| January
2008 |
Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier (Wildstorm, 2007). $29.99, hardcover; Bryan Lee O’Malley, Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together (Oni Press, 2007). $11.95, paperback.
by James Moore
b
At this point in his long,
venerable career, heaping more praise on Alan Moore is like
dumping another glass of water into the ocean. The Grand
Wizard of North Hampton is talented enough that a mere five
minutes of his presence could briefly resuscitate the
long-past-its-best-days Simpsons
to its former
comic glory. So, while cliché it may be, Moore and frequent
collaborator Kevin O’Neill’s new book The League of
Extraordinary Gentleman: The Black Dossier
is the most
stunning and original graphic novel of the year.
The LOEG series initially began as a sort of Victorian
Justice League of America in which the likes of Edward Hyde
and Captain Nemo teamed up to fight threats to queen and
country. The LOEG stories take place in a world where all
fictions coexist. This is by no means a new concept, but
Moore’s encyclopedic knowledge and aptitude for writing
well in any genre gives LOEG a scope and depth that
something like Abbott & Costello
Meets Frankenstein lacks (without losing any
of the ideas central joy).
O’ Neill’s style was uniquely suited for the previous two
LOEG volumes capturing the both the prim façade of the
times as well the grotesque, vaguely steampunk underbelly.
But both creators have stepped up their already
considerable games into the stratosphere with the
Black
Dossier. The book opens in the
late 1950s—after the fall of totalitarian,
1984-esque
regime—with a now-immortal Mina Murray and Allen
Quartermain stealing a file (from James Bond, no less)
containing the complete history of the League. Part of the
book is a chase sequence, as Murray and Quatermain flee
pursuit from the government they have broken ties with.
This section, as in the previous LOEG books, is a smart,
fun adventure story packed with references to other
fictions.
The rest of the book contains the contents of the Black
Dossier itself, and here is where Moore and O’Neill tear to
pieces any notions of what constitutes a graphic novel.
There is a faux-Shakespearian play, a illustrated
pornographic novella, postcards, government documents a
Beat novel, a Tijuana Bible, as well as a good half-dozen
other narrative styles. Moore has long been an adaptable
writer, but even he has never managed to successfully mimic
and deconstruct so many styles in so short a space. O’Neill
likewise proves himself to be an artistic chameleon in the
company of J.H. Williams and Mark Buckingham.
The Black
Dossier uses these wide-flung
storytelling modes to build a panoramic parallel history as
well as to build a narrative tension that explodes into a
jaw-dropping 3-D section (the book comes with glasses) that
comes as close to conveying the fourth dimension of
anything this side of The
Invisibles.
The Black Dossier is the comic book
equivalent of a three-course meal, satisfying and with
elegant design worth savoring. Even the credits page is a
homage to the iconic London Tube map. Sadly, this has
hidden in it the one cloud of the proceedings, a small
metatextual graphic that simply reads “ABC: Closed for the
Duration.” The Black
Dossier is the final book to be
released from Moore’s America’s Best Comics imprint; it is
fitting that a company created to showcase the numerous
possibilities of comics concludes with perhaps its most
audacious book yet.
The fourth book in Bryan
Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim series, Scott Pilgrim Gets It
Together, plays impish yang
to The Black
Dossier’s yin. Written and drawn
by O’Malley, Scott
Pilgrim is about the titular
hero—a goofy Canadian slacker who must fight his new
girlfriend’s seven evil ex-boyfriends (and grow up in the
process).
Where The Black
Dossier draws from the comics
medium’s rich past, Scott
Pilgrim is influenced by its
vibrant present, pulling from manga, videogames, and indie
comics. Where Moore is more likely to drop a Lovecraft
reference, O’Malley giddily references Sonic the Hedgehog
within the first three pages. Gags show Scott’s thirst and
urine meters or the ‘experience points’ he gets after
successfully completing tasks like getting a job. O’Malley
is also one of the few North American creators to
successfully incorporate techniques from manga (i.e.
exaggerated facial expresses for key moments, speed lines,
a smooth relaxed pacing) without being derivative.
It would be easy to dismiss the book as fluff, but
O’Malley’s characters are more complex then they can appear
at first. They laugh, cry, stumble, and succeed like any
group of twenty-somethings, only with the occasional
reality-smashing kung-fu fight. This video game magical
realism actually helps the storytelling because it often
externalizes inner conflicts. Every relationship comes with
baggage, and Scott literally has to fight so that he and
Ramona can work things out. Scott Pilgrim also features one
of the most likable, well-realized supporting casts in
comics. From teenaged ninjette Knives Chau to the adorably
sardonic Kim Pine to Scott’s slick gay roommate Wallace
Wells, Scott
Pilgrim’s cast is like hanging out
with good friends.
Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together, the fourth book in the
series, shows just how far O’Malley has come as a
storyteller. His pacing is more assured and his layouts
both more original and clearer than the first three (highly
recommended) books. It’s a sweet, fun, deceptively
intelligent installment in a classic-in-the-making series.
Both The Black
Dossier and Scott Pilgrim Gets It
Together are notable in what they
say about the future of the comics medium. On the surface,
these two books may seem to have little in common. But both
demonstrate the possibilities many creators and publishers
are unwilling or unable reach for. These are books that
embrace the uniqueness of the medium and its ability to
absorb influences and to embrace individual creative
visions. They are the kind of books that make a person want
to pump their fists in the air and shout “Comics!” at the
top of their lungs. As Matt Fraction, writer of
Casanova,
once wrote, “Comics should be made when your heart hurts
and when your brain hops. The mainstream should be filled
with vibrant and dangerous charmers telling the kinds of
stories they want to read, drawn the way they want it to be
drawn, with a clear, clean voice unashamed of this gorgeous
ghetto we call home.”
Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together and League of Extrordinary
Gentlemen: The Black Dossier are just those sort of
comics, and they serve as a gauntlet thrown down for anyone
making comics in the coming year.