The Originals by Dave Gibbons

All that is old will be new again…

In 2004, Vertigo published a graphic novel called The Originals, a vaguely futuristic take on the mod culture of the 60s. Dave Gibbons, best known for his art on the super-hit Watchmen, is the sole creator on this book, and his experience in the industry shows.

I’ve just had the chance to read The Originals for the first time, and I wish I’d read it sooner. While it would be easy to compare this work to A Clockwork Orange or even Akira, the book truly stands on its own as an original take on teenagers, violence, and friendship.

It’s interesting that the first few pages relay images of the future, while the words relate a story of the past. This juxtaposition of the future in visuals and the past in narration matches the tone of the entire graphic novel, for while the story seems to take place in the future, (everyone’s obsessed with buying hovering motorcycles, for example) the characters within the story are clearly stuck in the past, embracing sixties archetypes and carrying out their fights with fists rather than weapons. In fact later in the story, when one of the characters does bring a knife to a fistfight, it is jarring and disturbing, and serves as one of the major catalysts for change within the story.

It is these kind of themes that make Dave Gibbons such a great storyteller.

At its heart, The Originals is a very familiar story. Lel and Bok are friends since childhood who have always been obsessed with the idea of joining the Originals, the hippest mod gang in the world. The Originals have an archenemy in the Dirts, who dress in leather jackets and have a penchant for growing awesome sideburns. They join the gang, Lel meets Viv, and madness ensues.

Gibbons’s art emphasizes the theme of juxtaposition I touched upon earlier. Right on the cover, a checkerboard pattern is predominantly featured, the black and white standing out starkly with the greytones found through work. Unlike many black and white works, The Originals doesn’t see fit to use a color cover, mostly because, in my opinion, this work would not function in the same way in color. The grey scale of the comic itself is an important part of the narrative. The first thing Lel purchases is a checkerboard suit matching the pattern on the front, and while this will be a plot point later on in the graphic novel, more importantly it allows the character to be decked in extremes: his skin, grey, his jacket, black and white, his shirt, black, his collar, white.

The Originals is a strong work that I would highly recommend.

My favorite part:

Lel and Bok at The Place taking zebs for the first time. A two page spread of highs and lows as they experience a drug far stronger than anything they’ve taken before.