| Product: |
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier - Alan Moore |
| Date: |
07.03.08 (98 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Great writing, great artwork
Disadvantages: Some of the non-comic strip bits are perhaps a little difficult
This is a graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill, two alumni of British sci fi comic 2000AD who have since gone on to bigger and better things (Moore especially - he's probably the most acclaimed comic-book writer in the world). It's published by DC, one of the two big mainstream comic companies in America. It's the third volume in an ongoing saga; you probably need to have read the first two to completely appreciate this.
In superhero comics you often get stories about superheroes ganging up to tackle problems too big for them to handle alone. The first League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series was an amusing skit on that, in which a number of Victorian fictional characters teamed up to fight Fu Manchu. The original League was Mina from Dracula, Quartermain from King Solomon's Mines, Captain Nemo, Jekyll/Hyde and The Invisible Man. There was an appalling film based very loosely on the first series. The second series continued the story, detailing how the League reacted to the invasion of Earth by War of the Worlds Martians. The second series wasn't quite as good as the first, but the ideas behind it were getting more interesting. Moore only used characters from other fictional sources, even for the most minor characters, and seemed intent on creating a world in which every conceivable piece of fiction was real, and they all existed simultaneously.
Which brings us to the Black Dossier, finally. Previous volumes had dropped hints about earlier versions of the League (including the likes of Prospero and Gulliver). This new volume, set in 1958, details the efforts of two surviving members of the Victorian League to steal a dossier of information about earlier leagues from the head of the British secret service ('M', of course, but his real identity is a clever surprise). This is a Britain that has recently fought the Second World War (against Adenoid Hynkel) and then suffered some years of Communist dictatorship (under Big Brother). The League are now enemies of the state, trying to escape the country with the stolen book, pursued by various official agents.
As ever, O'Neill's art is the perfect counterpoint to Moore's script. It's perhaps less heavily stylised than in earlier volumes, but then we are in austerity-era Britain this time round, rather than the steampunk late-Victorian setting of other volumes. And being an Alan Moore comic, it's incredibly clever; often very funny (there's a brilliant Fireball XL5 joke); and perhaps a bit too obsessed with sex, especially lesbian sex. There are the usual witty in-jokes, with characters like Billy Bunter and James Bond turning up, and references to the likes of Hi-De-Hi, Jerry Cornelius and Enid Blyton. No other writer would have characters from Angela Carter novels and the Fast Show appearing on the same music hall poster. How much patience you have for that kind of thing will determine whether you enjoy this.
But it isn't just a comic, and that's perhaps a source of disappointment for some. We, the readers, also get to read the dossier about the past Leagues, excerpts from which are dotted throughout the comic book story. And here you certainly get the feeling that Alan Moore, a fearsomely learned man, is starting to show off. So we get, among many other things, scenes from a lost Shakespeare play, a sequel to Fanny Hill, a chapter from a made-up Kerouac novel and a short Jeeves and Wooster story about Lovecraftian elder gods. These are good pastiches written by an author at the height of his power, and present an enjoyable mix of formats. The Jeeves one is everybody's favourite. I only know one person who has so far managed to get through the Kerouac chapters (and he was drunk), but then everyone finds the real Kerouac unreadable, don't they?
The main story itself takes some profoundly unexpected turns and ends with a kind of meta-fictional reassertion of Moore's magickal worldview (as expounded in his extraordinary recent series Promethea). The whole thing is either a postmodern attempt to rewrite history as a series of attitudes exemplified by each era's fiction, or a load of self-indulgent twaddle. Naturally, I go along with the former view, being a confirmed fan of Alan Moore; I don't altogether blame people who were taken aback or even disappointed by this, though. A lot of people will find it deeply pretentious.
This can't be legally sold in the UK for copyright reasons (that's the official line; Moore and his publishers have fallen out - again - so there's a theory that DC didn't release it in the UK just to piss Moore off). It is, however, very easy to get hold of through amazon or ebay (and due to the weak dollar, probably cheaper than it would be if it were released over here). Expect to pay about £15 for it.
It's a handsome hardback graphic novel. It contains a lovely mix of paper stocks and formats - there's a little Tijuana Bible included, and 3-D glasses (the last ten pages or so are in 3-D). The closest thing I can compare it to in terms of format are those old Monty Python books. It was also meant to ship with a flexi-disk of Alan Moore singing (anyone who's heard him speak will know why that would be hilarious) but sadly they're saving that for the more expensive reprint.
I doubt I'm selling this too well. If you've read the first two volumes, you'll probably enjoy this. If you know a lot about post war literature you'll get the jokes; if you're into postmodernism you'll doubtless 'get' what it's trying to do. And if throwaway references to Gorgo and Roy of the Rovers sound like they'd be hilarious, this is probably as close to literary perfection as you're likely to find. If, on the other hand, you liked the film, or don't enjoy non-linear storytelling, or just think the whole thing sounds absurdly pretentious, then best steer clear.
Summary: Alan Moore's latest
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