This week's TIME magazine has a feature article on the new film by the Wachowski brothers (the makers of The Matrix). The film is about an anarchist -- a terrorist -- and is set in Britain. It deals with issues of fascism, freedom and fundamentalism -- and speaks to the times that we live in. The film is based on the British comic strip by Alan Moore and David Lloyd called V for Vendetta. I was lucky enough to know these guys when they were creating the comic strip.

For some reason, back in 1984, at the age of 16, I found myself editing and publishing one of the most well-respected "fanzines" about comics in Britain, called INFINITY. Contributors included some of the (now) most famous people in the world of comics: Alan Moore, David Lloyd, Eddie Campbell, Posy Simmonds, Bryan Talbot, Hunt Emerson and more. In the magazine we wrote about little-known comics and creators that would go on to become famous. V for Vendetta was one of my favorites. In the issue shown above, there was part one of a two-part interview I conducted with the artist behind V for Vendetta, David Lloyd. In it we talked about future storylines of V and even a V film -- although this film was being made by a student on a budget of a few hundred dollars or so. Now Warner Bros is releasing a 50 million dollar Hollywood feature film. And perhaps the most amazing thing is... they say it might actually be good!

anarchist - 無政府主義者、アナーキスト terrorist - テロリスト fascism - ファシズム fundamentalism - 根本主義、原理主義、ファンダメンタリズム comic strip - コミックストリップ、コマ割漫画 fanzines - 同人誌、ファン雑誌 contributors - 寄稿者、貢献者