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The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

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The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a comic book series by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill published under the America's Best Comics (ABC) imprint of DC Comics.

The first mini series of the LoEG was six issues in length, which were later collected into a single volume. The first series dealt with threats to Britain from diverse individuals and reasons, and featured six individual covers all drawn by Kevin O'Neill in a different style. A second six issue miniseries began publication in 2002.

The title could well be a play upon that of The League of Gentlemen, or the Justice League of America, or yet the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel, or have many other influences.

Overview

The story takes place in 1898 in a fictional world where all of the characters and events from Victorian era literature actually existed. Thus, the world the characters inhabit is one far more technologically advanced than our own was in the same year (see steampunk). This setting allows Mr Moore and Mr O'Neill to insert 'in-jokes' and cameos from many of the great works of Victorian Literature and fiction, while also making contemporary references and jibes. (In issue 1, there is a half-finished Bridge to link Britain and France, as an aside to the problems encountered while building the Channel Tunnel).

The League is assembled by the British government to protect the empire from various menaces including the criminal genius Fu Manchu (Vol. 1) and the Martians from H.G. Wells' novel War of the Worlds (Vol. 2).

The individual members of the League are:

The League are recruited for the Government by one Campion Bond, an original creation of Mr Moore but perhaps an allusion to Ian Fleming's 20th-century character James Bond.

League 's juxtaposition of characters from different sources in the same story is similar to science fiction writer Philip Jose Farmer's works centering around the Wold Newton family.

Collections

The series has so far been collected in:

  • The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, collects issues 1-6
    • hardcover: ISBN 1840232218
    • paperback: ISBN 1840233028
  • The Absolute League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, 400+ pages deluxe edition of issues 1-6 plus Alan Moore's scripts, and extra artwork
    • hardcover: ISBN 1840236884
  • The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Book 2, collects all 6 issues of second series
    • hardcover: ISBN 184023668X
    • paperback: ISBN 1401201180

Associated Works

Adaptations

A film starring Sean Connery and directed by Stephen Norrington was released on July 7 2003 in the United States. It adds the additional characters, Tom Sawyer (from the novel by Mark Twain) and Dorian Gray (from the novel by Oscar Wilde), as well as a new villain. Characters from the comic are also changed: Quatermain is the leader of the team; Mina Murray is still Mina Harker, and a vampire; and the Invisible Man is a new character who has gained the invisibility formula (because the film-makers were unable to obtain the rights to Wells's character).

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