Looking for Monochrome V for Vendetta Copy

February 22, 2012 11:42 AM

I love V for Vendetta (the graphic novel), but I hate the coloring job. Years ago, I borrowed a monochrome line-art-only version from a library. I would really like to own such a copy, but my Google-fu fails me.
posted by Zarkonnen to Media & Arts (10 answers total)

You're looking for the original version that was serialized in Warrior magazine. When DC finished the series in 89/90, they colorized the original art and added a bunch to it. There was a collection of the original Warrior strips at one point, but I imagine it's fairly rare now.

There's a bunch of the original issues, cheap on Ebay though, you might be able to piece together what you want.
posted by Oktober at 11:55 AM on February 22, 2012

I don't think it exists. The strip was never completed in Warrior as it got cancelled. DC picked the strip up 3-4years later and commissioned Moore and Lloyd to finish it, colorizing the existing reprinted work and the new issues. I've never seen anything after #7 in B&W
posted by nicktf at 12:56 PM on February 22, 2012

Years ago, I borrowed a monochrome line-art-only version from a library.

Any chance your memory's conflating V with some other b&w book? So far as I remember (and all my googling agrees), color is the only form the final issues appeared in, and it's the only way it's been collected.
posted by Zed at 12:59 PM on February 22, 2012

He might not be entirely crazy. Some libraries do carry library bound comics.
posted by Oktober at 1:13 PM on February 22, 2012

OP, do you remember which library you borrowed it from?
posted by jabes at 2:32 PM on February 22, 2012

@jabes: The city library of Berne, circa 2002. Obscurefilter!
posted by Zarkonnen at 2:45 PM on February 22, 2012

This looks like the catalog record, and the image shown and the ISBN both look like the regular colored version. Maybe their other version has gone missing? Or perhaps you're mixing it up with some other graphic novel.
posted by jabes at 3:01 PM on February 22, 2012

From Hell by Moore is in monochrome, maybe you're conflating V for Vendetta with that?

The Absolute Edition of V for Vendetta apparently has some recolored pages and reprints other pages in monochrome sans dialogue, but otherwise has the same coloring and sizing quality issues as the original. Maybe we can hope for an eventual recolor job a la Absolute Sandman, but Moore cutting ties with DC makes that iffy--I think the coloring in V could be improved, but recoloring it without both Moore and Lloyd's input would be appalling.

On the other hand, there are digital copies of the original B&W comics around, scanned by fans and available on your friendly neighborhood piracy site. Those or buying the original comic issues may be your best bet.
posted by nicebookrack at 3:23 PM on February 22, 2012

@jabes It did indeed go missing. There was a very high turnover in graphic novels, sadly.

So it seems like I'm either hallucinating that such a version existed, or it's some odd thing no one really knows about. I might go for the radical solution of buying a copy, dismembering it, scanning it in at high res, and running it through a threshold function to recover the line art.
posted by Zarkonnen at 11:39 PM on February 22, 2012

Do you remember if it was in English? If you're not imagining things, I'd guess it was some foreign edition or other. I'm not *sure*, but I think the UK TPBs (by Titan Books) of Moore's Swamp Thing were in black and white. Maybe they did V for Vendetta, too?
posted by Bigfoot Mandala at 6:33 PM on February 23, 2012