The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen - The War Of The Worlds!

I really enoy War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells and I re-read periodically, so I was a sucker for the second volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen which has that intrepid group struggling against the invasion. One of the beauties of this second yarn is that we already know our protagonists (calling them heroes seems a bit off base) so we are all ready for the story to heat up. But Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill do a clever switch in that the story begins on Mars. 

Once again there be spoilers below Maties, so tread with care. 

The first issue of this second volume is set on Mars and features John Carter (from Princess of Mars and many other books by Edgar Rice Burroughs), Gullivar Jones (from Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation by Edwin Lester Jones), and assorted Martians from various literary sources. The story begins with Gullivar using his flying carpet to attend a rendezvous with John Carter and his Thark forces. They are in the midst of a military assault against the aliens who are scheming to attack Earth. The invasion comes from Mars but the aliens who inhabit the tripods are not from there. The Sorns (from Out the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis) show up to assist but it's too late and the invasion of Earth is underway by the end of the story. 

The League is sent to the site of the first landing where they see the great shell unscrew and witness the devastating heat ray at work. The superiority of the invaders causes the Invisible Man to betray his mankid and the world and try to make a deal with them.

Mina discovers Griffin stealing war plans and he gives her a savage beating. The full nature of the threat is soon made obvious to everyone when another shell lands. The deadly tripods appear and begin to wreak havoc. The other League members are enraged when they find Mina beaten and bloody on the floor and Hyde swears vengeance. 

The League is divided. Nemo and Hyde stay to fight the invading tripods using the resources of the Nautilus while Mina and Alan head to Africa to find a mysterious fellow who Mycroft says can help save the planet. The two of them make an attempt to find some affection in the midst of the suffering and Mina reveals for the first time the savage scars around her neck. 

The two reconcile and while in the midst of further lovemaking are confronted by strange hybrid creatures who take them to their master, Dr. Moreau (from The Island of Dr. Moreau by Wells). He shows them his creations and gives them a secret hybrid which is contained in a chest for them to transport to London. Hyde locates Griffen and wreaks a horrible vengeance for his attack on Mina. 

Mina and Alan return to England and Moreau's creation is unleashed. It's a hybrid strain of anthrax and streptococcus which in short order invades the immune systems of the aliens and kills them. Edward Hyde goes forth to battle the tripods and is ultimately burned to death by their weapons. Horrified by the use of diseases to end the threat Nemo rejects the League and leaves. Mina says goodbye to Alan and heads to a commune for women in Scotland. The story ends with Alan Quatermain sitting alone on a bench. 

The text item which ran through this series was The New Traveller's Almanac, an insanely detailed faux tavelogue from 1931 which details many of the more bizarre locations in the world of the League. It begins with the British Isles and then moves to Europe and then America and then across the globe. Moore has done an incredible job of smashing together just about every fantasy location from legend, myth or literature I could imagine. Many I recognize, many I've never heard of. Bizarre creatures abound and even stranger people. The information in his almanac was gleaned from the reports of many folks including members of the League from years past. We have many entries from Mina Murray and in this way, we are witness in some respects to her further adventures as well as the final adventures of Alan Quatermain. We also encounter Orlando for the first time, and he/she will be an important player as the series continues. This is a heady read which requires time, a good deal of patience and really good eyes. 

In addition to the Almanac there are also included several little games, coloring pages and whatnots. They are clever is not exceedingly practical. 

And that's the second installment of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The series becomes even more compelling in what feels like its finale as we lose significant members of the cast. But this is not the end by any means. There is much more to come from the bedazzled minds of Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill when we encounter a raft of new characters in The Black Dossier. That's next week. 

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The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen - Empire Dreams!

Someone says to you that they will write a story teaming up many famous and infamous characters of the 18th and 19th centuries in a sprawling grand adventure set in a never-never land of world history, and they are incredibly unpleasant to each other to boot. Sounds a little fishy but Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill pulled it off when they gave the world The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The team is composed of a woman who has suffered a savage attack from forces of darkness, a famous white hunter who has become addicted to opium, a timid chap who changes into a man-eating monster, a murderous and lecherous fellow who cannot be seen, and a blood-thirsty pirate driven by revenge. This is a rollicking comic book tale with a stunning approach to grand old characters in that it gives them no respect whatsoever, they are forced to earn the reader's admiration all over again and some actually do.

This title has been out over twenty years, so spoilers seem unnecessary but but tread carefully because I divulge secrets below. 

The story begins with Wilhemina (Mina) Murray (from Bram Stoker's Dracula) being given a mission by the mysterious and rotund Mr. Campion Bond on the behalf of his downright enigmatic boss known only as "M". Her mission to round up a bunch of bizarre men who will form a task force to operate on behalf of M. Her first stop is an opium den where she finds a dissolute Alan Quatermain (of She and other novels by H. Rider Haggard). Next she and a reluctant Quatermain are introduced to Captain Nemo (from Jules Vernes novels 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island) and his enormous vessel the Nautilus which whisks them to Paris to discover another member, the savage Mr. Edward Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson's creation from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). 

After capturing Hyde, who reverts to the meager Dr. Jekyll, the outfit returns to England to visit a girl's school where strange things are afoot. Girls are seemingly being impregnated by supernatural means, but it is shown it is in fact the transparent Hawley Griffin (from H.G. Well's novel The Invisible Man) who is doing the knocking up. 

Fully assembled this "League" is given its mission, to track down and find some lost "Cavorite" (a mineral which defies gravity from Well's From the Earth to the Moon) that has fallen into the hands of an unnamed Asian villain called the "Devil Doctor" (Fu Manchu from many novels by Sax Rohmer). This villain plans to use the Cavorite to power an immense vehicle which give him power in London and elsewhere. 

The League finds the Cavorite and after bloody and ferocious fighting liberate on the behalf of "M". The mysterious M is not Mycroft Holmes as Mina had surmised but the "Napolean of Crime", Professor James Moriarty (Arthur Conan Doyle's creation from his Sherlock Holmes canon). Moriarty wants the Cavorite for his own air vehicle to give him the power and aid him in his battle against the Devil Doctor. 

We learn how Moriarty survived the Reichenbach Falls incident and then we are treated to the details of his scheme. Also listening in was the invisible Griffen who savagely assumes a policeman's identity to travel across London to tell his colleagues. They realize the mistake they have made and prepare to battle Moriarty's forces in defense of London. 

The war between Moriarty's air forces and Fu Manchu's forces spills across the sky of London. The League uses a balloon to infiltrate Moriarty's ship and then proceed to bring down his forces, in a most brutal manner. Moriarty is defeated when clinging to the Cavorite he slips out of sight into the sky. The League is recognized for their valor by Mycroft Holmes who assumes Moriarty's position. They agree to stay together as the skiy is brightened by the harbinger of a Martian invasion. 

Also included in each issue of the six-issue run and combined in the rear of the collection is "Allan and the Sundered Veil". This is prequel of sorts for the League story in which Allan Quatermain is summoned to a remote estate and given a drug which causes him to slip out of sync with time. In this other world of timelessness, he encounters Randolph Carter (H.P. Lovecraft's supernatural hero) and Captain John Carter (the stalwart of many Mars stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs). The former is a seeker of weird mysteries and the latter a Civil War soldier who found himself for a time on the planet Mars. They are joined by a Time Traveler (from the Well's novel of the same name) who travels in a strange vehicle and end up fighting ferocious man-beasts in the future known as Mi-Go or Morlocks. Eventually they are stranded on a giant crystal of time and eventually return to their worlds. Quatermain is quite shattered by his adventure and seeks the solace of Opium where he will be discovered by Mina Murray. 

The League of Extraordinary Gentleman is a delightful brew of the familiar and the bizarre. Moore uses his encyclopedic knowledge of literature to feather the story with all sorts of references. Kevin O'Neill's bizarre but compelling treats these giants of literature with more vigor than respect, making them come alive all over again in this strange and wonderful tale. The story is a brutal one, and not for the faint of heart. It's filled with the whole panoply of passions people get up to, so the reader should be warned that this is not the calm and polite world in which these creatures usually inhabit. It's a raucous world filled enormous buildings and bewildering architecture of all sorts. It's a ton of fun and the best thing is that there is a second volume which to my mind is even better. 

More on that tomorrow. 

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She Again!

Late last spring I finally got around to reading H.Rider Haggard's epic novel She and at that same time got hold of the 1935 movie adaptation. Go here to read what I thought of those if you'd like. But recently Turner Classics put on the other famous version of She, this starring the stunning Ursula Andress in the...ahem...titular role.

Take a gander.

It's difficult to overstate how beautiful Andress is in this movie, she's just fabulous, worthy of all the praise I've seen heaped on this flick. Her oddly stiff acting style actually enhances the alien nature of Ayesha who having lived for thousands of years can be a bit odd to say the least. And her exotic beauty does indeed connote something at once alluring and dangerous and intoxicating. You can understand why some guy might jump into a fire for her.

But if it were only her in this flick it would be a boring lot indeed, as staring at a pretty face however attractive gets dull eventually. The Hammer gang is along for this wild ride through deserts and mountains into the long-forgotten and distance lost city Ayesha rules. We have stalwarts Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee on hand as always, the classic tag team of 60's weird horror giving their usual bravura performances. Cushing's rendition of Holley is actually less restrained than many of his presentations and a welcome change from his usually internal and intellectual characters. Holley here is loyal bounder. Bernard Cribbins is on hand as the loyal Job and does a crackerjack job in a thankless but necessary role. Lee is the counter-villain in this one plotting against our heroes and Ayesha and he gives his usual oily venomous performance.

Cribbins, Cushing, Andress, and Richardson

The surprise for me was how good John Richardson was as Leo. He's not an actor who has impressed me in the past, but he does a pretty good job playing a man overwhelmed by the events which have swallowed up and largely demolished his ego and his life. Rosenda Monteros is wonderful as the girl Ustane who loves Leo and challenges Ayesha. Her fate is a real stunner in a flick that turns in on itself neatly with an ending which does justice to the time invested.

I liked this one much more than I expected. I feared it would be dreary, with Andress being deadly dull. It's not, and she's certainly not. I can see why people hold this version in such high regard. It's a good one.

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Allan Quatermain!

Finished the H.Rider Haggard novel Allan Quatermain a few days ago. It's the direct sequel to King Solomon's Mines and tells the whopping tale of how Quatermain, now rich from his earlier expedition loses interest in civilized life after the death of his son and joins up with his old mates from the earlier novel, Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good to once again go to Africa, this time to find the legendary white race which might exist in the heart of the continent.

This  novel is not quite the ferocious read that King Solomon's Mines was. There is a sense of repetition with the lead characters who aside from Quatermain develop hardly at all from the first novel, in fact seem less so. Curtis in particular seems just a big of a lunk through most of the story and the goofy charm Good brought to the last story seems a tad forced this time. Newly added for comedic effect is the cowardly Frenchman Alphonse, a great cook but lousy fighter. He's worth a few chuckles.

The real reason though to get and read this novel is Umslopagaas, the utterly ferocious Zulu warrior who is an old companion of Quatermain's who joins up with the expedition and brings an utterly vibrant energy to the proceedings. His wild and unpredictable nature livens up the story which for long sections alas lies dormant and staid. Not when Umslopagaas swings his mighty axe Inkosi-kaas, a brutal weapon with a bladed side and a spiked side which is often used by Unslopagaas in a striking fashion giving him the nickname "The Woodpecker". His fatalistic charm gives this novel the charge it needs to keep chugging.

This isn't a bad novel by any stretch, it's a good one, but alas doesn't have the brisk pacing of the first Quatermain adventure. The characters seem also to want to inflict their Victorian morality on all they meet and that fundamental rejection of the native cultures comes across as patronizing, not something I felt reading King Solomon's Mines where they cultures were presented warts and all but not undermined necessarily. The racism inherent in a story of this type seems a bit more pointed also.

There are some great fights, but the most exciting parts of the story happen in the middle and once the expedition finds the Zu-Vendis, the lost white race, the story actually begins to contract a bit falling into a predictable pattern which seems to move unnecessarily slowly at times. Also I noticed that Umslopogaas disappears for those parts of the story which lumbered. He's the juice that makes this story run for sure.

So get and read Alan Quatermain, but do so with some mild cautions.

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King Solomon's Mines!

What an adventure! I at long last filled a chasm in my literary knowledge by finally reading H.Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines, the first novel featuring Alan Quatermain. I've wanted to read this novel in some sense for decades and after recently completing She, and finding it extremely entertaining I came at last to Haggard's even more famous novel. It was compelling. I was swept along as we meet Quatermain, not the man I expected, but an older brave but self-deprecating African hunter and adventurer possessed of a practical but nonetheless oddly Romantic worldview.

It is through Quatermain's wizened eyes that we meet Umbopa, the impressive native who has a secret of great import, and who joins a truly desperate safari bent on finding a the missing brother of  the equally impressive Sir Henry Curtis. Along for the ride is the delightful Captain Good, a displaced sailor of much mirth and good will. They search for lost children and lost lands and possibly even treasure following a suspect map into terrain renowned for killing anyone who braves it. The find a "lost civilization" ruled by a bloodthirsty tyrant and much valiant action ensues.

Haggard's writing snatched me by the throat and I read eager to round the next bend in the story as Quatermain and his mates search for all manner of things but find meaning in their lives most of all. It's easy to see why this story has been so remarkably successful. It's a rock solid entertainment with a potent message. After decades of reading and enjoying Edgar Rice Burroughs among others, I feel almost like an explorer who has at long last found the source of the great river.

But what's hard to fathom is why no good movie that I'm aware of has been made Haggard's story here. This is a thrill ride which demands a faithful adaptation to the big screen and frankly I've never run across a film version yet that didn't bore me senseless. One reason I've never gotten around to this book is that the movies I've chanced across seemed unimpressive.

Reading the novel makes me realize that the filmmakers in their "wisdom" seem to want to a film a story which is not here. They blend characters needlessly and transform Quatermain from complicated bitter man who finds hope into a youthful knuckle-headed hero from central casting. And they always have to stick a chick in the middle of the thing. The larger-than-life images painted by Haggard diminish on the big screen as no filmmaker can find actors impressive enough to represent them.

Haggard's story is grander than Hollywood can reckon. It's a pity.

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She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed!

I just completed reading a novel I've been meaning to conquer for several decades now. I don't know what the particular hold up has been frankly, but I never ever seemed to get around to reading H.Rider Haggard's She: A History of Adventure, the original lost world novel. It might have been some bad experiences trying to get started on Haggard's King Solomon's Mines, but whatever the cause I've never filled this chasm in my fantasy knowledge. Now having at long last ventured to the source of this literary Nile, I am awestruck by Haggard's skill and the scope of the novel.

I trust most already know the story, but in a thumbnail two adventurers, the handsome Leo Vincey and his guardian the hideous Horace Holly travel to deepest darkest Africa following the vague but intriguing clues left behind by Leo's father about an ancient land and a terrible secret tale of dreadful love and betrayal. The two after much struggle find the land of Kor and ultimately the all-powerful queen of that ancient land, the one called "She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed" or Ayesha. She's older than she looks and that detail and the deadly secret held by Leo are the keys to this fascinating yarn.

Haggard's descriptions of She are vivid and intoxicating. Her ancient beauty is held up as something too much for a mere man to endure, and this highly exaggerated notion works well within high romance confines of this novel to make Ayesha a terrible and at the same time positively attractive woman.

This is a Victorian novel after all though, and old-fashioned notions about race and gender abound, but safely closed off inside this ancient vessel of a tale are safe for modern handling. This story was apparently written by Haggard in something of a creative fury, and you get the sense that it wouldn't take a lot for the whole thing to tumble apart. So messing with the old out-dated ideas is a no-no on this one. Take it for what it is.

Alas that is not exactly what Merian C. Cooper, the mastermind behind the seminal movie King Kong did when he brought She to the big screen in 1935. Soon after reading the novel, I ordered and watched this vintage flick, once thought lost, for the very first time. This movie adapted by Kong scribe Ruth Rose has a number of charms within it, some elaborate sets, some interesting characters, but ultimately this movie is not a true success, not in the way its novelistic inspiration is.

Once again we have the story of Horace and Leo, but in this one Horace played by Nigel Bruce is the follower and Leo played by Randolph Scott is the lead. This is a mistake as Scott is the proverbial block of wood in much of this movie. Bruce just stands around a lot and his charms are mostly wasted after the first reel. "She" is played by Helen Gahagan who does a dandy job as Ayesha, but can't save what is mostly a lifeless flick. Helen Mack, fresh from Son of Kong is along for the journey and adds some small spark to the proceedings. In two small but interesting parts are Nobel Johnson in his typical savage chieftan mode, looking quite good in this, and Lumsden Hare as a greedy Northern explorer who disappears from the flick much too soon for my tastes.

The biggest problem with them movie though is the conceptual nature of Kor. Instead of Africa, the story is set in the frozen wastes of the Arctic. The exotic heat is replaced by cold white vistas. Admittedly Kor is hidden underground amidst volcanic warmth, but still the lurid quality of a naked Ayesha shimmering in the African sun is sacrificed for a lot of very prim if handsome costuming.

And that's the heart of it. The ancient rites of Kor, the ceremonies and rituals are realized on screen as nigh Busby Berkeley affairs, overly long dance routines with all manner of exotic costumes, few of which seemed really to connect to one another. There seemed to be a dozen cultures rolled into one, and all of them seemed to have recently spent time on a Broadway stage. The movie at what should be its climax pretty much stops as this nonsense unfolds at some length.

Then almost as an anti-climax we find the secret of Ayesha and the story wraps up in a flash. It's an odd construction to a story which I'd have thought would have told itself. There are charms in this movie, some fun moments, but overall it's surprisingly unimpressive given the pedigree of its creators.

Now though, having finished Haggard's She at long last, I can make another stab at King Solomon's Mines. Maybe I'll have better luck this time. 

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