The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume 3: Century #1 1910 - Softcover

Moore, Alan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1603090002 ISBN 13: 9781603090001

Publisher: Top Shelf Productions, 2009

Synopsis

• The new volume detailing the exploits of Miss Wilhelmina Murray and her extraordinary colleagues, Century is a 240-page epic spanning almost a hundred years. Divided into three 80-page chapters — each a self-contained narrative to avoid frustrating cliff-hanger delays between episodes — this monumental tale takes place in three distinct eras, building to an apocalyptic conclusion occurring in our own, current, twenty-first century.
• Chapter one is set against the backdrop of London, 1910, twelve years after the failed Martian invasion and nine years since England put a man upon the moon. In the bowels of the British Museum, Carnacki the ghost-finder is plagued by visions of a shadowy occult order who are attempting to create something called a Moonchild, while on London's dockside the most notorious serial murderer of the previous century has returned to carry on his grisly trade. Working for Mycroft Holmes' British Intelligence alongside a rejuvenated Allan Quartermain, the reformed thief Anthony Raffles and the eternal warrior Orlando, Miss Murray is drawn into a brutal opera acted out upon the waterfront by players that include the furiously angry Pirate Jenny and the charismatic butcher known as Mac the Knife.

About this title

About the Author

Alan Moore is widely regarded as the best and most influential writer in the history of comics. His seminal works include Miracleman and Watchmen, for which he won the coveted Hugo Award. Never one to limit himself in form or content, Moore has also published novels, Voice of the Fire and Jerusalem, and an epic poem, The Mirror of Love. Four of his ground-breaking graphic novels—From Hell, Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen—have been adapted to the silver screen. Moore currently resides in Northampton, England.

Reviews

Starred Review. Sometimes less is more. Although only 80 pages long, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 1910 is a spectacular return to form for Moore's critically acclaimed adventure series about a turn of the century superteam made up of characters from pulp/genre literature both famed and obscure. This time out, Captain Nemo's daughter, Janni, angrily refuses to become his successor and leaves for London and a new life, only to walk straight into the plot of Three Penny Opera. While Mina Harker investigates Mac the Knife's killing spree and a mysterious prophecy—less than ably assisted by the incompetent and sexist current group of Extraordinary Gentlemen—Janni rises triumphantly as the Pirate Jenny of song and story, more terrifying in Nemo's mantle than her father ever was. Moore's writing sparkles as he weaves Brechtian lyrics into a sharp, tightly paced story, and O'Neill's sardonic stylized art captures the spirit of the tale and the era perfectly. It's a romp for comics and literature fans alike. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Acclaimed graphic-novelist Moore (Watchmen, 1987; From Hell, 2000) continues his high-concept saga employing classic ­adventure-fiction characters banded together to answer threats to the British Empire. This first book of a trilogy spanning nearly a century sees Dracula heroine Mina Murray, H. Rider Haggard’s adventurer Allan Quatermain, and new colleagues Raffles (E. W. Hornung’s 1890s gentleman thief), Thomas Carnacki (William Hope Hodgson’s pre–World War I ghost hunter), and Virginia Woolf’s ambisexual Orlando investigate shadowy occultists with possibly apocalyptic intentions. Meanwhile, Brecht’s Mack the Knife is nabbed for dockside murders of prostitutes as Pirate Jenny warbles vengeance. While the premise of mixing and matching famed fictional figures has lost some of its novelty, the thrill of how adroitly and intelligently Moore does it remains. O’Neill’s detailed art matches the intricacy of Moore’s design, combining the meticulous line work of period book illustrations and a distinctly modern vitality. Since, after a spat with DC Comics, Moore has taken the series to relatively little Top Shelf, fans who can’t find the new League in comics shops will likely turn to libraries. --Gordon Flagg

Edition details

• Publisher: Top Shelf Productions
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1603090002
• ISBN 13: 9781603090001
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 80