LoEG: Century

I grabbed this last week, and ran home to read it after LOST.

It's not my favorite, I'll say. I liked Black Dossier more than this. I understand that this relies heavily on THREEPENNY OPERA, of which I have no knowledge (aside from the fact that there's a character called Mack The Knife). This lack of frame of reference, and the fact that Moore attempts to present the majority of the narration as A MUSICAL means that, well, it's not really my thing.

I haven't finished the text pages in the back, but they do seem to have some interesting snippets of League history within.

I retain hope that the completed project will be a more enjoyable experience, overall, but that's a LONG TIME coming.

I really liked the use of Pirate Jenny. But, outside of the Brecht stuff...it did nothing for me. I missed the Potter reference, so I should probably re-read it.

It's on par with The Black Dossier for me. The difference being I thought Black Dossier started strong and ended weak. While it's the opposite for Century.

Jess Nevins' annotations for 1910 are right here.

Overall I liked it fine. The musical bits played much better than I expected (particularly Mack's gallows speech).

From what I understand, the events in Rosemary's Baby will play into the next volume. I have a feeling Moore's really going to head in a pretty bold direction, at least in the context of the League stories that have come so far, with the 2009 volume.

Besides, I can't help but smile at the idea that he's managed to connect Verne's Batlimore Gun Club to the Wire.

Does anyone know how Moore is going to resolve all of the copyright issues that are bound to increase as he makes his way toward the modern era? I know there were some small problems with the Black Dossier (presumably having to do with the chronologically later things like Bond), but once he starts getting to stuff like Rosemary's Baby and (potentially) Harry Potter, I'm wondering how far fair use will get him.

I've no doubt that this is all going to end in tears some day as he goes one injoke/homage/parody too far. Luckily, Moore has a lot of admirers and friends. I don't see the makers of Lost, who are artistically indebted to him in many ways, raising a stink. I'd advise him to steer well clear of Harry Potter in specifics though. And not to revisit James Bond.

Given how protective Rowling is, I don't see it. I somehow don't think she wants to see Harry, Ron, and Hermione in a threeway.

I just grabbed this and will try to get to it after LOST. Did a quick skim though.

One thing that instantly jumped out at me was how easy Moore and O'Neil made the singing portions to read. And, to me, that's an astonishing accomplishment in the medium.

And, it's easy to forget just what a joy it is to get more work from O'Neil. Visually this is a top flight work.

I'll see how the story actually reads, and I expect that to be the weakest part of the package, but I fully expect to get more than my money's worth out of it.

(Caveat: I'm one of those outliers who thinks LoEG v2 is easily the best volume so far -- Hyde in that series is perhaps my favorite Moore character, ever, and O'Neil's conceptual work on the Martians is just flat-out great.)

This one improved for me on the second read, accompanied by the phenomenal Jess Nevins annotations. The fictional landscape Moore and O'Neil are operating in at this point is the least familiar to me of any of the previous Leagues, so the annotations (particularly around Threepenny Opera) were especially valuable.

I will say I did really enjoy the narrative back matter -- especially the reveal about the Alan/Mina/Orlando relationship as it entered the 60s, and the introduction of 20th century science superheroes. So that bodes well for the future volumes.

I do just love this series as a whole. Any day that brings new League stuff is a good one.

I have to say that I'm slightly disappointed in Moore taking the "rape as motivation" route. Granted, he didn't actually show the rape and he probably can't be accussed of sensationalizing it, but there's been enough rape in LOEG already and it's such a pat revenge motivation. Moore's capable of better.

Too much rape? Pshaw. Hyde raping Griffin was wonderful.

I really liked it, i do think it will play much better as part of a tpb but i thought it set up some "new" characters well and developed the league nicely, like a sports team that waxes and wanes with new players it's not meant to be the fucking JLA or the Avengers - they spend most of the time in the dark and fighting amongst themselves - that's the joy of it. as for the new members: Orlando was bound to be annoying as fuck, carnacki is bland and flakey, raffles would rather be off being a criminal.

Personally, I love the way Mr. Moore makes veiled references to things, it's a much more fun way of avoiding being sued. Having said that, the black dossier is still not available in Canada or the UK.

I also loved the black dossier - just for the record. Incidentally i notice that there is frequently (esp. on comic boards) a discussion regarding "the best volume" surely we can all agree that as a whole this is probably the best comic series ever written?

I think Watchmen still wears the Best Comic Series crown, as it was important in a way that LXG is not. However, I'd be happy putting LXG somewhere in the top five list (easily #2 for me), and it's surpassed Watchmen as my absolute favorite series.

My personal ranking probably puts Planetary at #1, but LoEG would be #2. The League books are certainly more ambitious and detail-rich, but I'm a sucker for Mr. Ellis' series (admittedly, the fact that it's more accessible than LoEG could be a factor.)

That sucks. From what I've read on this, DC's own lawyers said the material in Dossier was safe from any legal action internationally.

I managed to get a hardback copy of The Black Dossier in a comic shop here in Dublin some time ago, but it was a bit pricey-since then, I've actually seen paperback copies in a couple of general bookstores. Apparently, Knockabout Comics have a bit of bad history with UK distributors Diamond Comics, I haven't been able to get my hands on Century as yet myself.

Still no sign, must check back....oh yeah, Leah Moore and John Reppion are doing a signing in Sub City comics, Dublin.

it could be that knockabout haven't printed enough copies but Century is definitely available in the UK. mr Moore and kev (uncharacteristically) did a signing at GOSH in london so mail order from there maybe - they say they've had it since the 22nd??

Personally, I think the reason the dossier wasn't released beyond the US was that DC weren't obligated to. mr Moore is so paranoid about copyright and legal shit that he's extra cautious. As for DC lawyers - well I take anything they say with a big pinch of salt.

El Gray - Interesting that you chose planetary for your #1. I rather liked it myself, although finding the TPBs in my local comic shops is a huge pain in the butt. - Personally i prefered the Authority to Planetary but I can see the attraction. Does anyone have anything that's vying for the top spot beyond the usual suspects?

Moore's story goes: DC's lawyers okayed Dossier as being legally unassailable in court from the U.S. on to Canada and the UK and elsewheres. Regardless, DC (presumably DC president Paul Levitz) decided to play extra cautious and kept it out of the UK and Ireland.

I don't see this as being that hard to believe--over the last few decades DC has repeatedly shown themselves to be remarkably paranoid over lawsuits...hell, they pulped an entire run of LoEG (vol. 1) #6 because they thought the word "Marvel" in a (legitimate) 19th century sex device ad included within the issue would provoke Marvel Comics to sue them.

However, Moore has also insinuated that a producer from the LoEG movie specifically counselled DC to not sell Dossier in the UK. This gets into the whole mess Moore went through with Joel Silver's statement that Moore was behind the film 100%, as well as the lawsuit he got dragged into as a result of the movie, so Moore's assertion that figures from within the film's production were out to get him is harder to believe (hey, it's possible, but all we've got is Moore's statement on the matter).

DC has that whole Winter Brothers/Jonah Hex precedent behind them in the US which should protect them against most claims. DC might have to fight to establish that precedent overseas and it's probably not worth it to them in the case of Moore.

I'm sure DC figures that they'd ultimately win if the Fleming estate decided to sue, for instance. But, the fight would come at a cost.

Yeah, but the part about Patton working on it has been debunked. He's working on a separate project for that label, as mentioned in the article. Surprised they didn't edit that piece with a note.

Oh. Ah well.

Finally got my hands on it!

Well, that was maybe a little disappointing-a little-but then it's not the full story. Unfortunately, it looks like we'll have to wait 'til next year for the following installment-and another year for part 3!

"As seen in Black Dossier, a number of historical figures are replaced in the world of League by their fictional counterparts or models, so that in the world of League there was no Adolph Hitler, there was Adenoid Hynkel (from Charlie Chaplin’s film The Great Dictator). In the world of League there was no Crowley, there was Oliver Haddo."

A-ha. I see. Tanx, Dax!

Well, that's what Top Shelf have them as!

I realise it's a bit galling for me to be telling ALAN MOORE what works and doesn't work in a comic, but - comics have no sound, so relying that heavily on lyrics just seems ill-advised to me, much like those "complete lyrics" books and attempts to make Dylan or Hip-Hop or whatever stand as "poetry". Some isolated examples might stand up to that (Leonard Cohen, obviously), but mostly lyrics work in the context that they were created for - with music. The lurching strut of "Mack The Knife" and the dramatic pauses of "Pirate Jenny" have as much to do with those song's greatness as Brecht's libretto does, and though Moore's reimagining might be fiendishly clever on the page it still feels...like it's sugessting something instead of actually being it, "how rad would it be if we could listen to the song in the middle of this?". So at a certain point I just stopped following them just as I didn't follow Nemo's dialogue with his daughter - evrything that woman was singing about was happening on-panel anyway.

I don't think you could ever ask Moore to write a team operating for british intelligence seem straight-up heroic; he makes them bumbling so he doesn't have to make them evil. As a hippie leftist I understand his dilemma - it's facing up to the fact that giant amounts of one's favourite popcult has at least some roots in authoritarian, right-wind ideas. The problem is accepting that without just destroying the things that makes that popcult special to you; this is why I pretty much loved The Black Dossier. It has this very downbeat feeling and yet, when they reach the airport, this sense of absolute wonder that lets you know that, much as Moore might be fond of deconstructing and polemicizing, he loves this stuff, too.

This is why I'm a bit worried about the 2009 volume - considering his general grouchyness, I'm wary that he'll treat current popcult solely as a target and not as something worth engaging with (though if he gives a nod to The Wire at least that'll be one reference done with love.)

Text piece was great, as always. Orlando getting humped by Moonwatcher from 2001 was my favorite bit.

I liked Mina's secret identity the most, I think.

I dunno, I still feel a big diference between stuff that's based on text or visuals (which comics have) and stuff that's based on sound (which they don't.)

Also to be absolutley honest I don't think the new lyrics added much to the songs, they just made certain aspects of them more graphic and obvious.

My personal OMG moment was realising that Orlando = O from Story Of O

Finally got the extra cash for this.

It only reaffirms my love for Stoker's/Moore's character of Mina. Especially in the backmatter. I really enjoy what seems to be the change to Quartermain and Orlando as time wears on, as opposed to Mina who seems...less debauched?

Just, I think one of the best characters out there. I prefer this to the Black Dossier, though I was hesitant to buy this considering I was sort of bored of Dossier. Dossier just didn't seem as kinetic, but that might be my own predilection for 19th Century and Early 20th Century literature. I just think that this particular time period works well for Moore as a setting, Re: From Hell.

This just really feels like the first chapter of a story I can't wait to finish reading, as I imagine they will tie in the consequences of Jenny and of the mysterious moonchild.

Is it too much of a speculation that this might be related to the same Moonchild of Neverending Story? Though sometimes, a name is just a name.


Anyways, really glad that 1910 exceeded my expectations.

I'll be surprised if the Moonchild isn't a reference to Aleister Crowley's novel of the same name, although I wouldn't put it past Moore to mash the concept up with some other character. He cast Hyde as the real murderer in Poe's Rue Morgue, for example.

Or or or it's the same moonchild as in Crowley's novel, but actually the ruler of fantasia whose very presence- imagination made flesh brings the ultimate of banalites into the world via her avatar, Harry Potter.

This shit writes itself.

No he didn't. Rue Morgue took place well before LOEG. Hyde's murders were referenced as being reminiscent, not replacing.

It's been an age since I read LOEG, so I'll have to defer to you if you have a hard copy at hand. I was under the impression that when Quartermain and Harker meet Dauphen in Paris, he's lamenting that he caught the wrong orangutan all those years ago.

It's left open to interpretation. Dauphen uses the term "and yet!" after discussing how he solved the original murder, leading one to believe that he might think he screwed it up, but the book also gives you a second motivation for him to be handling the case (he knew Nana, one of the victims.) At any rate, Dr.Jekyll & Mr.Hyde was published in 1886 (which is how Moore determines when things happen, iirc) and "Murders Ih The Rue Morgue" is 1841, so in the end I'd say it was An Ape What Did It.

Fair enough!