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baileeparkes's review against another edition
3.0
Oops! All worldbuilding!
I’ve been wanting to continue The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen for a while now, and this was certainly that. Flaws and all.
Firstly, the way this was structured made it very easy to read, with vignettes following Mina and Allan in 1958 escaping Mi5 in pursuit broken up with sections of the ‘Black Dossier’ itself. It fills in what the League members had been getting up to in the years following the 1898 Martian invasion. Beyond the overarching general events described in ‘The New Traveller’s Almanac’. I think Alan Moore didn’t think too far after the end of the second volume where the characters would go, writing the almanac as a kind of cute epilogue that gives a peek into the potential of a world where all fiction was real; them becoming immortal being only a footnote between the lines during their trip to Africa. This is when he clearly had made a decision to expand not only on the story but the thematic direction as well, with Prospero making a big speech at the end (in iambic pentameter, of course) about the impact of fiction on real life and how telling stories changes reality. Very Sandman, now I think about it. It all feels very grand compared to the basically self-contained first two volumes.
Some segments are definitely better than others, I can’t help but feel Kevin O’Neill and the other artists might have felt a little cheated at how much of this is just pages of text. My favourite section would have to be ‘What Ho, Gods of the Abyss!’ which is basically Jeeves and Wooster meet Cthulhu worshippers. Which is pretty perfect and hilarious. It ends with Gussie Fink-Nottle having his brain sucked out and being basically the exact same afterward. Jolly good stuff.
I’ve been wanting to continue The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen for a while now, and this was certainly that. Flaws and all.
Firstly, the way this was structured made it very easy to read, with vignettes following Mina and Allan in 1958 escaping Mi5 in pursuit broken up with sections of the ‘Black Dossier’ itself. It fills in what the League members had been getting up to in the years following the 1898 Martian invasion. Beyond the overarching general events described in ‘The New Traveller’s Almanac’. I think Alan Moore didn’t think too far after the end of the second volume where the characters would go, writing the almanac as a kind of cute epilogue that gives a peek into the potential of a world where all fiction was real; them becoming immortal being only a footnote between the lines during their trip to Africa. This is when he clearly had made a decision to expand not only on the story but the thematic direction as well, with Prospero making a big speech at the end (in iambic pentameter, of course) about the impact of fiction on real life and how telling stories changes reality. Very Sandman, now I think about it. It all feels very grand compared to the basically self-contained first two volumes.
Some segments are definitely better than others, I can’t help but feel Kevin O’Neill and the other artists might have felt a little cheated at how much of this is just pages of text. My favourite section would have to be ‘What Ho, Gods of the Abyss!’ which is basically Jeeves and Wooster meet Cthulhu worshippers. Which is pretty perfect and hilarious. It ends with Gussie Fink-Nottle having his brain sucked out and being basically the exact same afterward. Jolly good stuff.
christianholub's review against another edition
4.0
Really like this volume; Moore's literary knowledge is extremely extensive, and it shows. However, I felt the 'Fanny Hill' sequel was a little gratuitous and excessive.
evilchocho's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
timgrubbs's review against another edition
5.0
A more straightforward anthology and look at the world that does with the story across multiple generations and points of view…
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill was a special one off as part of the franchise that gave a look at all incarnations of the League though most only whetted our appetite for more stories about each…
The premise of the Black Dossier is the mid 20th century years after World War II. The world of the League is in a Cold War with its literary figures deeply involved (including a major spy or ex viously foreshadowed).
Two former members of the League break into a British intelligence office to steal a special collection of records…the only remaining account of the special agents the British government has used dating back to the time of Queen Elizabeth.
Oddly, the records are not any official reports (save one), but actually in the form of personal memoirs, salacious dime novels, small Tijuana Bible-like stories, and other fiction.
The “Black Dossier” is both the story and the artifact itself covering the (up to that point) history of the league.
It’s a lot of fun and relies heavily on the backmatter mentioned in the first two books (which is also the source of the hints of prior leagues).
Many different art styles are presented showing O’Neill’s versatility, and some of the material also showcases the changing culture of the United Kingdom. It’s a far gone world from the Victorian society of the old league and the grim and pessimistic 20th century may consume them all as it tries to destroy all things bright and beautiful.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill was a special one off as part of the franchise that gave a look at all incarnations of the League though most only whetted our appetite for more stories about each…
The premise of the Black Dossier is the mid 20th century years after World War II. The world of the League is in a Cold War with its literary figures deeply involved (including a major spy or ex viously foreshadowed).
Two former members of the League break into a British intelligence office to steal a special collection of records…the only remaining account of the special agents the British government has used dating back to the time of Queen Elizabeth.
Oddly, the records are not any official reports (save one), but actually in the form of personal memoirs, salacious dime novels, small Tijuana Bible-like stories, and other fiction.
The “Black Dossier” is both the story and the artifact itself covering the (up to that point) history of the league.
It’s a lot of fun and relies heavily on the backmatter mentioned in the first two books (which is also the source of the hints of prior leagues).
Many different art styles are presented showing O’Neill’s versatility, and some of the material also showcases the changing culture of the United Kingdom. It’s a far gone world from the Victorian society of the old league and the grim and pessimistic 20th century may consume them all as it tries to destroy all things bright and beautiful.
bdavisshannon's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, and Violence
offworldcolony's review
4.0
After revisiting this post-Nemo, Century and Tempest, The Black Dossier has aged well. A worthy bridging gap between volumes with a focus on the old-school British spy/chase thriller where you're playing catch up. It's aged well amongst Alan Moore's oeuvre by using a fun experimental premise to play around in both the high-brow and low-brow, with shades of the meta-fictional Prometheus and the tasteful tawdry smut of Lost Girls.
mabusecast's review against another edition
4.0
Honestly this might be the first Alan Moore work that is a bit too galaxy brained for me! Mostly a fun ride even if I can’t 100 percent tell what the fuck is going on towards the end of this, I still oddly respect it for going absolutely buck wild with the comics medium!
colindalaska's review against another edition
2.0
Like a lot of Alan Moore's work, for me, this was incomprehensible nonsense.
Fair play to anyone who understood and enjoyed any of this, you're far cleverer than me.
Fair play to anyone who understood and enjoyed any of this, you're far cleverer than me.
cameronkobesauthor's review against another edition
4.0
As someone who's pretty well-read and interested in being even better-read, I've so far found all of 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' graphic novels to be wildly entertaining. As demented as a bag of LSD-fed cats perhaps, but wildly entertaining. Reading them is like a game for me, in which I can gleefully point here and there and shriek: "I get that reference! I get that reference!" I have fun with that.
Still, there were bits of the book that bothered me, the foremost being the pastiche of Jack Kerouac (Crazy Wide Forever by Sal Paradyse) which wasn't anything like Jack Kerouac's style. Still, for me the book was very enjoyable.
Still, there were bits of the book that bothered me, the foremost being the pastiche of Jack Kerouac (Crazy Wide Forever by Sal Paradyse) which wasn't anything like Jack Kerouac's style. Still, for me the book was very enjoyable.
ericfheiman's review against another edition
1.0
I'm all for boundary pushing work, but I think Alan Moore was given a bit too much creative freedom here. I enjoyed "From Hell" greatly, but this was just too much. Never mind the the text sections, with their 200-word line lengths, were pure torture to try and read. The original idea of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is very fun as it lends itself to a lot of opportunities for clever literary references, but this is just a muddled, overwritten mess. Maybe I'm just not enough of a comic book geek to really appreciate this.