V FOR VENDETTA: BEHIND THE MASK
Anarchy In The UK
DURATION Open until
Venue The Cartoon Museum, London
In this time of face coverings, perhaps it’s apt that the Cartoon Museum should reopen with an exhibition devoted to one of British comics’ most infamous masked avengers.
Beginning by presenting a couple of pages of its Marvel UK forerunner Night Raven, Behind The Mask charts the evolution of V For Vendetta, from its initial serialisation in Warrior magazine in the early ’80s to its more recent cultural impact, with V’s trademark Guy Fawkes mask having been adopted by protest organisations like Anonymous.
Like Watchmen, V For Vendetta is often erroneously credited as solely Alan Moore’s masterwork, but the balance here is tipped firmly back in David Lloyd’s favour, with the inclusion of 36 pages of artwork. These range from full-scale original pages to colourists Steve Whitaker and Siobhan Dodds’s acetates for the DC editions, which somehow imbue Lloyd’s strikingly stark black and white linework with even more moody atmosphere.
Also included is one of actor Hugo Weaving’s masks from James Mcteigue’s 2005 movie, along with some of Steve Skroce’s dynamic storyboards and a few character sketches by costume designer Sammy Sheldon Differ.
Alan Moore himself is a minimal presence, with no extracts from his typically dense scripts. But then this is Lloyd’s show; this V definitely his victory. Stephen Jewell
Shops used to sell Fawkes masks for your Guy. Lloyd couldn’t find one, as it was summer, so had to draw from memory.
The balance is tipped firmly back in David Lloyd’s favour