The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier

1958



We return to another installment of the series sure to pop up in the hundreds of Google and Bing searches for the Quorum of Gentlemen due to the number of times I can add the word gentlemen to a blog with the word gentlemen in the title. Gentlemen, start your engines.

Critic and fan reviews of this installment of Alan Moore's crossover fiction series were mixed (and that doesn't count the folks who conspired to ban it from libraries). Rather than a straightforward story told in a series of comic book installments, the Black Dossier is a coffee-table style book full of a mixed-media pastiche of things to look at and read. There is a linear comic story featuring the primary protagonists of the league, Mina Murray and Allan Quatermain, in which they largely spoof James Bond in the setting of Orwells' Big Brother London (who came to power in 48, not 84... Orwell had it wrong, you see). Other sections, however, are frequently comprised of text and prose, and jump over several decades hinting at larger adventures of the League and expanding on other fictional characters with little to no relevance to the League, other than Moore squeezing them into the LoEG world. Which suits me just fine. Yes, I am tantilized by pictures and stories about Fanny Hill. Sue me.

The bad: It's just so much. Where the League stories traditionally hint and tease at a world full of fictional characters, it is generally not necessary to research the characters and the 200 references in the background. But the Dossier is purely a vehicle for Alan Moore to flex his literary and cultural muscles and indulge in crossover self-pleasuring. Unfortunately, softer fans of crossover fiction who had hoped for a Watchmen style epic found themselves confused and longing for a more normal story. Yeah, Alan, you're just too smart.

The good: It's just so well done. Moore mimics a variety of writing styles, in addition to the core storyline which retains his own writing voice. And many of the included characters suprise- we expected HP Lovecraft, but we didn't know that the Unknown Ones would have to contend with Jeeves & Wooster! Kerouac gets in on the action, and 100 other folks which even I had a hard time getting through without using Google. The main story culminates in a transdimensional journey crafted in 3-D by an expert in the field, Ray Zone. I'm the first to agree that 3-D often isn't so great, but I contend that the 3-D artwork here is one of the finest things I have ever viewed while wearing stupid looking glasses. Granted, it would have probably been better on drugs, mostly because the story would have made more sense.

In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, the Black Dossier is a clumsy and overwhelming mess guaranteed to make anyone except Alan Moore feel like a moron. But it is a crossover fiction fan's wet dream and I loved it, loved it, loved it. I highly recommend that anyone who is a fan of comic book art at least get it from your local library in order to check out the 3-D section.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century: 1910

1910

Although I read The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century: 1910 just a year ago, I am already fuzzy on the details. Alan Moore discarded the use of easy chronological volumes after vol. 2, and started jumping around in the time stream as well as jumping around in style, prose and the use of storytelling as a way of telling a story. Although some of the results are brilliant in my estimation, many of the faithful became disenchanted quickly. Looking up obscure fictional characters starts losing its charm when you've never heard of them and aren't convinced they were worthy of reincarnation. This particular book had almost 650 ratings on Goodreads, and nearly 100 reviews written, most of them bad. And, well, I gotta say I agree.

We do get to see some familiar characters, and the development of some pretty good new characters (namely Nemo's daughter "Pirate Jenny" and Orlando, an immortal multi-gender member of the League). There are a few other teasers of Oliver Haddo and storylines to be further developed in the ever-postponed conclusion to the Century trilogy. But mostly the story drags, the characters fail to elicit wonder or excitement and if Moore was going for a down-beat mid-chapter ala' The Two Towers or the Empire Strikes Back, he missed the mark- which would be having the reader give a crap.

If I had the time or resources, I would expand this blog entry to highlight some of my recurring characters and how they fit into this story. But the truth is - and it hurts me to say this about one of my favorite writers and one of my favorite series - this comic is weak and not worthy of taking time away from things in my real life like scrubbing toilets or packing a sack lunch for work tomorrow.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

1898

One would think that this blog is subversively dedicated to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and in some ways I guess that's true. My posts, anyway, and my hand in creating and naming the blog.

I'm actually quite tempted to skip reviewing this comic book series altogether. Enough has been said about it in plenty of other blogs. Heck, Alan Moore probably would rather not discuss it himself. And nothing will ever, ever, ever wash away the vomit-burp taste of that movie adaptation. I could talk about how the League influenced my desire to read everything ever written in chronological order, but you can read that here.

I could use the crossover forum to talk about how I have always been a fan of friend crossover in real life. That is to say, I enjoy introducing people to each other. This helps explain why I was an early adopter of online social networking. I think I read an article on Friendster and was instantly fascinated. But in the real world I have long seen a parallel between my groups of friends and crossovers. Hear me out.

I have moved around a lot. Although in some ways I have suffered a lack of deep roots I have more than made up for it by meeting so many wonderful people all over the country and world. In some cases we have formed informal clubs or gangs, a trend I am usually spearheading. These groups are sometimes named and identified, other times we just know who we are in a more subversive and subconscious sort of way. I can trace it as far back as a Monty Python inspired middle school club called the Confused Morons. In it's current incarnation it would be PFAC, a 'Guy's Night Out' sort of group that exists in several different incarnations, or perhaps chapters would be a good way of putting it. This blog is one such sub-set. At times I realize that I have been a fringe member of other cliques, gangs, or general groups of friends.

What I really get a kick out of, though, is the rare occasions that I have been able to get a friend from one era of my life to come and "party" with another group of friends. Everyone loves to introduce old friends to new ones, stop looking at me so weird. It's just that I tend to see it more in the light of Wolverine dropping by the Justice League HQ to hang out with Batman.



And yes, I realize that this blog actually will not encourage anyone to hang out with me.

Back to the Extraordinary League of Gentlemen!!! Fans of comic books have grown quite bored with promotionalized crossovers like Marvel vs. DC, it's been quite overdone.

Alan Moore put a huge spin on things, though, when he used Victorian characters from unliscensed literature and dropped them in a steampunk world. He dusted off dudes that both we and our parents grew up with as the standard in fantasy and science-fiction, honored their true roots and origins at the same time as he revamped them to be much cooler.



Not everyone is as enraptured by crossover fiction and old English writing, but I find the depth of detail of each subsequent volume to be mind-blowing. By volume three I cease toting it's merits and simply advise lazy readers to stick the the NY Times list. Understanding the background, hints, easter eggs, characters and storylines of the ongoing series is so overwhelming that only those willing to treat the series as a homework assignment in the history of fantasy and fiction are prepared to enjoy it. Writers of comics that require annotations are to be honored... because that's AWESOME.

Unfortunately, the 1988 version of the League as assembled by "Doc" Brown is a fake.


Next Up: Memoirs of a Revolutionist.