The League

Rereading the first two volumes of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen only served to remind me what an extraordinary piece of storytelling Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill have created. Anyone that might dismiss this work on the basis of its graphic novel nature is depriving themselves of possibly the most fantastic work of literature in our modern fin de siècle world. That it takes place in the original fin de siècle only makes sense. The interweaving of the characters and plots from famous or unknown, important or trashy, Victorian works is quite seamless. I've made it a point to use the League as a reference when I am feeling the need to read a "Classic" book. I've read the source material for all the of the members of the League (Dracula - Miss Murray [Mrs. Harper in that tale]; 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island - Captain Nemo; Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - eponymous; The Invisible Man - eponymous; King Solomon's Mines - Allan Quatermain) and have delved into dozens of minor characters and plot elements as well. Each panel, while vibrant and vivid, is also chock full of subtle references to other works. The thorough and incomparable annotations compile all of these details and have been invaluable to me when I need to find out just where someone or something is from. It's like stopping to look up a word. Only I'll stop to look up an allusion. Lost wishes it did literary allusions as well as League!

The end of each volume is also home to some fascinating prose. The first volume has a wonderful short story, again, extremely Victorian and Steampunk. I found it much more enjoyable this time and some of the events were referenced in the second volume. The second volume contains a tongue-in-cheek travelogue, listing all the fantastic places found on the globe. This was tedious as times. It seemed like it was merely a name-checking device to show off how well read (or well researched?) the authors were. More fun was when they would dig a bit deeper into the action, like talking about the follow-up party that went searching for the rabbit hole that Alice went down, and the terrible repercussions that followed. Rather clever, that. I didn't know it at the time but this catalogue of the phantasmagorical would be extremely important in the most recent tale of the League.

I didn't know what to expect when I started The Black Dossier. It turned out to be an exponential leap forward in storytelling from the already leading edge League. It managed to expand the League both forward and backward in time. And instead of just using allusions in comics panels, the authors appropriated the very writing styles of the authors (real and purported) of those times. A long lost Shakespearean play. A bit of gossip from Bertie Wooster. An excerpt of a beat novel from Sal Paradise. This took the notion that all of these fictional characters are real and part of a secret organization to another level. And it was amazing. A bit dirty. Somewhat maddening. Often silly. But intense and compelling and beautiful and utterly unlike anything else I've ever experienced. And now I have a whole new list of Classics that I am desperate to read.