Amidst the Anarchy and Pure Rebellion

V for Vendetta. What does the man behind the mask stand for? It is quite clear that his intentions are to bring to light the government's utter control of its people and manipulation of power. But what exactly is it that he aims to accomplish? Is it revenge? To bring chaos? Glory? For me, V's greatest lesson to teach us is to stand against corruption. Generally we see mutiny as as a bad thing, but what if, for once, it provided the exact medium to change the world we live in? V for Vendetta is about freedom and having basic human rights. How does V accomplish this? By creating mayhem in a world that teaches structure. From the story line to the artistry, V for Vendetta expresses a need for change. Although it seems V is not entirely successful in his endeavors, it raises the need for freedom to express oneself, and more importantly, educate on why personal freedom is an essential human right. Chaos, without some sort of control, will always remain to be chaos. This is true as we see V complete his mission in shutting the government down, only to cause riots among the people who refuse to see the chains they are undeniably in. An interesting way we see this theme unfold is in the creative technique displayed in each panel. Throughout the novel, it is clear that the artist's focus was using an array of colors to create vivid, loud panels that cause the eye to move all over the page. These busy pictures contribute to the idea that this world that Moore has created is hectic and in need of order. Reading it for myself was difficult since my eyes didn't truly know what to focus on. I believe that the bright coloring is meant to say, "Hey! Look at me!" so that we pay attention to the true crimes that occur throughout the story. Each panel is so intensely designed. This remains true from beginning to end in V for Vendetta, which further establishes the story's need for some type of stabilization.

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Junji Ito and the Art of the Uncanny

As discussed in Chapter 2 of Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics , the Japanese style of comic book art holds several notable quirks. While early manga artists tended to favor simplistic, yet distinct styles that paved the way for a number of internationally renowned characters, contemporary manga artists have since favored a hybrid style that juxtaposes the cutesy, rounded characters of yesteryear with the realistic and richly shaded settings that have since become popular. Building on this, McCloud describes a phenomenon in which Japanese comic artists have used realism to objectify--that is, to emphasize the "otherness" of certain characters, objects, or places--elements of their work and further separate these elements from the reader. I have chosen the work of one of my favorite comic artists, Japanese horror icon Junji Ito, to further illustrate McCloud's point. Though McCloud describes this phenomenon in the context of Japanese comic book art, he is usi...

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As someone who has only seen the movie version of V for Vendetta once many years ago and have never read the graphic novel, I wasn’t exactly sure how similar or different the movie version would be to the graphic novel. I was in for a surprise when I discovered just how vastly different, they are from each other. With that being said, they do have some similarities when strictly looking at the motives of the characters. Let’s dive into those motives and how the author and illustrator of V for Vendetta achieved getting these motives across to their readers. In Scott McCloud’s chapter of Understanding Comics “ Blood in the Gutter ” we are presented with different panel – to – panel transitions, and an introduction to the term “gutter” as being the white space between the panels which is where the audience of reader “takes two separate images and transforms them into a single idea” (McCloud, 66). After finishing reading V for Vendetta , several themes or ideas that were most prevalent...

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ENG 4433: Topics in World Lit

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