D for David

Every year Hyderabad Comic Con (HCC) brings international comic book writers to the city making the event a “nerd paradise” for fanatics of the art. Among the handful of illustrators and world-renowned actors attending Hyderabad edition of Comic Con, this year, is notable British comic book artiste, David Lloyd, best known as the illustrator and co-creator of ‘V for Vendetta’.

The artiste created the iconic Guy Fawkes mask for the ‘V…’ comics, which became a symbol of protest in the past few years. “Seems ‘Vendetta’ - the work I'm most known for - has made a big impression on people in India, via the book and the film adaptation. So, I expect to be busy,” smiles the artiste, who is a fan of Comic Book Conventions.

Apart from ‘V…’ the artiste is known for illustrating the masked vigilante comic book ‘Night Raven’, written by Steve Parkhouse. “I was asked to visualise the character, create its look and attributes. These were modified by the editor in its first appearances but were reinstated by me in a later graphic novelisation. The basic form of the character was a standard type in adventure fiction - a masked, vigilante, crime-fighter, who appeared from the shadows,” shares Lloyd.

“My original visualisation presented him as an action character suitable for a Marvel publication. That idea was suppressed to fit a more moody, mysterious style of character form presentation, similar to The Shadow,” he adds.
It was allegedly reported that during the end of the ‘Night Raven’, Stan Lee of Marvel Comics did not like David’s "blocky" artwork and he was replaced by another artiste. “I don't know who said that.

I understood it was Jim Salicrup, or another Marvel rep, who wanted a change in having more “action-ful” art. I considered that ironic, having created it as an action character, to begin with! I used more Marvel-like angles in the art to try to accommodate this change, before, as you say, being taken off the strip in favour of John.

But John's work was in no way Marvel-style - it was a very low-key illustration style he used. I think the whole decision system on the strip was a misguided mess,” he responds. “Of course, they should have used my original visualisations!” says Lloyd.

‘V for Vendetta’ was adapted into a movie and it became a cult classic. The performance by Hugo Weaving as “V” garnered rave reviews. “They made a great movie that kept the core of the book intact, but I always describe it as another version of ‘V…’ because of the alterations made to the original. It reached a wide audience and stimulated many sales of the original, so it served its source well, as well as the central message of its source,” opines Lloyd on the film adaptation.

Recalling his take on ‘V…’, which arguably is his most known work, the artiste says, “For me, it was all about telling a story the best way I could. “Before I worked on it - not during it - the style chosen was calculated to evoke the atmosphere of a stark, bleak, future.

Two inspirations for it were: Jim Steranko's 'Chandler’ and the newspaper strip work of Tony Weare. On top of that, a TV-style narrative flow was needed, so simple frame layouts were chosen, rather than splashy, designer-style ones,” says Lloyd about the illustration.

“Also, I took lines off captions and speech bubbles, because this integrates the script more successfully into the art rather than having it on a separate plane; and eliminated thought bubbles and sound effects, because they're unnecessary and dissuade non-comics readers from taking comics seriously (it was our intention to reach out to more than the usual audience for comics),” he adds about the presentation.

Every artiste has something that inspires them. “My core inspiration was a strip called ‘Wrath Of The Gods’, drawn by a superb artist named Ronald Embleton, and featuring a character called Arion. It was the first strip that made me realise you could make a totally believable world in comics, one that seemed as well-realised as a movie,” says Lloyd about his inspiration.

“But a long list of creators in comics, fine art, novels, movies, and TV had a great and influential effect on me. I'm merely a composite of them all, hoping to do as much as they in the quality of my work,” he says. The artiste has been working in the industry for over 40 years now; he started in the late 1970s, drawing for Halls of Horror, TV Comic and a number of Marvel UK titles.

So, what’s his take on today's comics? “They're in different form than they used to be and published by more people for a wider range of readers, but the core material in the West is still perceived to be the superhero comics, which is a problem in trying to get new readers to the medium,” says Lloyd.

But, he is optimistic. “One of the values of cyberspace comics publishing is the potential to reach more people outside of the comic store sales area, where ordinary members of the public are reluctant to tread. There's great creative talent everywhere in the medium, though, which is good to see,” he concludes.

Lloyd, who previously attended the Delhi and Bengaluru Comic Con, expects to be busy during his visit at HCC. “I imagine the same degree of interest I experienced at other Indian ‘Cons’ that I attended in 2014. I met nice people at these events - memories of both stay with me,” he shares ahead of his visit