The message of V for Vendetta

Before this class I must admit, I have never before read the graphic novel V For Vendetta nor have I seen the movie. I think going into something with a clean slate and no prior knowledge does have it's advantages and disadvantages. I think the main massage V For Vendetta aims to leave the reader with is freedom, Cherish it, protect and fight for it. Cherishing, standing and fighting for your freedom is also the themes that stand out the most to be and that I see throughout the novel. The motivations for V's actions stems form the loss of his own freedom and his inconsideration and torture. Because of his experiences with this he sets out to "wake" the people up, to see and fight against their own oppression. V's tactics, at times, can sometimes give him the appearance to the reader to be more of a "villain" than a hero. An example of this is his capture and torture of Evey. To V though the outcome of his actions is freedom. Whether it is killing a bad guy, blowing up a building or torturing someone he cares about to free them from their own bondage. Does it make sense to us? Probably not but we tend to be able to feel what both the characters are going through and eventually come to an understanding. For Evey the torture that she went through at the hands of V was awful for her, but he was eventually able to explain to her why and break her oppression. During her capture he took her through a similar experience to his own and during this she grew stronger. In this she was better able to understand who he was and why he did what he did. In chapter ten on page 172 this illustrates her awaking of this fact. V takes her to the roof top in the rain, in this moment the clarity of her own incarceration is clear and a new taste of freedom transforms her. She becomes V's apprentice in the fight for her societies freedom at this point. In this scene this is how the medium conveys the point and theme of freedom scene throughout the novel. In this scene she can be compared to that of a bird who has been in a cage and being set free for it's new found freedom. As V's apprentice she learns all she can and will eventually take up the fight and the image of V...

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Iconic Abstraction and the Vocabulary of Comics in Hellboy

In Chapter 2 of Understanding Comics , McCloud talks about two key concepts I’d like to discuss: he identifies reality , language , and the picture plane as a representation of the pictorial vocabulary of comics, and he expresses a scale for iconic abstraction of comic art. As readers following the action in comics, we are guided by what objects and events cartoonists decide demand focus in each individual moment or panel. This focus via simplification of reality - referred to as abstraction - provides a rhythm of reading the visual representation of a sequence of events, controlling the timing of action and dialogue through spacing of panels and objects on a page. McCloud makes it clear that abstraction in comics is really just about the representation of ideas . Conceptually, we can perceive a specific drawn event, such as an explosion or a fight, without that event being pictured exactly or photorealistically. Rubble or glass flying midair can represent the impact of fights depi...

The Two Faces of Anarchy in V for Vendetta

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...

Sketching Reality in Art Spiegelman's Maus

It's no secret that novels often blur the line between reality and fiction. Whether influenced by an author's experiences or drawn from them wholesale, all forms of artwork will always carry a piece of their artist. This is no less true for graphic novels, a medium often stereotyped by traditional capes-and-crusaders-style storytelling. Whether or not this stigma is deserved is an argument for another day, but for now we will venture into a lesser-known genre not typically associated with the great literature classics: the non-fiction graphic novel. You may ask yourself if this is a misnomer. By their very definitions, non-fiction and novels are considered their own distinct categories. A novel, per tradition, is considered inherently fictitious, and regardless of whether or not you think fiction and non-fiction should be regarded on the same level, I will circle back around to my initial argument that art will always be influenced by the experiences of its author, and th...

ENG 4433: Topics in World Lit

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