The Virgin Read: She Took A Request And Was Upset By The Lack Of Placards.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Century: 1910
Written By Alan Moore
Art by Kevin O'Neill
Published by Top Shelf Comics

Yes, indeed, maybe it's time for the Virgin Read to turn a corner. Last week in the comments section, Kenny suggested that I read this comic, and when it came time to choose my pick of the week, it seemed like a great idea. I mean, clearly I'm running out of titles to pick from. Or good ones, at least. It's almost like I'm only being offered trash by someone who no longer cares. Anyways. Kenny, this one's for you!

I was warned about reviewing this. Warned that there's a lot of comment-leaving types out there for this book, and that they're all either about getting all the references and analyzing their impact while being insufferable jerks, or it's just eye-rolling, dismissive rhetoric regarding the aforementioned references and their pointlessness. I took it on anyway. Because I heard the term "Brecht-ian".

Brecht? As in Mr. Bertolt Brecht? Via a comic book? Now this I've gotta read! Back before I got stuck in a long-term relationship, when I was still actively pursuing the dream of acting, to audition for or be in a Brecht play seemed God Awful. I mean, after spending all this time, money and effort on learning how to be realistic, why would I do Brecht? It's the complete opposite of everything I knew and loved about theatre. It had nothing to do with what my peers or I were struggling for. It was dated, tired, and worst of all, it was boring.

But now that I'm away from it a bit, I think it'd be great fun to be in, or watch, a Brechtian play. I mean, a play announcing or commenting every so often that "You're watching a PLAY!," or doing everything possible to fuck with form. I think that' d be hilarious. Did you ever see Cooking with Elvis? Man, that's a good show.

Anyhow...so I got excited as to how a comic book would go about earning the Brechtian title. Would the characters look out from the pages every so often to let us know that we're reading a comic book? Or will the form be challenged in some other way? Will the frames be all wacky? Will they draw placards?

It doesn't have placards, let me get that out of the way. But I did just get my first lesson in metafiction, a term I've heard used without ever grasping whether it was something I had actually come across. There's the connection. Metafiction "fucks with" literary form the way that Brecht "fucked with" theatre. This comic uses characters from all sorts of stories, from all points in time. It uses dream sequences, oracles, visions, and real time constructs while never letting the reader forget that this is a comic, another chapter of pure fiction, a lot like Brecht's work never lets you forget that you're watching a play.

Oh, let's get this out of the way, to save you time: did I enjoy it? I totally did! It took me a number of pages to grasp it. Not just to settle into the way it worked out its story, but to enjoy the ride that story was delivered in. I wasn't sure for quite some time which parts were pure dream/vision, and which was real. Eventually I did, but by then it wasn't totally important to me to figure it all out, to line everything up in categories of "really happened" and "could happen". By a certain point, the story was just compelling, and all I wanted to do was get more of it. I found all the portions of the elderly Nemo and his daughter's development the most interesting. First, there's the mystery of the story alone, of what she hopes for, and whether his feelings toward her will be made as explicit as his wishes. And god, those drawings of sheer debauchery were pretty amazing. I mean, maybe I should be prudish, but I can't help it. Those portions were so perfectly drawn. Everywhere you looked on the page, someone had a hand or a mouth on somebody else's body parts--it was just raw, and honestly, kind of beautiful.

It took me a while to read this comic because...well, it just did. It's long, sure, but it's quiet too. I didn't really want to plow through it in one sitting--that's what I usually do with these things--but this one worked better as something to be picked up now and again. There were some parts that I couldn't put down though--anything involving the song. It didn't matter that I couldn't find the melody, even less that I don't really think it has one--It was a really interesting and easy way to get the details while really taking in the art. It had a flow to it when I read it, a rhythm that I'm not used to with a comic book.

Overall, its a really clever comic - and yes, I'm sure most of the cleverness was beyond me. I don't know who a lot of these characters are, and knowing they had names like Quartermain doesn't change that. I liked it anyway. It "felt" good, and that's gotta be rare. It's not a comic where I could guess what was going to happen next, because it's a form unlike any I've read. As a comic book, it offered me an experience that I could not have gotten from a regular novel. Best of all, I felt like I was experiencing art that was just as important as the words, something--characters, story--that couldn't have gone into any other form and worked as well. I wasn't just impressed. I really liked it. I'd say that I'm sorry I don't have anything headier to say about it. But I don't think I need to. I came away from this with the best of feelings towards it, and I'd like to see more opportunities like this come along. Somebody else can dot the i's. I'd rather just have a good time.

-Nina Stone, 2009

Comments

[LurkerWithout]

Are you planning on reading the earlier League volumes? Not for Virgin Read, just to read...

[Nina Stone]

I hadn't planned on it necessarily, but I wouldn't rule it out. Do you suggest I should? Any one in particular (are there 2 before this issue, or more?)

[Andrew Hickey]

There are two books, volume 1 and volume 2, both set in the late 19th century, and a not-quite-volume-3 called the Black Dossier, mostly set in the late 1950s.
Volume 1 is a fun romp through Victorian pulp fiction - Sherlock Holmes, Fu Manchu etc. Volume 2 is a darker story that takes place around the margins of War Of The Worlds.
The Black Dossier is ...different. I loved it, but it aroused *very* strong feelings both ways. But pretty much everyone thinks the first two volumes proper are absolutely essential...

[Kenny Cather]

OMG! I want to cry! Thank you, Nina! I'm very happy you did this review and even happier to hear you enjoyed it so much!

Alan Moore, the writer, is a very distinguished figure in comics. He's also someone that everyone has preconceived notions of, good or bad. My thought was you don't have any notions about him, though. You could actually read this story and determine whether it succeeds or fails based on it's own merit!

Also, you have an extensive theater background, so you're the perfect sort of person to read something like this and "get" what Moore is trying to do. Also, you can determine if that part succeeds or fails on its own. Like, I don't have a theater background, so I can say, "I think Moore did alright there," but my opinion is in no way informed.

Anyway, I am the kind of person to hunt through and get all the references. I also always invariably go and read a few books that are new to me every time I read through a League story. I also think Alan Moore is the world's greatest living writer (although my favorite is Neil Gaiman - yes, I'm a spaz! lol). My point is, I *love* Moore's stuff before I even read it because to me, even if Moore fails, it's better than watching almost anyone else, except Gaiman, tread water.

Long story short, I'm just very happy I was able to suggest something that you got so much enjoyment out of. You don't need to say anything "heady" about this work. All you need to say is what you liked or didn't like and why, which you always do so well.

Anyway, excellent review and I'm happy you enjoyed the book so much!

As far as earlier league volumes - Vol 1 is an excellent read in that fun, pulp sense. Vol 2 is my favorite because it takes the characters from the first, puts them through a different kind of adventure, and really gets a lot of drama out of it. I feel The Black Dossier is strictly for us literary freaks who look for every reference. I wouldn't recommend it to someone like you, because it would be like me reading a book about obscure theater trivia.

[Chris Mautner]

FYI, the songs in the book do actually have a melody. They're reworkings of some of the songs from Threepenny Opera. That song MacHeath the killer sings during his rampage, fer instance, is to be sung to the tune of "Mack the Knife."

[Dan]

Indeed - and the other one is a re-working of "Pirate Jenny" from Threepenny Opera. There's an interesting blogpost about translations of it here.

[Dan]

Sorry. Let me try that link again:

http://www.seablogger.com/?p=12122

[Jim Sandborn]

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[Chris Mautner]

Well said Jim!