The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Project - Prologue

Let's read 19th century books together!

Introduction

As a comic book lover, I started reading comics when I was 5 or 6 and super heroes comics use to be the ones that catched my attention the most. That was a fact till I turned 18 and found out there were much more than that. Of course, as any other Brazilian child, I growed up reading Monica and Friends, but when I figured out about the astonishing and mind-blowing adult universe of Vertigo comics my world turned upside down with the river of possibilities.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen's Art

My Brazilian Issues from Monica and Friends

That was the context that I was in when I heard about The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and how many references Alan Moore used to build his version of classic book characters and put them together in a sort of Victorian Justice League. And the plot from first issue was simple: In 1898, Captain Nemo, Allan Quatermain, Dr. Jekyll, and Hawley Gryphon, the Invisible Man are among the exceptional people that Mina Murray is ordered to gather to defend the Empire's interests. Mina is hired by Campion Bond on behalf of British Intelligence to fight against the terrible Professor Moriarty.

My The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Omnibus

The Project

I, as confident nerd, decided that I did not want to start reading it knowing that I would miss some references. So I have decided to read "every single" respective book where the main characters appear. Well, I didn't include all the prequels that H. Rider Haggard wrote about Allan Quatermain, but I found a good idea to have at least a good reading base and basic knowledge of who those characteres were based on. 

Unnecessary? Maybe, but come on, I have nothing to lose. Once I have never read those classic books, that was just a great excuse to at least get to know them and, in addition, write reviews and impressions about it. I could also have picked up some extra books related to some minor characters from The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but I still have control over my sanity.

So join me in this project that will include the readings of: King Solomon's Mines (Sir H. Rider Haggard, 1885), Dracula (Bram Stoker, 1897), The Invisible Man (H. G. Wells, 1897), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (Jules Verne, 1870), Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson, 1886) and Sherlock Holmes - The Final Problem (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1893).

Where we will get to know, respectively, the characters:

• Allan Quatermain - King Solomon's Mines
• Mina Harker - from Dracula
• Hawley Griffin - from The Invisible Man
• Captain Nemo - from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas
• Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde - from Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
• and the villain Professor Moriarty - from Sherlock Holmes.

Left to right: Captain Nemo, Hawley Griffin, Mina Harker, Mr. Hyde and Allan Quatermain 

Excited? Me too! The first review will come soon, so follow up The Dust Blower for more updates and upcoming reviews!