Once again, the Roman snake god Glycon graces us with its presence! Top Shelf released a PR Friday stating that the fourth installment to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, following The Black Dossier, would be released tentatively in April.

courtesy Top Shelf

“At last! The League returns, better than ever! It’s a new age,
a new publisher, and an all-new adventure, packed with even
more metafictional fisticuffs and diachronic derring-do!

Top Shelf is proud to announce the all-new chapter in the
breathtaking series by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill.
In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Vol III):
Century #1 (”1910″), our familiar cast of Victorian literary
characters (or what’s left of them) enters the brave new world
of the 20th century!

The present installment is set against a backdrop of London,
1910, twelve years after the failed Martian invasion and nine
years since England put a man upon the moon. In the bowels of
the British Museum, Carnacki the ghost-finder is plagued by
visions of a shadowy occult order who are attempting to create
something called a Moonchild, while on London’s dockside the
most notorious serial murderer of the previous century has
returned to carry on his grisly trade. Working for Mycroft
Holmes’ British Intelligence alongside a rejuvenated Allan
Quatermain, the reformed thief Anthony Raffles and the eternal
warrior Orlando, Miss Murray is drawn into a vile opera acted
out upon the waterfront by players that include the furiously
angry Pirate Jenny and the charismatic butcher known as Mac the
Knife. Sounds like a ripping good tale, eh?

This book will be the first of three deluxe, 80-page,
full-color, perfect-bound graphic novellas, by the original
League of Extraordinary Creators: Alan Moore, Kevin O’Neill,
Ben Dimagmaliw (colors), and Todd Klein (lettering). Each
self-contained narrative takes place in three distinct eras,
building to an apocalyptic conclusion occurring in our own
twenty-first century!”

Start catching up on your early 20th century occult fiction! I know I am.

courtesy DC

While many of you know about Alan Moore’s V For Vendetta and Watchmen, no one outside of comics will have heard of Moore’s sub-imprint of DC’s Wildstorm imprint, America’s Best Comics.

These stories are the best comics have to offer. What Moore did was instead of write a single title, he wrote a dozen series all part of the same universe. With each title, he could use different artists to tell different stores. Tom Strong was a campy Superman/Doc Savage pulp hero, while Promethea was a dark fantasy exploration of Moore’s religious philosophy. Each title had a different theme, but the characters shared a central universe.

America Best Comics’ was Moore’s attempt at saving comics. He gave different writers and artists the chance to play in a unique toy box of characters that homaged the wonderfully stupid legacy of comics. But, all of the series were eventually canceled, and ABC was left on hiatus.

Hopefully, with this trade paperback that reprints all the title’s first issues and the announcement of a Top Ten (the super hero police title) sequel, ABC may be back on the rise. If sales and interest justify it, these brilliant series may soon return.

Plus, this book is only $5.

courtesy Warner Bros.

Those of you who went to see The Dark Knight this weekend saw the trailer for the highly-anticipated movie adaptation to Alan Moore’s Watchmen, the first comic book ever collected in trade paperback.

The trailer looks awesome, and I’m looking forward to this movie, even though Alan Moore doesn’t approve. The comic is about an allegorical set of super heroes now in retirement. It’s the 1980s and the height of the Cold War. The comic is a tome, 12 issues, but well worth the read. The storyline is brilliant, but filled with all sorts of homage and allusions to comics. In fact, the world of Watchmen is a reflection of DC’s history, and acts as a massive love letter to comics fans. The movie will most likely remove a lot of these nuances to make the film more appealing to a wider audience.

All in all, this will most likely be a box office hit. Comic fans have known about Watchmen for years, and hopefully hype up to the film’s release will send people to bookstores to see what it’s about.

L For Lloyd

Many of us have seen the film V For Vendetta. Some don’t realize that it was a comic book before that. Written by Alan Moore, this dystopian/super hero book was illustrated by David Lloyd. I was able to speak to Mr. Lloyd about that comic, as well as his newer series, Kickback, published by Dark Horse.

Matt Knicl: What was your general reaction to the movie? Did you feel, like Alan Moore, that it was a “Bush-era fable” or did you think it stood on its own?

David Lloyd: I thought the movie was great, though not as good as the book. But it was a creditable effort, which I was happy to support to the best of my abilities in any way I could. I’ve nothing but praise for everyone involved in bringing the story to the screen and spreading it’s message.
The Wachowski’s definitely had their own agenda in writing the movie and it was evident in the movie itself - but I don’t think that was undermining to the universality of the central themes of the story. Way back in ‘ 88, Alan’s introduction to the DC Vendettas indicated that V was created in reaction to the fascistic tendencies of the Thatcher government, so a lot of people still think the original was a Thatcher-era fable. But this misconception hasn’t damaged the main message of the story, which has always - and will always - rise above the predominant political landscape in any period in which the story is told.

Read the rest of this entry »

According to Hollywood Reporter:

“20th Century Fox has initiated a legal battle against Warner Bros. over the rights to develop, produce and distribute a film based on the graphic novel Watchmen.

On Friday, the studio sued Warners, claiming it holds the exclusive copyrights and contract rights to Watchmen. Read the rest of this entry »

The comic publishers send their product descriptions to Diamond Comic Distributors, the comic book supplier to most comic book stores for North America three months in advance.

This March there are dozens of great titles to preorder. Read the rest of this entry »

Spidey Swings Into Broadway… And Into Our Hearts

Credit: Marvel

According to Playbill, Bono of U2 will be contributing music to an upcoming Spider-man musical. What story from Spidey’s life - origin, death of Gwen Stacy, etc - will be the focus of the musical is not yet known. Oddly, the Spider-man musical is not the only super hero musical in production.

David Bowie is also rumored to be developing a rock opera based on Alan Moore’s classic Watchmen series.

With musicals reemerging in the collective consciousness, on film and on stage, it makes sense that this corner of popular culture would be ransacked. Hopefully the musicals will strike a chord with new and old fans alike.

A League of Their Own

Media Credit:
Photo Courtesy of
www.dccomics.com

Thank God! Thank the Academy! Thank the Roman snake god Glycon! The third installment of LoEG has arrived!

Originally scheduled for release May 2006, this graphic novel (as it was published straight to hardback) was constantly delayed. Writer Alan Moore’s withdrawal from mainstream comic books (again) due to the butchering of his comic V For Vendetta and the League movie as well. Also, the use of several copyrighted characters, though in passing or with modified names, has led to DC deciding not to publish the work outside of America so as not to violate international copyright law. Read the rest of this entry »