19th Century Fiction in the Now

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen volume 1 has just come out in hardcover. Written by Alan Moore (Watchmen, Miracleman, From Hell) and drawn by Kevin O'Neill (Marshal Law), this is a pastiche of late-19th century fantastic adventure characters. Feature Mina Murray (formerly Harker), Doctor Jeckyll and Mister Hyde, the Invisible Man, Allan Quatermain, and Captain Nemo, and featuring brief appearances by a wide variety of 19th century literary figures, it's a real trip: A British espionage organization in 1898 brings these people together to recover a valuable artifact, so it's a combination of James Bond-like mayhem, sudden plot reversals, and "spot-the-reference".

Jess Nevins' Comic Book Annotations page has extensive annotations of the six issues of the series.

Apparently there will be a sequel in the near future, probably involving our intrepid heroes confronting H. G. Wells' Mars invasion, which apparently will be tied in to the Burroughs John Carter stories somehow.

If you like that, then you might also enjoy Planetary #13. Planetary is quite possibly the best comic book being published today, written by Warren Ellis (Stormwatch, Transmetropolitan), and drawn by John Cassiday with colors by Laura DePuy (one of the Sequential Tarts), it's quite possibly the best-drawn, as Cassiday's renderings are absolutely lovely, extremely imaginative, and becoming more fluid and life-like with each issue.

The premise, as I know I've explained before, is that Elijah Snow, Jakita Wagner and The Drummer are the members of Planetary, who are investigating the secret history of the 20th century. Specially empowered themselves, they uncover many fantastic individuals from the past hundred years, and end up in opposition to The Four, who themselves became immensely powerful in the 1960s and are running a worldwide conspiracy. Most of the supporting cast in Planetary are interpretations of major pop culture (mostly - but not entirely - comic book) figures.

This particular issue flashes back to 1919 and 1920 in which Snow encounters several of the towering giants of the previous century and uncovers their conspiracy.

Planetary apparently will run 24 issues and then be complete. The first six issues have been reprinted in paperback and will soon be issued in hardcover, and the second six will be available in hardcover early next year.

Finally, Scott McCloud's excellent book Understanding Comics is now available in hardcover. McCloud wittily and lucidly explains what comics are as an art form, how they differ from other art forms, why they're interesting as an art form, and the potential they have to reach beyond their current mainstream boundaries.

CJ once told me, of all things, that Understanding Comics is one of the two books she recommends to people interested in learning how to create good computer user interfaces. (Of course, I've forgotten what the other one is, save that it's one of the seminal books on graphical user interfaces.)

I'm definitely fighting off some sort of cold, as I'm still dog-tired in the mornings, and now the congestion is starting to come. Blech. I think I've had this whatever-it-is for about a week, but it's taken a long time for its serious symptoms to start to manifest themselves.

So my workout this morning was tougher than usual, took longer than usual, and I feel like I just about sleepwalked through the rest of the work day. I did get some important things done, but I'm really limping towards my vacation. I always hate when that happens, but I guess that's partly what happens right before a vacation.

I'm also feeling a little emotionally raw this week (which probably explains where yesterday's entry comes from), for no particularly good reason. Well, okay, arranging things to go on vacation is probably a good reason to feel stressed. There are probably some not-so-good reasons, too.

Um. I guess that really is the story of my week in its totality. Oh! But I do get Friday off! That's a good thing! I can catch up on stuff before I depart.