Nemo: The Roses of Berlin

[superboyprime]

"I remember a review of the Black Dossier which was saying ‘oh, this is all so – there’s all this writing in it, and what’s worse is they’ve even written about the French and German groups as a text story, the foreign counterparts of the League, when Alan Moore must have known that all of his fans, they’d much rather see that as a comic strip than read about it in a text piece,’ which is rather missing the point. We included – there’s no point in doing – we’ve done Les Hommes Mystérieux, we know the details of the story as a text piece. Yes, you could have the League against their evil counterparts, which has been done in every superhero team book since Sgt Fury, included. The thing is the League actually isn’t a superhero team book. I know that for some people, old conventions die hard, and it’s difficult for them to see anything beyond that, but that’s not what we’re doing. It’s a much more literary thing than that, a much more cultural thing, and we’ll continue to tell it in the way that we feel that it should be told." - Alan Moore

Comments

[thezmage]

Yes, Alan, it’s not that they have a different opinion, it’s that they’re weong

[alicemacher]

I don't see anything in the above Moore quote to indicate he thinks they are wrong to have an opinion that differs from his. It's more, "Some readers had this reaction to the way we proceeded; here is my explanation as to why we did it this way and not another."

[angry_marmot]

I share the dislike for Black Dossier and Century, but I enjoyed the three adventures of Janni Nemo.

[alschroeder3]

Wait, what?

You can't behead Ayesha. Rezu (see Haggard's SHE AND ALLAN) who also bathed in the Fire of Life, was invulnerable against bullets, Umslopogaas' battleaxe, etc. which means Ayesha was the same. (Save for one small part of Rezu's back that the fire did not reach,which is how the great Zulu hero Umslopogaas, bastard child of Tchaka,the Zulu Napoleon, killed him.)

That's a curious misstep for Moore, who obviously knows and respects Haggard.

[vagabondprince]

My only exposure to Haggard's works is from the League, which I'm currently rectifying by reading King Solomon's Mines and Allan Quatermain, so I'd assumed that the fire of life and its effects were accurately depicted here. So in the original books if you bathed in the fire of life would there be any way for you to die? (Cases like Rezu not withstanding)

[alschroeder3]

bathe in it a second time; you become mortal again and all your years catch up with you in a minute. Even so, Ayesha did return, int he RETURN OF SHE, more or less reincarnated, so that didn't stop her forever.

[vagabondprince]

Well then that's another thing Moore changed as characters are shown bathing in it multiple times with no ill effects. It's strange what details he is so meticulous about getting right and what one's he's willing to do away with completely.

[laughing_tree]

What about Quatermain's cowardly tendencies? Any basis for that? I recall Moore saying here and there that he extrapolated that personality trait from the stories.

[alschroeder3]

I don't really see that; he was a humble man, and he always said he was a businessman, a hunter for pay, and not one for "making trouble". Yet he always ironically got into dangerous situation after dangerous situation, and although he several times said he FELT like running, he would always end it with, "But there---I did not." He was afraid of SOME people---with justification---like Ayesha herself, or Zikali, the "Thing-that-should-never-have-been-born", the wizard/witch doctor who --in Haggard's works--brought about the end of the Zulu royal family, for slaughtering his tribe. Zikali had mystical powers, although Quatermain would always try to explain them away. Anyway, though he said he wasn't a brave man, his actions show the exact opposite. He was truly humble.

[laughing_tree]

Well, to be fair, Moore's version likewise tends to -- eventually -- overcome his fear to take action.