Film Noir and Graphic Novels
Noir Stylistics in Noir Inspired Graphic novels : Sin City and V for Vendetta
The Stylistics of Film Noir transcends medium : in Sin City and V for Vendetta - both Noir influenced graphic novels that were adapted for the screen - an attempt to identify the Stylistics at play that are common to both mediums will be made. Sin City is Film Noir in both the film version and in the art and writing in the graphic novel from which the film directed by Robert Rodriguez was made. V for Vendetta was written and illustrated by Alan Moore and later made into a film version starring Natalie Portman. My reason for choosing these particular examples was obvious : the ability to reference and cross reference a Noir influenced graphic novel with an actual film noir adaptation of the same. The film Sin City remains faithful to most all Noir stylistics where as V for Vendetta does so in a modernist sense. Robert Rodriguez took great pains to create the visual and other style elements of Noir through his film version of the comic book - which was likewise heavily Noir influenced in the dialogs and illustration style. The Sin City movie was given a special lab treatment where bye color is laced into an essentially noirish low key black and white. V for Vendetta despite faithfulness to the original illustration style of Moore, was, in my opinion more concerned with presenting a post modernist set of Noir Stylistics - basically for audience acceptance at the box office. Again, the V for Vendetta film version lacked the extreme rendering that Rodriguez took pains to accomplish and like Polanski's work on Chinatown - could be classified more as a sub genre of classical Noir.
As per Bould the "Megatext" of Noir is a set of stylistic elements that both Film Noir and Noir inspired graphic novels have in common. Citing specific examples from both the film and comic book versions of Miller's SIN CITY and Alan Moore's "V for Vendetta" (and its adaptation into film with Natalie Portman) I
The Stylistics of Film Noir transcends medium : in Sin City and V for Vendetta - both Noir influenced graphic novels that were adapted for the screen - an attempt to identify the Stylistics at play that are common to both mediums will be made. Sin City is Film Noir in both the film version and in the art and writing in the graphic novel from which the film directed by Robert Rodriguez was made. V for Vendetta was written and illustrated by Alan Moore and later made into a film version starring Natalie Portman. My reason for choosing these particular examples was obvious : the ability to reference and cross reference a Noir influenced graphic novel with an actual film noir adaptation of the same. The film Sin City remains faithful to most all Noir stylistics where as V for Vendetta does so in a modernist sense. Robert Rodriguez took great pains to create the visual and other style elements of Noir through his film version of the comic book - which was likewise heavily Noir influenced in the dialogs and illustration style. The Sin City movie was given a special lab treatment where bye color is laced into an essentially noirish low key black and white. V for Vendetta despite faithfulness to the original illustration style of Moore, was, in my opinion more concerned with presenting a post modernist set of Noir Stylistics - basically for audience acceptance at the box office. Again, the V for Vendetta film version lacked the extreme rendering that Rodriguez took pains to accomplish and like Polanski's work on Chinatown - could be classified more as a sub genre of classical Noir.
As per Bould the "Megatext" of Noir is a set of stylistic elements that both Film Noir and Noir inspired graphic novels have in common. Citing specific examples from both the film and comic book versions of Miller's SIN CITY and Alan Moore's "V for Vendetta" (and its adaptation into film with Natalie Portman) I