[Below, Easton favorably reviews V for Vendetta.]

And now! Once more! It's comics time! Warner Books keeps bringing out the "graphic novels," and some of them are pretty good. The latest to arrive on my desk is V for Vendetta, by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. It first appeared in England, beginning in the early '80s, and now you have a chance to enjoy it too.

The authors avoided comics formalisms such as thought balloons and captions, telling their tale quite successfully with little more than pictures and dialog. That tale deals with a fascist England arisen from the rigors of a mild nuclear war. Wogs, queers, and liberals have all disappeared in concentration camps. The survivors, even the party higher-ups, are routinely brutalized. Cameras and microphones are everywhere. The news is managed. Freedom, justice, and independent thought are forgotten.

But here is V! Masked, cone-hatted, caped, a Guy Fawkes figure blowing up Parliament, the Old Bailey, and more. Attacking the fascist tyranny, forcing it to stumble and fall, stimulating the people to grasp their freedom once more. A classic theme, but well told. I enjoyed the book.