"The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier" by Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill - Running Commentary, Part 1

Black Dossier is not The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume III, despite being the third book in the series. Rather, it bridges the gap between Volume II and the forthcoming Century storyline. It's also technically the series' first graphic novel (the preceding volumes were originally released as six-part miniseries before being collected as trade paperbacks).

The volume also has a most unusual construction, mirroring the titular book -- really speaking, it's a real-life recreation of the Dossier, right down to the cover design (when you take the dust jacket off) and using different paper stock for some segments. Though it also has comics pages inserted, telling the story of how a couple of characters came across the Dossier itself (and then read it). As such, in my daily summaries I'll be listing all the sections I've read (much like I list individual episodes of TV) along with the pages I find them on. (I've chosen to number the opening pages 1-8, despite some random page numbers later suggesting they should be unnumbered. They're clearly part of the book and I don't imagine it will ever be published without them. The total page count this way is 192.)

As for the book itself... the Prologue tells the story of how two characters (most readers will know who they are) acquire the Black Dossier, which contains secret documents relating the history of the League, its members, and rival organisations. After this, the documents from the Dossier itself begin. In the LoEG world, Britain has just come out from the rule of Big Brother (from George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four) and so the book begins with warnings from that government. To this point, it's all just introductory stuff really, though the Prologue effectively establishes the new setting, re-establishes the characters, and gives some hints to what has occurred between the end of Volume II (set in 1898) and the start of Black Dossier (in 1958).

There's also a good use of a thinly-veiled James Bond -- thinly enough to avoid copyright issues, I presume, but clearly enough that any reasonably educated reader can't fail to work out who he is. One thing I dislike, however, was Jimmy ordering his martini stirred instead of shaken -- he's right that shaking it bruises the vodka and that's why one normally has it stirred, but in Casino Royale Bond states the bruising the vodka is precisely why he has it shaken. Possibly a slight gap in Moore's cleverness there, or just a deliberate inversion of the character's 'reality'? Who can say...

"The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier" by Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill - Running Commentary, Part 4

Today's reading takes me past the halfway point of the latest volume in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series.

Following the first round of documents from the Dossier itself, it's back to the continuing adventures of Mina and Allan. The amount of plot in these sections is pleasing, as I was rather expecting near-pointless little vignettes designed to intersperse the pages of the Dossier; happily, it's almost the other way round, as the Dossier's documents are inserted at the points when the characters are reading them, and so in between there's an actual plot. Mina and Allan head to Kent, to the derelict Greyfriars public school, to investigate the mysterious initials mentioned in handwritten notes that cover the Dossier. Like the documents from the Dossier itself, this sequence is wordy and exposition-packed, in which Moore basically connects up various fictional characters of the '40s and '50s (and earlier) to bring his world together. There are a few twists and surprises in amongst this, but it's occasionally hard to escape the feeling that, like the Dossier, it's as much an academic exercise in world-building as it is a proper story. Perhaps this is why Black Dossier isn't counted as Volume III.

Also in this section, in London the current incarnation of 'M' pairs Bond... er, sorry, Jimmy... up with two other agents to hunt down Mina and Allan. What success will this new almost-League have? I suppose we'll find out in about 25 pages as, following a bout of rumpy-pumpy (Moore reigns himself in and doesn't show the act, instead treating readers to a three-panel silent page showing events elsewhere), it's back to the Dossier...

It doesn't feel like just 25 pages when making one's way through the Dossier's documents; not because they're dull, but they're frequently text-only pages, which unsurprisingly take longer to read than comic pages, however wordy they may get. First is a single-page map of the Blazing World, which both Prospero's and Gulliver's Leagues visited. There's little to note here, beyond hints at how the included 3D glasses might come into play, and a small picture of what looks to be a Police Box...

After this the documents move on to cover Murray's League, beginning with a chapter from Campion Bond's autobiography that describes the formation of it. While most of this was covered in Volume I, one part we never got to see was how Nemo was recruited, and that's what's covered here. It's a shame it hasn't been covered 'on screen', as the descriptions of the locations made me long to see them. (Incidentally, Bond's memoirs are first mentioned in a quote at the start of Volume I, which comes from this very chapter. I have to wonder if Moore has just managed to integrate this, or if he had already planned so far ahead -- that might sound unlikely, but I find it plausible, all things considered.)

The account of Nemo's recruitment are followed by a couple of brief sections: first, a cross-section of the Nautilus, which is like those ones magazines and annuals used to publish of craft from Gerry Anderson series (if anyone remembers those...) I always liked them when I was little, so this is quite nice. Secondly, a Prospectus of London, 1901 shows a selection of buildings and monuments related to the adventures of the Murray Group. Beyond being slight reference to the first two volumes, and showing what happened to some things they left behind (such as a Martian war machine becoming a children's play area), there's little to this brief segment.

As with the Prospectus, the next set of documents continues to explore the actions of some characters after the disbandment of the Murray Group (at the end of Volume II). Dramatically referred to as "Bulletins From Beyond" on the contents page, this collection of postcards is more factually called "The Murray Group, Correspondence, 1899-1913" on its title page. As well as a summary of their activities in this period, it includes eight postcards sent by Mina, Allan and Orlando, many from places mentioned in the Almanac. As I mentioned in a previous commentary, this once again as the advantage of re-presenting things we already know in a different context, with the odd sliver of new information. As the events of Volume III will be set during this period, such frames of reference may prove fruitful.

One thing: having read so much -- yet all of it vague -- about the battle between the League and their French counterparts, Les Hommes Mystérieux, in both the Almanac and various entries in the Dossier (and, no doubt, more to come in the next document, which I'll get to tomorrow), I hope Moore decides to properly tell the story of their encounter at some point -- as Volume IV would be nice.

"The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier" by Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill - Running Commentary, Part 5

A bumper-bonus lot of sections commented on today, as I raced through several sections of both the Dossier and interwoven action, helped along by the more modern, easier-to-read style of these documents, and the comic's addictively speedy plot.

First up are a couple of pages that detail the League's German and French counterparts. The German ones are given fairly short shrift, as if Moore either doesn't care about them or couldn't find enough decent German characters to make them worthwhile. Consequently the French ones are more interesting, and here Moore sets about detailing the battle that I mentioned before. It's great to know what happened, but disappointing that it's told here as it surely lessens the chances of a proper visual version of it appearing later. It reads a bit like a plot description for a comic, however, suggesting either that's how it originated, is where it's headed (fingers crossed), or that Moore still thinks like a comics writer (of course, many of the other prose pieces in the dossier would belie this, but then in those instances he's specifically imitating another style).

After this, Moore plunges into an amusing Jeeves & Wooster parody, called What Ho, Gods of the Abyss. It's wittily written and gives readers a brief chance to see the post-WWI second Murray Group in action, and whacks in a bit more of the Lovecraft stuff (fast becoming overdone, if you ask me -- and there's more of it yet). It's unsurprising that the Murray groups would get such emphasis -- speaking in-universe, it would be easiest for the Dossier's compilers to find notes and works that refer to them; out of it, they're the group most familiar to readers, and so the one many will be most interested in hearing new adventures of.

After this, it's back to the story of Mina and Allan in 1958. They're on their way to the Birmingham Spaceport, but they've been betrayed... One of the advantages of a graphic novel (rather than episodic issue) format comes out here, as Moore isn't limited to 22 pages for any of these segments. So earlier, for example, he could pack in a load of exposition without worrying that it would basically dominate an issue, and now he can run to 26 pages for a chunk of plot. It's a good section too, as the 'new League' catch up with our heroes at the fantastically realised Spaceport and a battle ensues. At one point Moore even pulls off a neat trick, which isn't uncommon on TV/film but I've personally not seen applied in print, where -- unannounced -- the story jumps back in time to follow another character, for four pages, before they hit the same point as we left. (It's one of those things that works fine when read but sounds awkward when abstractly explained.) I'm sure it's spoiling nothing to say Allan and Mina escape (their most dramatic yet), and it's back into the final section of documents from the Dossier...

The final set of documents round off the story of the Murray Groups, up to the early 1950s. The first is a simple factual report outlining the activities of the surviving members of the second group during World War II. A bit like some sections, especially in the Almanac, it's mostly timeline-filling for those who are interested. The following section is more amusing, detailing a League formed in 1946 that was in every respect an imitation of the first Murray Group, apart from that it only had one mission that failed miserably. Most of the characters Moore chooses for this line-up are even more obscure than those in the other Leagues, it seems to me, but they serve their purpose.

The penultimate piece is a parody of a beat novel, using characters from the works of Jack Kerouac. It's an appalling style if you ask me, hellish to read -- or, rather, battle through -- and with minimal discernible artistic merit. The story is just another adventure for Allan and Mina while they were AWOL in America (during the Big Brother years for the UK -- and who wouldn't want to escape the dominance of British Big Brother?), which offers little even if you can fight your way through it. I found the trick to understanding was just to keep reading and not try to understand everything that's being said, after which I managed to glean enough information to more or less follow what was going on. As I said, it's a small, inconsequential side adventure.

Finally, there's a summing up from the director of MI5 (the same one who's in place when Black Dossier's set). It doesn't sum up the whole Dossier, but again focuses on the exploits of the remnants of the final Murray Group, as far as they're known by MI5, up until the time of its writing in 1956. Maybe some of this will have some relevance in the coming sections (a bit of research I did to explain one reference suggests it might), but otherwise there's little new/exciting/relevant info.

And that concludes the Dossier section of Black Dossier! Next time, it's back to the plot as it races towards its climax...

"The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier" by Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill - Running Commentary, Part 6

And so I reach the end of Black Dossier, the latest entry in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series. With the Dossier itself finished last time, it's full steam ahead to the plot's conclusion.

The remaining 35 pages of the novel can be split into two sections of roughly equal length (one's 18 pages, the other 17). The first is more chase, as Allan and Mina crash land in Scotland and head to meet... the Golliwogg! Considering the general shortage of ethnic minority characters in the League -- and that most of those who do turn up are villains -- this could be seen as quite a brave choice, given its consistent controversy, but then Moore's hardly one to shy away from such things. Besides, he's a good guy, saving Mina and Allan from their dastardly pursuers, so it's all good. Moore's witty re-appropriation of existing creations is also evident here, though attentive readers will have noticed signs of it earlier. For example, the XL spaceship series, in which each model is named after how the previous one was destroyed; so when Mina and Allen jet off in the Pancake XL4, some readers will surely know how things will end (and, of course, they do). Or The Third Man's Harry Lime, who was previously (and is again) known as Robert Cherry -- "poisonous fruit", as Mina puts it.

The eventual escape of Mina, Allan and the Golliwogg is a great couple of pages: rather than a big battle, Mina simply explains what's been going on to Drummond -- including several revelations for readers, too, with a clever use of Dr No -- which turns the 'new League' in on itself, while the good guys head off for their finale. There's a couple of nice splash panels in this section. I'm often wary of splash pages/panels in League books, as O'Neill's style doesn't always lend itself to them. Sometimes they work nonetheless though, and these occasions manage that. As 'Jimmy' and Emma Night walk out of the book, one can but hope they'll return. Moore clearly has a very low opinion of Bond, having him do all sorts of despicable things and delighting in just about everyone taking a swing at him throughout Black Dossier. He leaves Em with the notion that Mina or Allan killed her godfather, so let's hope that's reason enough for them to track down our heroes in a future volume.

Finally free of their pursuers, the final section sees our heroes fly into the Blazing World, which is where the 3D glasses finally come into play (as hinted at earlier). There's little that one can say about this final section because it really has to be seen. It's utter madness, with literally dozens of things going on over ever page -- no wonder the work on it delayed the book by months! And, thankfully, it works brilliantly. There may be very little plot in this section -- essentially, Mina and Allan arrive (after a long absence, fans will note) and are reunited with old friends-- but the point is more the spectacle, and on this level it's undoubtedly a success. There are even points which use the two-tone style cunningly -- close one eye and you see one thing, close the other and you see something else. It's the sort of trick that seems obvious once you see it done, but is pretty (if not wholly original). The 3D section makes for a fantastic ending to the book, and is surely one of the most visually impressive sections in any graphic medium ever. Magnificent.

The book ends with a monologue from Prospero, which, in Shakespearean language, expounds on the purpose of the League's universe, the joys of fiction, and its vital importance to us all -- "the fantasies thou've fashioned fashion thee." In itself, it's a great speech, and a perfect way to end a book that concentrates its efforts on merging so many disparate creations from so much of human history into one universe and narrative.

"The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier" by Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill - Running Commentary, Part 2

The Dossier proper begins with an account of our world's encounter with other planes, drawing heavily on the Lovecraft Mythos. Like The New Traveller's Almanac, it's a rather dry scholarly exercise in combining mythologies and providing a fictional history of the world, which I'm sure is of interest to some but just seems to provide near-irrelevant background to the series proper.

More interesting is the next item, the life of Orlando told in the style of '50s children's comics -- albeit with more graphic imagery! It's like a more entertaining version of events hinted at in The New Traveller's Almanac, telling the life of Orlando (obviously) chronologically and with pretty pictures. The brevity of the text makes it less verbose than the preceding document, which is a welcome change -- especially with some faux Shakespeare to come.

This Shakespeare 'play' (just the first two scenes from Act One) is convincingly written, though clearer to a modern reader than genuine untranslated Shakespeare is. It retains a sense of wit and mystery, however, and with references to events already covered or hinted at in the first two artefacts, the beginnings of a linking thread -- perhaps what one might even call a plot -- for this graphic novel are emerging. Individually, it shows the genesis of the first iteration of the League (commonly referred to as Prospero's Men in the series).

It may seem obvious to say this, but Black Dossier initially seems to be no more than a collection of roughly chronological artefacts, which together build up the world and history of the League. If it were just this then it would be an interesting experiment, of interest to diehard fans, but not convincing as anything more. However, in these first three documents there are some themes and ideas overlapping that, perhaps, will come together to create some sort of plot for this volume, beyond just the history of the League. Obviously it's impossible to say for certain until the end, but there is hope that there's more to the book!

Either way, what is here cleverly mashes various ideas and fictions together, and while each artefact follows the story of one character or group there are always crossover points that help you tie the sequence together. The advantage of having both things like the Almanac and this is that they are different ways of presenting similar information -- the Almanac being geographical, for example, whereas this is chronological-by-character. Put them all together and it becomes easier to follow the story. It's also worth nothing that, by the end of the book, there'll have been 108 pages of new story (as in, 'proper' comics pages) for the League itself -- equivalent to four or five issues of a normal comic, which makes it almost as long as the previous series.

"The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier" by Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill - Running Commentary, Part 3

Moving on to the next two sections of Black Dossier...

First up (ho ho) is The New Adventures of Fanny Hill, a sequel to John Cleland's infamous novel that tells the story of the second League, led by Lemuel Gulliver. Moore seems to have an obsession with erotica/pornography that comes more and more to the fore -- there are elements in the first volume that hint at it, full on sex scenes in the second (as well as much reference to it in the accompanying documents), and between penning volumes of the League he worked on Lost Girls (until recently 'banned' in the UK due to licensing issues with some characters). That said, this segment is cleverly written -- the text is apparently tame, but the accompanying illustrations explicitly depict what's actually meant, and consequently together they make for an amusing read. All of this League's adventures seem to have some basis in sex, however, and having related their stories at least twice over already I wouldn't expect Moore to tell them any more thoroughly in future (though you never know). This is also the first section on different paper stock -- a rougher, early-novel style -- which adds some pleasing variety and, for want of a better expression, reality to the book's style. Perhaps the forthcoming Absolute Edition will make even greater use of such tricks?

Following this is a single-page political cartoon, something to do with King George III and Prime Minister William Pitt wasting money on a band of fictional characters (that being Gulliver's League). It adds a small amount of detail to the reasons for this League's genesis, but little more.

Next time, a return to normal 'sequential art'...