D for Digital

David Lloyd is a man on a mission. The famed co-creator of V for Vendetta , whose Guy Fawkes mask has become the symbol of anti-establishment protests, from rebels in Syria to Occupy Protestors in New York, is now involved in his latest project acesweekly.co.uk , a digital comic art magazine, which asks fans to move away from the printed book and go completely digital. At the Indian Comic Con, Lloyd took a break from signing V masks to talk about killing the middleman and extolling the artist.

What was it like working with Alan Moore on V for Vendetta? Alan has the image of an eccentric creator but in reality he is quite ordinary and a great guy to work with. We rarely met while working on V and created the book through letters we exchanged since both of us were living in different parts of England then. Those were the early days and both of us had similar influences, when it came to magazines and movies. I’m glad our book went on to become what it has, we never thought the art in it would be subverted this way, but I’m happy it has.

Tell us about your latest project.Acesweekly.co.uk is an online comic magazine, that’s exclusively digital. We don’t preview for print which is what a lot of other digital comics do. Once upon a time, a century ago, if you wanted to produce something you wanted people to read, you had to print it. This is the 21st century, we have got the internet and we don’t need that stuff anymore. Also, it is best that the middleman is taken out of the picture and all proceeds from the sale of a creative work go directly to the creator. Because look, who earns most money from a work such as Spiderman, it is the people at Marvel, it’s not the artists.

How do the artists’ locations affect their work? Well, it greatly influences your work if you are a free agent. But if you are a working strip cartoonist who earns his living in the industry, it doesn’t affect your work at all, because whether you’re living in Brazil, Croatia or wherever, they are still going to be asking you to draw a Batman in New York. At the same time, it is true that all artists, cartoonists are influenced by their environment, so that’s why a lot of independent comic artists like Jeffery Brown, Joe Sacco etc. draw the way they do.

Have you built a dedicated online audience?

Well, that’s the problem because comic fans are still stuck on the printed book. We are waiting for readers to take to the digital platform wholeheartedly and that still needs some doing.

Have you enjoyed Comic Con? It’s been good so far, I have met a lot of people and signed a lot of V books and paraphernalia. I hope to meet some of the Indian comic artists over the next few days.

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