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The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier

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The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier
File:Black Dossier promo.jpg
Promotional image of the new League
Publication information
PublisherWildstorm/DC Comics
Publication dateOctober 3, 2007
Main character(s)Mina Murray
Allan Quatermain, Jr.
Sal Paradise
Orlando
A.J. Raffles
Thomas Carnacki
Professor Challenger
Professor George Edward Challenger
Creative team
Written byAlan Moore
Artist(s)Kevin O'Neill

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier is the upcoming third volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Like the previous volumes it will be written by Alan Moore, illustrated by Kevin O'Neill, and published under the America's Best Comics imprint of DC Comics.

The Black Dossier will slip in between volumes two and three. Its release date has been repeatedly pushed back: it was originally solicited for May 30, 2006, then October 25, 2006, then January 10, 2007, then October 24, 2007. and currently is slated for release on October 3, 2007. [1]

Background and format

File:Allan Quatermain Jr. and Wilhelmina Murray.jpg
Promotional illustration of Allan Quatermain, Jr. and Miss Wilhelmina Murray from The Black Dossier.

Originally referred to as The Dark Dossier during early announcements of its existence, The Black Dossier will differ from the first two (and official statements for the third) volumes, it will be a self-contained graphic novel as opposed to a limited series later collected into a trade paperback. There will not be a single narrative, but rather a collection of stories set in different eras covering different characters (and moving beyond the Victorian setting for the first two). While the first two volumes included a number of extras, such as "Allan and the Sundered Veil" and "The New Traveller's Almanac," The Black Dossier will contain a much larger and more varied amount.

It will contain a 'Tijuana Bible' insert and a 3-D section complete with custom glasses, as well as additional text pieces, maps, and a cutaway double-page spread of Captain Nemo's Nautilus submarine by Kevin O'Neill. Alan Moore himself mentioned working on a LP record that would be released with the book. [2]

It has also been confirmed that there will be a two-sided 45 (RPM) vinyl single 'sung' (actually recorded with Alan Moore and Tim Perkins) by "Eddie Enrico and His Hawaiian Hotshots" (a fictional band mentioned in Thomas Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49") and a record label from another recording company mentioned in fiction. The two songs are "Immortal Love" and "Home With You" (supposedly League-inspired 50s pop). [3]

Plot

The official website of Wildstorm Comics gives a synopsis of the plot in a press release:

England in the mid-1950s is not the same as it was. The Powers That Be have instituted some changes. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen have been disbanded and disavowed, and the country is under the control of an iron-fisted regime. Now, after many years, the still youthful Mina Murray and a rejuvenated Allan Quatermain return in search of some answers — answers that can only be found in a book buried deep in the vaults of their old headquarters — a book that holds the key to the hidden history of the League throughout the ages: The Black Dossier. As Allan and Mina delve into the details of their precursors, some dating back centuries, they must elude their dangerous pursuers who are hell-bent on retrieving the lost manuscript... and ending the League once and for all. [1]

A few details regarding the stories that will be featured in the volume have been confirmed. The book will contain stories about various Leagues. There will be a section detailing its foundation, involving Prospero, the protagonist from the Shakespeare play The Tempest, told in the manner of a lost Shakespeare folio for a play called Fairy's Fortunes Founded, fully illustrated.

The story about the 18th-century League, the Gulliver group, is written in the form of an imaginary sequel to John Cleland's Fanny Hill, titled Being the Further of the Adventures of a Woman of Pleasure, with lots of text and full-page illustrations, like in the illustrated Fanny Hill that the Marquis Von Bayros illustrated.

There will be a Beat Generation novel, allegedly inspired by the activities of the League in America during the 1950s, as written by Sal Paradise called The Crazy Wide Forever, who was the surrogate for Jack Kerouac that appeared in On the Road. Moore discussed the possibility of a 1950s League in an interview written prior to the release of the second volume, although it is unknown how much of these musings made it into The Black Dossier's 1950s setting.[4]

There is also a twenty-five page "Life of Orlando", which tells the entire life of Orlando from his birth in the City of Thebes in 1190 B.C. This story will give the timeline for the entire The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen's world, up to the Second World War, with lots of famous fictional characters and events.

According to Moore, the part of the book which is set in 1958 deals with the residual influence of George Orwell's Big Brother government, from the book Nineteen Eighty-Four. Originally, this book was set in 1948, but the publishers insisted in changing the title to 1984, setting it in the future. So, by the time the book opens in 1958, the Big Brother Government will have been over for a number of years. The Tijuana bible will reference Pornsec, which, in Orwell's book, work for the Ministry of Propaganda, and produce these little pornographic comics, as dreamed up by Orwell's Thought Police.[5]

On May 3, 2007, Jess Nevins—semi-official chronicler of historical and literary references for the series—made a cryptic reference on his LiveJournal. In response to a comment, he said, "Oh, I think you'll see something about the School of Night in the next League book..." He did not specify whether this meant Volume III or The Black Dossier. [6] Jess Nevins' annotations for this books will be released under the title of Impossible Territories: An Unofficial Companion to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen The Black Dossier.

Collections

  • Hardcover: ISBN 1-4012-0306-X (October 2007)
  • Absolute edition (deluxe hardcover): ISBN 1-4012-0751-0 (early 2008)

References

  1. ^ a b "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier (solicitation)". Graphic Novels: Wildstorm. Retrieved 2007-03-06.
  2. ^ News on Upcoming Volumes.
  3. ^ [1]
  4. ^ Alan Moore: The Tripwire Interview
  5. ^ [2]
  6. ^ [3]
  • Jess Nevins, Impossible Territories: An Unofficial Companion to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen The Black Dossier (paperback, 304 pages, MonkeyBrain, forthcoming early 2008, ISBN 1932265244)
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