The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"The World of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a fictional universe created by Alan Moore in the comic book series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, where all of the characters and events from literature (and possibly the entirety of fiction) coexist. The world the characters inhabit is one more technologically advanced than our own, but also home to the strange and supernatural. Beyond the comic itself, the world of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is expanded upon by supplemental prose material, including The New Traveller's Almanac, Allan and the Sundered Veil, and the documents from the Black Dossier."--Sholem Stein |
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The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a comic book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill. The series was launched in 1999 and spans two six-issue limited series and a hardcover graphic novel, with a third miniseries. According to Moore, the initial concept behind the series was initially a "Justice League of Victorian England" but quickly grew into an opportunity to merge all works of fiction into one world. Says Moore: "The planet of the imagination is as old as we are. It has been humanity's constant companion with all of its fictional locations, like Mount Olympus and the gods, and since we first came down from the trees, basically. It seems very important, otherwise, we wouldn't have it." Moore and O'Neill have revealed that they plan to map out many different eras in the League series with Allan Quatermain and Mina Murray (of Bram Stoker's Dracula) being the two constants.
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Appendices
Source works
Principal characters
- Dracula by Bram Stoker
- King Solomon's Mines and sequels, by H. Rider Haggard
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
- The Insidious Dr Fu Manchu and sequels, by Sax Rohmer
- Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
- The Invisible Man and The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
- The Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle
- Moonchild by Aleister Crowley
Secondary characters
- The First Men in the Moon, The Time Machine, and The Island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells
- A Princess of Mars and its sequels in the Martian novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs
- Lieutenant Gullivar Jones: His Vacation by Edwin Lester Linden Arnold
- The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H. P. Lovecraft
- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
- Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
- "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe
- The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
- Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Tertiary characters
Girls in Ms. Coote's school:
- Olive Chancellor, The Bostonians
- Becky Randall, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin
- Polly Whittier, Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter
- Katy Carr, What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge
Similar pastiches
- One of the first modern works to combine characters from earlier fictions is the 1949 novel Silverlock, written by John Myers Myers; every character in this novel is lifted from the pages of works dating back to Beowulf and other ancient tales. It is unclear whether Moore drew any inspiration from Myers' book.
- Tarzan Alive, Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, The Other Log of Phileas Fogg, and the rest of the Wold Newton family stories by Philip José Farmer present various heroes and villains of adventure fiction as being part of the same family tree.
- Anno Dracula and sequels, by Kim Newman; the original book is set in London at about the same time as The League of Extraordinary Gentleman and features several characters in common.
- The League of Heroes and sequels, by Xavier Mauméjean ISBN 1-932983-44-9
- Tales of the Shadowmen and sequels, edited by Jean-Marc Lofficier ISBN 1-932983-36-8
- A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny depicts several iconic characters coming together in a battle between good and evil. Zelazny's Roadmarks includes guest appearances, although unnamed, of both Doc Savage and his foe John Sunlight.
- The comic novels of Jasper Fforde concern a world inside fiction; and feature fictional characters, e.g Miss Havisham and Humpty Dumpty as some of the key protagonists.
- Warren Ellis's comic Planetary offers a "secret history" of the 20th century which integrates well known characters from pulp fiction and comics into a cohesive world. Characters in the public domain, such as Sherlock Holmes are present as themselves, while characters still under copyright are represented by close analogues.
- Pulp Heroes is a popular trilogy of fiction books set in the pulp era of the 1930’s and 1940’s. The titles of the three novels are More Than Mortal, Khan Dynasty and Sanctuary Falls. The story features famous characters from Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Around the World in 80 Days, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly's Frankenstein, Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Professor Challenger series, Chester Hawks' Captain Hazzard, Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde, J.H. Rosny’s Ironcastle, John W. Campbell’s Who Goes There?/Thing from Another World, H. Rider Haggard's Allan Quatermain, Philip Wylie's Savage Gentleman and Gladiator, and many more.
Film
A film adaptation was released in 2003, also by the name The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The film stars Sean Connery and features the characters but an original story, which is common for comic book adaptations which seldom feature direct translations. The film was intended to begin a franchise but because of its poor reception (a 16% at Rotten Tomatoes) it is unlikely.
The film was disowned by Moore and O'Neill. Alan Moore has since openly refused to acknowledge any adaptation of his work including From Hell, V for Vendetta and Watchmen.
See also
- History of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
- List of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen characters
- World of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
