{"id":3480,"date":"2007-11-14T17:11:12","date_gmt":"2007-11-14T17:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/2007\/11\/14\/black-dossier-2\/"},"modified":"2007-11-14T17:11:12","modified_gmt":"2007-11-14T17:11:12","slug":"black-dossier-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/2007\/11\/14\/black-dossier-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Dossier"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As many of you no doubt know, the long-awaited <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dccomics.com\/graphic_novels\/?gn=5977\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"postlink\"><span style=\"font-style: italic\">League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier<\/span><\/a> was released today.  I received a review copy and have read roughly two-thirds of what is easily the densest and most complex League tale yet attempted.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/bb\/weblogs\/upload\/16\/1465632794473b2b7a5ec1d.jpg\" border=\"0\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Written and drawn in a variety of styles, the <span style=\"font-style: italic\">Black Dossier<\/span> is essentially the hidden history of the League and hence the world.  In the first 2\/3, I discovered the origins of James Bond\u2019s boss &ldquo;M&rdquo;, &ldquo;Q&rdquo;, Orlando, the very first League, the 1910 German (lead by Dr. Mabuse!) and the 1911 French incarnations of the league. I learned how Mina Murray first met Nemo (remember they are both part of the team in the first issue.) Also, there is an excellent piece on occult history by <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Magician_%28Maugham_novel%29\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"postlink\">Oliver Haddo<\/a> that ties Melnibon\u00e9, Hyperborea, and the Great Old Ones into our reality. Allusions to <span style=\"font-style: italic\">1984<\/span> abound.  How exactly do Gloriana, Fanny Hill, Harry Lime, and Shakespeare tie into the tale is quite amazing\u2026 and let us not forget Wilhelmina Murray and Allan Quartermain. I\u2019m not even done with the book yet.<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully in an attempt to make sense of it all, Jess Nevins has already started <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shsu.edu\/%7Elib_jjn\/dossier.html\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"postlink\">his annotations<\/a>.  The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Impossible-Territories-Unofficial-Companion-Extraordinary\/dp\/1932265244\/ref=sr_1_2\/002-0579388-6978442?ie=UTF8&amp;amp;s=books&amp;amp;qid=1195000353&amp;amp;sr=8-2\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"postlink\">accompanying book<\/a> will be published next Summer from Monkeybrain.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/bb\/weblogs\/upload\/16\/1851358321473b2b9f9e3cc.jpg\" border=\"0\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Not that the tome was published without some controversy.  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mania.com\/AC-15\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"postlink\"><span style=\"font-style: italic\">Comicscape<\/span><\/a> discusses the controversy, <span style=\"font-style: italic\">Black Dossier<\/span>, and the League in general in this fascinating <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mania.com\/56564.html\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"postlink\">interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Though plans are afoot for an Absolute edition, rumor has it that there will be <span style=\"font-weight: bold\">NO<\/span> paperback version.  Since this hardback includes various paper stocks, a <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tijuana_Bible\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"postlink\">Tijuana bible<\/a> insert, and a 3-d story (including glasses), a paperback would probably be in the $25 range.  Given the excellent quality of the art and story combined with the fact that The League of Extraordinary Gentleman stories need to be re-read, at $30 this book is a steal.  It will be the best $30 you\u2019ve spent on a book in a long time.<\/p>\n<p>Expect a more formal type of review soon\u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"tumblr-crosspostr-linkback\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/2007\/11\/14\/black-dossier\/\" title=\"Go to the original post.\" rel=\"bookmark\" target=\"_blank\">Black Dossier<\/a> was originally published on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\" target=\"_blank\">The Geek Curmudgeon<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As many of you no doubt know, the long-awaited League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier was released today. I received a review copy and have read roughly two-thirds of what is easily the densest and most complex League tale yet &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/2007\/11\/14\/black-dossier-2\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v15.2.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/2007\/11\/14\/black-dossier-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Black Dossier - The Geek Curmudgeon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As many of you no doubt know, the long-awaited League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier was released today. I received a review copy and have read roughly two-thirds of what is easily the densest and most complex League tale yet &hellip; Continue reading &rarr;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/2007\/11\/14\/black-dossier-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Geek Curmudgeon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-11-14T17:11:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/bb\/weblogs\/upload\/16\/1465632794473b2b7a5ec1d.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\">\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/\",\"name\":\"The Geek Curmudgeon\",\"description\":\"Where opinionated geek Rick Klaw expresses his views\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/2007\/11\/14\/black-dossier-2\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/bb\/weblogs\/upload\/16\/1465632794473b2b7a5ec1d.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/2007\/11\/14\/black-dossier-2\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/2007\/11\/14\/black-dossier-2\/\",\"name\":\"Black Dossier - The Geek Curmudgeon\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/2007\/11\/14\/black-dossier-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2007-11-14T17:11:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2007-11-14T17:11:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/2007\/11\/14\/black-dossier-2\/\"]}]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3480\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}