Product Description

England in the mid 1950s is not the same as it was. The powers that be have instituted...some changes. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen have been disbanded and disavowed, and the country is under the control of an iron-fisted regime. Now, after many years, the still youthful Mina Murray and a rejuvenated Allan Quatermain return and are in search of some answers. Answers that can only be found in a book buried deep in the vaults of their old headquarters, a book that holds the key to the hidden history of the League throughout the ages: The Black Dossier. As Allan and Mina delve into the details of their precursors, some dating back centuries, they must elude their dangerous pursuers who are Hell-bent on retrieving the lost manuscript... and ending the League once and for all.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26959 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-16
• Released on: 2007-11-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 208 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. After several delays, the latest installment of Moore's pastiche of public domain literary figures is finally here and it's worth the wait. In 1958, two mysterious figures steal the Black Dossier, a compendium of information and articles relating to the league's most renowned incarnation, the group headed by the intrepid Mina Murray. The theft launches a tense chase as the thieves fight to stay one step ahead of thuggish government agents while reading the contents of the dossier, pieces that shed light on centuries-worth of secret and bizarre intrigues. Moore and O'Neill are in top form, crafting a virtually flawless fusion of prose and visuals that's an overwhelmingly dense and exhaustive nod to pre-existing works in media ranging from literature, legends, television and film, teasing the reader in the know with appearances by Orwellian totalitarianism, Lovecraftian abominations, Jeeves and Wooster, Bulldog Drummond, Ian Fleming's famed double-o operative, lusty Fanny Hill and a host of others, capped with a section requiring 3-D glasses (included). Too loaded with content to be fully absorbed in one reading, this is a challenging, adult volume that's a delight for fans of pop culture and lovers of heroic adventure. (Nov.)
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Customer Reviews

Yawn!
Compared to the first two installments of this series, Black Dossier is an extrodinary letdown to fans everywhere. The "tell rather than show" review is absolutely accurate. This book is dense and sometimes very boring. Dispite all the layers and layers of information and background, Black Dossier manages to accomplish nothing. Alan Moore is a rare genius, but unfortunately, his intellect and imagination prevent him from focusing on one specific direction/storyline in this installment. This may very well be required reading for League fans when the Century Series hits stores; however, until then, I'd suggest you get your action-pulp-fix by reading some Verne, Burrows, or Lovecraft.

Excellent follow-up.
Not just a comic book, this is, for the most part, the titular Black Dossier. Not a place for anyone who hasn't read a League book before to start with the series, but a truly exciting follow-up for fans. Alan Moore mimics everything from Shakespeare to Kerouac in a book that changes styles every few pages and keeps the reader on their toes, to say the least. Definitely my favourite of the three so far, and am looking forward to "Century" next year.
If you didn't like the back-ups in the last two volumes (Allan and the Sundered Veil & the New Traveller's Almanac) then this may not be your cup of tea.

Where's the Beef? (Story?)
Several years ago I came across Alan Moore's THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMAN and was blown away. I was an English major in college and I honestly learned more about books and some of their key plot points from reading LoEG than I did from many of my literature classes. I loved the concept of bringing together figures from different pieces of fiction and uniting them into a covert team secretly working for the benefit of the human race. I was even more impressed a few years later after reading Vol. II in the series and was quite excited by the news that a third volume was in the works. But, that was before I actually got my hands on the third volume, THE BLACK DOSSIER and had a chance to read it.

THE BLACK DOSSIER takes place over fifty years when Vol. II ended. England is just coming out of the days of living under Big Brother and the government is interested in retrieving a book that contains a record about the famous extraordinary leagues from generations past. Exactly what the government wants with the book, the black dossier, isn't exactly clear. However, it's suspected that they want it for ill purposes. Two of the people featured prominently in the black dossier, Allan Quatermain and Mina Murray, know that they and others aren't safe as long as the book is around and break in and steal it and attempt to an unchartered part of the world known as "the blazing world." They are chased by several MIA agents, including a handsome brat who introduces himself as, "Bond, James Bond." Unfortunately, neither Bond or any of the other people chasing the duo are much of a match and Allan and Mina seem to take the entire "adventure" as a holiday escapade.

The literary and pop cultural references in THE BLACK DOSSIER are more numerous than in any of the other two volumes. That's kind of a plus. However, none of the references really matter much because they are just tossed about like candy in a parade without any real connection to the few events that take place in the story. Kevin O'Neill once again provides for some amazing illustrations as he did in the previous volumes of the series; his artistic talent is just as strong as Moore's literary storytelling prowess. However, for whatever reason, Moore doesn't really tell much of a story. Instead readers are provided with another side note in the continuing adventures of Allan and Mina (from which we learn from THE BLACK DOSSIER that there were many) and that's about it.

THE BLACK DOSSIER does feature some interesting inserts that are in many instances more entertaining than the major story of THE BLACK DOSSIER itself, e.g. postcards from around the world, a Tijuana Bible, and a pair of 3-D glasses needed to understand the bizarre ending of the novel. These "extras" really aren't extras and are actually parts of a puzzle and are needed to be read and viewed to understand what THE BLACK DOSSIER is all about. I like that idea, but when the idea supplements the story that it is supposed to be supplementing, it doesn't make for a very entertaining read. Hard core fans of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen will be interested in THE BLACK DOSSIER, but that's about it.