The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen - Nemo Trilogy!

The Nemo Trilogy treats us to the extraordinary life of Janni Dakkar, the daughter of the dangerous Captain Nemo and member of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Each installment of this saga is set decades apart and gives the reader insights into remote corners of the wild and crazy world created by Alan Moore Kevin O'Neill. The descriptions below are spoiler rich so tread carefully. 

Heat of Ice begins in 1925 when Janni and her crew rob Charles Foster Kane and the immortal Ayesha. Bent on revenge the two hire a trio of super-science characters to pursue the Nautilus and retrieve the material stolen as well as kill Janni and as much of the crew as possible. It turns out that Janni has taken her most loyal crewmembers on a mission to Antarctica where they encounter the Mountains of Madness from the pages of Poe as well as both Yuggoth and Shoggoth from the pages of Lovecraft. Jannie survives along with the man who will become her husband and father of her daughter -- Broad Arrow Jack. 

In The Rose of Berlin, the story leaps to 1941 when Janni and Jack head into the evil Germany of Adenoid Hynkel (Hitler if you didn't already know) to rescue their daughter Hira and her busband Robur (son of the infamous Master of the World). The run smackdab into a trap in the middle of a super-science "Metropolis" and confront the robot Maria created by the scientist Rotwang and weird zombie forces controlled by Dr. Caligari. The trap was set on the behalf of Ayesha who wants revenger still for the theft two decades before. They all escape save Broad Arrow Jack and Janni beheads Ayesha. 

River of Ghosts takes us to 1975 where we find an aged Janni Dakkar, a woman who is dying and who is increasingly untrusted by her daughter and her allies. Nonetheless they take the Nautilus up the Amazon in pursuit of Ayesha, who somehow still lives. Assisted by the impossibly powerful Hugo Hercules (a god apparently and the first comic superhero created in 1902) and she finds a Nazi lair filled with robot women created by Doctor Goldfoot and clones of Ayesha and Hynkel. Janni's grandson also goes on this journey. Janni, who by the point is always surrounded by the "ghosts" of her former allies and her husband chooses to die in an explosion which brings down the facility. We skip ahead to 1987 where her grown grandson has assumed the Nemo leadership role and he and his Mother erect a statue to the noble but ferocious Janni Dakkar. 

The spoilers are done. For the record there are also two text pieces which purport to be by reporter and columnist Hildy Johnson of The Front Page fame. These give us additional insights into the world of this most remarkable Nemo. 

We first meet Janni in the pages of Century as a young woman rebelling against her father. By the end of that tale she has assumed the control of her father's forces. We next meet her in 1969 when as an old woman she stakes Mina Murray and her allies to London. These stories in this collection help fill in the life of a most remarkable person, one who was all to ready to kill for reasons clear to a pirate. Janni Dakkar as presented here is a dangerous woman, but a woman who is loyal to those around her as they are dedicated to her. There's a lot of death in these pages, but Moore and O'Neill work hard to make those deaths of consequence for the most part. 

Great stuff indeed! I wrap up my look at the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen tomorrow with The Tempest. 

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The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen - Century!

Century is the third volume in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen saga (following Black Dossier which is not technically a chapter but an appendix of sorts) and it delivers on many of the plot threads which have been gathering through the early stories. This is the first volume published by Top Shelf. The focus as always is on Mina Harker, now immortal and still hanging around with the equally rejuvanated Alan Quartermain as the story begins. The "new" character Orlando, a transexual immortal who wields Excalibur, also plays a very bizarre and significant role. 

In 1910 Mina, Alan and Orlando along with other members the ghost hunter Thomas Carnacki (created by William Hope Hodgson) and the gentleman thief A.J. Raffles (created by E.W. Hornung) find themselves confronting a terrifying menace which seeks to do no less than invoke the Anti-Christ of all things. In the backdrop of London as usual, this menace is confronted in the form of Haddo, a cult leader who as we will learn is able to migrate from one body to another giving him effectively a potentially eternal existence. There is also the return of Jack the Ripper to contend with. We also meet Janni Dakkar, the daughter of the elderly Captain Nemo, who rejects his desires that she replace him as leader of the pirates he'd assembled for decades. She strikes out on her own and comes to London as well and meets a terrible fate. Her bloody wrath is biblical. 

We jump forward fifty years to 1969 and at this point Mink, Alan, and Orlando operate under the control of Prospero from his other-dimensional "Blazing World".  In a weird, wonderful and terrifying odyssey, beginning when they are returned to London aboard the Nautilus by a much older and calmer Janni, they again seek the Anti-Christ and again battle the sorcerer Haddo who seeks yet another new body. But things go even more unsettled as Mina defeats the plans of Haddo, but she herself meets a grim fate after enduring an exceedingly "bad trip".  Alan and Orlando are leaderless, and their mission is called into question as the story ends. The end of the world seems nigh, but most folks are high. (We also get another glimpse of Janni Dakkar, but more on that next week.)

We slip forward to 2009 and in this version of London life has gone quite astray. The promises of 1969 have fallen well short, and war and suffering abound abroad and in the city of London proper, Orlando is set upon by Prospero to continue the mission abandoned decades before and seeks both Alan and Mina who have become lost. The latter she finds, and Mina is rehabilitated to some degree following a miserable fate. The two seek to find the Anti-Christ and succeed, but his identity is quite a shock for fans of young adult fiction. Alan Quartermain returns to the battlefield for a final time as the threat is ended but at a terrible cost for one and all. 

"Minions of the Moon" written by "John Thomas" is the text feature in this collection. This bogus sci-fi epic supposedly appeared originally in the equally bogus Lewd Worlds Science Fiction. (Though that would be a great name for a sci-fi mag.) It's a hodge-podge of elements, mostly about a coming conflict on the Moon between a society of Amazons (in desperate need of sperm to continue their race) and the Selenites first seen in First Men in the Moon by H.G. Wells. The Selenites worship the body of Cavor and it's his body, encased in amber that the Amazons wish to harvest for sperm. We also get the back story for the black-faced "Golliwog" who it turns out is an escaped slave from deepest space who landed in Toy Land on Earth and was saved by Frankenstein's Creature, among others. Mina Murray is around, sporting a helmet which renders her invisible as she tries stop the war per instructions from Prospero of the Blazing World. 

We also get a glimpse of the defunct "Seven Stars", a team of costumed do-gooders Mina organized briefly in the early 60's. The team disbanded after one tragic battle. And all of this is framed around a woman who is suffering delusions in a mental ward, and of course as we know from the main tale, that's Mina too. 

I really enjoy Century. The three chapters set in three very distinct and different settings is a very clever way to spin a yarn. Moore and O'Neill do a fantastic job capturing the atmosphere of the different eras - a dour 1910, a psychedelic 1969, and a rundown 2009. Besides our team of Mina, Alan and Orlando, the stories all share "The Prisoner of London", a man who cannot move from the geographical region of the city, but who slips through time and appears in all three times, often with bewildering advice. The creativity bounces off the page in these stories and O'Neill's artwork seems particularly energetic. Great stuff!

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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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The Blackest Of Dossiers!

The Black Dossier came out and I snatched up a copy. I promptly put it away and never got around to reading it. Finally I have and I must say that while I find the 1958 setting of an alternate-universe Britain recovering from the "Big Brother" period and poised on the precipice of space travel enjoyable, and the update on the characters Mina Murray and Allan Quartermain interesting much of this wild yarn is just too bewildering.

Whereas the early volumes of adventures of "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" were rich with allusions and literary references, this book is overcome with them, so much so that the story grinds to a halt for me as I just gave up trying to figure it all out.

Here is a look at the Jess Nevins site which attempts to annotate the myriad references in this volume. It's a gigantic job and as I read through it I realized I never had a chance as most of the material was so Brit specific that I never knew of it to begin with, let alone have a chance to recognize it.

On the upside I have read Bulldog Drummond stories recently and that made his appearance much more enjoyable, in fact he's the stand out addition to the saga in this  installment, despite his loathsome ethnic opinions.

I cannot exactly recommend The Black Dossier, but I won't say you shouldn't try it either. It's a strange brew indeed.

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Night Of The Extraordinary Gentlemen!

This second volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a much more compelling read than the first. Freed of the need to introduce our cast, this one can leap to the events which motivate their involvement, and as it turns out bring about their destruction.

I'm a big War of the Worlds fan and my re-reading of the TLoEG this time was prompted by the way they blend the classic Wells material in with that of Burroughs,  Lewis and others. The Martian threat is a compelling backdrop for all manner of heroics and we see them fully on display in this crackerjack adventure.

The League ends as quickly as it emerged, and that's fitting given the monstrous nature of its membership.

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Day Of The Extraordinary Gentlemen!

Let me begin by saying I think Alan Moore is overrated.

That doesn't mean I don't find some of his work fascinating and even fun, but the adoration the comics fans have heaped on him over the decades seems wildly out of kilter relative to the work he's produced. That said, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a whopper of a read. Kevin O'Neill's artwork is crazy distinctive and gives this story a cantankerous quality which helps it alternate universe bloom. (I read that Moore wanted Simon Bisley originally for this story -- a huge mistake that.)

It's been many years since I sat down and read TLoEG through, and since then the movie has appeared and I've seen it several times. I'd forgotten how comparatively vicious the comic is relative to the more polished and benign film.

This origin story is a compelling read, offering up glimpses of a literary universe brimming with weirdly familiar characters. The organization of the League is hair-brained and always seemed poorly motivated, but necessary for plot reasons. As we learn on the last page of the last issue, the League was assembled for potentially other reasons.

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Mystery On Frazetta Island!

Mystery on Monster Island is by all reports a rather terrible 1980's movie adaptation of the Jules Verne novel Godrey Morgan. This is alas a novel I've never read, and it's a movie I've never seen. But when I stumbled across this movie poster at the fantastic website Wrong Side of the Art, my fancy was immediately tickled by this image which seemed clearly inspired by the late great Frank Frazetta's work.

It turns out that indeed the movie poster was a swipe from a black and white illustration Frazetta produced for Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Fighting Man of Mars. Here's the artwork.

And here's the original page featuring that Frazetta artwork.

But then in doing the search for that source, I found this later VHS cover for the movie and discovered the creators plundered the Frazetta cache yet again to construct an even more obvious swipe. The original swipe is combined with renditions of two Frazetta cover paintings.

While appropriate in tone to the movie's original material, still are pretty overt and unapologetic swipes from the master.

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