Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #120419 in Books
• Published on: 1989-06-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
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

BookMunch Online Book Reviews June 2002
It's a force of nature. You don't question it or fall to your knees in awe. It just IS (like the sky or gravity)

Total Film February 2006
"Page-turningly paced- Moore and Lloyd suck you into V's warped world and you gawp as London burns..."

Customer Reviews

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.

ESSENTIAL READING just as good as all these 5 star reviews make out
Just thought I'd add my own opinion to the pile of customer reviews praising this graphic novel through the roof. I've come to comics fairly late and I find comic book mile stones to be funny things. I find that some of them leave me scratching my head and wondering what all the fuss was about in the first place. Others age like wine and reward careful re-reading. V for Vendetta is definitley the latter. The story does miss a beat, the art work is top notch and even the recent medicore movie adaptation doesn't detract from it's power to shock, move and inspire the reader.
This is a book that doesn't require any previous appreciation of comics to get totally lost in. Best of all it's as quintessentially English as tea, Dad's Army and the Queen's speech. Absoluely essential reading!

England Prevails!
The film version of 'V For Vendetta' in all honesty, wasn't half bad. That said, it still isn't a patch on the graphic novel. Alan Moore's skewered take on a future totalitarian England is by some distance the most relevant and terrifying comic/graphic novel i've ever read. A creepy meditation on the loss of identity, freedom and personal liberties, this should be mentioned in the same breath as Moore's equally brilliant 'Watchmen'.

'V', an enigmatic terrorist with a smiley facemask and unnervingly pleasant demeanor, saves a young girl from certain death and plots to blow up London with his young protege. In a series of increasingly disturbing flashbacks, we slowly come to understand his motivation, and find ourselves in a confusing situation. Nothing is black and white, the good guys are really bad, the bad guys are really good, and you find yourself rooting for a character you should really despise.

How messed up is that? It's hard to believe that this was written 20 years ago. Corporation's controlling everything. Terrorist's plotting against the faceless powers-that-be. Just look out your door and you'll find the world of 'V For Vendetta'. That horrible feeling of being watched, and a world slowly collapsing into oppression, the novel seems to be getting to close for comfort.

And with David Lloyd's dingy, saturated art work, the atmosphere of 'V For Vendetta' is second to none. The worst bit about the novel is knowing that it will have to end. But that only means you'll have to read it again, which is no bad thing.

So if you still don't know who the man in cell number 5 is, it's about time you found out.