Editing V for Vendetta (section)

===Background===
David Lloyd's paintings for ''V for Vendetta'' in ''Warrior'' first appeared in black and white.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/dec/27/v-for-vendetta-is-a-manual-for-rebellion-against-injustice|title=V for Vendetta is a manual for rebellion against injustice|first=David|last=Barnett|date=27 December 2016|website=The Guardian|access-date=1 May 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180324135037/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/dec/27/v-for-vendetta-is-a-manual-for-rebellion-against-injustice|archive-date=24 March 2018}}</ref>

[[File:Warrior19.jpg|thumb|Cover of ''Warrior'' #19, highlighting the comic's conflict between [[anarchism|anarchist]] and fascist philosophies.]]

In writing ''V for Vendetta'', Moore drew upon a comic strip idea submission that the [[DC Thomson]] scriptwriting competition rejected in 1975: "The Doll", which involved a transgender terrorist in white face makeup, who fought a totalitarian state during the 1980s.{{sfn|Moore|1995|p=268}}

Years later, Skinn reportedly invited Moore to create a dark mystery strip with artist David Lloyd.<ref>{{cite web|author=Brown, Adrian|year=2004|title=Headspace: Inside The Mindscape of Alan Moore|format=http|work=Ninth Art|url=http://www.ninthart.com/display.php?article=867|access-date=6 April 2006|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071020110517/http://www.ninthart.com/display.php?article=867|archive-date=20 October 2007}}</ref> ''V for Vendetta'' was intended to recreate something similar to their popular [[Marvel UK]] [[Night Raven]] strip in a 1930s [[noir fiction|noir]].<ref name=HeatherMacDonald-1>{{cite interview |url=http://www.comicon.com/thebeat/2006/03/a_for_alan_pt_1_the_alan_moore.html |title=A for Alan, Part 1 |subject=Alan Moore |interviewer=Heather MacDonald |date=March 2006 |website=The Beat |publisher=Mile High Comics |access-date=29 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060404210249/http://www.comicon.com/thebeat/2006/03/a_for_alan_pt_1_the_alan_moore.html |archive-date=4 April 2006 |url-status=dead}}</ref> They chose against doing historical research and instead set the story in the near future rather than the recent past.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AEnVgVDd8m0C&pg=PA74 |title=The Extraordinary Works of Alan Moore |author=Khoury, George |page=74 |access-date=2 June 2018 |publisher=TwoMorrows |location=Raleigh, North Carolina |date=July 2003 |isbn=1-893905-24-1 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180602212643/https://books.google.com/books?id=AEnVgVDd8m0C&pg=PA74 |archive-date=2 June 2018 }}</ref>

Then ''V for Vendetta'' emerged, putting the emphasis on "V" rather than "Vendetta". David Lloyd developed the idea of dressing V as [[Guy Fawkes]]<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16968689|title=Alan Moore on Anonymous' rise|first=Alan|last=Moore|publisher=BBC News|date=8 March 2012|access-date=1 May 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130725005719/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16968689|archive-date=25 July 2013}}</ref> after previous designs followed the conventional [[superhero]] look. During the preparation of the story, Moore made a list of what he wanted to bring into the plot, which he reproduced in "Behind the Painted Smile":

<blockquote>[[George Orwell|Orwell]]. [[Aldous Huxley|Huxley]]. [[Thomas Disch]]. ''[[Judge Dredd]]''. [[Harlan Ellison]]'s ''[["Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman]]'', ''Catman'' and ''[[The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World]]'' by the same author. [[Vincent Price]]'s ''[[The Abominable Dr. Phibes|Dr. Phibes]]'' and ''[[Theatre of Blood]]''. [[David Bowie]]. ''[[The Shadow]]''. ''[[Night Raven]]''. ''[[Batman]]''. ''[[Fahrenheit 451]]''. The writings of the [[New Worlds (magazine)|New Worlds]] school of science fiction. [[Max Ernst]]'s painting "[[Europe After the Rain II|Europe After the Rain]]". [[Thomas Pynchon]]. The atmosphere of [[British cinema#World War II|British Second World War films]]. ''[[The Prisoner]]''. [[Robin Hood]]. [[Dick Turpin]]...<ref name="Smile">{{cite journal|author=Moore, Alan|title=Behind the Painted Smile|journal=Warrior|year=1983|issue=17|author-link=Alan Moore}}</ref></blockquote>

The influence of such a wide number of references has been thoroughly demonstrated in academic studies,<ref>{{Cite book|title=V for vendetta as cultural pastiche|last=Keller|first=James R.|publisher=McFarland|year=2008|isbn=978-0-7864-3467-1|location=Jefferson}}</ref> above which dystopian elements stand out, especially the similarity with George Orwell's ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'' in several stages of the plot.<ref>{{Cite book|title=George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four as an Influence on Popular Culture Works: V for Vendetta and 2024|last=Galdon Rodriguez |first=Angel |publisher=Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha|year=2011|location=Albacete}}</ref>

The political climate of Britain in the early 1980s also influenced the work,<ref name="Annotation">{{cite web|author=Boudreaux, Madelyn|year=1994|title=Introduction|work=An Annotation of Literary, Historic and Artistic References in Alan Moore's Graphic Novel, "V for Vendetta"|url=http://madelyn.utahunderground.net/vendetta/vendetta1.html|access-date=6 April 2006|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060308001244/http://madelyn.utahunderground.net/vendetta/vendetta1.html|archive-date=8 March 2006}}</ref> with Moore positing that [[Premiership of Margaret Thatcher|Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government]] would "obviously lose the [[1983 United Kingdom general election|1983 elections]]", and that an incoming [[Michael Foot]]-led [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] government, committed to [[Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament|complete nuclear disarmament]], would allow the United Kingdom to escape relatively unscathed after a limited [[Nuclear warfare|nuclear war]]. However, Moore felt that fascists would quickly subvert a post-nuclear holocaust Britain.<ref name="Smile" /> V, an anarchist, initially tortures and murders members of the fascist government, but as the story develops, Moore deliberately made V's actions "very, very morally ambiguous" with the aim that "I didn't want to tell people what to think, I just wanted to tell people to think."<ref name=HeatherMacDonald-1 /> The [[Guy Fawkes]] analogy was deliberate, with Moore pointing out in a 2012 interview that Britain has a history of "making heroes out of criminals or people who in other centuries might have been regarded as terrorists", desiring a similar ambiguity for a protagonist reviled as a villain by the Britain of his fictional 1990s.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuBFd1rlWWA&ab_channel=rickdickboy | title=Alan Moore HARDtalk interview | website=[[YouTube]] | date=20 April 2012 }}</ref> 

Moore's scenario remains untested. Addressing historical developments when DC reissued the work, he noted:

<blockquote>Naïveté can also be detected in my supposition that it would take something as melodramatic as a near-miss nuclear conflict to nudge Britain towards fascism... The simple fact that much of the historical background of the story proceeds from a predicted Conservative defeat in the 1983 General Election should tell you how reliable we were in our roles as [[Cassandra]]s.<ref>Moore, Alan, Introduction. ''V for Vendetta''. New York: [[DC Comics]], 1990.</ref></blockquote>