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Notes to League v2 #4 are up.

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23:04 / 24.12.02

uncle retrospective

23:09 / 24.12.02

It's out?

15:30 / 25.12.02

It'll be out tomorrow, here in the States. I got a preview copy and used that for the annotations.

yawn - thing's buddy

21:56 / 25.12.02

oh goody.

I thought LOEG was going to do a '100%' on us.

uncle retrospective

23:26 / 28.12.02

No one got this yet? Another great issue, with some great charator interaction. The Nemo/Hyde parts were a joy. Mina and Alan very nicely handled, (that scaring was nasty) and some real untra violence.

Sweet.

01:30 / 29.12.02

Spoilers, of course...

The Victorian-era 'adverts' this issue seemed especially insane. The various products named after the LOEG staff had me savagely amused. Does anyone know who the kid named 'Jimmy Grey' is meant to be? Prendrick was great, & it's fun to see Dr. Moreau lurking about. It's got me very excited about the next two issues.

I noticed in Jess' annotations to the Almanac for this issue a mention to Quatermain's son actually being named 'Harry', and not 'Allan' - I think the intimation Moore is going for is that this 'son' is actually Quatermain, and that the Fire of Life is far from the disappointment the English are told about - I guess 'superheroes' had just as much difficulty staying dead in Victorian times as they do now.

Imaginary Mongoose Solutions

20:19 / 29.12.02

Yeah, that seemed the implication to me too. It's odd that Jess missed that.

yawn - thing's buddy

22:44 / 29.12.02

More incredible artwork from O'Neill......and I'm so impressed with the colouring on this book - ink-redible stuff.

Moore's building a really hopeless atmosphere for the league - the whole world's fucked and each page reaks of impotence - despite the shagging: what a scene tho, those two havin it off, while London's burns courtesy of the martians. And to enrich the rhythms further: hyde battering fuck out the alien salvage - the sheer artistry on show in this title continues to astound.

The layering, the atmosphere, the incidental dialogue, the setpieces, the details: this is a master at the top of his form.

There's an awful finality to it all. Like free will has been vanquished. The whole world on steam powered, opiated autopilot: it really is a horrifying fiction being constructed here.

And moore can still shock: the sex scene with mina and quatermain while preceded by Mob and Edith still more disturbing, more real, more queer.

and what of Nemo's zero compassion and shocking racism?

Goodness Gracious Me!

01:58 / 30.12.02

LDones--"Jimmy Grey" is actually the child version of "Professor Grey," who appears in "Danny Grey's Metal Fish" in Beano.

Kevin--I didn't miss it--that's why I pointed out that Allan's son's name is "Harry," not "Allan, Jr."--but I knew that there would be people who wouldn't get it, and I didn't want to spoil the surprise for them.

Excellent issue all-around, I agree. Not surprised at Nemo's anti-English sentiment, though. He is a fanatic, after all.

14:58 / 30.12.02

not really it's not like any western leader of the age [or today] would give much of a fuck about sacrificing a bridge full o' indians

yawn - thing's buddy

18:24 / 30.12.02

Alan Moore: Rascist?

yaaaawwwwwwwwwnnnnnnnnnnn

05:27 / 31.12.02

jjnevins - "I didn't miss it--that's why I pointed out that Allan's son's name is "Harry," not "Allan, Jr."--but I knew that there would be people who wouldn't get it, and I didn't want to spoil the surprise for them."

Man, I was afraid of that. And here I am spoiling it for everyone. I am ashamed.

For me, the emotional blackness of this issue seems to be foreshadowing a catharsis of some sort. Not that anything will be made right, but that a good deal will be 'expelled', for lack of a better word, or burned out, like in Dickens. I am very jazzed about Issues 5 & 6.

I love Nemo. I hope the children of today grow up to be Nemo. Provided I'm not on any bridges during their earth-savaging conquests...

The Natural Way

09:05 / 31.12.02

I hoped someone would mention the Allan reincarnated thing.

Regrettable Juvenilia

16:12 / 31.12.02

Now I'm completely convinced that it's Donald Sutherland who should be playing Allan Q - the sex scene had something of a 'Don't Look Now' quality to it, I thought. Or maybe just quality. Moore keeps on upping the standard of writing in this series - the way the scenes between Allan and Mina here managed to be in turn touching, erotic, but also horribly weird and *wrong* - props to O'Neil for this, he draws such an appallingly ugly naked old man that you find yourself genuinely sharing in Quatermain's shame and embarrassment; and then of course we have Mina's own disfigurement, and ironically enough here Allan is pathetic again in the way he's so visibly freaked by it... I find him a really sad character, actually, the way he's sort of the dead weight of the League, no special powers or cool shit (I wonder if Sherlock Holmes really told Moriarty he thought Allan was crap - bet he did...), and especially the way he's completely outclassed by and unable to keep up with Mina. This issue really drives home that last point - physically (not just in bed, but out and about too), emotionally, intellectually (he's no match for her wit), sexually, and perhaps most importantly *culturally* he is not her equal - she's ahead of her time, he's a relic from a former age. It's quite poignant, and it's what lends the actually end of this issue - the end of the text chapter - it's emotional punch.

Speaking of the text bit - how do you suppose things end with Nemo to cause Mina to regret it so? Does he just meet a sticky end, or will we see further internal rifts in the League? I wonder whether Nemo would go so far as to attempt to destory *all* of London, taking the Martians with it, if such a thing were in his power... I'm *sure* he would.

The Natural Way

10:39 / 02.01.03

But Allan is kinda luvable, inty? Yr analysis is as perfect as ever, Fly. Like the stuff about the Victorian Quatermain and the progressive, modern Mina.

The sex and war thing. Of course. Those fiery, red, energies can be put to uses other than fighting.

The Natural Way

10:42 / 02.01.03

And the colours in the scene w/ Prendrick. Wooah. Gorgeous greens....blues...mmmm....

And that splash page I think I might've actually leapt out of my chair, punched the air and shouted "YEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!!!!!!!!"

But I'm not sure.

Regrettable Juvenilia

10:57 / 02.01.03

Oh, Allan is incredible loveable - he's almost cuddly. The idea that Holmes would really have said that to Moriarty occurred to me after watching that adaptation of 'Hound of the Baskervilles' on telly over Xmas in which the man was portrayed as a callous egotistical bastard... I find it interesting that he's such a notable absence in LoEG, and that we get Quartarmain instead, who's so innately decent but also kinda wobbly and past it.

Loved the Prendrick stuff as well - the way he runs off with his hands in the air, disconcertingly mad, funny but slightly sinister. "Traps!" And of course the way we're made to think for a moment that it might be Griffin who's just crept up on them... Brrr...

yawn - thing's buddy

11:56 / 02.01.03

while the low points reached in this title do call to mind the word, 'nadir', I'm not going to use it just yet.
Alan Moore's perverse sense of storytelling leads me to believe that there is much worse to come with no happy ending whatsoever.

Hurrah!

15:30 / 02.01.03

bit annoyed about the almanac tho'. between the lines the wole thing's given away - hyde dies, nemo's alive but estranged because he's got a full loony on for being in the sea and shooting things, the i-man dies or is he dead or is he? thing for ever. the shaggy couple get over their physical differences and doctor moreau might be working on a portal to wonderland.

i'm only thinking from that bloody coppolla movie mind, but hasn't mina been romancy with very old [looking] guys before?

21:26 / 02.01.03

Will probably post more when I've read vol2 in detail (and found a copy of Issue3, which I missed (curse you, Forbidden Fucking Planet)... but I really, really enjoyed the issue.

Most notable to me is that O'Neill's drawings of the Martians and their Machines is closer than any realisation I've ever seen to Wells' original writing. The heat-ray in particular, just a box emanating heat, is perfect. And the whole machines-in-the-form-of-their-makers (tentacles on the Martians, tentacles on the machines) is carried over nicely too.

I'm doing a dissertation on HG Wells, and now need to read Moreau again to objectively determine how nuts Prendick is at the end of it... I found his portrayal funny, but slightly too much of a caricature in #4.

21:49 / 02.01.03

Prendrick is unsure quite who is human at the end of moreau but he is not quite the gibbering simpleton as portrayed in issue 4 - it is quite believable that he might become what we saw but it is extrapolating slightly.

00:08 / 03.01.03

Another great issue with some stirling artwork by Kev O'Neill. Those tripods look so convincing and pretty damn creepy to boot.

The counterpoint between Mina and Quatermain shagging, the molluscs wrecking South London and Hyde beating the crap out of the wreckage was quite disturbing. Hyde in one panel looks like a washed up boxer still eager to punch anything to work off that rage.

I'm intrigued by what Moreau might have been developing that could be used in the war. But Moore's use of Moreau is interesting: Moreau's quite deft at creating hybrid species and we also see the molluscs indulging in a little "flesh-mechanics" in issue one.

So what's going to happen to the dear old Thames then? My guess is the heat rays will be used to evaporate the water - rendering the Nautilus useless. Or perhaps the ubiquitous red weed will come into use.

Looking forward to issue 5 already....

The Natural Way

08:15 / 03.01.03

Oniiiiiiion!: By the time Drac arrives in London he's "grown young", but he probably has he whiff of old castles about him. So, yeah, Mina digs on old men.

More Incredible shit:

That speech Prendrick gives about Moreau's creations! "....but look closer! What appears to be a man has the eyes of an old hunting dog etc." God, a more chilling, excellent description of a vampire you couldn't ask for. Sent a shiver up my spine.

Mina and Allan wading through the grass: You can actually feel it brushing against you. You can hear the rustle. And the cool, cavernous woods looming!

I would wear the fuck-pig suit if O Neill asked it of me.

Regrettable Juvenilia

10:11 / 03.01.03

What appears to be a man has the eyes of an old hunting dog etc." God, a more chilling, excellent description of a vampire you couldn't ask for.

It's Quatarmain he's describing here, surely?

11:49 / 03.01.03

Isn't that our own Broad Arrow Jack working as one of Nemo's crew?

The Natural Way

12:56 / 03.01.03

Well...I don't think so. The next thing (after wittering about sleek, vicious feline buggers) he asks is "do you know what I'm talking about?" And then the camera focuses on Mina "yes, yes, I see that you do..." Well, take from it what you will, but, whatever, he IS talking about bloodthirsty beasts that appear, at first glance, to be human - he may as well be talking about vampires.

13:10 / 03.01.03

Well, he also talks about sleek, feline creatures (with, one assumes, sharp pointy teeth). He's referring to the bestial animal/human hybrids of Dr Moreau's island, which might well appear indistinguishable from the likes of ol' Vlad and his more lycanthropic kin. Mina obviously associates the man's words with Dracula - or still has a psychological whiff of the vampire about her - and Prendrick reads this as familiarity with the creatures of which he talks.

I'm hoping the relocation of Moreau to Hundred Acre Wood will lead to all sorts of fun riffing on the 'humanimal' characters of Winnie the Pooh, Rupert Bear, The Wind in the Willows, etc.

The Natural Way

13:16 / 03.01.03

Well...Nevin's 'n' co. seem to think it might.

The Natural Way

13:21 / 03.01.03

And I can't help wondering if the blue energy Moore refers to in the 'Well of life' might be....orgone.

The Natural Way

13:21 / 03.01.03

That was a horrid sentence. Excuse me.

13:27 / 03.01.03

The Hundred Acre Wood of course! I didn't pick that up at all, I think I'm going to enjoy next issue if Pooh is some kind of shambling monstrosity, hmmm wonder what Christopher Robin will be like?

13:28 / 03.01.03

Mm. As I recall, Prendrick was forever scarred by his experiences on the Island—he couldn't fit back into human society upon his escape, because whenever he looked at a human being he couldn't help but see that person's bestial qualities (Wells cribbed this bit from Jonathan Swift, I reckon—Gulliver becomes a confirmed misanthrope after his sojourn in the land of the Yahoos).

I definitely took this sequence as Prendrick decribing Quatermain and Mina as he saw them right then—Quatermain as a plodding old hunting hound, Mina as a dangerous cat.

Right and appropriate characterizations, both.

13:57 / 03.01.03

Ooooh, I didn't recall that aspect of Prendrick, 'BestialVision'. In that case yes, 'cat and dog' sounds an appropriate description of both Quatermain and Mina and their relationship...

14:51 / 03.01.03

Prendick's clearly affected by his experiences, and has difficulties because he sees how bestial the world is around him - I just wanted to chekc back to see if it was a fair point to turn him into some deranged loon... or whether it was just extrapolation for comic effect.

The Natural Way

08:42 / 06.01.03

Well, you see, now I'm torn, because Jack and Fly make a lot of sense, but, still, he does ask the question "you know what I'm talking about.." (or somesuch) and then "yes...yes...I see that you do." Maybe we're both right.

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