It's difficult to imagine a more validating image for members of the Occupy Wall Street movement than this piece by V For Vendetta co-creator David Lloyd, who's drawn his and Alan Moore's anarchist antihero -- whose rebellious visage has been adopted by the protesters -- squaring off against the mascot of economic aggressiveness, the "Charging Bull" statue by Arturo Di Modica that resides in Bowling Green Park in New York City. Fittingly, the illustration is the cover for issue #2 of the Occupy Comics anthology, the stated mission of which is to create change by creating art. Here we see art versus art, and on the one-year anniversary of the protests that sought to address economic issues in the wake of the world economic crisis.

Speaking with Wired last year, Lloyd extended his support to the Occupy Wall Street cause. "I was massively impressed by the great camaraderie and strength of will showed in New York last October when I went to see what they were doing, and I hope that they can somehow survive all the blows they've suffered since then... They've got a hard job to do and it's not going to get any easier."

Originating as a Kickstarter project which raised nearly $30,000, Occupy Comics is is intended to be "a time capsule of the passions and emotions driving the movement" and "tell the stories of the people who are out there putting themselves at risk for an idea." The new issue features original work by Mike Allred (Madman), activist Bill Ayers (The Weather Underground), Pulitzer-nominated political cartoonist Matt Bors, Shannon Wheeler (Too Much Coffee Man), Si Spurrier (2000 AD), Smudge (2000 AD), Riley Rossmo (Wild Children), Patrick Meaney (director, Warren Ellis: Captured Ghosts), Matthew Rosenberg & Patrick Kindlon (The Urn), Ryan Alexander-Tanner (To Teach: The Journey, in Comics), and artist Molly Crabapple.

You can buy it from Black Mask Studio, who will donate profits to "various actions of the global Occupy movement."


In a press release, Occupy Comics organizer Matt Pizzolo addressed the subject that you're all thinking about right now:
"...it's funny that there's been such a strong reaction to the Bull's balls on the cover since they're strikingly prominent on the actual statue... in fact, it's common for Wall Street traders to rub the Bull's balls for luck every morning--and doesn't that pretty much say it all?"