11.19.2007

LOEG: Black Dossier

"But, is it any good?"

As everyone dissects this latest installment of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, attempting post game analysis of the publishing follies, and analyzation of the myriad literary references, and postulations about the intended Moore meaning behind it all, this is the question reverted back to that I most frequenly hear.

Black Dossier ranges from the sublime (alternate history of all creation and introduction of the Elohim) to the disastrous (really, what was up with that crazy novella with words running into eachother and absolutely no punctuation? that was essentially unreadable...). I enjoyed Orlando with a smirk, as he sort of "Forrest Gumps" his way through every significant event since the dawn of man. The Fanny Hill bits seemed overtly influenced by Moore's recent Lost Girls work, titillating and interesting, yet still somehow superfluous. Unfortunately, the bits I liked the most were those featuring Allan and Mina, the same bits that in my perception (I haven't done an actual page count) seemed to comprise a mere third of the total endeavor.

I understand Moore not wanting to push out a mere sourcebook and wanting to present this information within the context of a narrative, yet I still felt cheated by the lack of content present in the narrative framing device and disappointed by the actual Dossier components. From a high level, Moore effectively creates an alternate history/reality through use of quasi-historical events incorporated to such a degree that they appear seamless to the reader. Along the way we're able to transcend to a level of alternate storytelling because of the thorough revue of literature and popular genre fiction. For a detailed annotation of all the literary reference Easter eggs, check out the Jess Nevin's feature over at CBR.

There is no denying the craft that went into this project. I can't imagine the countless hours of researching and plotting required to put this wildly voluminous set of references together. Of particular note is Kevin O'Neill's superb art. On first pass, his detailed art is very pleasing. Take a closer, slower look, and the depths of his pencils begin to reveal all sorts of phallic, sexual, double layers of meaning, all with a very devious insouciance to those put off by even a smidge of sexuality. O'Neill can, no doubt, be considered a master craftsman as he juggles styles representative of different publishing media and presents them effortlessly here.

The big point I'm building to here is that truly great works must walk a fine balance between excellent execution of craft and pure audience response. I know that I will risk offending the comic book literati out there because this sounds like such a low brow complaint, but how accessible is this book? I consider myself pretty well read outside of our little comic book sect, having devoured everything from Hemingway and Willa Cather, to historical accounts of the Roman Empire, Revolutionary War, Civil War, and WWII campaigns in Europe, to Shakespeare, Kafka, and plays by Henrik Ibsen, to the modern genre homages (yes, sometimes bordering on outright parody) of Sir Rodney William Whitaker (nome de plume: Trevanian), and I even have a copy of Black's Law Dictionary on my desk that I use daily for my "real" job, but umm, how accessible is this if I know I'm only getting like 70% of the literary references?

And without that instant accessibility, it's difficult for me to feel and truly appreciate this work in its entirety, finally acquiescing to a sense of passive acceptance. Success of craft can only get you so far if it lacks any real emotional resonance from the audience. Grade B+.

8 Comments:

At 1:01 PM, Blogger Jess Nevins said...

Might I suggest my annotations?

http://www.shsu.edu/~lib_jjn/dossier.html

 
At 1:07 PM, Blogger Justin Giampaoli said...

Ha! Perfect timing Jess. I read through about half of your annotations over at CBR and was hoping to include the original link in my write up.

Thanks for pointing it out to the readers!

 
At 1:16 PM, Blogger Jess Nevins said...

My pleasure!

 
At 1:03 PM, Blogger IanW said...

Hi,

I've only just got the Black Dossier and skimmed through it. If you got 70% of the references I'd say you were doing very well as much of it is steeped in British culture. Joan Worralson, for example, was a female counterpart of Biggles, popular in the 50's and earlier. You really should have got The Crazy Wide Forever though, as it's a parody of Jack Kerouac's experimental novel Dr Sax. The pub landlord in the opening scene was the first landlord of the Rover's Return in the long-running (44 years approx)British soap Coronation Street. In the newspaper headline of the British space program, the three captains are Jet Morgan of the radio serial Journey Into Space, Dan Dare, and Jet Ace Logan hero of a terrific British sf comic strip (or so my ageing memory insists).

Hope this is of some slight help.

Ian Williams

 
At 1:04 PM, Blogger IanW said...

Amendment. The character's name was Worrals.

Ian

 
At 8:51 PM, Blogger Justin Giampaoli said...

Hi Ian,

Thanks for stopping by! Yeah, from my American POV it was a bit difficult. Out of the items you rattled off, I was only able to pick up on the Jack Kerouac bit (having traveled extensively around Kerouac's hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts) and Dan Dare jumped out as pretty obvious... other than that, you highlighted some of the obscure ones that were totally lost on me.

Cheers,

Justin

 
At 6:56 PM, Blogger Matt Kindt said...

I guess I picked this book up not knowing it was supposed to be a "source book" and thinking it was just Volume 3 in the series. I liked how dense it was and I love reading a book that feels like it was truly written by someone off their rocker (kind of how I like Philip K. Dick and Grant Morrison). But it didn't flow at all to me. I dreaded the heavy text pages (even though I enjoyed them) but having 70% text and then 30% comics -- just makes the text stuff seem like all the more drudgery. I'd have almost preferred all text so at least the rhythm of the narrative would have been more consistant.

That all said -- I loved the references to all of the Holmes lore and tying in James Bond to The Prisoner TV show stuff was great!

 
At 9:34 AM, Blogger Justin Giampaoli said...

Matt,

You bring up a good point - expecting another "story" in the series vs. a source book. I really was itching for a volume 3 myself and found the lack of narrative flow off-putting.

The Prisoner bits were awesome! My dad used to subject me to that show as a kid and I just didn't get it at the time, but watching them as an adult and being able to grasp references like this is a treat.

Justin

 

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