Dave Gibbons interview: The appeal of the Kingsman

Dave Gibbons, one of the creators of the Kingsman, and I talked all things loneliness, spy drama, and why fans love Eggsy and Harry Hart.

I had the wonderful opportunity to talk with one of the writers of the Kingsman comics. Dave Gibbons, who has an extensive history in writing action comics, helped to create both Secret Service and Golden Circle.

Talking with him, what I found fascinating was his idea behind a simple question. Most of us are fascinated with sad superheroes. We love lonely men who are forced to protect the world. And when I asked Dave about why he made a hero who expresses his loneliness after his supposed ‘death’, Gibbons had a wonderful answer.

"I think there is a certain dynamic with men when they can tend to emotionally isolate themselves or miss out on that part of their life. Particularly if they feel they have some kind of mission. You know like fighting crime or becoming a spy."

Gibbons went on to talk about how he thought it to be a trope with these male heroes and he is right, it tends to be a continual struggle with our favorite male characters. They can’t fight crime or save the world if they’re happy and in love, they are almost forced into loneliness.

I also brought up to Dave a spoiler from the new movie but it spawned a wonderful response about the character of Lancelot in the Kingsman series. She is the only female of the Kingsman and in this new movie, she doesn’t really have much to do.

Will Kingsman continue?

So I was asking where she’d live in the Kingsman comics but unfortunately, the future seems to be a little questionable.

“We’d certainly love to see the adventures continue in the comic books although I must say, I may be around to do covers and I may draw the odd story and who knows, I may write the odd story.”

I ended our talk with a question that has been an interesting development within the Kingsman fandom. Fans don’t understand it themselves, so I wanted to know if Dave got it.

“Why do you think fans clung so much to Eggsy and Harry?”

"I think that kind of mentor/pupil relationship is one that has a lot of resonance in male relationships. And I think it’s something that people can connect to. And I think that perhaps, you know, that there’s a sense of some sort of spiritual aspect of things as well. You know, that you’re trying to improve somebody.And you’re trying to give them values which are perhaps slightly more worthy then the ones they started off with. So I think that’s something I haven’t quite seen in any spy movies before. Although we do have a lot of the things people love about spy movies. I think that emotional connection between the lead characters, I think that is something completely unique to Kingsman."

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You can see Kingsman: Golden Circle out in theaters this Friday!