Showing posts with label Ben Dimagmaliw. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ben Dimagmaliw. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 7, 2020
#IReadsYou Review: THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN Vol. 4 #1
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Tuesday, July 24, 2018
Review: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume 1
DC COMICS/Vertigo – @DCComics
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
WRITER: Alan Moore
ARTIST: Kevin O’Neill
COLORIST: Ben Dimagmaliw
LETTERER: Bill Oakley
EDITOR: Scott Dunbier
ISBN: 978-1-56389-858-7; paperback – Seventeenth printing
176pp, Color, $16.99 U.S., $22.99 CAN
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen created by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume One is a six-issue comic book limited series published in 1999 and 2000 (cover dated: March 1999 to September 2000). The series was created by writer Alan Moore and artist Kevin O'Neill and was published by America's Best Comics, an imprint of Wildstorm Productions, itself an imprint of DC Comics. The first League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (abbreviated as “LoEG”) miniseries was initially collected in a single volume in 2001 in a trade paperback entitled The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume One.
The story takes place in 1898 and is set in a fictional world where all of the characters from Victorian literature are real and coexist, and the events, adventures, and drama depicted in that literature actually occurred. Alan Moore borrowed LoEG's main characters and plot elements primarily from the works of writers Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a secret task force created to protect the British Empire from potential, extraordinary threats. The League's de facto leader is Wilhelmina “Mina” Murray (from Bram Stoker's Dracula), charged with gathering extraordinary people to this task force. Mina recruits Allan Quatermain (the great white hunter created by author H. Rider Haggard); Captain Nemo; the terror of the seas in his submarine, “The Nautilus” (from Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea); Dr. Henry Jekyll and his monstrous alter-ego, Mr. Edward Hyde (from Robert Louis Stevenson's novella, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde) and Hawley Griffin, (known as “Griffin” the title character of H.G. Wells' The Invisible Man).
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume One opens in 1898. It is one year after Mina Murray's encounter with the vampire, Dracula, and Mina has divorced her husband and now works for the British government. She meets with MI5 agent, Campion Bond. [Alan Moore means for Campion to be the grandfather of Ian Fleming's James Bond, although for intellectual property reasons, James Bond is not mentioned]. Bond gives Mina the task of gathering certain men for the task force known as the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Campion is vague about MI5's leader, the mysterious “M,” whom Mina assumes is Mycroft Holmes, the brother of Sherlock Holmes.
After Mina gathers her extraordinary gentlemen and the LoEG is formed, Bond gives them their mission. He wants the League to recover a stolen supply of “Cavorite,” a man-made element that can power and levitate heavier-than-air machines. The thief is the crime lord of the “East End” of London, a mysterious figure known as “The Doctor” (a stand-in for the fictional character, Fu Manchu, which is not in the public domain). While “The Doctor” has indeed stolen the Cavorite, the League does not realize that there is more to their mission than recovering a stolen item and that there is a bigger conspiracy against London than one crime lord.
The people who only know The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen through that mediocre 2003 film that was loosely adapted from the comic book are unlucky. I think many of those people would love Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's fantastic original comic book series. I have already praised Moore and O'Neill as geniuses in a review of a later LoEG comic book. For Moore: I praised his inventive concept, his imaginative story, and his ingenious execution of the narrative. For O'Neill, I praised his original illustrative style, his eye-popping graphics, and his stunning graphic design.
What new readers will discover is how funny this first LoEG comic book is, especially compared to the fake wittiness of the hapless film adaptation. My recent re-reading is the first time I have read the original series since it original publication. I did not remember its sense of humor, so I was delighted to discover it. It was like finding something new.
Whether you look for literary references or whether you want to enjoy its unique spin on classic fiction, LoEG seems to always offer something new to discover. I noticed I was finding new things when I reread certain pages during this second reading. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume One has not so much stood the test of time as it has proved to be timeless. I now consider it a comic book that I would share with anyone inclined to read comic books.
10 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.
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Wednesday, July 11, 2018
Review: THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN Volume 3: Century: 2009
TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS/Knockabout Comics – @topshelfcomix @KnockaboutComix
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
WRITER: Alan Moore
ARTIST: Kevin O’Neill
COLORIST: Ben Dimagmaliw
LETTERER: Todd Klein
ISBN: 978-1-86166-163-3; paperback – 6.625" x 10.125" (June 2012)
80pp, Color, $9.95 U.S., £7.99 GBP
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen created by Kevin O'Neill
3: Let It Come Down
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century is the third comic book miniseries starring Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s Victorian superheroes, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (LoEG). The series is written by Moore; drawn by O'Neill; colored by Ben Dimagmaliw; and lettered by the extraordinary Todd Klein.
A three-graphic novel set, Century finds the League as a new team in a new century. Century #1 “1910” and Century #2 “1969” focuses on the Leagues attempt to stop occultist Oliver Haddo from realizing his dream of creating an anti-Christ called “the Moonchild,” which would bring about an apocalypse. The League's surviving members, the three immortals: Orlando/Roland (the eternal warrior), Mina Murray (Count Dracula's shorty), and Allan Quatermain (great White B'wana and British adventurer) believe they stopped Haddo's plans after a battle in Hyde Park and in the “Blazing World” during the year 1969...
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century #3 “2009” (“Let It Come Down”) finds Orlando doing what he does best. He is living eternally and slaughtering eternally, this time in Q'Mar, where a war of attrition drags into a fifth year of blood and devastation. Orlando is back in London when she gets a sudden visit from Prospero, Duke of Milan, who informs her that Haddo's Moonchild has already been born and that the apocalypse is nigh. Now, Orlando must reform the League in time to stop this anti-Christ, but where are the last two surviving members? They may be immortals, but one is a homeless heroin addict and the other is currently a resident of a mental institution.
I like Alan Moore's dark, famous, and acclaimed comics of the 1980s. Watchmen is a legendary comic book to many American comic book creators, fans, and industry types. V for Vendetta is a bold and idiosyncratic vision (misunderstood by many of its readers and admirers).
Still, I prefer Moore’s more surreal and slyly humorous comics, such as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. More so, I think that LoEG, like Watchmen and Moore and Eddie Campbell's From Hell, is an extraordinary work because it is the creation of a comic book writing genius and comic book drawing genius. I may be one of the few people who think that Kevin O'Neill is a genius, but his striking graphics and his visual sense of composing a story via a comic book page are matched by only a few comic book artists over the last three or four decades. He can convey pathos, drama, humor, satire, parody, and surrealism within a single page and, on occasion, within a single panel. Also, O'Neill's comics often trade in both the mundane and the scatological.
So that's my review. Moore was first declared a genius over 30 years ago, and I am now officially declaring O'Neill a genius. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century #3 “2009” is a great comic book because it is the work of genius times two. Everything about it is unconventional, although its structure is conventional comics, and the story is full of convention – by reference and allusion.
The final battle between the League and the Moonchild is neither climatic nor anti-climatic. It is something different, waiting for a different kind of heroine to take it in another direction, even if that direction has been taken before her. I wish there were The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century #4.
9.5 out of 10
www.tppshelfcomix.com
www.knockabout.com
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.
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Sunday, September 18, 2011
Review: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: CENTURY #2
TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS/KNOCKABOUT COMICS
WRITER: Alan Moore
ARTIST: Kevin O’Neill
COLORIST: Ben Dimagmaliw
LETTERER: Todd Klein
ISBN: 978-1-86166-162-6; paperback
80pp, Color, $9.95 U.S., £7.99 GBP
Even in a counter-culture underground of mystical and medicated flower children, there is a sense of loneliness. It is as if expressions of personal freedom and use of drugs to gain a personal high are really about trying to connect with other individuals in a way that is simultaneously superficial and deeply intimate. Even Oliver Haddo’s body hopping is an attempt to stave off that ultimate solo journey – death. Anyway…
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century is the third series starring Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s Victorian superheroes, who are now a new team in a new century. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century #2 “1969” is the second graphic novel in the most recent story arc (which began with Century #1 “1910”). It finds the new League: Mina Murray, the reincarnated Allan Quatermain, and eternal warrior Orlando still trying to stop the creation of an antichrist called the Moonchild.
Chapter 2: Paint It Black takes place in 1969 (about 60 years after the League’s last adventure) and is set in the psychedelic daze of Swinging London during 1969, where Tadukic Acid Diethylamide 26 is the drug of choice. The counter-culture fun pauses for just a moment when rock musician, Basil Thomas, is murdered by men in black robes. Vince Dakin, a mob boss close to Thomas, hires contract killer, Jack Carter, to learn the identity of the person who ordered the murder and to in turn kill that individual.
Meanwhile, the Blazing World sends the League to investigate Thomas’ murder, especially as it may be related to the activities of the occultist, Oliver Haddo, who is trying to create the Moonchild. But isn’t Haddo supposed to be dead? Still adjusting to the 20th century and struggling with the accumulated weight of their endless lives, Mina, Allan, and Orlando navigate the perilous rapids of London's hippy and criminal subculture, while Haddo plots his next incarnation.
While I marvel at the brilliance of his darker works like Watchmen and V for Vendetta, I prefer Alan Moore’s more surreal and slyly humrous comics, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen being one of them. It is obvious that moving LoEG to Top Shelf Productions and Knockabout Comics (in the U.K.) has liberated Moore. Century: 1969 is bawdy and vulgar without being obnoxious. It is madly inventive and highly imaginative without being inaccessible to readers who may not get all the cultural and pop culture references.
The move to a new publisher (from DC Comics, which was never the right publisher for this material) has also done wonders for artist Kevin O’Neill, who is every bit as important to the League as Moore is. O’Neill graphical storytelling and art are pictures as poetry. Dream sequences, flashbacks, alternate universes, swinging London, bizarre manifestations of human flesh, etc.: there isn’t anything O’Neill can’t draw. He visualizes Moore’s trippy story as both a trippy graphic novel and an enthralling, engaging story.
Century #2 is actually an improvement over Century #1, as the former is surreal rather than merely odd, as “1910” was with its bizarre musical sequences. I’m happy to say that Moore and O’Neill are still at the top of their LoEG game.
A
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Review: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: CENTURY #1
TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS
WRITER: Alan Moore
ARTIST: Kevin O’Neill
COLORIST: Ben Dimagmaliw
LETTERER: Todd Klein
ISBN: 978-1-60309-000-1; paperback
80pp, Color, $7.95
Published in May 2009, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: Century #1 (“1910”) is the opening book in the latest story arc starring The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Created by writer Alan Moore and artist Kevin O’Neill, the League is composed of Victorian superheroes (who are also Victorian literary characters). Century places a new league in a new century, as it takes on an occult plot to create an antichrist. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen also has a new lease on life with new publishers, Top Shelf Productions in North America and Knockabout Comics in the United Kingdom.
Century finds what remains of the League in the brave new world of the 20th century. Chapter 1, “What Keeps Mankind Alive,” is set in 1910 London, twelve years after the failed Martian invasion (depicted in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume 2). The story opens in the bowels of the British Museum where the sleep of the ghost-finder Thomas Carnacki is troubled by dreams which reveal the conspiracy of a shadowy cult.
As Britain prepares for the coronation of King George V, the cult, apparently led by the supposedly dead Oliver Haddo, is attempting to create something called a “Moonchild.” Far away on his South Atlantic base, Captain Nemo is dying, but his daughter, Janni, has rejected her inheritance and heads for London. Meanwhile, London’s most notorious serial (MacHeath or Mack the Knife) has also returned to ply his grisly trade on the London dockside.
Working for Mycroft Holmes’ British Intelligence, Mina Murray leads a new League, which includes the rejuvenated Allan Quatermain (who pretends to be Allan Quatermain, Jr.), the reformed thief Anthony Raffles, the eternal warrior Orlando (who can be male or female and claims that the sword he carries is Excalibur), and Carnacki. As Murray and the League rush to discover if there is indeed a conspiracy, ominous signs thrive and brutal forces converge on the excited city. And characters break out in song!
It’s probably been about eight years since I’ve read the original League miniseries, and I didn’t read the second series. I can honestly say that I enjoyed reading the first book of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: Century as much if not more than I did the very first issue of the original series. What I enjoyed about Moore’s work here is how he treats each panel as an opportunity to create wonderful dialogue. More than just advancing the plot or establishing characters, the dialogue colors this peculiar series and gives it a wonderfully intoxicating flavor. I don’t know how else to say this: with every word balloon I read, I felt this story engaging my senses and coming alive in my mind. Hell, I even enjoyed the scenes in which the characters sang.
I’ve been a fan of Kevin O’Neill’s art since I first encountered him back in the mid-1980s, and I was crazy about Marshal Law. I liked his work in the original League series, but wasn’t crazy about it. I still love how O’Neill visualizes Moore’s eccentricities. Like Moore’s vivacious dialogue, O’Neill’s beautiful art doesn’t merely visualize a world; it brings that world to life. He captures the personalities of the characters by utilizing every bit of them – facial features and expressions, costumes, posture, physicality, etc.
Moore and O’Neill are a match made in comic book heaven.
A
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