Dave Gibbons was a building
surveyor until he began drawing British
comics in the 1970s. Marvel Comics never got back to him about a job with them, so he continued to do independent work until
DC Comics asked him to draw
Green Lantern for them.
After Green Lantern, he went on to draw what many believe to be the finest
graphic novel ever: "
The Watchmen". The amount of detail in each panel of this 200+ page book is
absurd, even going so far as to be symmetrical (both visually and thematically) for the chapter about
Rorschach entitled "
Fearful Symmetry".
Since then he has worked with
Frank Miller and
Steve Rude, working both as a writer and an artist, and narrowly missed a chance to work with
Stan Lee on a
Captain America title.