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The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen #Black Dossier
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier
England in the mid 1950s is not the same as it was. The powers that be have instituted...some changes. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen have been disbanded and disavowed, and the country is under the control of an iron-fisted regime. Now, after many years, the still youthful Mina Murray and a rejuvenated Allan Quatermain return and are in search of some answers. Answers that can only be found in a book buried deep in the vaults of their old headquarters, a book that holds the key to the hidden history of the League throughout the ages: The Black Dossier. As Allan and Mina delve into the details of their precursors, some dating back centuries, they must elude their dangerous pursuers who are Hell-bent on retrieving the lost manuscript... and ending the League once and for all.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier is an elaborately designed, cutting edge volume that will include a Tijuana Bible insert and a 3-D section complete with custom glasses, as well as additional text pieces, maps, and a stunning, cutaway double page spread of Captain Nemo's Nautilus submarine by acclaimed LOEG artist Kevin O Neill.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier is an elaborately designed, cutting edge volume that will include a Tijuana Bible insert and a 3-D section complete with custom glasses, as well as additional text pieces, maps, and a stunning, cutaway double page spread of Captain Nemo's Nautilus submarine by acclaimed LOEG artist Kevin O Neill.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
94 people are currently reading
2573 people want to read
About the author
Alan Moore
1,578 books21.7k followersAlan Moore is an English writer most famous for his influential work in comics, including the acclaimed graphic novels Watchmen, V for Vendetta and From Hell. He has also written a novel, Voice of the Fire, and performs "workings" (one-off performance art/spoken word pieces) with The Moon and Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels, some of which have been released on CD.
As a comics writer, Moore is notable for being one of the first writers to apply literary and formalist sensibilities to the mainstream of the medium. As well as including challenging subject matter and adult themes, he brings a wide range of influences to his work, from the literary–authors such as William S. Burroughs, Thomas Pynchon, Robert Anton Wilson and Iain Sinclair; New Wave science fiction writers such as Michael Moorcock; horror writers such as Clive Barker; to the cinematic–filmmakers such as Nicolas Roeg. Influences within comics include Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Kirby and Bryan Talbot.
As a comics writer, Moore is notable for being one of the first writers to apply literary and formalist sensibilities to the mainstream of the medium. As well as including challenging subject matter and adult themes, he brings a wide range of influences to his work, from the literary–authors such as William S. Burroughs, Thomas Pynchon, Robert Anton Wilson and Iain Sinclair; New Wave science fiction writers such as Michael Moorcock; horror writers such as Clive Barker; to the cinematic–filmmakers such as Nicolas Roeg. Influences within comics include Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Kirby and Bryan Talbot.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 527 reviews
July 18, 2012
From glancing over the other reviews for this book, I'm sure that someone is going to say that I am dense and dull for not enjoying it. That's okay, I suspect that it's true.
I adored the first two volumes of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. They were my first introduction to Alan Moore during the very early days of my comic fandom, and I was delighted with how they were darkly funny and smart and full of literary references.
The Black Dossier, however, tries too hard too be all of those things and while I often don't agree when people accuse someone of being "self-indulgent," I think it applies here. The barest, barest bones of a story exist in order to display every literary reference Moore can throw at it, and there were dense pages of prose (the Black Dossier of the title) that seemed like a wasted telling-instead-of-showing overview of the League's history. The final portion of the book was what pushed me from 3 stars to 2, when I was distracted by the 3D gimmick and the bizarrely racist character and the near-manic sing-songy conversation about the Blazing World in which they found themselves. It felt like one of those old Looney Tunes cartoons where everyone is screaming and flying around.
After turning the final page, all I could wonder was, "Just what the hell was the point of all that?"
I adored the first two volumes of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. They were my first introduction to Alan Moore during the very early days of my comic fandom, and I was delighted with how they were darkly funny and smart and full of literary references.
The Black Dossier, however, tries too hard too be all of those things and while I often don't agree when people accuse someone of being "self-indulgent," I think it applies here. The barest, barest bones of a story exist in order to display every literary reference Moore can throw at it, and there were dense pages of prose (the Black Dossier of the title) that seemed like a wasted telling-instead-of-showing overview of the League's history. The final portion of the book was what pushed me from 3 stars to 2, when I was distracted by the 3D gimmick and the bizarrely racist character and the near-manic sing-songy conversation about the Blazing World in which they found themselves. It felt like one of those old Looney Tunes cartoons where everyone is screaming and flying around.
After turning the final page, all I could wonder was, "Just what the hell was the point of all that?"
February 6, 2008
There's two major strikes against The Black Dossier, and neither of them has anything to do with the contents of the book. The first, of course, is that we've been waiting years for this - five years, for many, just to see any new LoEG work; two years since the Dossier itself was announced. Expectations therefore peaked at a high, and that never bodes well for something as unusual and experimental as this.
The second is that this really should have been the final volume of LoEG. But more on that in a minute.
Basically, the book has a very thin plot, something any decent reader will notice after just a cursory flip through the pages. It's the almanac section from Volume II writ large - documents, postcards, letters, "extracts" and other errata chronicling the centuries-spanning LoEG's history, built to engage you more as a puzzle than a narrative, with the occasional bone thrown out in the comics framing story. Fortunately, the Almanac was probably my favorite part of Volume II, so I enjoyed the game - although I was aware that, in simply telling us so much about his creation, Moore is basically robbing us of the potential for those stories in the future. We will never see the battle of Mina Murray's League against their French counterparts, nor the failed replacement League of the post-WWII years, nor the formation of Prospero's Men. It's all here - in prose form. Moore is both flexing the comics medium to its full potential and withholding its more traditional use. Fascinating, but ever so slightly disappointing.
That's why this really should have been the last story of the LoEG to be published (as I expect it still will be, 'chronologically'). With the foreknowledge that Volume III arrives from Top Shelf in a year, this is less a goodbye to the League and more just a goodbye to the League...at DC Comics. Fair enough, but there are some real meditations here on the changing nature of literary heroes - and, later, on fiction itself - which are going to be completely overlooked because a lot of readers, having been surprised and intimidated by the Black Dossier, will simply put it aside and wait for Volume III without ever giving it a second glance.
I definitely enjoyed The Black Dossier. It wasn't quite what I expected when it was first announced two years ago, but by the time descriptions started to leak online, I suspected something less about one narrative story and more about the act of storytelling. That's pretty much what I got. It's not a total home run - I'll have trouble recommending it to friends, and Moore's casual sexualizing of characters still (and always has) makes me vaguely uncomfortable - but it's overall good stuff, and I'll be holding on to my copy for sure.
The second is that this really should have been the final volume of LoEG. But more on that in a minute.
Basically, the book has a very thin plot, something any decent reader will notice after just a cursory flip through the pages. It's the almanac section from Volume II writ large - documents, postcards, letters, "extracts" and other errata chronicling the centuries-spanning LoEG's history, built to engage you more as a puzzle than a narrative, with the occasional bone thrown out in the comics framing story. Fortunately, the Almanac was probably my favorite part of Volume II, so I enjoyed the game - although I was aware that, in simply telling us so much about his creation, Moore is basically robbing us of the potential for those stories in the future. We will never see the battle of Mina Murray's League against their French counterparts, nor the failed replacement League of the post-WWII years, nor the formation of Prospero's Men. It's all here - in prose form. Moore is both flexing the comics medium to its full potential and withholding its more traditional use. Fascinating, but ever so slightly disappointing.
That's why this really should have been the last story of the LoEG to be published (as I expect it still will be, 'chronologically'). With the foreknowledge that Volume III arrives from Top Shelf in a year, this is less a goodbye to the League and more just a goodbye to the League...at DC Comics. Fair enough, but there are some real meditations here on the changing nature of literary heroes - and, later, on fiction itself - which are going to be completely overlooked because a lot of readers, having been surprised and intimidated by the Black Dossier, will simply put it aside and wait for Volume III without ever giving it a second glance.
I definitely enjoyed The Black Dossier. It wasn't quite what I expected when it was first announced two years ago, but by the time descriptions started to leak online, I suspected something less about one narrative story and more about the act of storytelling. That's pretty much what I got. It's not a total home run - I'll have trouble recommending it to friends, and Moore's casual sexualizing of characters still (and always has) makes me vaguely uncomfortable - but it's overall good stuff, and I'll be holding on to my copy for sure.
February 27, 2008
"The Black Dossier" is not nearly as fun as the earlier editions of "The League." As it begins to dawn on you that a considerable stretch of the book is dominated by text-only pages, you may begin to worry that Moore has become yet another Dave Sim - who, as the years passed on his 6000 page "Cerebus" saga, began to sprinkle in ever-more turgid parodies of great authors, longwinded self-serving rants against feminism and Marxism, and over a hundred pages of theory on the Torah, written in small type, in the voice of a stammering drunken Aardvark, narrated to a fictionalized Woody Allen. With the exception of a beautiful homage to Oscar Wilde, Sim's prose is as uniformly awful as his graphic storytelling is transcendent.
But Moore's "Black Dossier" has several things going for it that Sim didn't. Moore is not a paranoid ideologue who believes women's existence contributes to a breakdown of humanity on every social, political, economic, and cultural level. Moore is less interested in religion than in fiction. Moore has a profound sense of humor.
Although there is a plot to "The Black Dossier," the better part of the book is essentially an appendix to the first two volumes, exploring the world which used to appear steampunk and now stands revealed as the predominant work of metafiction of the early 21st century. How much you enjoy "Black Dossier" may depend on which you liked more - "The Lord of the Rings" or "The Silmarillion." A chapter imitates the style of PG Wodehouse's "Jeeves and Wooster" stories with the substance of HP Lovecraft - importantly, the chapter is funny even if you have no idea who either of those men are. The same holds true for the imitation of primitive erotica, in which sex goddess Fanny Hill fuckscrews her way through several fantasy worlds, and "Faerie's Fortune Founded," a lost fragment of a fictional Shakespeare play, which is as readable as any of Shakespeare's plays - that is, for some people it will be amazing, and for some people it will be unreadable. (The same may be true for "The Crazy Wide Forever" by Sal Paradyse, imitation-Kerouac with no punctuation and random strings of words. It is possible that, if you like Kerouac, you will like this - to me, it is Moore's one real failure in the book, a waxwork homage that sacrifices entertainment for verisimilitude, like Gus Van Sant's "Psycho.")
I don't quite think "Black Dossier" is as complete a work as "Watchmen" or "From Hell" - both of those series took elaborate flights of fancy and tangent, but both also never lost track of the say-it-again-STORY. The narrative in "Black Dossier" is a chase with the bare minimum of tension, with plenty of time for sightseeing along the way (it is telling that the people who are being chased have plenty of time to read the titular Dossier, taking time out from their own book to read another one). It ends with an elaborate scene set in the Blazing World - one of the first imaginary worlds created for literature, making it Moore's alpha and omega, a paradise for fictional creations of all sorts (in the background, you will see copyright-baiting variations on Charlie Brown and Captain Marvel, and you will also see fairies fucking in midair). This scene is essentially an elaborate party to rival Trimalchio; it requires 3-D glasses; it lacks any real sense of climax. Prospero, from Shakespeare's "The Tempest," leads us away with a soliloquy about nothing less than the existence of fiction. Just as Raging Bull ends with de Niro doing la Motta doing Brando doing Terry Malloy, so "Black Dossier" ends with Moore doing Prospero doing Shakespeare doing Prospero. Round and round.
The speech reads like a conclusion - to the series, to Moore's career, to the comic book medium, to human imagination. Intriguingly, this is not the end of the series - Moore has promised a genuine third volume next year, so expect it for Christmas 2012. Still, this is certainly the end of Moore's thesis for the "League" project. What started out as a funny riff on the team comic book has become the ur-story of all fiction. In this, Moore's book stands next to Don Rosa's "The life and Times of Scrooge McDuck," which absorbed hundreds of stories written by Carl Barks about Scrooge McDuck and linked them into a common history, resulting in a work that was both grander (in sweep) and more detailed (in artistic style and comic substance) than Barks was ever allowed. Oddly, this is not the first time a comic book creator has used Prospero as a metaphorical stand-in for all fictional creations - Neil Gaiman's "The Sandman" ended with an issue devoted to Shakespeare's "The Tempest."
But Moore's "Black Dossier" has several things going for it that Sim didn't. Moore is not a paranoid ideologue who believes women's existence contributes to a breakdown of humanity on every social, political, economic, and cultural level. Moore is less interested in religion than in fiction. Moore has a profound sense of humor.
Although there is a plot to "The Black Dossier," the better part of the book is essentially an appendix to the first two volumes, exploring the world which used to appear steampunk and now stands revealed as the predominant work of metafiction of the early 21st century. How much you enjoy "Black Dossier" may depend on which you liked more - "The Lord of the Rings" or "The Silmarillion." A chapter imitates the style of PG Wodehouse's "Jeeves and Wooster" stories with the substance of HP Lovecraft - importantly, the chapter is funny even if you have no idea who either of those men are. The same holds true for the imitation of primitive erotica, in which sex goddess Fanny Hill fuckscrews her way through several fantasy worlds, and "Faerie's Fortune Founded," a lost fragment of a fictional Shakespeare play, which is as readable as any of Shakespeare's plays - that is, for some people it will be amazing, and for some people it will be unreadable. (The same may be true for "The Crazy Wide Forever" by Sal Paradyse, imitation-Kerouac with no punctuation and random strings of words. It is possible that, if you like Kerouac, you will like this - to me, it is Moore's one real failure in the book, a waxwork homage that sacrifices entertainment for verisimilitude, like Gus Van Sant's "Psycho.")
I don't quite think "Black Dossier" is as complete a work as "Watchmen" or "From Hell" - both of those series took elaborate flights of fancy and tangent, but both also never lost track of the say-it-again-STORY. The narrative in "Black Dossier" is a chase with the bare minimum of tension, with plenty of time for sightseeing along the way (it is telling that the people who are being chased have plenty of time to read the titular Dossier, taking time out from their own book to read another one). It ends with an elaborate scene set in the Blazing World - one of the first imaginary worlds created for literature, making it Moore's alpha and omega, a paradise for fictional creations of all sorts (in the background, you will see copyright-baiting variations on Charlie Brown and Captain Marvel, and you will also see fairies fucking in midair). This scene is essentially an elaborate party to rival Trimalchio; it requires 3-D glasses; it lacks any real sense of climax. Prospero, from Shakespeare's "The Tempest," leads us away with a soliloquy about nothing less than the existence of fiction. Just as Raging Bull ends with de Niro doing la Motta doing Brando doing Terry Malloy, so "Black Dossier" ends with Moore doing Prospero doing Shakespeare doing Prospero. Round and round.
The speech reads like a conclusion - to the series, to Moore's career, to the comic book medium, to human imagination. Intriguingly, this is not the end of the series - Moore has promised a genuine third volume next year, so expect it for Christmas 2012. Still, this is certainly the end of Moore's thesis for the "League" project. What started out as a funny riff on the team comic book has become the ur-story of all fiction. In this, Moore's book stands next to Don Rosa's "The life and Times of Scrooge McDuck," which absorbed hundreds of stories written by Carl Barks about Scrooge McDuck and linked them into a common history, resulting in a work that was both grander (in sweep) and more detailed (in artistic style and comic substance) than Barks was ever allowed. Oddly, this is not the first time a comic book creator has used Prospero as a metaphorical stand-in for all fictional creations - Neil Gaiman's "The Sandman" ended with an issue devoted to Shakespeare's "The Tempest."
May 25, 2020
Mina and Quartermain turn up in the 20th century, in the 1950s to retrieve the Black Dossier… more thought provoking cyberpunk-ish stuff from the comics guru Alan Moore. 7 out of 12
March 30, 2012
Well. Alan Moore's a very clever fellow, you certainly can't deny that. Not that this book will let you. Virtually every page can be pored over for references to some literary or pseudo-literary or pulp work: newspaper headlines, street names, background details, nameless characters--they all (presumably, since I can't figure out all of them) reference or come from somewhere. It is of course a massive and complex task to weave every fiction and fictional world you can think of into a single narrative, and Moore does manage generally to paper over the obvious gaps and inconsistencies and problems with doing so, making it all feel more or less coherent. However, maybe this is just me, but I find myself engaged more with figuring out all the references than with the story, which is basically a simple chase tale, as Mina and Quatermain acquire the eponymous Black Dossier and then get chased by James Bond (who tries to rape Mina and is presented as a sociopath, Moore's propensity for the desecration of previous literary models continuing unabated here, with generally unappealing results), Emma Peel, and Bulldog Drummond to get it back, meeting every other late nineteenth through mid twentieth century literary figure Moore can jam in along the way. So, as a story, not that engaging. Furthermore, in addition to being a clever metatext weaving in all kind sof literary references, this book also wants to present itself as being a dossier consisting of an array of different kinds of documents: official reports, Tijuana Bible, pulp novel, lost Shakespearean folio, postcards, etc.--so you get to be impressed by another level of cleverness. The dossier contents offer a multitude of sources that relate the origin not only of the League but also of all spectacular and unusually-powered folk in human history, in a kind of League-universe cosmology and theogeny. This idea's interesting enough in its own way, but it doesn't work well because of Moore's insistence on doing it all via parody and pastiche. Moore does a pretty good Shakespeare, a passable John Cleland, an okay P. G., Woodhouse, but a weak Orwell and an unreadable Kerouac. Even when the pastiches/parodies are solid, though, they simply bog down the book; Moore lacks the genius for gelling prose and comics Dave Sim displayed at his best. I mean, I give him points for ambition, and for nerve (trying to reclaim the gollywog from the Noddy books is almost as risky as the pornographic treatment he gave Alice and company in Lost Girls), but ultimately the result falls flat and sterile. It comes across as an exercise in cleverness and show-off pyrotechnics, rather than as an actual story. And this is a pity, as Moore can tell a hell of a story when he decides to do so, rather than going on (and on) yet again about the importance of story in a metafictional jigsaw puzzle.
October 4, 2020
3.5 grudgingly rounded up. The Alan Moore team at its best can produce complex visuals and challenging text. When they are stoned the results can be psychedelic, meandering, crowded graphic novels. With the LOEG Black Dossier they appear to have attempted a pastiche of ancient and modern story telling printed in a wildly experimental package. Recommendation one, do not wait for this to come out as an e book. For example, a part of the book is published in the old 3 D style which is barely readable with the enclosed 3 D Red Blue card board glasses. Typical of Alan Moore work is lots of female nudity but with more than a little hesitancy on male nudity. Not family friendly or for those adverse to semi-graphic sexual images.
The driving concept is that a rejuvenated Alan Quartermain, and the ageless Nina Harper are the last of this generation’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The key expression is the term “This Generation’s”. The book opens with the two outcasts, on the run from their former employer The British Secret Service and seeking full information on the history of League’s role as secret enforcers between the Fay (magic world) and the not magical. Of course, the two succeed in retrieving the” Black Dossier” which reveals the full record of how and why the various teams were created and operated.
Upon this structure a patient reader is presented with what can be an aggravating admixture of script, fine print text, post cards, period advertisements and pages long stories. The complied dossier range from: a Shakespearean satire to a seemingly endless retelling of Virginia Woolf’s Orland and including a fairly clever take on a Jeeves and Wooster, Wodehouse story. Credit to the Moore team for going big, but ultimately, they go on too long.
Highly recommended to Alan Moore fans. Of interest to those seeking the “full story” of the LOEG. Possibly of interest to the fan of the graphic novel, interested in a copy that mixes the media is some dazzling ways. I will not be keeping my copy.
The driving concept is that a rejuvenated Alan Quartermain, and the ageless Nina Harper are the last of this generation’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The key expression is the term “This Generation’s”. The book opens with the two outcasts, on the run from their former employer The British Secret Service and seeking full information on the history of League’s role as secret enforcers between the Fay (magic world) and the not magical. Of course, the two succeed in retrieving the” Black Dossier” which reveals the full record of how and why the various teams were created and operated.
Upon this structure a patient reader is presented with what can be an aggravating admixture of script, fine print text, post cards, period advertisements and pages long stories. The complied dossier range from: a Shakespearean satire to a seemingly endless retelling of Virginia Woolf’s Orland and including a fairly clever take on a Jeeves and Wooster, Wodehouse story. Credit to the Moore team for going big, but ultimately, they go on too long.
Highly recommended to Alan Moore fans. Of interest to those seeking the “full story” of the LOEG. Possibly of interest to the fan of the graphic novel, interested in a copy that mixes the media is some dazzling ways. I will not be keeping my copy.
December 18, 2023
It's now the 1950s but Allan's never looked better and Miss Murray is still young. What's going on here?
They trick a cocky spy named Jimmy (James Bond, I guess) and get their hands on the Black Dossier which is the MI5's document on the League and specifically Alan and Murray's going ons over the past 50 years.
The book is part comic and part assorted documents as we read the Dossier with the characters. It felt a bit like a video game that tells its story via books/audio-logs. The main comic is great, but the Dossier at times is a slog to get through. After the first time Alan and Murray look through the Dossier, Allan has fallen asleep - I was Alan. Life of Orlando comic strip was a highlight of the Dossier. Many of the prose pieces just felt like Moore showing off his ability to create pastiches of so many different creators. But many were just overdone, his pulp-fiction prose has the descriptive language cranked to 11.
I think Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill could have kept churning out Victorian Age action comics and made bank, but that's never been Moore's way of doing things. Moving into a more modern era presents some issues, obvious in the very first page - James Bond is called Jimmy because he's not public domain. In the first couple volumes there was just Fu Manchu that couldn't be named. Also I know almost none of these mid-century stories Moore is referencing, which isn't a huge deal (it'll just give me a reason to re-read this comic in say 20-30 years when maybe I'll know more).
It's 1958, society has gone through a 1984 Big Brother era after WW2. Allan and Murray uncover a mystery of betrayal in MI5. They flee and reunite with their lover the androgynous Orlando (who's exploits are detailed in the Dossier) in the fourth dimension world "Blazing World".
They trick a cocky spy named Jimmy (James Bond, I guess) and get their hands on the Black Dossier which is the MI5's document on the League and specifically Alan and Murray's going ons over the past 50 years.
The book is part comic and part assorted documents as we read the Dossier with the characters. It felt a bit like a video game that tells its story via books/audio-logs. The main comic is great, but the Dossier at times is a slog to get through. After the first time Alan and Murray look through the Dossier, Allan has fallen asleep - I was Alan. Life of Orlando comic strip was a highlight of the Dossier. Many of the prose pieces just felt like Moore showing off his ability to create pastiches of so many different creators. But many were just overdone, his pulp-fiction prose has the descriptive language cranked to 11.
I think Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill could have kept churning out Victorian Age action comics and made bank, but that's never been Moore's way of doing things. Moving into a more modern era presents some issues, obvious in the very first page - James Bond is called Jimmy because he's not public domain. In the first couple volumes there was just Fu Manchu that couldn't be named. Also I know almost none of these mid-century stories Moore is referencing, which isn't a huge deal (it'll just give me a reason to re-read this comic in say 20-30 years when maybe I'll know more).
It's 1958, society has gone through a 1984 Big Brother era after WW2. Allan and Murray uncover a mystery of betrayal in MI5. They flee and reunite with their lover the androgynous Orlando (who's exploits are detailed in the Dossier) in the fourth dimension world "Blazing World".
December 22, 2007
Way too dense for a "fun" read but still great. And the 3-D pages are really well done. Go through those again and close one eye and then the other -- there are hidden images you can only see with one eye open. Best use of 3-D comics EVER.
September 8, 2014
What the hell did I just read?
December 29, 2017
This is not a review. I cannot review this thing anymore than i could review the Sun, which is what this is to me. The object around which my entire literary life has revolved for many years. This is the reason i've read over 400 novels.
It is not a comic or a novel, it is an annual, a scrapbook, an appendix, a sourcebook, a Bible. The other League comics are mere stories. This is the world those stories exist in.
Prolix and profound, vulgar and erudite, filthy and funny, pretentious and dazzling, a concept made manifest.
So i cannot review this properly all i will say is, whoo hoo!
Also a second whoo hoo! because the fabled missing LP has escaped onto the net.
https://dorkforty.wordpress.com/2012/...
https://glycon.livejournal.com/17153....
https://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/10/...
It is not a comic or a novel, it is an annual, a scrapbook, an appendix, a sourcebook, a Bible. The other League comics are mere stories. This is the world those stories exist in.
Prolix and profound, vulgar and erudite, filthy and funny, pretentious and dazzling, a concept made manifest.
So i cannot review this properly all i will say is, whoo hoo!
Also a second whoo hoo! because the fabled missing LP has escaped onto the net.
https://dorkforty.wordpress.com/2012/...
https://glycon.livejournal.com/17153....
https://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/10/...
August 12, 2016
I'd read this before, and now have read it again, and liked it better. Someone said the League series is like a superheroes tale for English majors ( or fantastical tale or comics/myth Super Group yarn), and that seems right, it's all inter-textual and in order to fully appreciate it, you have to have read quite a bit, of both comics and thrillers and mysteries and Shakespeare and this is especially true for The Black Dossier, which brings Mina and Alan Quartermain up to the eighties and Thatcher's England. It's thin on plot but I don't mind that, I like the story a lot, and then it has all these fun and complicating experimental elements. The 3 D story is beautifully done by Kevin O'Neill (and the team), there's a two page pic of the League ship, there's a Tijuana Bible insert, and ads, and lots of stuff they just whip up for kicks, and to reclaim in some sense the fun of comics with all those ads and fun stuff throughout to break things up, texture the telling, it's all part of the experience. There's some erotica (update Fanny Hill from the 19th century) for the repressive anti-porn eighties, a new prologue to a play by Shakespeare…. it all adds up to an endorsement of the imagination that crosses the line politically and aesthetically and morally (re: sex, maybe especially, but sex and fantasy are always enjoyably entertained in Moore). I can see why lots of people found it confounding or pretentious or just too complicated, but I think the creators were just mainly trying to have fun in multiple forms and genres, and it is successful in that respect. It's hard to read in places, too, small print, some long prose passages where Moore (as happens for him from time to time) cannot be limited to comics, there's longish parodies, sometimes amazing and sometimes uneven… a kind of pastiche of storytelling techniques and forms and styles… mainly Moore showing you what's out there, what's possible at that time… Maybe it stretches the League story beyond its original intentions, beyond just the fun storytelling, the deft and clever reference here and there, it amps up that referencing, but I think that intertextuality is part of the original intent of the series, a mishmash of characters and styles and periods, so this makes sense to me even if it is a tad difficult at times to take in...
August 5, 2022
Third in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series, this is a tour de force parading the breadth of culture of the two authors Alan Moore (writing) and Kevin O'Neill (illustration). It is also very self-indulgent and expects a lot from the reader.
The framing story sets Mina (survivor of an encounter with Dracula in Volume I) and Allan (Quatermain) in a glum early 1950s Britain just coming out of the wartime and post-war tyranny of a socialist state in a narrative that references 1984.
They recover a 'black dossier' of documents which purport to tell the history of the League in its many incarnations in time and in space (meaning witty German and French versions involved in the machinations around the origins of the First World War).
This becomes the excuse for a whole set of literary parodies and many other often cheeky treats, a few of them downright pornographic where O'Neill and Moore parody many popular cultural icons, including the iconic London Underground map and the wartime cartoon Jane.
It is almost too much of a rich feast. The parody of an American beatnik novel is literally unreadable (which is the joke) and Bertie Wooster's account of his experience alongside Gussie Fink-Nottle of dealing with his Aunt's dabbling with the Cult of Cthulhu is ... well, you get the picture.
At one level it is a romantic picture of a Britain that lasts in the imagination despite its national decline since the loss of its 'faery' nature with the death of Gloriana. At another it is the vehicle for an anarchic individualist assertion of the freedom to imagine, a very Moore theme.
There are innumerable 'in' jokes. James Bond is a slimy sexist government thug of weak intelligence. Sir Basildon Bond is Gloriana's 'intelligencer'. Fanny Hill's adventures with Gulliver and in the Venusberg are illustrated with stylish erotic parodies of Franz von Bayros' work.
But ultimately it gets ridiculous especially with the arrival of our heroes in a trans-dimensional faerie toyland on a flying ship captained by a Golliwog. This requires special 3D glasses to appreciate. Moore, as I do, will remember these as giveaways in the comics of our youth.
The magician Prospero (there is, of course, a bawdy lost Shakespearean work in the dossier) reepresents the final victory and primacy of magick and imagination over the prosaic reality of the grimy Britain of 'today' - probably actually 'today' today after the latest economic news.
Part of the comic's charm is that it can provide almost endless fun attempting to identify not only the obvious derivations from popular and high literature (such as the sex-shifting Orlando) but transpositions of name (so Dr Dee becomes both Prospero and Dr. Suttle).
All very clever, a work of immense labour and carefully constructed to fit into the universe of League comic books (there are six of them counting the Nemo trilogy), this is certainly worth enjoying in conjunction with the rest of the series.
January 21, 2025
Really liked it the second time 'round. Took my time with it and found a greater appreciation for it. Except for the part about The Crazy Wide Forever. Tried reading that, but eventually gave up and skipped it. It was stream-of-consciousness gobbledegook. I'm sure Alan Moore put it in there for a reason, but I don't think the book/story would've suffered from its omission.
November 29, 2007
I have never been made to feel stupid by a book, except maybe a few math textbooks, but this book came very, very close. I got the very real impression that I should read it again in a few years when I've accrued more knowledge and experience, and maybe even read more books. It's still a spectacular book, but it can get a little self-indulgent at times (you can tell Moore wasn't writing this for anyone but himself) but it almost always errs on the side of entertainment. From a "lost" Shakespeare manuscript for a prequel to The Tempest, to a fully 3D section, complete with glasses that will leave you looking incredibly foolish reading the last 10 minutes of the book if you do so in public as you'll also be winking to get the full effect of certain images.
Overall the book has many more hits than misses, but there are a couple of points that I had to skim over, in particular a part that is pure babble for several pages, and it truly is a "graphic novel" as half of it is prose, which works just fine for me. The amount you'll enjoy this will be directly proportionate to how much you've enjoyed some of Alan Moore's more obscure work. This is more Courtyard than Watchmen, more From Hell than V for Vendetta, but if you like your comic books with a healthy chunk of prose, and with a healthier chunk of classical literary references (many of which went right over my head), this book will not disappoint on any level.
Overall the book has many more hits than misses, but there are a couple of points that I had to skim over, in particular a part that is pure babble for several pages, and it truly is a "graphic novel" as half of it is prose, which works just fine for me. The amount you'll enjoy this will be directly proportionate to how much you've enjoyed some of Alan Moore's more obscure work. This is more Courtyard than Watchmen, more From Hell than V for Vendetta, but if you like your comic books with a healthy chunk of prose, and with a healthier chunk of classical literary references (many of which went right over my head), this book will not disappoint on any level.
March 12, 2010
I loved the first two volumes of League, but this is pretty crappy. I have a theory that Moore wrote this just to mess with overeager fanboys who insist on pretending they love everything he does; it honestly feels like he's putting a lot of effort into making it totally unreadable. In which case, consider it a smashing success.
September 24, 2018
Belle le parti prettamente di azione e spionaggio.
Buoni i personaggi.
Singolarmente le parti del Dossier sono intriganti.
Nell'insieme ... bah!
Si intravede Alan Moore dei tempi migliori, ma la fuffa magica purtroppo è davvero troppa e troppo importante ai fini della storia per poter rendere il racconto, non dico gradevole, ma almeno interessante.
Un grosso peccato :(
Buoni i personaggi.
Singolarmente le parti del Dossier sono intriganti.
Nell'insieme ... bah!
Si intravede Alan Moore dei tempi migliori, ma la fuffa magica purtroppo è davvero troppa e troppo importante ai fini della storia per poter rendere il racconto, non dico gradevole, ma almeno interessante.
Un grosso peccato :(
December 21, 2019
After all the hate this book has received over the years, I was fully prepared to be angry and bored out of mind. Fortunately, this wasn't the case. What Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill have crafted here is, in a lot of ways, incredible. Rather than write a simple, bland encyclopedia (like he did in volume two of
the original League series), Moore has chosen to use a myriad of storytelling pastiches to lay out the entire history of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, from its inception in the days of Shakespeare all the way up through the 1950s, when this volume is set. It's a beautifully collected, intentional hodgepodge, right down to the fact that several stories are printed on completely different kinds of paper to make them feel truly specific to the time periods they would've been printed in.
Somehow, Moore manages to write in all these different styles (with fitting period-specific artwork by O'Neill) while also very gradually revealing little bits of League history. It reads like a kind of puzzle, with each bit of writing providing another piece. By the end, you're given a broad, sweeping look at all the League has ever fought for, while also seeing the incredible number of fictional worlds Moore has woven into his universe.
And speaking of that universe, this book really makes it feel enormous. Whereas the first two volumes were focused on Victorian Era heroes from fiction, this one basically adds a little bit of almost everything. There's Lovecraft, Virginia Woolf, Shakespeare, Kerouac, James Bond, Mary Poppins, Captain Clegg, and numerous bits of weirdness I couldn't even identify. And yet, I never felt lost. The fact that I couldn't pick out a very specific reference (I'm sure I missed dozens) didn't seem to matter, because the scope and feeling were the main things that mattered.
But, with all that glowing stuff said, I do have to take a couple stars off for sheer readability. While all of these stories and bits of background add up to something very cool, the act of reading this book can at times feel like a burden. There's no real forward momentum. The first two League volumes tell harrowing stories while also harnessing fiction. But in this book, it's 100% world building, and no real story to speak of. As such it's kind of an act of will to get through it, and will only work for you if you are, like me, genuinely interested in the world itself.
Also, while I didn't mind Moore's prose, at times the sheer amount of it could become daunting and unnecessary. In particular, the faux-Kerouac section is borderline unreadable. It's full of slang and goofy beatnik nonsense talk, and features zero punctuation whatsoever. It's like reading an aneurysm. I'd have to go over it with a fine-tooth comb probably 4 or 5 times to fully parse what the hell Moore is trying to say with it, and I simply have no interest in doing so.
But, again, while I didn't think this was perfect by any means, I was overall impressed with it, and glad to have a little mini-adventure with Mina and Quatermain, who I hadn't heard from since reading volume two. It's a bit of a commitment compared to a typical comic, but I think, on the whole, it's rewarding, and has excited me to keep going with Century.
the original League series), Moore has chosen to use a myriad of storytelling pastiches to lay out the entire history of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, from its inception in the days of Shakespeare all the way up through the 1950s, when this volume is set. It's a beautifully collected, intentional hodgepodge, right down to the fact that several stories are printed on completely different kinds of paper to make them feel truly specific to the time periods they would've been printed in.
Somehow, Moore manages to write in all these different styles (with fitting period-specific artwork by O'Neill) while also very gradually revealing little bits of League history. It reads like a kind of puzzle, with each bit of writing providing another piece. By the end, you're given a broad, sweeping look at all the League has ever fought for, while also seeing the incredible number of fictional worlds Moore has woven into his universe.
And speaking of that universe, this book really makes it feel enormous. Whereas the first two volumes were focused on Victorian Era heroes from fiction, this one basically adds a little bit of almost everything. There's Lovecraft, Virginia Woolf, Shakespeare, Kerouac, James Bond, Mary Poppins, Captain Clegg, and numerous bits of weirdness I couldn't even identify. And yet, I never felt lost. The fact that I couldn't pick out a very specific reference (I'm sure I missed dozens) didn't seem to matter, because the scope and feeling were the main things that mattered.
But, with all that glowing stuff said, I do have to take a couple stars off for sheer readability. While all of these stories and bits of background add up to something very cool, the act of reading this book can at times feel like a burden. There's no real forward momentum. The first two League volumes tell harrowing stories while also harnessing fiction. But in this book, it's 100% world building, and no real story to speak of. As such it's kind of an act of will to get through it, and will only work for you if you are, like me, genuinely interested in the world itself.
Also, while I didn't mind Moore's prose, at times the sheer amount of it could become daunting and unnecessary. In particular, the faux-Kerouac section is borderline unreadable. It's full of slang and goofy beatnik nonsense talk, and features zero punctuation whatsoever. It's like reading an aneurysm. I'd have to go over it with a fine-tooth comb probably 4 or 5 times to fully parse what the hell Moore is trying to say with it, and I simply have no interest in doing so.
But, again, while I didn't think this was perfect by any means, I was overall impressed with it, and glad to have a little mini-adventure with Mina and Quatermain, who I hadn't heard from since reading volume two. It's a bit of a commitment compared to a typical comic, but I think, on the whole, it's rewarding, and has excited me to keep going with Century.
November 27, 2008
By now, I've come to realize I'll never be able to read as much as Alan Moore has read in his life... though I dare to say that he is a massive inspiration to anyone who loves the worlds of imagination that literature has created throughout the ages. This thirds installment in the world of the League (which the dreadful movie got all wrong and didn't get any close to matching) is both a summary of the heroes' past adventures, and a very well researched and thoughtful "what if all those characters had existed and co-existed" essay. A friend of mine, a very talented painter, graphic designer and a fan of graphic novels, told me that this book is also a compendium of all the techniques used comic books today. And I would dare say that it possibly adds some tricks of its own and a wink to past techniques. Kevin O'Neill's work is amazing, particularly in the final 3D section (which is not a mere whim of the authors, but a perfectly timed option to drive the last nail in, so to speak). If hard-pressed, I might complaint about the obscurity of some of the literary references in "The Black Dossier", but one can always argue that it's simply an enticing device, luring us further deep into the world of fiction. An actual drawback of sorts is that die-hard fans of "The League" will probably enjoy "The Black Dossier" far more than new-comers.
May 11, 2025
È difficile parlare di questo libro perché questa serie è sostanzialmente folle. È un mostruoso almanacco di citazioni di letteratura fantastica del XX secolo. Anche quando ho letto i primi due volumi ho pensato che qualcuno avrebbe dovuto mettersi di impegno e scrivere un libro di tutte le citazioni presenti in questi volumi. Non so quanto ci si potrebbe mettere perché bisognerebbe spulciare ogni frase, ogni nome buttato là, ogni dettaglio di una scena e poi si avrebbe materiale da leggere per secoli. Non è una sorpresa, visto che la serie nasce dalla creazione di una squadra di agenti speciali composta da personaggi provenienti da alcuni grandi classici del genere poi portata sul grande schermo in modo goffo dal film del 2003 con Sean Connery e sul piccolo schermo in modo superbo dalla serie Penny Dreadful con la splendida Eva Green.
Qui, seguendo Mina e Alan in una nuova missione alla ricerca di un Dossier su di loro, arriviamo addirittura a metterci degli occhialetti rossi e verdi per delle splendide tavole in 3D. Bello perché il passaggio dalla bidimensionalità cartacea al 3D rappresenta quello della storia dal mondo reale ad una dimensione in 4D.
Sarò romantica, ma parte di quel che amo di questa saga è proprio la storia d’amore tra Mina e Alan che è così naturale, così vissuta e senza orpelli, che mi commuove nella sua semplicità.
Non è comunque una lettura semplice. Al capitolo “Il folle immenso eterno”, in cui c’è uno svaso di pagine e pagine in prosa (e pagine e pagine in prosa scritta in piccolo in un libro in formato fumetto grande vuol dire TANTO) senza virgole, né punteggiatura, né senso compiuto nelle frasi, ecco, a quel capitolo stavo per abbandonare la lettura e saltare fino al pezzo successivo, ma ho resistito e non me ne pento.
Insomma: una lettura folle, violenta, sessualmente esplicita, irrazionale…Vado a comprare quelli che mi mancano.
Qui, seguendo Mina e Alan in una nuova missione alla ricerca di un Dossier su di loro, arriviamo addirittura a metterci degli occhialetti rossi e verdi per delle splendide tavole in 3D. Bello perché il passaggio dalla bidimensionalità cartacea al 3D rappresenta quello della storia dal mondo reale ad una dimensione in 4D.
Sarò romantica, ma parte di quel che amo di questa saga è proprio la storia d’amore tra Mina e Alan che è così naturale, così vissuta e senza orpelli, che mi commuove nella sua semplicità.
Non è comunque una lettura semplice. Al capitolo “Il folle immenso eterno”, in cui c’è uno svaso di pagine e pagine in prosa (e pagine e pagine in prosa scritta in piccolo in un libro in formato fumetto grande vuol dire TANTO) senza virgole, né punteggiatura, né senso compiuto nelle frasi, ecco, a quel capitolo stavo per abbandonare la lettura e saltare fino al pezzo successivo, ma ho resistito e non me ne pento.
Insomma: una lettura folle, violenta, sessualmente esplicita, irrazionale…Vado a comprare quelli che mi mancano.
June 24, 2020
Less cohesive and enthralling than the first two volumes but still super fun.
March 3, 2024
Black Dossier è nato come outsider rispetto alla saga di appartenenza; non riesco neanche a definirlo spin-off data la peculiarità e complessità dell'opera. E' un testo metaletterario in cui si racconta la storia della lega e la sua evoluzione nel tempo. Questo è l'espediente che Alan Moore si dà per trasmettere al lettore tutta la sua passione per la letteratura fantastica di tutti i tempi. La omaggia e la rielabora in tutti i modi, utilizzando un enorme ventaglio di linguaggi e stili narrativi. La genialità del testo e la cura dei disegni lo rendono un vero e proprio capolavoro. Questo libro però non è solo un omaggio o un esercizio di stile. Racchiude infatti una potente riflessione sull'importanza delle storie e sulla loro vitalità. Le storie danno continuità alla razza umana, sono la connessione tra gli individui attraverso le epoche. I loro personaggi sono le vere anime immortali, destinate ad accompagnarci per sempre e a segnare le nostre vite dalla culla alla fine dei tempi.
February 7, 2018
There is quite a bit to write of here, so bear with me. First and foremost, let me tell you that the... assembled documents (so to speak) of the Black Dossier hold very little interest for anyone not exposed to at least the first two installments of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, also known as the Murray Group, after Mina Murray.
What Alan Moore has done here, is use a number of different printed visual mediums, to outline the history of secretive extraordinary groups in Britain (and elsewhere), framed by an Inception-type story (although it came out 3 years before Inception), wherein Mina and Quatermain visit their old headquarters to reclaim the dossier you are reading and which they in turn are reading, which also talks of their exploits etc.
Let me tell you, the aforementioned story is not very good, BUT 90% of the rest of the material is simply amazing, as it outlines not just Moore's LOEG universe, but also combines it with Greek Mythology, Lovecraft, Moorcock and more besides, to create a new mythic / historic timeline for Britain. There are things like a (fictional) government sanctioned Tijuana Bible (one of many jabs against the Thatcher era in the UK), a supposedly lost Shakespeare manuscript, Orlando's story mimicking the old Look & Learn Magazine comic strips, a Penny Dreadful on watercolor paper and more, all filled out with supposed MI-5 reports and commentary.
There are also a couple of short stories, the best of which is a sort of satirical Lovecraftian tale and the worst of which is a misguided assortment of pages without any punctuation marks!
All in all, if you are a fan of LOEG, this tome is very fulfilling and would be even more so if not for the completely pointless, trippy ending in the Blazing World, where Moore casts himself in the role of an other-dimensional Prospero (from Shakespeare's Tempest) and the whole thing is drawn in an epilepsy inducing style that may or may not be a form of 3D, if you have the dreaded red and green glasses of yore.
It must be noted that, if nothing else, the Black Dossier showcases the vast and varied talent of Kevin O'Neil, who seems to effortlessly shift his style in order to mimic different eras and types of documents and artwork.
At the very least, the Black Dossier is a must for the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen completionist.
What Alan Moore has done here, is use a number of different printed visual mediums, to outline the history of secretive extraordinary groups in Britain (and elsewhere), framed by an Inception-type story (although it came out 3 years before Inception), wherein Mina and Quatermain visit their old headquarters to reclaim the dossier you are reading and which they in turn are reading, which also talks of their exploits etc.
Let me tell you, the aforementioned story is not very good, BUT 90% of the rest of the material is simply amazing, as it outlines not just Moore's LOEG universe, but also combines it with Greek Mythology, Lovecraft, Moorcock and more besides, to create a new mythic / historic timeline for Britain. There are things like a (fictional) government sanctioned Tijuana Bible (one of many jabs against the Thatcher era in the UK), a supposedly lost Shakespeare manuscript, Orlando's story mimicking the old Look & Learn Magazine comic strips, a Penny Dreadful on watercolor paper and more, all filled out with supposed MI-5 reports and commentary.
There are also a couple of short stories, the best of which is a sort of satirical Lovecraftian tale and the worst of which is a misguided assortment of pages without any punctuation marks!
All in all, if you are a fan of LOEG, this tome is very fulfilling and would be even more so if not for the completely pointless, trippy ending in the Blazing World, where Moore casts himself in the role of an other-dimensional Prospero (from Shakespeare's Tempest) and the whole thing is drawn in an epilepsy inducing style that may or may not be a form of 3D, if you have the dreaded red and green glasses of yore.
It must be noted that, if nothing else, the Black Dossier showcases the vast and varied talent of Kevin O'Neil, who seems to effortlessly shift his style in order to mimic different eras and types of documents and artwork.
At the very least, the Black Dossier is a must for the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen completionist.
August 11, 2015
Well I have finished it although I think now I need a lie down.
Seriously though along with the trade mark thinly veiled references to British pop culture, literary figures and historical events, with a slight twist (to avoid international copyright or the fact that it makes you stop and think when you half recognise something), the book is a mind twisting series of stories within stories, from those dealing with current events to those that make up the legendary history of he league.
The book is a strange mix of comic strips, short stories and in a few cases even novelty postcards and advertisements. I am sure I have miss a lot of what is going on and will no doubt need to read this several times over to truly discover all the messages, jokes and hints hidden within the pages.
It is very difficult to talk about the book without giving things away about the storyline - not because its too easy but more because the storyline is so involved that to mention any part of it would no doubt give too much away, for example (no dont worry) - the Black Dossier at points event makes reference to Mina and her League and not only does it reference to artwork but even appears to match what I was reading in my hands. I was almost looking at the same dossier they were.
I will admit that the change in story and presentation can see a little distracting and confusing but the various parts are a perfect balance and how they are linked together is pure genius. This book may be for the true fan but as a fan I really enjoyed it and I hope that it will not be too long before we return to the League and the Blazing World.
Seriously though along with the trade mark thinly veiled references to British pop culture, literary figures and historical events, with a slight twist (to avoid international copyright or the fact that it makes you stop and think when you half recognise something), the book is a mind twisting series of stories within stories, from those dealing with current events to those that make up the legendary history of he league.
The book is a strange mix of comic strips, short stories and in a few cases even novelty postcards and advertisements. I am sure I have miss a lot of what is going on and will no doubt need to read this several times over to truly discover all the messages, jokes and hints hidden within the pages.
It is very difficult to talk about the book without giving things away about the storyline - not because its too easy but more because the storyline is so involved that to mention any part of it would no doubt give too much away, for example (no dont worry) - the Black Dossier at points event makes reference to Mina and her League and not only does it reference to artwork but even appears to match what I was reading in my hands. I was almost looking at the same dossier they were.
I will admit that the change in story and presentation can see a little distracting and confusing but the various parts are a perfect balance and how they are linked together is pure genius. This book may be for the true fan but as a fan I really enjoyed it and I hope that it will not be too long before we return to the League and the Blazing World.
September 6, 2012
This is not the place to begin on LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN. Decidedly unsuitable for younger readers! It is a spendy hardback volume, and fans of James Bond will be ticked off. And you had better have good vision, plenty of patience, and the flexibility to hop between the various comic and text formats, all the while hanging on to what is happening to the plot and characters.
Having said all that, if you are an LOEG fan this is essential. Moore really lets it all go, the adventuring through time and space, the obscure references (be sure and look up Jess Nevins' glosses upon LOEG on his website). Mina Murray, surely one of the best female heroines in comics, is a delight. Who else would carry a brick in her handbag, on the off chance that it will become necessary to slug somebody?
Having said all that, if you are an LOEG fan this is essential. Moore really lets it all go, the adventuring through time and space, the obscure references (be sure and look up Jess Nevins' glosses upon LOEG on his website). Mina Murray, surely one of the best female heroines in comics, is a delight. Who else would carry a brick in her handbag, on the off chance that it will become necessary to slug somebody?
August 15, 2022
This is not a graphic novel.
Well, not for the most part. It's a collection of obscure references played out in various formats: from Shakespearean play to 1700s 'porn', and yes, I'll admit, it does include some short sequences of graphic novel tying the various parts together.
Nonetheless, I did enjoy it. Moore manages to mimic the various forms well (at least as much I recognise them; I'm no connaisseur of many of the historical references) and he manages to twist history to fit his band of misfits throughout the ages.
Can't wait to get my hands on a full-form graphic novel of TLOEG though, with the horrible last part of Volume II and so few graphics in this volume either.
Well, not for the most part. It's a collection of obscure references played out in various formats: from Shakespearean play to 1700s 'porn', and yes, I'll admit, it does include some short sequences of graphic novel tying the various parts together.
Nonetheless, I did enjoy it. Moore manages to mimic the various forms well (at least as much I recognise them; I'm no connaisseur of many of the historical references) and he manages to twist history to fit his band of misfits throughout the ages.
Can't wait to get my hands on a full-form graphic novel of TLOEG though, with the horrible last part of Volume II and so few graphics in this volume either.
December 8, 2020
Moore always tries to play with the form and style of graphic art and when it works, as in Watchmen, its amazing. Here though its just bland and all style over substance.
June 6, 2022
The first time I read this book, when it first came out, I didn’t understand much of the literary references and ended up skipping much of the prose content.
However, after doing a deep dive and reading some of the more prominent influences on the book, and actually taking time to read through everything, I enjoyed it immensely.
Alan Moore shows off his encyclopedic knowledge of literature as he continues to flesh out the LXG world as well as his writing chops through a wide range of writing styles, effects, and lets you piece together the history of the league throughout.
Definitely worth the dive.
However, after doing a deep dive and reading some of the more prominent influences on the book, and actually taking time to read through everything, I enjoyed it immensely.
Alan Moore shows off his encyclopedic knowledge of literature as he continues to flesh out the LXG world as well as his writing chops through a wide range of writing styles, effects, and lets you piece together the history of the league throughout.
Definitely worth the dive.
January 10, 2008
Every time I pick up one of Moore's League books, I'm blown away. He somehow manages to make me simultaneously feel smart for all of the references I catch and stupid for all the ones I know I've missed. This mad notion of knitting together all of the fabled literary worlds and characters into one (mostly) coherent history shouldn't work, but it does.
This newest bit of League history has a whisper-thin plot, but that's really just an excuse to further flesh out this amazing world and to have terrific fun experimenting with different forms and styles. Some of these experiments work better than others: I find both the Beat novels and Lovecraft's work almost unreadable; combining the two (however cleverly) didn't help; on the other hand, if Jeeves and Bertie appeared in all of Lovecraft's stories, I'd read them a lot more frequently.
The package itself is amazing. Different art styles, different paper textures, a Tijuana Bible, an unbelievably gorgeous 3-D section (glasses are included); as an art object, it's beautiful. The fact that there actually is a story to hang it all on, however thin, is really just the icing on the cake.
NOTE: Those of you familiar with the previous volumes are no doubt also familiar with the redoutable Jess Nevins and his panel-by-panel annotations of those works. A book of annotations for The Black Dossier is forthcoming, but until then, you can get Jess's annotations and notes can get them here:
http://www.shsu.edu/~lib_jjn/dossier....
This newest bit of League history has a whisper-thin plot, but that's really just an excuse to further flesh out this amazing world and to have terrific fun experimenting with different forms and styles. Some of these experiments work better than others: I find both the Beat novels and Lovecraft's work almost unreadable; combining the two (however cleverly) didn't help; on the other hand, if Jeeves and Bertie appeared in all of Lovecraft's stories, I'd read them a lot more frequently.
The package itself is amazing. Different art styles, different paper textures, a Tijuana Bible, an unbelievably gorgeous 3-D section (glasses are included); as an art object, it's beautiful. The fact that there actually is a story to hang it all on, however thin, is really just the icing on the cake.
NOTE: Those of you familiar with the previous volumes are no doubt also familiar with the redoutable Jess Nevins and his panel-by-panel annotations of those works. A book of annotations for The Black Dossier is forthcoming, but until then, you can get Jess's annotations and notes can get them here:
http://www.shsu.edu/~lib_jjn/dossier....
October 24, 2019
Black Dossier. Moore's second-and-a-halfth League story does a rather magnificent job of detailing an entire history for the League, from the 17th century to the 1950s, laying the foundation for any number of intriguing stories about a multitude of Leagues. And, in the process it also presents a whole world that is more obviously not quite like our own (especially with the "Big Brother" takeover of England).
Meanwhile, we get a fun modern-day story that tells us of the future of some of our original League characters, decades later. Though the history is the most intriguing part of this book, the modern-day action is the most interesting.
This is all told through a variety of media, from reports and excerpts of novels to postcards and comic strips. Unfortunately, this is the book's greatest weakness. Moore has multiple times presented textual sources to go with his stories (see also, Providence), and they tend to be the weakest parts of his work, often either dull infodumps or attempted parodies of bad art forms ... that turn out to be as bad as the original. In Black Dossier, some of the infodumps are pretty hard to read, even if they summarize entirely intriguing adventures, and then there's one "novel excerpt" (_The Crazy Wide Forever_) that is literally unreadable.
I also was unconvinced by the ending, because sometimes there's a fourth wall that doesn't need to be broken.
Despite my complaints, I loved the expansion of the League universe in this side-volume to the series. [4/5]
Meanwhile, we get a fun modern-day story that tells us of the future of some of our original League characters, decades later. Though the history is the most intriguing part of this book, the modern-day action is the most interesting.
This is all told through a variety of media, from reports and excerpts of novels to postcards and comic strips. Unfortunately, this is the book's greatest weakness. Moore has multiple times presented textual sources to go with his stories (see also, Providence), and they tend to be the weakest parts of his work, often either dull infodumps or attempted parodies of bad art forms ... that turn out to be as bad as the original. In Black Dossier, some of the infodumps are pretty hard to read, even if they summarize entirely intriguing adventures, and then there's one "novel excerpt" (_The Crazy Wide Forever_) that is literally unreadable.
I also was unconvinced by the ending, because sometimes there's a fourth wall that doesn't need to be broken.
Despite my complaints, I loved the expansion of the League universe in this side-volume to the series. [4/5]
September 7, 2011
The biggest pleasure I got out of Black Dossier was the excitement of discovering a passing reference to Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five. That's what I really love about The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen books: seeing how Alan Moore has seamlessly woven a novel that I've read into the fabric of this literary universe. I would have run around in circles squealing after reading the Beat analog The Crazy Wide Forever except that my apartment is too small. And the P.G. Wodehouse/H.P. Lovecraft mash-up What Ho, Gods of the Abyss was a goofy fun. Those are just my personal favorites; Black Dossier is chuck full of references to novels, movies, TV shows, comics, and radio dramas, more so it seems than the first two League books. Some people have complained about this, but for me that is why this series is so fascinating and fun. I'm more impressed with Alan Moore's literary craft and extensive knowledge of literature than I am interested in his intellectual critique of the concept of the "hero" and of American film adaptions of British adventure classics (though I do think more comics writers should strive for Moore's kind of intellectual depth in their work). I really loved this book and can't wait to read the third series.
Jess Nevin's annotations were a big help, by the way. You can get them here.
Jess Nevin's annotations were a big help, by the way. You can get them here.
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