David Lloyd (comics)

David Lloyd (born 1950) is an English comics artist best known as the illustrator of the story V for Vendetta, written by Alan Moore, and the designer of its anarchist protagonist V and the modern Guy Fawkes/V mask, the latter going on to become a symbol of protest.

Other books he has illustrated include Wasteland, Espers, Hellblazer, Global Frequency, The Territory, and licensed properties such as Aliens and James Bond. In 2012 Lloyd established Aces Weekly, an online comics anthology.

Early life
David Lloyd was born in Enfield, London in 1950.

Career
Lloyd started working in comics in the late 1970s, drawing for Halls of Horror, TV Comic and a number of Marvel UK titles. With writer Steve Parkhouse, he created the pulp adventure character Night Raven. Lloyd names John Burns, Steve Ditko, Ronald Embleton, Jack Kirby, and Tony Weare as artistic influences. Lloyd drew a comics adaptation of the Time Bandits film in 1982.

Warrior and V for Vendetta
Dez Skinn set up Warrior magazine in 1982 and asked Lloyd to create a new pulp character. Lloyd and writer Alan Moore, who had previously collaborated on several Doctor Who stories at Marvel UK, created V for Vendetta, a dystopian adventure featuring a flamboyant anarchist terrorist—V—fighting against a future fascist government. Lloyd, who illustrated in cinematic chiaroscuro, devised V's Guy Fawkes-inspired appearance and suggested that Moore avoid captions, sound effects and thought balloons. Lloyd stated in a 2005 interview that "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. I just suggested it to Alan, and he said, 'that sounds like a good idea.' It gave us everything, the costume and everything. During the summer, I couldn't get any of these masks. These masks that you could get in every shop had a smile built into them. So I created this Guy Fawkes mask with a kind of smile. It was an ideal costume for this future anarchist persona." After Warrior folded in 1984, the series was reprinted and continued in colour by DC Comics in 1988 and collected as a graphic novel in 1995.

It was adapted into a film released in 2005. The stylized Guy Fawkes/V mask Lloyd created for the character went on to become a symbol of protest. It was adopted as the symbol for the online hacktivist group Anonymous after appearing in web forums. It has also been used in Project Chanology, the Occupy movement, Anonymous for the Voiceless, the fictional F-Society in Mr. Robot, and other anti-establishment protests around the world.

Later career
Lloyd was one of the artists on the graphic horror anthology Wasteland for DC Comics with writers John Ostrander and Del Close. Lloyd has also worked on Espers, with writer James D. Hudnall, for Eclipse Comics; Hellblazer, with writers Grant Morrison and Jamie Delano, and War Story, with Garth Ennis, for DC; and Global Frequency, with Warren Ellis, for WildStorm. With Delano he drew The Territory for Dark Horse Comics, where he also worked on some of their licensed properties such as Aliens and James Bond. In 2006 Lloyd created a graphic novel, Kickback, for the French publisher Editions Carabas.

In 2012 Lloyd established Aces Weekly, an online comics anthology featuring creators such as Mark Wheatley, Val Mayerik, John McCrea, Phil Hester, Lew Stringer and David Leach.