V for Vendetta is a British graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd (with additional art by Tony Weare). Initially published between 1982 and 1985 in black and white as an ongoing serial in the British anthology Warrior, its serialisation was completed in 1988–89 in a ten-issue colour limited series published by DC Comics in the United States. Subsequent collected editions were typically published under DC's specialised imprint, Vertigo, until that label was shut down in 2018. Since then it has been transferred to DC Black Label. The story depicts a dystopian and post-apocalyptic near-future history version of the United Kingdom in the 1990s, preceded by a nuclear war in the 1980s that devastated most of the rest of the world. The Nordic supremacist, neo-fascist, outwardly Christofascistic, and homophobic fictional Norsefire political party has exterminated its opponents in concentration camps, and it now rules the country as a police state. The comics follow the story's title character and protagonist, V, an anarchist revolutionary wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, as he begins an elaborate and theatrical revolutionist campaign to kill his former captors and torturers, bring down the fascist state, and convince the people to abandon fascism in favour of anarchy, while inspiring a young woman, Evey Hammond, to be his protégée. DC Comics had sold more than 500,000 copies of the graphic novel in the United States by 2006. Warner Bros. released a film adaptation of the same name, written and co-produced by the Wachowskis, in 2005. Following the first and second season premieres of Gotham prequel television series Pennyworth in 2019 and 2020, showrunners Danny Cannon and Bruno Heller confirmed the series would also serve as a prequel to V for Vendetta, with the series' British Civil War eventually giving way to the Norsefire government and rise of V, and the third season featuring predecessors to V wearing Guy Fawkes masks.
Publication history
The first episodes of V for Vendetta appeared in black-and-white between 1982 and 1985 in Warrior, a British anthology comic published by Quality Communications. Editor/publisher Dez Skinn, fearing about the appeal of the strip remarked, "If I'd have given each character their own title, the failures would have certainly outweighed the successes, with the uncompromising 'V for Vendetta' probably being an early casualty. But with five or six strips an issue, regular [readers] only needed two or three favorites to justify their buying the title." When the publishers cancelled Warrior in 1985 (with two completed issues unpublished due to the cancellation), several companies attempted to convince Moore and Lloyd to let them publish and complete the story. In 1988, DC Comics published a ten-issue series that reprinted the Warrior stories in colour, then continued the series to completion. The first new material appeared in issue No. 7, which included the unpublished episodes that would have appeared in Warrior No. 27 and No. 28. Tony Weare drew one chapter ("Vincent") and contributed additional art to two others ("Valerie" and "The Vacation"); Steve Whitaker and Siobhan Dodds worked as colourists on the entire series.
Collected editions The series has appeared collected in paperback (ISBN 0-446-39190-5) and hardback (ISBN 1-4012-0792-8) form, including Moore's "Behind the Painted Smile" essay and two "interludes" outside the central continuity. Later collections include reissued paperbacks, published in the US by DC's Vertigo imprint (ISBN 0-930289-52-8) and in the UK by Titan Books (ISBN 1-85286-291-2). A new hardback edition was published in 2005 featuring improved printing and colouring. In August 2009, DC published a slipcased Absolute Edition (ISBN 1-4012-2361-3), which included newly coloured "silent art" pages (full-page panels containing no dialogue) from the series' original run, which had not previously appeared in any previous collected edition.
— — (24 October 2008). V for Vendetta (New TPB ed.). DC Vertigo. ISBN 9781401208417. — — (24 December 2008). V for Vendetta (New ed.). DC Vertigo. — — (8 September 2009). V for Vendetta (Absolute ed.). DC Vertigo. ISBN 9781401223618. — — (9 October 2012). V for Vendetta (Deluxe Collector Set ed.). DC Vertigo. ISBN 9781401238582. — — (20 November 2018). V for Vendetta (The 30th Anniversary Deluxe ed.). DC Vertigo. ISBN 9781401285005. — — (4 November 2025). V for Vendetta (DC Compact Comics ed.). DC Comics. ISBN 9781799503132.
Background
David Lloyd's paintings for V for Vendetta in Warrior first appeared in black and white. In writing V for Vendetta, Moore drew upon a comic strip idea submission that the DC Thomson scriptwriting competition rejected in 1975: "The Doll", which involved a transgender terrorist in white face makeup, who fought a totalitarian state during the 1980s. Years later, Skinn reportedly invited Moore to create a dark mystery strip with artist David Lloyd. V for Vendetta was intended to recreate something similar to their popular Marvel UK Night Raven strip in a 1930s noir. They chose against doing historical research and instead set the story in the near future rather than the recent past. Then V for Vendetta emerged, putting the emphasis on "V" rather than "Vendetta". David Lloyd developed the idea of dressing V as Guy Fawkes after previous designs followed the conventional superhero look. During the preparation of the story, Moore made a list of what he wanted to bring into the plot, which he reproduced in "Behind the Painted Smile":
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
