Alan is a great guy, a terrific guy. We haven't worked together since then, and he's always working with different artists. I think he sees different dimensions he can see from different guys.
Alan was always interested in politics in a major way. He actually believes that anarchy is a politically viable system, but I don't. I was always interested in putting forward the ideas that represented my viewpoint. I feel the same about anything I'm doing.
But if you have a point of view and you're an artist or a writer, it's kind of crazy to not take advantage of that, especially if you can do something that's entertaining as well. I've done a number of things like that over the years.
I do like to work on a Marvel method, so if I've got the opportunity, and the writer is happy to do it, I like to have a writer detail what happens on a page, but not saying what happens in every scene.
I just sit at the drawing board most of the time. I am used to talking to people. I love going to conventions, getting feedback and talking to people. Some artists don't. Some artists sit at their drawing board because their personality actually dictates that.
I understand why people do vote on the conservative side of the ticket because people have a tendency to go for strong governments when really, from an idealistic point of view, it's a bad thing.
I'm in a privileged position as an artist because if I've got something to say, I can say it. But you don't want to preach.
I'm interested in how artists and writers do this, using art as therapy. Escaping into the worlds we create. We're all victims and few of us are truly free.
I'm interested in why people compromise when they shouldn't. It comes back to what V's about in a sense. We've all got ideals, but given the right circumstances, we'll forget about them and put them behind us. I'm very interested in why people do that.
I'm lucky. I'm quite popular in this business and people know me. Most of the time there's somebody that wants me to do something.
I've always been a liberal and I've always had strong socialist leanings.
If you're working as a team, not just as an individual artist, you need to both have your creative freedom, it's very important.
It's absolutely of no importance who or what V was under the mask. He isn't a who or a what, he's an idea. The thing is, you couldn't continue it. Now and then the idea of a sequel has been raised, in vague forms, but I think it would be a bad idea. The story's finished.
Kickback is a police thriller which I wrote. I'm very proud of it. I did it in two parts for France because when I wrote it, there wasn't the audience demand for crime stuff that there is now.
Our society's need for escapism has always interested me.
Part of the plot was a knock that V wanted to bring down the government and bring chaos. I don't know why I thought of Guy Fawkes, because it was during the summer. I thought that would be great if he looked like Guy Fawkes, kind of theatrical.
People accept a government that will be strong if they think it's looking after them. They will accept all kinds of judgments.
The beginning of Book Three is the last one that I drew, where V's conducting the 1812 overture.
The thing is you don't always get the opportunity to do what you really want to do. I must say it's difficult to get your own projects underway.
The whole point of V is that you don't see who's behind the mask, and you never do.
They did offer me a chance of being a V in the crowd, but it's not my scene. I think they just thought it would be fun for me to do that, but I don't know. I heard that Stan Lee appears in every movie of his.
V is like a mythical situation. It's an allegory for what could happen. V has philosophies within it that actually warn against things like that happening.
We spend more time developing means of escaping our troubles than we do solving the troubles we're trying to escape from.
When we were talking about this, an idea for this master vigilante, it was an urban guerilla. One of my ideas was that he would be a member of the police force who turned on the government.
You are not going to get peace with millions of armed men. The chariot of peace cannot advance over a road littered with cannon.
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