“You can call me V.”
To any real comic fans, this is old, old news, so you may as well vanish now.
But to the rest of you…
I present V for Vendetta, by Alan Moore and David Lloyd.
I read this graphic novel for the first time a few days back.
And holy carp, it is good.
Sooo good.
I’m not going to summarise the plot for you, since Wikipedia is quite capable of doing that for you.
What I will say is, it is amazingly well written, beautifully drawn, and a great read. The story reminds me in many ways of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, actually. Which isn’t surprising, what with the ‘totalitarian government’ and all.
The main character, known only as ‘V’, is a dramatic political terrorist who can be seen as either a hero or a villian, depending on your outlook. Personally, I fell in love with the character. He may be a crazy person in a Guy Fawkes’ mask and cloak, but he’s cool, damn it!
Oh, and for those of you who have seen the movie, I advise you to forget it. Or at least, don’t think about the film when considering whether to hunt down this amazing graphic novel. I haven’t seen the film, but from the clips and trailers I’ve seen, it doesn’t even compare to the actual comic.
You said it, V.
Just… go find it. Get it from a library, buy it off ebay, borrow it from a friend.
And read it.
And be amazed.
/What? It moved me.
//go read it, already!
Hey really enjoyed the movie, but look forward to the book now. Big fan of Orwell – particularly Keep the Aspidistra Flying. Such a head fuck.
Nice post.
I’ve never read the comic book, but I saw the movie, unfortunately. I heard that the creator distanced himself from the movie. I totally understand. As a staunch anarchist myself, I found the lack of anarchism in the movie kind of boring. Still, although I don’t need to be converted to anarchism, it may be nice to read some anarchic literature. I will take your advice and look for it at the library.