  | Book Details Title: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Vol IV): The Tempest |
Book DescriptionAbout the Author Alan Moore is widely regarded as the best and most influential writer in the history of comics. His seminal works include From Hell and Watchmen, for which he won the coveted Hugo Award. Never one to limit himself in form or content, Moore has also published two novels, Voice of the Fire and Jerusalem; an epic poem, The Mirror of Love; and four of his ground-breaking graphic novels, From Hell, Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, have been adapted to the silver screen. Moore currently resides in Northampton, England.Born in London in 1953, Kevin O’Neill is the British comics illustrator best known as the co-creator of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (with Alan Moore), Marshal Law (with writer Pat Mills), and Nemesis the Warlock for 2000AD (also with Pat Mills). With one of the most unique and detailed styles in comics, he has deservedly earned an enormous worldwide fanbase. Read more Customers Review: Tempest is not only the final chapter in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series but, according to Alan Moore, is the last comic he will ever work on. In my opinion, Moore is EASILY the greatest comic writer in history which makes this a huge event. Sadly, Alan Moore is going out with a whimper rather than a bang. The first issue got an aggregate score of 9.0 on just 4 professional reviews and the second issue averaged 6.0 on 2 reviews. The only other reviewed issue was the sixth issue which received a 9.6 on one review. No issue got more than 2 user reviews which means the scores were essentially worthless. Issue one shipped 16,970 copies but that number dropped every month down to a miserable 8760 copies for issue 6.I suspect the lack of interest in Tempest was thanks to League fatigue. The series started off like gangbusters, but none of the subsequent chapters lived up to the first two and Alan Moore was doing a lot of unappreciated experimentation. Moore also seemed to be writing for himself rather than for commercial purposes and this turned a lot of people off. It’s as if Moore took all the complaints about previous League chapters and just cranked up what people didn’t like because Tempest is easily the most experimental yet. There is only the slenderest wisp of a plot and much of what Moore is trying to do is emulate or pay homage to classic British comics which really wont mean much to American readers. The comic moves back and forth between black and white and color and is sometimes drawn to resemble newspaper strips.I’ve probably read through Tempest at least four times and honestly love it, but it helps to have read literally everything League related and that includes all the extras. Tempest follows directly after Century and I actually read the entire book cover to cover to prepare. In case some people think I’m just a fan boy and you can’t take my opinion seriously let me say that this may be the first League chapter I’ve given 5 stars to since chapter 2 and I actively disliked The Black Dossier. I simply found this final chapter fascinating in the way it brought together ideas from all the previous chapters, but I can absolutely see how someone less versed in everything League written by Moore might become completely confused and disinterested.I enjoyed but I did not love Century and The Nemo Trilogy, but this time around I really had a blast despite Moore doing more of the same things I didn’t appreciate with the other chapters. Part of it may have been my change in expectations and part of it may be that this one was presented as a semi-monthly comic rather than three books. Whatever the reason, I am going to sorely miss Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill. I read through this entire series for a fourth time to write this review and every time I discover some new treasure. I didn’t notice the swipe at Donald Trump in the mention of fictional U.S. president Johnny Gentle or the dig at Atlas Shrugged in the book Atlanta Hope which is described as ‘borderline fascist’. There is so much stuff buried in these stories to be discovered.The biggest surprise is the Seven Stars backup story. This story is separate from the main narrative but does bump up against it on occasion. In particular, one of the members is Mina as Vull the Invisible. Because his most famous works are all non-comedies, most people don’t realize that Alan Moore is one of the funniest comic book writers ever, but he absolutely shines with the Seven Stars. This is like the best of EC Comics early Mad Magazine. If Moore were to produce a Seven Stars series I would be buying every single issue, without fail.This is yet another League book with slightly problematic binding. Because the book block is glued to the spine there is some gutter loss. The image sizes are exactly the same as the comics, but I’d say that the image quality is slightly improved. The inking looks a bit more subtle and I prefer the book version. There is a little bit of extra material at the beginning of the book but much more importantly there are five additional pages of story at the end. That’s a pretty big deal for me and it’s a very nice farewell and thank you from Al and Kev. Not only do we get all the comic covers but we also get the inside front and inside back covers as well as the back covers themselves because every single page from front to back had awesome stuff. Besides the unfortunate gutter loss this is a great presentation and I highly recommend it.
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