READ A COMIC!
Mar. 15th, 2006 11:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thehefnerIt is so frickin' surreal seeing the words V FOR VENDETTA plastered everywhere on TV, on ads, and in the news. The title of one of the truly great graphic novels of all time by the single greatest living comic writer (rest in peace, Will Eisner), now in the public conciousness where it belongs. Where all such comics belong. Even though the movie's comic roots won't be given their due credit in the film's credits (thanks to Alan Moore's legal action, because as brilliant as he is, he's also bugfuck crazy, which only helps his brilliance), I truly hope this will create great interest in the book and maybe the medium.
Of course, superhero movies haven't really helped comics for jack, because kids would rather buy Spider-Man toothpaste than read an actual comic book, so there you go. And no one really seemed to care for the source material of GHOST WORLD, ROAD TO PERDITION, and A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE. Regardless, people, read a comic. It's good for you.
Kudos to Jon Stewart for bringing up how it originally was a comic and how it was a response to the Thatcher administration. And while we're at it, BIG kudos to Stephen Colbert for his salute to 85-year-old MAD Magazine Fold-In artist Al Jaffe (whose work can also be seen in AMERICA: THE BOOK). Jaffe's work is one of the last truly great ties MAD still has to their roots, even if Colbert's audience didn't seem to appreciate it. Plebians.
If Handy the evil hand puppet were here now, he'd say, "It's V FOR VENDETTA...? It's a graphic novel...? It's Alan Moore...? READ A COMIC!"
Of course, superhero movies haven't really helped comics for jack, because kids would rather buy Spider-Man toothpaste than read an actual comic book, so there you go. And no one really seemed to care for the source material of GHOST WORLD, ROAD TO PERDITION, and A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE. Regardless, people, read a comic. It's good for you.
Kudos to Jon Stewart for bringing up how it originally was a comic and how it was a response to the Thatcher administration. And while we're at it, BIG kudos to Stephen Colbert for his salute to 85-year-old MAD Magazine Fold-In artist Al Jaffe (whose work can also be seen in AMERICA: THE BOOK). Jaffe's work is one of the last truly great ties MAD still has to their roots, even if Colbert's audience didn't seem to appreciate it. Plebians.
If Handy the evil hand puppet were here now, he'd say, "It's V FOR VENDETTA...? It's a graphic novel...? It's Alan Moore...? READ A COMIC!"
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Date: 2006-03-16 04:01 pm (UTC)Secondly, from the way I hear it, the V movie is basically "Fascism vs. Democracy." While V the comic was "Fascism vs. Anarchy." A chance like that to the warmer, fuzzier, safer democracy is, in a way, kind of a spit in the face of what the original V was all about. Anarcists are already pissed off, as they tend to be, and are planning to protest the movie.
Oh, and Moore also created a blond british tan-trenchcoat-wearing chain-smoking occult con man detective by the name of John Constantine. And what did Hollywood do? Cast Keanu Reeves. That right there would be enough to make me swear off Hollywood for good.
When it gets down to it, Moore firmly believes that comics and books in general are meant to be *read*, not adapted. And as much as I get excited about movie adaptations of stuff, I can't help but see his pure logic.