Evey Hammond – David Lloyd

Early in 2006 I travelled to London to attend the UK premiere of the V for Vendetta movie. Before you think that I, famed super-confident Lothario, am about to say that that is where I met Natalie Portman for the first time, and, like Moby, romanced her and we were for a while “an item”, because, as we all know, Nat has a thing about bald, much much older men, such as me and Moby, I should add that it was not the red-carpeted premiere that I went to but a much more low-key premiere in the arthouse cinema which forms part of the Institute of Contemporary Arts on the Mall where anyone early enough could gain admission by paying the ticket price, so it was not quite the same as the VIPs-only event in Leicester Square. No, it was better. And this is because in attendance at the ICA was David Lloyd who gave an onstage introduction to the film. Unfortunately I cannot remember anything he said except that he apologised for breaking with protocol by giving a talk before the film when the normal procedure was to speak after we had all seen the film, and then have a Q and A session. He said that he would not even be able to stay for the screening owing to a prior engagement. I sometimes think that the reason he did not stay was so that he could avoid the hordes of fanboys, like myself, cornering him whilst brandishing our copies of V for Vendetta for signing. Either that or it was to escape the cries of execration from, if no-one else, me, because even though I really really wanted to like the film and had been following its production history ever since James Purefoy had been lined up to play V I really really did not like the movie. There were a number of reasons for this but the main problem was the way that the film compressed into two hours what was literally years – for those of us who had been following V for Vendetta since its monthly serialisation in Warrior magazine (I came onboard with issue 7) – of slow-burn narrative build-up. However, one part I did find successful was the flashback sequence of Valerie and her lover. The above drawing is related to that sequence.

This piece of art dates back to what I assume is an eBay purchase which I made in 2011 but for reasons I will not go into (again) I did not get around to opening it until the first UK Covid lockdown in the spring of 2020, by which time I had no recollection of ever paying the customs tariff for it to be released to be delivered to me let alone anything that happened before that. It arrived in a cardboard envelope with a return address of someone called Bradley Angle, which I thought was an unusual name (it is not well known in the UK) and there were no enclosures inside other than the protected artwork. I immediately recognised the artist and subject matter and Googling the name of the sender I made an informed guess that David Lloyd had donated the drawing to Bradley Angle in order for it to raise funds for it to carry out its important work and that he had chosen a subject for the drawing which was directly relevant to the aid that the charity provides. What I am particularly taken with in the above drawing is that even though Evey is at her lowest ebb both physically and mentally she still looks up and clenches her fists in defiance.

When I was young in the early 1980s I thought that the [anti]hero of V for Vendetta was V, but with the passing of time and the experience that you accrue I now recognise that the real hero is Evey. When I uploaded my Frank Miller Daredevil page CAF member Artless Artmore commented that Ben Urich in that storyline fulfills the role of “relatable observer”. I had heard this term before but not really taken any notice of it but from then on I realised it was a common narrative device and what is more I started to see it everywhere: from Jim Hawkins to Luke Skywalker to Evey Hammond. Thank you, Artless! Evey is the character we identify with and the moment she cements her role as the hero is also what I think is one of the most moving moments in comics. That is when after weeks of mental and physical abuse by her interrogators Evey refuses the option of saving her life by signing a trumped-up confession sheet and instead chooses to preserve her integrity even if it means being taken behind the chemical sheds to be executed.

It is depressingly sad that although it is almost 40 years since that scene in comics first appeared that events similar to that are still taking place around the world and not just behind closed doors where only the direct participants are aware of what is happening, but also in the full glare of the world spotlight. I truly hope that in the near future Alan Moore’s words in V for Vendetta about authoritarian/totalitarian regimes will come true: People shouldn’t be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.

Very belated thanks to Bradley Angle and David Lloyd for the drawing. I am honoured to be in possession of it. “Keep up the good work.”