L For Lloyd
Artist/writer David Lloyd was flown in last weekend by National Book Store for a mini-tour of sorts that saw him visiting branches in the metro as well as Cebu. He was also a guest of honor at the Metro Comic-Con held in Megamall that same weekend.
With V For Vendetta alone, David Lloyd already has assured himself a place in comics history. Despite that signature book, however, he also has a host of other great work, albeit much shorter in length, from installments of Vertigo Comics flagship character John Constantine: Hellblazer with Grant Morrison, War Stories with Garth Ennis and Global Frequency with Warren Ellis, to his own work like the police corruption noir/thriller Kickback.
V For Vendetta, made with writer Alan Moore, stands tall in his bibliography, thanks in no small part to its incredible success and popularity. There are currently three different editions of the book in English alone, which have each enjoyed multiple printings over several years since the book was first collected in the late ‘80s; then there was the 2006 Hollywood movie adaptation with Natalie Portman, which brought the book back to the front of pop consciousness, spawning merchandise and spin-off products (novelizations, action figures, even unnecessary “official” Halloween costumes). Indeed, the Guy Fawkes mask that main character V wears has even been embraced by online activist group Anonymous, who don the masks whenever they have public protests against, say, Scientology or British MPs’ expenses.
Vendetta also stands tall because it’s Lloyd’s longest work to date. The groundbreaking graphic novel was originally serialized in Warrior magazine in black and white between 1982 and 1985 but was cut short when Warrior folded. DC Comics picked it up and published the complete story in 10 issues from 1988-1989. “DC gave me the option of coloring it,” Lloyd says. “They were willing to publish it in black and white, because at the time black and white comics were doing really well, in the independents… this was the time of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and so on. But I knew it was just a glitch. Mainstream audiences prefer their stories in color.” In discussing the color choices and publishing history of Vendetta, Lloyd displays his keen sense of color theory. “In the printings (of Vendetta) since 2008, I was able to tweak the color a bit because before, it was too bright. And printers didn’t care. But now it’s back to what it should’ve been.” He also discussed one of his main instructions to the colorists: no bright reds. When asked why, he explains, “it’s a distraction. You don’t have them here, but when you see a red telephone box on the street in the UK, you don’t really notice it; it just blends into the surroundings. But if you take a photograph of that street and look at it, that red telephone box is going to pop right out.”
Comic icon: The artist/writer has a collection of his short stories being prepared for publication. Photo by MARK LAVIN Other unconventional devices (for the time) deployed within Vendetta were explained to us, such as the lack of outlines for word balloons, a seemingly minor detail that nonetheless stayed with me through these years. “I don’t like putting outlines on word balloons or caption boxes because it puts it on a different plane. It separates the dialogue from the artwork, and I much prefer them to be on the same level.” Attracting a mainstream adult audience was on his mind as well. “The reason we didn’t use sound effects, or thought balloons, in V, was that it was ridiculous to have these things in a comic aimed at adults, where a car bomb is simply ‘BOOM,’ you know? That’s also why I used so many rectangles (in the panel composition), because that’s the frame that mainstream audiences are used to getting their stories from. Whether it’s a television set or a movie theater screen, or even, today, a computer screen. I wanted to make it as easy as possible to get into the story.”
What’s taken up Lloyd’s time in recent years are a few short stories for various publishers (luckily, a collection is being prepared for publication). Another project close to his heart is Cartoon Classroom, a website devoted to gathering material on teaching comics with a focus on the UK, with resources to local classes, courses, and libraries. “The success of Vendetta has given me a financial… freedom to pursue projects I really want to work on.” With the lessons imparted over an informal brunch alone being enlightening, it’s only piqued our interest to see what else he’s got in store, whether on Cartoon Classroom or in forthcoming books.
