Monday, April 27, 2009

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier

In The Black Dossier, Moore borrows liberally from Shakespeare, Lovecraft, and Orwell, among others. The book's departure from the traditional comic book format in favour of more heavily text-based, multi-genre dabbling may alienate visually oriented action junkies and lazy assholes, but patient readers and literature geeks will find much to love here. I'd compare TBD's scope and its relative lack of accessibility to Tolkien's Silmarillion, another odd and excellent book reviled by fanboys the world over. Especially cool are the Golliwog character's translation of moral gravity into actual physical gravity and the migraine-inducing and very trippy 3D section of the book.

RATING: 89%

(Image from www.rrr.org.au.)

16 comments:

Fake R3 Persona said...

Well then Laddie, The Black Dossier will be my next read. Is it so highbrow that I will need a dictionary at my side?

John said...

The Shakespearean tale of Prospero's Men gets a bit obscure, but otherwise no. Just make sure you wash your hands when you're done--you don't want that swine flu!

Viking Andrew said...

Another link:
I heard about this project on Scientific American Frontier (here's the great Alan Alda
explaining) a while ago, and last week took some time to participate in the project. It's free--just click on research and answer a few questions--and see how prejudiced you really are!

Viking Andrew said...

Post-script: I feel like I'm turning into that aunt who sends you ten or fifteen chain letters and/or newspaper clippings a day.

John said...

I always delete that shit when my mom sends it.

DCP said...

I always delete that shit when your mom sends it, too.

John said...

Did you delete the comment with no s because it was a typo, or because you thought your use of BVE in a dis' context might be construed as racist?

I'm offended either way.

DCP said...

I think revealing comment edits to our readers is like telling a three year old there's no tooth fairy. Can't you let the magic live?

John said...

Sorry, my bad. I guess I could email you and ask you the same question, it just never really occurred to me. Or I could call and have a big *cough*gay*cough* phone chat like all you other R3 guys seem to like to do.

Viking Andrew said...

How do you motherf'ers even know when people are revising or whatever? Why can't I know what you know?

laurie said...

@John: Did you just call us gay for talking on the phone? Don't be retarded.

@Andrew: We get the comments in our email. You can tell blogger to do that. I'll do it for you if you can't find it.

laurie said...

Also, let's remember that this comment string is probably very boring for our readers.

Viking Andrew said...

@Laurie,
Thanks, but I'm okay without it.
And you're right: I post a thingy on implicit bias and it turns into meta-blog talk. Glenn? John? You're both fired.

John said...

@ Laurie
It's spelled "retarted." Also, you guys should read the comic and then we'll all have something to talk about.

John said...

@ Andrew
You can fire me when you're older than me.

DCP said...

@Andrew - Fired? Finally. Can I use my unemployment as start-up capital for my new blog, R1?

@John - This is on my long list of things to buy and read whenever I have a job again. Maybe Century will be out by then and I can make it a double feature.