Savage Art

Tarzan and T-Rex

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (pt. 2): The Black Dossier

2007

I expected the follow-up to the second League mini-series to be more of the same. And I was somewhat disappointed that it wasn't. Instead of the further adventures of the League, The Black Dossier was a strange beast indeed: part-comic book, part-written word. I concentrated at first on the comic, depicting the misadventures of Mina Murray and Allan Quatermain in 1950s England. And then I read it again, from first page to last and then I understood what it was all about.

In a word: world-building.

This was already apparent in the second volume, wth the inclusion of the New Traveler's Alamanac, and the hints that the Mina Murray led League was only the last in a long line of such team-ups.

But Moore and O'Neill seemed now tired of hints and clues, and just wanted to reveal the entire big picture. Hence: The Black Dossier.

The ambitious tome bridged the gap between the late-19th century League and 1950s Britain where Murray and Quatermain now dwelt (the comic depicts their efforts to secure the Black Dossier while avoiding British secret operatives including James Bond*, Bulldog Drummond and a young Emma Peel*). In-between, Moore has insterted written excerpts of previously published work telling the story of the intervening years, brushing a far more complete portrait of the League's world (a technique Moore used in Watchmen with the excerpts of Hollis Mason's autobiography). No longer content in copy-pasting fictional characters and places unto the "real" world, Moore and O'Neill have apparently decided to fictionalise history itself (hence, WWII was not fought against Nazi Germany, led by one Adolf Hitler but by Adenoid Hynkel's Tomania, the fictional statesman portrayed in Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator), so now not only all fiction is true but all history is fiction. Clever, clever.

Furthermore, by moving the setting from the 19th to the 20th century, modern medias such as movies, comic books and television programmes offered Moore and O'Neill even more characters and situations to plunder for fun and games, as well as modern literary sources (for instance, post-war Britain fell into the totalitarian regime depicted in Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, with the identity of Big Brother an important plot point in the comic).

But of course, all of this would be a sterile act of intellectual masturbation, if Moore and O'Neill didn't have a story to tell. Although, in retrospect, the comic portion of the Black Dossier gets a bit drowned by the extraneous details.. Nevertheless, in the end, Mina and Allan managed to escape the clutches of their enemies and reach the Blazing World, which is exactly where Moore and O'Neill have dropped the acid tab. I'll tell you more about it when I actually manage to understanding it (don't hold your breath, though, this might take a while).

Next: a return to pure storytelling with the 3-part epic Century.


* For legal reasons, they could not actually name Bond, but the identity of the character should be very clear for those who actually read the Ian Fleming novels, or seen the early Sean Connery movies. As for Mrs. Peel, the legal bullet was dodged by portraying her as an adolescent, operating under her maiden name of Emma Knight.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (pt. 1)

1999

The idea behind this series is absurbdly simple: pick a few characters from 19th century popular literature and stick them together as part of a team of operatives working for the British government. So simple, in fact, that only Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill apparently thought of it. But, as usual, Moore's premise hides a more complex design.

In the original 6-issue series of League it becomes clear that Moor and O'Neill have a far more ambitious goal that simply having Captain  Nemo, Allan Quatermain, the Invisible Man, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde and Mina Harker getting together and fighting Professor Moriarty. In the Moore-O'Neill scheme of thing, all fiction is true. Hence the incredible amount of details present in every single panel of the series. To such an extent that Jesse Nevins has dedicated himself to analyse the panels and detect references to other books, novels and short stories.

Things get even more complicated as the series move along. The second 6-issue mini-series, taking place during the 1898 Martian invasion, as depicted in H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, has a back-up feature chronicling every single imaginary islands, continents, towns and cites and otherwise faraway places featured in almost 500 years of fiction. Thus uniting the adventures of the League with a broader world-view. At the end of this second mini-series the league seems to unravel: the Invisible Man is killed by Mr. Hyde, who in turns sacrifices himself to save Earth. An enraged Captain Nemo returns to his hermit ways while Quatermain and Mina travel on.

Moore's ambition was always unbounded, which is why he remains one of the most extraordinary comic creator of the last thirty years. The next stop for the League, as it moves from the 19th to the 20th centuries, was to explain everything while moving the series forward. A topic I will discuss in part 2 of this post.

(L to R): Allan Quatermain, Mina Murray Harker, Dr. Henry
Jekyll, Captain Nemo & Hawley Griffin (aka the Invisible Man)

Savage Art

King Kull

Doc Savage

March 1933

Trained by his father to be the pinnacle of human perfection, Clark Savage Jr. spent most of his life helping others against criminals, megalomaniacs, insane cults and other threats. Doc Savage's offices are located at the 86th floor of the Empire State Building. He kickstarts his adventures by avenging the murder of his father, and never looked back since.

Savage, however, does not work alone. He is helped by five associates who have pledged themselves to help him in his endeavours:

• Col. John Renwick ("Renny"), engineer extraordinaire.
• William Harper Littlejohn ("Johnny"), world-renowned geologist. 
• Brigadier General Theodore Marley Brooks ("Ham"), noted attorney. 
• Major Thomas J. Roberts ("Long Tom"), electrician pioneer.
• Lt. Col. Andrew Blodgett Mayfair ("Monk"), chemistry specialist. 

Doc Savage was created in the early thirties by publisher Henry W. Ralston, editor John L. Nanovic, both working for Street & Smith Publications. He debuted in his own magazine in 1933. All of Savage's 181 adventures were published under the house name of Kenneth Robeson. In reality most were the work of Lester Dent. Doc Savage starred in his own magazine from 1933 up until 1949. Modern readers became re-acquainted with the hero in the 1960s when Bantam Books reprinted all of his tales, with iconic covers done by artist Jim Bama. 

Like any good character, Doc Savage branched out in other medias. There were two radio serials in 1934 and 1943. He also appeared in several comic book series, from the Golden Age up to the present time. The most recent being the Dynamite Entertainment series beginning in 2013. 

Hollywood also came a-callin'. George Pal produced and directed a film version in 1975: Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze starring Ron Ely (Tarzan). I remember seeing this when I was a kid, but I don't recall much of it. The film was a critical and commercial failure. Shane Black is currently working on a new adaptation. 

Thorgal

1980

Thorgal is an excellent fantasy series published in Belgium from the early 1980s onward. The series was created by Belgian comic book writer Jean Van Hamme and artist Grzegorz Rosinski. Thorgal is still in publication, edited in French by Le Lombard and Cinebook in English.

The series is set in Medieval Europe, predominantly in Scandinavia, though, like any good adventurers, Thorgal does travel a lot (he even ends up in pre-Colombian America). The series deftly combines historical accuracy with elements of high fantasy and science-fiction.

Thorgal Aegirsson is a skald (aka a bard in Viking cultures), living in a small village. Unlike others, however, Thorgal is not interested in coquest, combat or pillaging. Which makes him appear weak in the eyes of other men, including Gandalf the Mad, his chieftain and father of the woman he loves, Aaricia.
In reality, Thorgal is an alien, whose people crashed on Earth years ago. The only survivor of the crash, Thorgal was raised as a viking, but he is not one of them.

One of the things that separates Thorgal from other adventurers of his ilk, is the fact that Thorgal doesn't want to be an adventurer at all! He just wants to live happily with his wife, Aaricia, and his two children Jolan and Wolf Cub. This is thread running through most of the series. Events conspire to send Thorgal into one scrape after another, mostly to reunite with his estranged family. Thorgal doesn't care about his alien heritage, of the fact that he and his family seems to have some sort of destiny to fulfil.

After the 29th volume of the series, Van Hamme left the writing to Yves Sente, though Rosinsky's fabulour art is still the defining factor in this series. There's also several spin-off books focusing on other characters.

(L to R) Jolan, Thorgal, Aaricia & Wolf Cub

List of Thorgal's Books in English

The Cinebook edition combines two separate issues of the French edition.

1. Child of the Stars
2. The Three Elders of Aran
3. Beyond the Shadows
4. The Archers
5. The Land of Qa
6. City of the Lost God
7. The Masters of the Mountain
8. Wolf Club
9. The Guardian of the Keys
10. The Sun Sword
11. The Invisible Fortress
12. The Brand of the Exiles
13. Ogotai's Crown
14. Giants
15. The Cage

Savage Art

Frank Frazetta

Tower Of The Elephant

March 1933

Tower of the Elephant is certainly one of my favourite Conan tales by Robert E. Howard. It starts out as the usual Conan romp and then Howard trumps all expectations and twist the tale beyond recognition. Tower is a sad tale, and even Conan leaves with a bad taste in his mouth.

The scene is Arenjun, the city of thieves of Zamora, where Conan is drinking away in one of its many taverns. He hears about a precious stone called the Heart of the Elephant. A jewell many have tried to steal, without success. Conan finally arrive at the Tower of the Elephant where the jewell lies. He makes friends with Taurus, fellow thief, and they decide to join their efforts to capture the stone. Taurus is eventually killed and Conan meets with Yag-Kosha, an alien being who has been captured, blinded and put in chain by the evil sorcerer Yara.

Yara has been abusing Yag-Kosha in exchange for his knowledge. But when the alien creature meets with Conan, revenge is in order.

Certainly one of Howard's better tales.

1946

Publication History

Weird Tales (March 1933)
Skull-Face and Others (Arkham House, 1946)
The Coming of Conan (Gnome Press, 1953)
Conan (Lancer Books, 1967)
The Tower of the Elephant (Donald M. Grant)
The Conan Chronicles (Sphere Books, 1989)
The Conan Chronicles 1 (Gollancz, 2000)
Conan of Cimmeria, Vol. 1 (1932-1933)                 
(Del Rey, 2003)

At The Earth's Core

April 4-25, 1914

I loved reading Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne, and yet I found it rather static. It was more a geological treatise disguised as an adventure novel. I wanted cavemen fighting dinosaurs.

Imagine my absolute thrill when I found out that the creator of Tarzan and John Carter had imagined a hollow world exactly how I wanted it to be: cavemen, scantily clad savage girls, dinosaurs and plucky surface explorers. Yep, At the Earth's Core had everything for it, and what's more was the first in a whole series of novels taking place inside our planet.

Prospector David Innes uses the mole-bore engine created by his friend Abner Perry, and the trial run takes them to Pellucidar, the Inner Continent. They are soon captured by ape-men serving the dominant species of Pellucidar: the Mahars, sentient pterodactyls who rule the land with an iron hand. Humans are quite low on the totem pole. David falls in love with Dian the Beautiful, daughter of a local chieftain. He inadvertently insults her, so she runs off with Hooja, the Sly One, a rival.

This is it, folks: Perpetual sunlight. Bizarre geography (the horyzone actually stretches out above you). Dinosaurs and pleistocene fauna. The Mahars (psychic pterodactyls). Dian the Beautiful. The Sagoths (ape-men, servants of the Mahars). Every other 'inner world' stories you might have read was most likely inspired by this one.

At the Earth's Core first saw light as a serial in April 1914. Later published as a complete novel by A.C. McClurg.

July 1922

Pellucidar Advisor 2.0

Yes...this was the first blog I started way back in 2012, but quickly abandoned it as I hadn't really got the hang of blogs and everything.

Now I'm older and quite possibly wiser so I ressucitated it. This blog will be dedicated to all matters Heroic Fantasy, Pulp Fiction, Sword & Sorcery, Planetary Romance and the like.


Enjoy!