uniforms, you know who everyone is by their facial structures and haircuts. Sometimes he has cinematic storytelling, sometimes comic collage images, and sometimes just intimate little close ups. He also creates advertisements and newspaper clippings to flesh out the world. Gibbons is flexing his skills all over the place with this book.

An example of great comic art: many artists today would have simply cut and paste the faces from the larger pic to make panels out of them. Gibbons probably lightboxed them, then added details to them to make them more than just repeated images. He added that panic to their eyes

The whole book is done in gray scale, and giving it a timeless feeling. It feels old, but things were never like this.

It's a high school story

Gibbons has worked with Alan Moore, Frank Miller, and Mark Millar over the past decades and lots of other writers. He's also written some superhero books himself. This book is his personal thing, I can feel the love he has for everything in here. 

The only complaint, and it's a minor thing, is the pages absorb the oils from your fingers, so there are fingerprint smudges all over the book now. That's the cost of reading sometimes.

Ah yeah

This is his auteur work. It has the energy of youth, and the refinement of decades of experience. I had no idea I was looking for this, but I'm so glad I found it.