V for Vendetta - Books (Alan Moore, Paperback)

V for Vendetta is, like its author's later Watchmen, a landmark in comic-book writing. Alan Moore has led the field in intelligent, politically astute (if slightly paranoid), complex adult comic-book writing since the early 1980s. He began V back in 1981 and it constituted one of his first attempts (along with the criminally neglected but equally superb Miracleman) at writing an ongoing series. It is 1998 (which was the future back then!) and a Fascist government has taken over the UK. The only blot on its particular landscape is a lone terrorist who is systematically killing all the government personnel associated with a now destroyed secret concentration camp. Codename V is out for vengeance ... and an awful lot more. V feels slightly dated like all past premonitions do. The original series was black and white and that added to the grittiness of the feel while the colouring here in the graphic novel sometimes blurs David Lloyd's fine drawing. But these are small concerns. Skilfully plotted, V is an essential read for all those who love comics and the freedom, as a medium, they allow a writer as skilled as Moore. The graphic novel contains all the V series plus two additional stories concerning V that were originally considered "interludes". This edition also contains an essay from Moore dating from 1983 explaining the creation process. For any comic fan it's a must-have. --Mark Thwaite

Customer Reviews of V for Vendetta

Simon Wells

21st November 2008

Fantastic read
I watched the film before reading the book and I loved it, I thought the entire thing was brilliant and loved V (Hugo Weaving was fantastic) and I was always intending to read the book. A work colleague told me that the book is a lot different from the film (as is usually the case) so not too long ago I brought the book and had finished it two days later.

Alan Moore has written an amazing piece. The entire idea of England becoming one of the only countries that survived a massive war and the political party that took over are fascist and its basically a Big Brother moment where they watching everything you do. Evey unlike in the film is just a sixteen year old girl who doest have enough money to live so she becomes a prostitute. Unlike in the film Evey is a lot less self reliant and is happy to live out her life in V's shadow gallery but it shows a great deal about her growing up from the scared little girl into what she becomes later.

The book was a great read and didn't disappoint giving you a disturbing outlook to a dark future and I love David Lloyd's little note dedicating the book to people who don't switch off the news and choose not to live in blissful ignorance.

human_tide

19th August 2008

Infinitely preferable to the film
Great. This deserves the hype but not the butchering it received on film at the hands of the Wachowksi brothers. This is really about Thatcher's Britain and nuclear winters and the social control of 'deviant' minorities and the power of dissent. So it has something to say about today. But don't read it as a proxy for political critique. It is a joy for many a reason, of which its anarchist politics is one, but our present predicaments require something less wedded to Cold War models. V for Vendetta is of its time, by which I mean also that it is a classic.

Scottish Wildcat
Dublin, Ireland
14th August 2008

Good work, but totally spoiled...
A potentially excellent work of graphic fiction, but totally spoiled by the worst attempt at phonetically transcribing a Scottish accent I've ever read--when you read it out loud it sounds it a bit like Russ Abbott's "See You Jimmy" character. Embarrassing and unnecessary when there are so many great Scottish comic book writers who could have assisted.

Rowan
UK
27th July 2008

The V-effekt of V for Vendetta
Alan Moore and David Lloyd's aesthetic seems almost Brechtian. With a sci-fi motif it distances the reader from the universal political issues being addressed; amusingly, V for Vendetta could be said to use Brecht's V-effekt. There is a strong dialectic that runs throughout, a sense of determinism layered symbolism. All V's Larkhill targets personify aspects of the state. Science is embodied by Delia Surridge, military and media by Lewis Prothero and religion by Anthony Lilliman. Each takes an attitude of opposition; so Lilliman is the unrepentant leader of an institution of salvation, whilst Surridge seeks repentance from the opposed standpoint of a scientist. Prothero, by representing the military become media, is in himself a synthesis between the power of rhetoric and that of violence, which ultimately spawns a new antithesis resulting in V - anarchy personified.

The secret police are represented by Peter Creedy and the figurehead by Adam Susan; Creedy seeks power as an end in itself, whilst Susan is a deranged idealist who believes in his superiority to the extent that he becomes solipsistic, disconnected from humanity and infatuated with the super computer `fate'. With all of this madness Moore knows how to offer grounding and realism; investigator Eric Finch and orphan Evey Hammond take on the roles of the everyman and everywoman respectively. They offer the audience characters to follow, to empathize with. They are a thread of sanity weaved through this excellent narrative.

Moore's story is also full of intertextual allusion; from Shakespeare to Goethe and from Crowley to Fawkes, this is intelligent writing. The dialogue (replete with convincing phonetic spellings, character ticks and vernacular language) flows beautifully and the absence of thought bubbles or sound bubbles lends this book both a maturity and minimalism. Lloyd is given room by this minimalism to show of his artistic capabilities, which are not at all lacking; this is a gritty, dystopic kind of realism that takes you to the action. Each panel demands your attention.

Overall V for Vendetta is faultless; I love the film as well, but the original is on a different level. This is a comic book that shows you how far the medium can be pushed when it is backed by enough raw creative talent.

angel wings
UK
22nd June 2008

Wicked
I love this graphic novel, I read it a long time before I saw the film, and I still think the novel is better! If you have never read a comic/ graphic novel before, I highly recommend this one.