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.

King Solomon's Mines

1880

King Solomon's Mines

I am trying to write material about books, especially the well-known "classics", that are based on my unique opinions or perspective, as opposed to mainstream information that can already be found in any number of websites. But there is usually relevant information that is worth pointing out, even if I copped it off of Wikipedia.

'King Solomon's Mines' is the first fictional adventure novel set in Africa, and it inspired an entire genre which can be referred to as Lost World stories. These would include stories written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Arthur Conan Doyle, HP Lovecraft and Michael Crichton. It also had literary value in it's approach to race relations (the narrator at one point states that many Africans are more worthy of the title of "gentleman" than the Europeans who settle or adventure in the country) and even mythopoeic tones mixed in with a writing style that breaks loose from the wordiness and stodginess of other Victorian writers. Also- Haggard wrote the book on a bet with his brother that he could write something better than Treasure Island. Cool.

While many aspects of the story are exciting, and there is a huge war at the end which comes along unexpectedly and is unexpectedly awesome, most of the story is full of the main characters starving a whole lot, just barely surviving and then lucking into something they were looking for. I would rather focus on the protagonist, Allan Quatermain, and how he has been portrayed in adaptations and spin-off media. In a lot of ways we have come to believe that Quatermain is the original Indiana Jones, and in a lot of ways he is.

But in his first appearance in this book he is old, thin and wiry and his only point of pride and ability is his skill as a marksman. In fact, he only accepts the assigment of exploring uncharted regions of Africa based on the fact that he doesn't figure he'll live much longer anyway so why not risk his neck if he can earn money for his son who lives far away. By the time he-surfaces in the League, he is a sickly skeleton of a man, wasting away in an opium den- but see how I get ahead of myself?

Allan Q has appeared in many movies, six of which were adaptations of this book. Here are some of the better trailers so you can take a look at a tired, old man who happens to shoot a gun well.



How about those CRAZY ELEPHANTS, huh? I assure you there was no Lady with the Fire Hair in the novel.

The Sharon Stone version is definately the most true to the novel.



Remember the recent mini-series starring Patrick Swayze? Me neither. I don't know why: this commerical looks SO EXCITING.



And last on the list of craptasticness is the adaptation of the League: I hate giving this movie any mention, at least right now, but think how excited fan boys were when it was accounced that Quatermain would be played by none other than Sean Connery! This guy is both James Bond and Indiana Jones' dad! Now he plays the original safari bad-ass as an appropriately aged older man. Sweet!



Oh no, wait. Connery isn't playing an old junkie African marksman- he's playing SEAN CONNERY. Isn't that what most film producers pay him a lot of money to do most of the time? It's like they thought, 'Hey, no one has ever played Quatermain accurately- who can we get to really slaughter the character better than anyone else ever has? I know- Let's make him SCOTTISH!!!!'

Despite the fact that Hollywood has reduced this iconic figure to a direct-to-DVD staple, his literary presence has continued on. Before Alan Moore ever thought about the guy, PJ Farmer had written him into the Newton Universe as a relation to Sherlock Holmes. And what I love best about Quatermain's current adventures is that he continues to survive! It's what the guy does best, really.

King Soloman's Mine is a quick and fun read, and although I chose to skip them when I read the book back in September 2008, I plan to go back one day and read all of the stories that Haggard wrote about Quatermain, both the prequals and sequals (in chronological order, of course). I heartily recommend Mines as a great book to share with your kids the next time they tell you how awesome the adventure hero of the month is- Allan Quatermain is the real deal, kids.