The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume I & II

 The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol I & II

You just can’t beat Alan Moore. The crotchety wizard from Northampton is probably the biggest living name in comics. His work has indisputably influenced the comics industry: modern DC would be unrecognisable without The Killing Joke. The whole medium owes a debt to Watchmen. You can feel his shadow looming within today’s writers. Few can claim that their work has been commandeered by a real-world vigilante group.

It's unfortunate how the industry treated him. To quote him directly from a 2022 interview with the Guardian: “I will always love the comics medium, but the comics industry and all of the stuff attached to it just became unbearable”. Sadly, he’s not alone in that. Jack Kirby, one of the founding fathers of the genre, creator of so many iconic heroes, famously said to then aspiring artist James Romberger: “Kid, you’re one of the best. But put your work in galleries. Don’t do comics. Comics will break your heart.”

I believe the straw that broke Moore’s back was seeing his work butchered into vastly inferior Hollywood movies. He has spoken openly on his disdain for every film based on his work. I tend to agree with him. No adaptation of his work has captured the magic of the originals. Some have even missed the entire point of the story to make it more commercial. It’s like seeing the finest rib-eye steak ground into big macs. They remind me of the ruined fresco of Jesus in Spain.

But along those lines, the best piece of writing advice I’ve heard so far, I got from a two-minute clip of Alan Moore’s Story Telling online course: Read bad books. It’s easy to read a good book and see what’s good about it. It’s harder to read a bad book to analyse what’s bad about it. Learn from other’s mistakes. Also, understand that every book wouldn’t be made if it was solely bad, there must be something about it that appeals to someone, even if it’s just the publisher. Learn from other’s successes. By reading bad books, you will become a better author in both directions.

What am I reading? The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume one (2002) and two (2003). Written by Alan Moore, illustrated by Kevin O’Neill.

What’s it about? As the nineteenth century is drawing near its end, the British Empire must protect itself in anyway it can, even if this means enlisting monsters into her ranks. Moore and Neill reimagine the subjects of Victorian penny-dreadfuls into a covert espionage team. They must come together to take down the greatest threats to Queen and Country. For these two volumes, the team consists of: Wilhelmina Murray (previously Harker), Captain Nemo, Dr Henry Jekyll and therefore Mr Edward Hyde, Allan Quartermain, and Hawley Griffin, an invisible man.

What’s good about it? Do you ever feel like someone has made something just for you? All the stars align, and the gods grant you a boon. This is my jam. I am self-proclaimed early sci-fi story nerd. I read the Necronomicon before I read Harry Potter, and I’d argue it’s aged better. At least everyone knew Lovecraft was a paranoid, racist lunatic even at the time. If I was on Desert Island Discs, I’d bring the works of H.G. Wells. This series is my catnip.

There are so many Easter eggs for those well read in nineteenth century popular culture. I love that even the smallest throw away characters and locations tie back into earlier literature. Here are a few of my favourite inclusions: Augustine Dupin, from Edgar Allan Poe’s The Murders in La Rue Morgue, plays a key role in volume I. The precursor to Sherlock Holmes and much overlooked in my opinion. Captain Nemo’s first mate offhandedly declaring “Call me Ishmael” is hilarious. Rosa Cootes as headmistress of a finishing school in Edmonton is ingenious. Ms Cootes was a stock character who appeared across multiple Victorian romance novels as a much desired and reputable dominatrix.

I love Kevin O’Neill’s art in this for many reasons. Firstly, it’s interesting. You’d be hard pressed to call it pretty, but the characters and settings its paired with aren’t pretty. His use of contrasting geometric forms, scratchy yet simplistic detailing, muted then extreme colours, all go to accentuate the story. The framing is fantastic. Bold pacing and clever placement make pages extremely memorable.

Alan Moore is brilliant as always. Not much needs to be said on that matter. The story is dark and twisting. He does a terrific job of showing the core of all the characters. You can feel what he loves and what he hates about the source material. Weaving all these separate chronologies, settings and character histories together is a work of genius. A little thing that I wish more comics did is that Moore doesn’t translate dialogue: If a character speaks in French, the speech bubbles are in French. If a character speaks Arabic, the bubbles are in abjad. If a character speaks in a Martian dialect, the bubbles are unknowable squiggles, if a character speaks in a different Martian dialect, the bubbles are in a different series of unknowable squiggles. If your point of view characters can’t speak the language, nor should you.

In writing this I was going to add this to the Struggles section: “What is Allan Quartermain in this for? He doesn’t add anything to the team, he’s useless in battle and a hindrance in the investigation, he’s a passenger in all this.” But then it hit me… that’s the point. He’s only there because he is expected to be there. The empire’s favourite son. Bond chose Quartermain, not by Mina, because Bond symbolises the system that does not trust or respect a woman to get the job done. Quartermain is redundant. He’s a relic, a dinosaur from another time, an outlived line of thought. He also knows it; hence we are introduced to him in an opium den, drowning his sorrows. Nothing is ever a coincidence in Moore’s work.

This is becoming a very long review, but it would be remise of me not to mention one of my favourite comic issues of all time. Issue 6 of Volume II, You Should See Me Dance the Polka. Just superb.

What did I struggle with? I vastly prefer the second volume compared to the first. It may be because I’ve got a greater affinity to War of the Worlds and The Island of Dr. Moreau over The Devil Doctor and Sherlock Holmes. It also may be because it’s far simpler. Martians are bad as opposed to Fu Manchu and James Moriarty in a criminal war lord standoff to implement the same plan against each other. Not to say the first volume is bad, it’s wonderful, I just love the second volume more.

Fu Manchu brings me to the biggest elephant in the room. I know its purposely done to reflect the outdated thoughts of the setting, but you can’t escape how racist this all is. It’s holding a mirror to how awful things were back in the days of the empire, but it still makes me squirm. Perhaps it’s because of my own family history: Terrible things across the globe were committed by Cannings. India, America, Australia, the west coast of Africa… It’s a horrible legacy. Moore is making the point of “Don’t forget how despicable these ideals are, this exceptionalism is backwards and deranged and believed by literal monsters. Rule Britannia comes at a cost.” And it makes me sad that my kids will grow up in post-Brexit Britain.

Would I recommend? Well… here’s the rub. I wouldn’t say it’s the Alan Moore title I would recommend for anyone wanting to understand comics, that’s Watchmen. It’s not the Moore book for the political charged, that’s V for Vendetta. Want something historical? From Hell is spectacular. For the superhero fan, I’d say go for his Captain Britain, Miracleman, Tom Strong or Swamp Thing. But if you are like me, fill your boots. I love this series. It’s very much my niché. Don’t let the film put you off.