H.G Wells homage fusing The time Machine and War of the Worlds - The female assistant to the creator of the time machine, takes it on a jaunt with herH.G Wells homage fusing The time Machine and War of the Worlds - The female assistant to the creator of the time machine, takes it on a jaunt with her new beau, they break a lever and move in space as well as time, ending up on Mars before the martians invade Earth.
I rather enjoyed this, its a skillfully done mash-up that actually features Wells as a character towards the end....more
In this second LXG Nemo spin off we travel to 1941 where Nemo and her beloved Jack mount a rescue of their daughter and son in law captured by Nazis.
IIn this second LXG Nemo spin off we travel to 1941 where Nemo and her beloved Jack mount a rescue of their daughter and son in law captured by Nazis.
I much preferred this to the previous volume. The the characters are more sympathetic and the references are far more obvious: (Dr. Caligari, Mabuse, Metropolis, as well as Haggard, Verne, Melville etc..) It's still a tad pretentious, the Germans all speak German and none of it is translated, and there's a bit in French as well which I found frustrating.
Still Nemo is far more human in this one, and it really is very strong on female characters: Janni Nemo, her daughter, Ayesha, Hel from Metropolis... the Nemo/Ayesha sword-fight is great.
This one's quite fun and I thought O'Neill blocky, linear art style suited the retro-futurism aesthetic of this one really well. ...more
**spoiler alert** Heart of Ice is the first volume of the Nemo trilogy - A League of Extraordinary Gentleman - spin-off/side arc following Nemo's daug**spoiler alert** Heart of Ice is the first volume of the Nemo trilogy - A League of Extraordinary Gentleman - spin-off/side arc following Nemo's daughter Janni. This one's set in 1925 and the main reference is H.P. Lovecraft's The Mountains of Madness. Janni and her crew head into the antarctic for some soul-searching. They are followed by a team of antagonists trying to kill them, both teams encountering Lovecratian cosmic horror in the frozen subterranean caverns.
You think given the premise and subject matter I'd love this one, but sadly not so much.
First off character. I'm reasonably well read, but I failed to get even a fraction of the references here. I know Nemo (Verne) Ishmael (Melville) Ayesha (Haggard) and I think Kane is referencing Citizen Kane but otherwise I really struggled. As such I couldn't work out who the heroes were or where, if any, my sympathies should lie. Janni's pretty unlikeable - she's a pirate with a sideline in massacres and pillaging. Her crew are too unknown for me to care about their fates. The rivals are led by Kane, also utterly unlikeable and it would seem working for Ayesha - I felt these were the more villainous team, but honestly, its a toss up who are worse and as such that makes this emotionally cold and uninteresting.
O'Neill's blocky, angular art did little for me and I have to say didn't seem the best choice for Lovecraftian tentacle horrors, which I think favour more organic, curved shapes and shadowy blurred colours rather than blocky, bold colour.
The story was uninteresting. Nemo's team randomly decide to head to Antarctica. Piss off Kane who sends a rival team to chase them, they encounter Lovecraft tentacle horror, mostly everyone dies, Janni returns home. There wasn't any point to this. It's not fun and there's flimsy motivation. I like the Lovecraft element, but otherwise this really left me cold.
It's a far-cry from LXG in it's Victoriana heyday. The references are far too obscure and the rest of this lacklustre. Disappointing. ...more
This is the 2nd of Titan's Sherlock Holmes series, which like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, takes Sherlock and mixes him with other contemporary This is the 2nd of Titan's Sherlock Holmes series, which like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, takes Sherlock and mixes him with other contemporary literary characters. Book 1 - the Breath of God tackles the Supernatural. This one the scientific Romance.
The main references are Conan-Doyle (Sherlock Holmes) and H.G. Wells (The Island of Doctor Moreau) - And we have Holmes & Watson against someone starting up where Moreau left off.... The supporting characters include Challenger (Doyle again, this time The Lost World) Professor Lindenbrook (Jules Verne, Journey to the Centre of the Earth) Abner Perry (Edgar Rice Burroughs - At the Earth's Core) and Calvor (Wells again - First Men in the Moon)
Like LXG when it sticks at what its best at (19th century) this is brilliant - I may be biased being a huge Sherlock and Wells fan and lover of hybrids and the science romance, but I liked the story, pace and thought the characters were spot on. My biggest niggle I guess is the superfluity of Lindenbrook, Perry and Calvor - other than to literature name drop (and annoy Sherlock) they have nothing to do with the story and could happily have been left out.
Holmes is a little more human here than Doyle's creation - you really feel Watson's influence on him - like he manages to praise Wiggins - because its something Watson would have done, and little asides like him thinking Watson would be proud of his sensitivity. While there is nothing overt, fans of Sherlock/Watson slash will love Holmes referring to 'My Watson' - how he wished for 'Watson and no other' when he gets annoyed with his companions. And there's a rather interesting throw away line where after reading Watson's ransom note which ends with 'do not make me turn him into something he will regret' Holmes muttered comment is 'a confirmed bachelor perhaps' - euphemism? up to the reader, but it felt to me like a very queer response from Holmes.
So apart from the disappointing use of the literary team-up the rest of this is cracking and does exactly what it sets out to do, put Holmes in a Scientific Romance. Fans of Sherlock and Wells need this one in their collection. There's even a cameo of a Sharktopus!...more
**spoiler alert** A slight improvement on 1969 - this final volume in the Century trilogy concludes the Haddo antichrist story following our three pro**spoiler alert** A slight improvement on 1969 - this final volume in the Century trilogy concludes the Haddo antichrist story following our three protagonists (Mina, Quartermain and Orlando) in 2009 where Norton had told them they would meet again.
The references are slightly less cryptic in this one - If you're a geek you'll totally love the Dr. Who, Torchwood and Harry Potter nods. There's something deeply satisfying about having Harry Potter as the antichrist. However with that level of satire, this should be so much better than it is - largely I think it's due to the characters - Quartermain's back on drugs and has very little to do until the end. Mina's been in a mental asylum for 40 years and has to be rescued by Orlando - she's the least interesting we've seen her thus far. Always hated gender swapping Orlando and having her carry the story here really didn't work for me.
The prose story at the end is again complete gibberish and added nothing other than giving me a headache.
Overall I don't think the League should have left the steampunk Victorian era - the line up was strong and the referencing was really clever - Century has it's moments but the plot was rather dull, the characters awful and the references often too obscure for their own good....more
Ugh. League of Extraordinary gentlemen how far you have fallen after the pinnacle of volume 2.... So this one follows on from 1910. We've come forward Ugh. League of Extraordinary gentlemen how far you have fallen after the pinnacle of volume 2.... So this one follows on from 1910. We've come forward in time to 1969 and lost Raffles and Karnaki (no great loss there - he was shamefully underused) somewhere along the way probably they aged naturally and would be too old....? So the league consists of a queer immortal menage a trois between Mina, Quatermain and the gender swapping annoyance that is Orlando. I hate the line up here - having a romantic connection between the three just isn't interesting and this really lacks the cracking dynamic between the odd assortment of characters from previous leagues.
The story is the same occult omen of an antichrist from 1910 with the added bonus that Haddo can possess different bodies. The literary and pop culture references may be thick and fast, but most of them are so obscure that it becomes frustrating - Or maybe I'm simply too young to get most of them having not been around in the 60's but this one becomes less of a joy and more of a slog. The prose story at the back is pretty much gibberish that I really had to struggle to finish. The artwork is bright and hallucinogenic towards the end which suits the subject matter and the swinging 60's but left me pretty cold.
There are still panels of wit and of course stacks of references to what's gone before and what's yet to come in 2009, but over all I hated this one which seems to have lost all the magic that made the league of extraordinary gentleman such a delight. ...more
The League in this one is Mina (Dracula) Alan Quartermain Jr, Orlando, Thomas Karnaki and gentleman thief Raffles. Somehow this line up just doesn't hThe League in this one is Mina (Dracula) Alan Quartermain Jr, Orlando, Thomas Karnaki and gentleman thief Raffles. Somehow this line up just doesn't have the dynamic of the previous League - Quatermain is really dull now he's young and a romantic partner. Gender swapping Orlando is annoying throughout and Karnaki isn't shown doing what he does best - we don't get to see any of his science-y stuff like the electric pentacle -I just didn't feel his portrayal here captured the character. About the only one on form is Raffles.
I was disappointed with the plot too - it features the return of Jack the Ripper, Satanists and Nemo's daughter it should be awesome and it just.... Isn't. The bonus story veers off completely into weird SF bringing in Captain Universe - which really doesn't go well with the main graphic. After the stunning and super clever Martrian story line this one is pretty much a big disappointment all round. It still has flashes of wit and I love the art and the main premise but over all disappointed....more
1898 - The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Alan Quartermain, Mina Murray, Captain Nemo, The Invisible Man and Hyde) have to deal with the Martian I1898 - The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Alan Quartermain, Mina Murray, Captain Nemo, The Invisible Man and Hyde) have to deal with the Martian Invasion of War of the Worlds.
Now I adored the first LXG but this 2nd volume because it's source material is so close to my heart is just a dream come true. For the Martian side of things we reference Wells War of the Worlds but mix in Martian politics from ERB's John Carter and Gullivar of Mars - big squeee here over how seamlessly this is woven together and as for the rest... The literary referencing is so thick and fast that sometimes you have to re-read just to get the subtitles - Genius springs to mind. We have everything here from the Island of Dr. Moreau to Rupert Bear.
The largest chunk of the additional material is the traveller's almanac which takes the reader on a tour of the globe from a fabulist's point of view from the 17th century to 1907 - we look at various past members of the league as they explore fantasy realms from literature. Now I'm fairly well read, but even so there are a lot of references here that escape me - Hope-Hodgson's house on the borderland, Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and the Hunting of the Snark, Haggard's She and Solomon's Mines, Lovecraft, Lear, Gulliver's travels are just a few of the worlds plundered here -
The whole is a bit of a slog - it's text heavy and overly complex as we keep switching narrators but for those who know their literature there's much not to be missed - the Gilbert and Sullivan Lovecraftian operetta is the jewel in the crown of just why LXG is so great.
Overall this is a graphic novel to be savoured and read and re-read - it's so rich in satire and tongue in cheek referencing that you keep finding more and more to delight.
Captain Nemo, Allan Quatermain, Mina Murray, Dr. Jekyll and the invisible man are recruited by the British government to investigate the theft of CavoCaptain Nemo, Allan Quatermain, Mina Murray, Dr. Jekyll and the invisible man are recruited by the British government to investigate the theft of Cavorite - a weightless metal that will give the thief mastery of the air. It has been stolen by an evil Chinaman in Limehouse.
This is incredibly clever and there are some wonderful cameos like little Pollyana.
There's also a huge amount of bonus material including the short story prequel Allan and the Sundered veil.
Love the story, the concept, the literary references, the artwork. One of my favourites....more
**spoiler alert** The Breath of God teams up Sherlock Holmes and faithful Dr. Watson with Aleister Crowley and three paranormal investigators: Thomas **spoiler alert** The Breath of God teams up Sherlock Holmes and faithful Dr. Watson with Aleister Crowley and three paranormal investigators: Thomas Carnacki (William Hope Hodgson) Julian Karswell (M.R. James) Dr. John Silence (Algernon Blackwood) to solve some mysterious deaths that seem to be steeped in the occult.
Now if that's not enough to put a huge grin on your face I don't know what is. I love period mash-ups like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and this particular line up is a dream - Holmes and Carnaki working together - the sceptic and the believer - great stuff I'd love to see more collaborations between these two in the future.
It's very well constructed and aware of it's sources - The Holmes bits, recounted by Watson sound like Doyle - we have the narrator distance as we go from Watson recounting a story being told to him by silence who's recounting a story being told to him by an acquaintance.... And the Carnaki scenes sound like Hodgson - there are some nice references to previous cases of all characters and even a nod to Kate Bush lyrics, Lovecraft and of course the film Night of the Demon. The fan girl in me was cheering greatly.
What I was so keen on was the ending. The twist and reveal of who the villains are is hardly a surprise if you know your source material. Whilst having a rational ending fits with both Holmes AND Carnaki I can't help feeling deeply disappointed - I would have love this to go into the supernatural realm and pit Holmes against something that he couldn't explain away and see his reactions.
Still this was highly entertaining and I loved the concepts this played around with even if the end result didn't quite take things in the direction I hoped....more
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