V for Vendetta

The novel’s atmosphere is dark, both literally and figuratively. Much of the action takes place at night, and Lloyd’s illustrations contain extensive shadowing and chiaroscuro. At the beginning of the novel, the illustrations’ darkness evokes the oppressive and suppressive nature of the Norsefire regime. When Lloyd is illustrating scenes of the city and populace, he often uses birds-eye angles and pulled-back perspectives, which are heavily inked and shadowed. This illustrative technique mimics the pervasive atmosphere of Norsefire’s surveillance state at all hours of the day.

Toward the end of the novel, the dark atmosphere symbolizes the unknown. In the final panels of Book 3, Finch follows the M1 highway away from London, toward the north of England; these panels are almost entirely dark. Like the rest of the country, Finch must enter the unknown and decide what to do with it. By denying Helen’s offer to build a new order with her and instead walking willingly into the dark, Finch is choosing to embrace the new future that V has shown them.

V for Vendetta breaks genre conventions to revolutionize the graphic novel genre and adheres to genre conventions to use its visual medium for world-building.