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Nemo Trilogy #1
Nemo: Heart of Ice
AN ALL-NEW LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN ADVENTURE!
In the grim cold of February surfaces a thrilling new League of Extraordinary Gentlemen book: NEMO: HEART OF ICE, a full-color 56-page adventure in the classic pulp tradition by the inestimable Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill.
It's 1925, fifteen long years since Janni Dakkar first tried to escape the legacy of her dying science-pirate father, only to accept her destiny as the new Nemo, captain of the legendary Nautilus. Now, tired of her unending spree of plunder and destruction, Janni launches a grand expedition to surpass her father's greatest failure: the exploration of Antarctica. Hot on her frozen trail are a trio of genius inventors, hired by an influential publishing tycoon to retrieve the plundered valuables of an African queen. It's a deadly race to the bottom of the world -- an uncharted land of wonder and horror where time is broken and the mountains bring madness. Jules Verne meets H.P. Lovecraft in the unforgettable final showdown, lost in the living, beating and appallingly inhuman HEART OF ICE.
In the grim cold of February surfaces a thrilling new League of Extraordinary Gentlemen book: NEMO: HEART OF ICE, a full-color 56-page adventure in the classic pulp tradition by the inestimable Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill.
It's 1925, fifteen long years since Janni Dakkar first tried to escape the legacy of her dying science-pirate father, only to accept her destiny as the new Nemo, captain of the legendary Nautilus. Now, tired of her unending spree of plunder and destruction, Janni launches a grand expedition to surpass her father's greatest failure: the exploration of Antarctica. Hot on her frozen trail are a trio of genius inventors, hired by an influential publishing tycoon to retrieve the plundered valuables of an African queen. It's a deadly race to the bottom of the world -- an uncharted land of wonder and horror where time is broken and the mountains bring madness. Jules Verne meets H.P. Lovecraft in the unforgettable final showdown, lost in the living, beating and appallingly inhuman HEART OF ICE.
56 pages, Hardcover
First published February 27, 2013
40 people are currently reading
1,250 people want to read
About the author
Alan Moore
1,582Ìýbooks21kÌýfollowersAlan Moore is an English writer most famous for his influential work in comics, including the acclaimed graphic novels Watchmen, V for Vendetta and From Hell. He has also written a novel, Voice of the Fire, and performs "workings" (one-off performance art/spoken word pieces) with The Moon and Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels, some of which have been released on CD.
As a comics writer, Moore is notable for being one of the first writers to apply literary and formalist sensibilities to the mainstream of the medium. As well as including challenging subject matter and adult themes, he brings a wide range of influences to his work, from the literary–authors such as William S. Burroughs, Thomas Pynchon, Robert Anton Wilson and Iain Sinclair; New Wave science fiction writers such as Michael Moorcock; horror writers such as Clive Barker; to the cinematic–filmmakers such as Nicolas Roeg. Influences within comics include Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Kirby and Bryan Talbot.
As a comics writer, Moore is notable for being one of the first writers to apply literary and formalist sensibilities to the mainstream of the medium. As well as including challenging subject matter and adult themes, he brings a wide range of influences to his work, from the literary–authors such as William S. Burroughs, Thomas Pynchon, Robert Anton Wilson and Iain Sinclair; New Wave science fiction writers such as Michael Moorcock; horror writers such as Clive Barker; to the cinematic–filmmakers such as Nicolas Roeg. Influences within comics include Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Kirby and Bryan Talbot.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 286 reviews
July 7, 2016
Cool adventure!
This is the first book in the “Nemo Trilogy�
Creative Team:
Writer: Alan Moore
Illustrator: Kevin O’Neill
Letterer: Todd Klein
BOLD WORLD EXPANDING
The same creative team responsible for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series, is reunited once again, now to tell the trilogy of Nemo�
…the Daughter of Nemo to be precise!
It's 1925...
Princess Janni Dakkar, daughter of the original Captain Nemo (aka Prince Dakkar), now in command of the marvelous Nautilus submarine and its crew.
Janni is eager to prove to his crew (and specially to herself) that she’s up to the challenge of being the new captain of the Nautilus. So, checking his dad’s logs, she found out about an Antartica expedition that it did go wrong when original Captain Nemo conducted. Janni thinks that she’s her chance to make right a mission that his dad wasn’t able to pull out.
Of course, an easy robbery (remember that they’re pirates!) is useful to fund the expenses of the expedition�
…too bad that while was easy the theft, Janni isn’t aware of WHO she robbed�
…nothing less than Ayesha (the lead character of H. Rider Haggard’s She)!
So, Charles Foster Kane (from the film Citizen Kane!) hires an ingenious trio (from popular dime novels) to produce a counter-offensive against the Nautilus crew!
However, not Janni’s crew or Kane’s people are prepared for what they will find in Antartica�
…nightmares from H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos!!!
Along with meeting secret cities from the works of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells.
Let’s sail away aboard the Nautilus once again to the wonderful world of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen where literature & film characters mix with historic people!!!
This is the first book in the “Nemo Trilogy�
Creative Team:
Writer: Alan Moore
Illustrator: Kevin O’Neill
Letterer: Todd Klein
BOLD WORLD EXPANDING
The same creative team responsible for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series, is reunited once again, now to tell the trilogy of Nemo�
…the Daughter of Nemo to be precise!
It's 1925...
Princess Janni Dakkar, daughter of the original Captain Nemo (aka Prince Dakkar), now in command of the marvelous Nautilus submarine and its crew.
Janni is eager to prove to his crew (and specially to herself) that she’s up to the challenge of being the new captain of the Nautilus. So, checking his dad’s logs, she found out about an Antartica expedition that it did go wrong when original Captain Nemo conducted. Janni thinks that she’s her chance to make right a mission that his dad wasn’t able to pull out.
Of course, an easy robbery (remember that they’re pirates!) is useful to fund the expenses of the expedition�
…too bad that while was easy the theft, Janni isn’t aware of WHO she robbed�
…nothing less than Ayesha (the lead character of H. Rider Haggard’s She)!
So, Charles Foster Kane (from the film Citizen Kane!) hires an ingenious trio (from popular dime novels) to produce a counter-offensive against the Nautilus crew!
However, not Janni’s crew or Kane’s people are prepared for what they will find in Antartica�
…nightmares from H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos!!!
Along with meeting secret cities from the works of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells.
Let’s sail away aboard the Nautilus once again to the wonderful world of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen where literature & film characters mix with historic people!!!
March 9, 2018
If this were whiskey, it would be a very good scotch.
Set amidst Alan Moore’s graphic novel series is this tasty jaunt into the world of Captain Nemo’s daughter, Janni, the new Captain Nemo, master of the fabled Nautilus.
And it’s a none too subtle tribute to HP Lovecraft.
Set in Antarctica around 1925, near the Mountains of Madness (of course) Janni and her team of submariners follow the trail blazed by her famous father decades before and pursued by a group of mercenary Americans.
The artwork, provided by the very talented Mr. O’Neill, is reminiscent of 20s and 30s pulp fiction and revels in retro cool.
The graphic novel ends with a journalistic visit with the Captain and her retinue on their pirate island, providing some backstory to this already rich experience.
Yummy.
Set amidst Alan Moore’s graphic novel series is this tasty jaunt into the world of Captain Nemo’s daughter, Janni, the new Captain Nemo, master of the fabled Nautilus.
And it’s a none too subtle tribute to HP Lovecraft.
Set in Antarctica around 1925, near the Mountains of Madness (of course) Janni and her team of submariners follow the trail blazed by her famous father decades before and pursued by a group of mercenary Americans.
The artwork, provided by the very talented Mr. O’Neill, is reminiscent of 20s and 30s pulp fiction and revels in retro cool.
The graphic novel ends with a journalistic visit with the Captain and her retinue on their pirate island, providing some backstory to this already rich experience.
Yummy.
May 6, 2016
[5/10]
After "Watchmen" and "V for Vendetta" I told myself I would read everything that Alan Moore might publish. The cover of this one-shot with its reference to my childhood hero from the pen of Jules Verne and with its art-deco inspired graphics were a clincher for pushing the story to the top of my comic stack.
Some of my expectations were fulfilled, some not, so a halfway rating seems appropriate.
- Moore has some brilliant ideas, tapping into the nineteen century science-fiction treasure chest that helped him create "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen". But in this particular case, the story feels rushed, with not enough character development (I should say character itroduction, since we are thrown in the middle of the action with zero background info) to make the reader care about any of the crew of the Nautilus. Highlights of the story are the piracy business set in the aftermath of WW I with appropriate technological weaponry and a bloody quest for a hidden city in the middle of the Antarctic, with a mix of horror, Atlantean legend and science-fiction
- Artwork has some impressively detailed panels and some of the promised art-deco style, but in the end the quality of the penwork left much to be desired. People's faces and anatomy are rudimentary and sloppy, the way a ten year old might draw them as a fan-art after reading the original Captain Nemo. Favorite parts are the double page panels of the huge underground rooms of the lost city. There's also a tycoon character that references Citizen Kane.
Funniest part of the album comes at the end, in the form of a text intensive epilogue that gives the background information I was looking for in the beginning of the story, in an amusing account of a visit to the secret island of Captain Nemo's heirs, with added eater eggs from Jules Verne (Robur the Conqueror) and King Kong.
Conclusion : the story needed a longer page count to get properly launched and a better graphic artist.
September 23, 2017
Nemo: Heart of Ice is about Captain Nemo's (from the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen universe) daughter. It is her story to finish a quest begun by her father.
The story begins with the Nautilus (the submarine) staging a pirate raid on a inhuman African Queen and stealing her treasures. The Queen uses her connections and the Americans form a team of adventurer's to interdict Capt. Nemo.
The rest is a grand adventure through strange lands filled with odd characters. I am not that familiar with this whole story universe but I did like what I read. It was not only an adventure story, but a story about self-redemption. The character of Capt. Nemo (the daughter) was very well done as she tries to figure out her father and establish herself. The crew of the Nautilus was very cool-their loyalty was impressive.
The artwork, at first, didn't appeal to me. But I grew to like it and on a second flip through (merely looking at the art) I thought it worked quite well and fit the nature of the tale. All in all-a good read. I shall look into more of these stories. Of course, it IS an Alan Moore story, so overall quality is not an issue. Only a lack of knowledge about the universe may turn someone off. My advice? Don't be-check it out. It's a good tale and the world they create is rather interesting.
A good adventure/morality tale. I enjoyed it.
The story begins with the Nautilus (the submarine) staging a pirate raid on a inhuman African Queen and stealing her treasures. The Queen uses her connections and the Americans form a team of adventurer's to interdict Capt. Nemo.
The rest is a grand adventure through strange lands filled with odd characters. I am not that familiar with this whole story universe but I did like what I read. It was not only an adventure story, but a story about self-redemption. The character of Capt. Nemo (the daughter) was very well done as she tries to figure out her father and establish herself. The crew of the Nautilus was very cool-their loyalty was impressive.
The artwork, at first, didn't appeal to me. But I grew to like it and on a second flip through (merely looking at the art) I thought it worked quite well and fit the nature of the tale. All in all-a good read. I shall look into more of these stories. Of course, it IS an Alan Moore story, so overall quality is not an issue. Only a lack of knowledge about the universe may turn someone off. My advice? Don't be-check it out. It's a good tale and the world they create is rather interesting.
A good adventure/morality tale. I enjoyed it.
December 6, 2013
It’s 1925 and Janni, the daughter of Captain Nemo, is now captain of the Nautilus and continuing her father’s pirating ways. She and her crew rob an African Queen of her treasures while visiting New York and, in retaliation, a newspaper magnate called Kane sends some goons after her to reclaim it. Then Janni decides to take a trip to the Antarctic, emulating her father’s journey years earlier and the goons follow. And in the Antarctic, they will see the Mountains of Madness. Gibberish ensues.
Yup, this is Alan Moore regurgitating more HP Lovecraft after his Neonomicon book a few years ago. This time he’s doing the Mountains of Madness (MoM) story, incorporating it into his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (LXG) series, though if you’ve never read any of the other books, Heart of Ice can be read as a standalone book � that’s also why it feels so pointless as it adds nothing to the overall LXG series.
Readers of LXG will remember Janni from Century: 1910 when she ran away from Nemo for a life on land and wound up in a brothel - it was a pretty terrible book, so a follow-up wasn’t really necessary but here we go anyway. In Heart of Ice, Moore wants to show us how Janni became the cold-hearted person she was in later life though really a woman could become quite bitter being used as sex slave for years, so I’m not sure what the point of this book was.
The best parts of Moore’s LXG series is the way he plays with famous characters and stories from culture, reimagining and twisting them in new and exciting ways. In Heart of Ice, he doesn’t do anything new with Lovecraft’s MoM story, he just retells it (how imaginative!), and badly at that too. Besides Janni, all of the characters look exactly the same, partly due to wearing heavy clothing due to the icy weather, and don’t have distinct personalities. In LXG stories, the characters are based on a mix of famous and obscure fictional characters though, while I could recognise a few (Charles Foster Kane, Ishmael, Tom Swift), I didn’t care about finding out more about the others, in contrast to previous LXG books.
MoM isn’t Lovecraft’s best story and in Moore’s hands it manages to become even more tedious � Janni and co. wander about the ice, a big dark hole appears, a bizarre Lovecraftian monster show up, the end. It’s too short and too lacking in any strong narrative to be a decent book. I get that the jumbled up sequence was supposed to illustrate why it’s called the Mountains of Madness but it only further underlined how incoherent the story was up until that point and how little I cared about it or any of the characters.
If you pay attention to any interviews Moore gives nowadays, you’ll know his opinions on modern comics are highly critical across the board, despite not having read any for (allegedly) 25 years! Well, his latest is an absolute bore and totally lacking in any ideas. Maybe he should read some recent comics to see how much better they are compared to the drek he’s churning out these days, and up his game accordingly?
I think he’s trying to write an interesting classic adventure yarn but he’s barely making any sense here, much like his later LXG books. Kevin O’Neill’s artwork is just ok but he’s done much better elsewhere and I found his work here to be particularly uninspired, especially when drawing Lovecraft’s horrors.
Nemo: Heart of Ice is a waste of time on all levels with Moore revealing how tapped out he is at this point in his career. He may have written some classics 30 years ago but his latest stuff is forgettable and trite at best. If you want to read a great comic book adaptation of Lovecraft’s story, check out INJ Culbard’s At the Mountains of Madness.
Yup, this is Alan Moore regurgitating more HP Lovecraft after his Neonomicon book a few years ago. This time he’s doing the Mountains of Madness (MoM) story, incorporating it into his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (LXG) series, though if you’ve never read any of the other books, Heart of Ice can be read as a standalone book � that’s also why it feels so pointless as it adds nothing to the overall LXG series.
Readers of LXG will remember Janni from Century: 1910 when she ran away from Nemo for a life on land and wound up in a brothel - it was a pretty terrible book, so a follow-up wasn’t really necessary but here we go anyway. In Heart of Ice, Moore wants to show us how Janni became the cold-hearted person she was in later life though really a woman could become quite bitter being used as sex slave for years, so I’m not sure what the point of this book was.
The best parts of Moore’s LXG series is the way he plays with famous characters and stories from culture, reimagining and twisting them in new and exciting ways. In Heart of Ice, he doesn’t do anything new with Lovecraft’s MoM story, he just retells it (how imaginative!), and badly at that too. Besides Janni, all of the characters look exactly the same, partly due to wearing heavy clothing due to the icy weather, and don’t have distinct personalities. In LXG stories, the characters are based on a mix of famous and obscure fictional characters though, while I could recognise a few (Charles Foster Kane, Ishmael, Tom Swift), I didn’t care about finding out more about the others, in contrast to previous LXG books.
MoM isn’t Lovecraft’s best story and in Moore’s hands it manages to become even more tedious � Janni and co. wander about the ice, a big dark hole appears, a bizarre Lovecraftian monster show up, the end. It’s too short and too lacking in any strong narrative to be a decent book. I get that the jumbled up sequence was supposed to illustrate why it’s called the Mountains of Madness but it only further underlined how incoherent the story was up until that point and how little I cared about it or any of the characters.
If you pay attention to any interviews Moore gives nowadays, you’ll know his opinions on modern comics are highly critical across the board, despite not having read any for (allegedly) 25 years! Well, his latest is an absolute bore and totally lacking in any ideas. Maybe he should read some recent comics to see how much better they are compared to the drek he’s churning out these days, and up his game accordingly?
I think he’s trying to write an interesting classic adventure yarn but he’s barely making any sense here, much like his later LXG books. Kevin O’Neill’s artwork is just ok but he’s done much better elsewhere and I found his work here to be particularly uninspired, especially when drawing Lovecraft’s horrors.
Nemo: Heart of Ice is a waste of time on all levels with Moore revealing how tapped out he is at this point in his career. He may have written some classics 30 years ago but his latest stuff is forgettable and trite at best. If you want to read a great comic book adaptation of Lovecraft’s story, check out INJ Culbard’s At the Mountains of Madness.
June 7, 2023
In order to prove herself better than her father, Janni Nemo takes the Nautilus to an unknown site in Antarctica, a place that left her father a gibbering wreck...
So yeah. Going to Antarctica in the 1920s is a bad idea, whether you have Tom Swift on your tale courtesy of Charles Foster Kane or not. I'm not going to spoil what Nemo runs into there but pulp readers will already suspect.
This was a fun little morsel. Of all the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen books I've read so far, Kevin O'Neil's art worked best on this one. Alan Moore is Alan Moore, as always.
So yeah. Going to Antarctica in the 1920s is a bad idea, whether you have Tom Swift on your tale courtesy of Charles Foster Kane or not. I'm not going to spoil what Nemo runs into there but pulp readers will already suspect.
This was a fun little morsel. Of all the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen books I've read so far, Kevin O'Neil's art worked best on this one. Alan Moore is Alan Moore, as always.
May 31, 2024
First off - not the first thing you should read if you're reading LOEG. It's a very basic story with a very subtle point and none of the main LOEG characters are involved. Right away, those who haven't liked LOEG since changed the game (on which I will write at some length in a review, someday) will continue to miss the point and see it only as an excuse to have Charles Foster Kane send a trio of Edisonade characters (including 's plucky and annoying Tom Swift) on an expedition to Antarctica after Captain Nemo (Nemo's daughter, Janni - "Pirate Jenny" of Weill fame) and her crew, all with a 1920's backdrop.
The art, as usual, is spectacular, as is the presentation (handsome hardcover with strong binding, beautiful coloring, nice paper). The main references here are mostly obvious - Nemo, Nautilus and crew, Kane commanding "gadget scientists" - with some time for a bunch of obscure and not so obscure ('s , 's , ) Antarctic refs (as always, Jess Nevins leads the way with footnotes to be found ).
I was happy to see here 's Professor Augustus S.F.X. van Dusen, the “Thinking Machine", who is one of the first characters I read as a kid, and can only presume that the Nautilus saved him from the sinking of the Titan, analogous to our world's sinking of the Titanic (which killed Futrelle). Also nice here is the disjointed, abstract, mind-bending journey across "Present Land" (from its geographical placement here, the Mountains *beyond* Lovecraft's city of the Elder Things that even those starfish-headed creatures feared), the glimpses of pirate utopias, and the vast black hole in the Antarctic (which I took as the entrance to the South Pole's equivalent of the North Pole's Blazing World, the place where all the *evil*, highly unreal fictional things dwell, just as the Blazing World holds the good unreal - remember the South Pole ambassador to the Blazing World in the end of BLACK DOSSIER?)
Janni is trying here to exorcise her father's adventurous ghost and look for a life beyond that of mere piracy - so she tries to top his exploring feats. Eventually she realizes that she must not become cold, distant and inhuman (a fate that befalls many larger than life heroic figures), but must instead explore the undiscovered country inside herself, embrace her emotions and personal connections - "science" in the 20th Century (or the collective literary unconscious of the 20th Century) has been taken over by heartless gadget makers and tinkerers, funded by wealthy cretins, and is no longer the pursuit of a hero (this to me seems analogous to the underlying point of BLACK DOSSIER - that in the 20th Century the "Spy" has taken over the role of cultural hero, to the detriment of our imaginative culture, and the point of that the "Great White Hunter" hero figure is no longer part of the 20th Century and needs to be let go of, thus Allan Quatermain must die) and the heroic world of the 20th Century is (or should be) our own internal life and learning to love others (setting the stage for the 60s counter-culture and and also sets up the later Nemo in CENTURY: 2009 and his reduction to mere "science terrorist" - he seems not to have learned from his Grandmother).
I also loved the gossip article (THE FRONT PAGE!) at the back of the book (which pulls off a wildly sexual play on words at one point) about the wedding of Nemo's daughter and Robur, and the idea of grand Pirate Royalty it represents. In all, I found this very satisfying but imagine that those who haven't been tracking the larger symbolic ideas ongoing since BLACK DOSSIER might find it a bit thin. And, much as I enjoyed Mary Poppins putting the smackdown on Harry Potter in CENTURY: 2009, it was kind of nice to see Tom Swift's science debaser go insane after running up against Lovecraft's unknowable horrors!
Can't wait for what happens next!
The art, as usual, is spectacular, as is the presentation (handsome hardcover with strong binding, beautiful coloring, nice paper). The main references here are mostly obvious - Nemo, Nautilus and crew, Kane commanding "gadget scientists" - with some time for a bunch of obscure and not so obscure ('s , 's , ) Antarctic refs (as always, Jess Nevins leads the way with footnotes to be found ).
I was happy to see here 's Professor Augustus S.F.X. van Dusen, the “Thinking Machine", who is one of the first characters I read as a kid, and can only presume that the Nautilus saved him from the sinking of the Titan, analogous to our world's sinking of the Titanic (which killed Futrelle). Also nice here is the disjointed, abstract, mind-bending journey across "Present Land" (from its geographical placement here, the Mountains *beyond* Lovecraft's city of the Elder Things that even those starfish-headed creatures feared), the glimpses of pirate utopias, and the vast black hole in the Antarctic (which I took as the entrance to the South Pole's equivalent of the North Pole's Blazing World, the place where all the *evil*, highly unreal fictional things dwell, just as the Blazing World holds the good unreal - remember the South Pole ambassador to the Blazing World in the end of BLACK DOSSIER?)
Janni is trying here to exorcise her father's adventurous ghost and look for a life beyond that of mere piracy - so she tries to top his exploring feats. Eventually she realizes that she must not become cold, distant and inhuman (a fate that befalls many larger than life heroic figures), but must instead explore the undiscovered country inside herself, embrace her emotions and personal connections - "science" in the 20th Century (or the collective literary unconscious of the 20th Century) has been taken over by heartless gadget makers and tinkerers, funded by wealthy cretins, and is no longer the pursuit of a hero (this to me seems analogous to the underlying point of BLACK DOSSIER - that in the 20th Century the "Spy" has taken over the role of cultural hero, to the detriment of our imaginative culture, and the point of that the "Great White Hunter" hero figure is no longer part of the 20th Century and needs to be let go of, thus Allan Quatermain must die) and the heroic world of the 20th Century is (or should be) our own internal life and learning to love others (setting the stage for the 60s counter-culture and and also sets up the later Nemo in CENTURY: 2009 and his reduction to mere "science terrorist" - he seems not to have learned from his Grandmother).
I also loved the gossip article (THE FRONT PAGE!) at the back of the book (which pulls off a wildly sexual play on words at one point) about the wedding of Nemo's daughter and Robur, and the idea of grand Pirate Royalty it represents. In all, I found this very satisfying but imagine that those who haven't been tracking the larger symbolic ideas ongoing since BLACK DOSSIER might find it a bit thin. And, much as I enjoyed Mary Poppins putting the smackdown on Harry Potter in CENTURY: 2009, it was kind of nice to see Tom Swift's science debaser go insane after running up against Lovecraft's unknowable horrors!
Can't wait for what happens next!
February 24, 2024
With Verne, Poe, and Moore's favourite Lovecraft all visiting the South Pole - it was inevitable that the LXG would eventually head that way. With Nemo's daughter now captain of the Nautilus. It's more Mountains of Madness than anything. I think O'Neill continues to do a bang up job on the art. Moore's script is way more convoluted than it needs to be - he has a lot of interesting ideas but there's not enough pages here to give any breathing room. In the end we get a visual tour of Lovecraft with a bunch of characters shooting and hunting each other for various reasons that I think ends up just dragging down the proceedings.
Shelved as 'completed-series'
February 20, 2017Alan Moore continues the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen genre in a sidebar to the original collections.
Here the storyline follows Captain Nemo's crew under the leadership of his daughter, in an attempt to secure her legacy. Her piracy brings her across the paths of other characters and unscrupulous science-adventurers of the 20's and 30's, particularly Queen Ayesha (She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed of H. Rider Haggard's "She" and "Quatermain" series), Swyfte (likely an adult Tom Swift, Sr. of the 3-generations of Tom Swift characters), Reade and Wright (1890's boy inventors), and mysterious financer Charles Foster Kane.
The adventurers visit several "fictional" (to us) domains in the Antarctic, including Lovecraft's "Mountains of Madness", and all involved spiral downwards in the effects of poor choices.
25 Jan '17 update: Charles Foster Kane is "Citizen Kane". Dang. I was holding out hope that this Kane was father to Kathy Kane, the original Batwoman.
Here the storyline follows Captain Nemo's crew under the leadership of his daughter, in an attempt to secure her legacy. Her piracy brings her across the paths of other characters and unscrupulous science-adventurers of the 20's and 30's, particularly Queen Ayesha (She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed of H. Rider Haggard's "She" and "Quatermain" series), Swyfte (likely an adult Tom Swift, Sr. of the 3-generations of Tom Swift characters), Reade and Wright (1890's boy inventors), and mysterious financer Charles Foster Kane.
The adventurers visit several "fictional" (to us) domains in the Antarctic, including Lovecraft's "Mountains of Madness", and all involved spiral downwards in the effects of poor choices.
25 Jan '17 update: Charles Foster Kane is "Citizen Kane". Dang. I was holding out hope that this Kane was father to Kathy Kane, the original Batwoman.
May 2, 2014
On the plus side: Interesting book. Written by Alan Moore. A feel very similar to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. A dash of hollow earth. Some Lovecraftian overtones.
Downside: Shorter story than League. Not nearly the cast of characters as League. Lacks something of the depth and intricacy of League.
Note that I'm just using League as a convenient frame of reference here, as I'm guessing most folks interested in Moore's work have read that.
I'm *not* using that a yardstick for judging the book, I'm a firm believer that books should be judged by what they *are* not by what they're not.
For example, you can be pissed that a book has weak characterization, or sexism, or a predictable plot. That's fair.
But you can't read a book and be pissed that it's not The Hobbit. You can't read The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and be pissed that it wasn't written in the style of Naked Lunch.
Or rather, you *can* be pissed about those things, but it's not really fair. That's not a legitimate way to judge/assess of the book in question.
So... yeah. I liked this. It was interesting and well written. Absolutely not-cliche. But if you're looking for League, look elsewhere, you're not going to find it here.
August 9, 2015
I wrote this in July 2103:
League of Extraordinary Gentleman spinoff, ode to H.P. Lovecraft... horror tale...Some people here absolutely loved it... felt thin and disjointed to me...
But hearing that the trilogy is now completed, I thought I would read all three of them, and reread this one, of course. And then I thought I would read around about Captain Nemo a bit, be fairer to the story. I hadn't done my homework before last reading.
So: First, this trilogy is a spin-off from Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Jules Verne writes of Nemo in 20, 000 Leagues Under the Sea. He's in numerous books and movies. He's Indian, austere, sophisticated, smart, and has a particular rage against imperialism because it was responsible for the loss of family members (and of course many other very bad things that only get alluded to here). Captain Nemo also stays on the water almost all the time unless the land is uninhabited, as with this tale, which takes place in Antarctica, though in Moore's typical mashup conception, this tale features Nemo, and Moore's character is a woman, Janni Dakkar, and the tale is also an homage to H.P. Lovecraft's horror novel The Mountains of Madness, so it is set in 1925 as Lovecraft's story is. Whew, complicated right? And interesting, conceptually, potentially.
As I said about I.N.J. Culbard's graphic novel of Lovecraft's tale, and maybe of the original itself, it is supposed to be a tale of terror, and it just doesn't work for me. O'Neill's artwork is good but the big set pieces of both Vernian steampunk and Lovecraftian creatures just don't have the desired effect for me of shock and awe. The whole thing feels kind of slow and plodding and talky, as Moore struggles to explain, for instance, the science of why aliens might come to Antarctica. The story involves Janni's trying to achieve some kind of legacy by succeeding in an exploration of Antarctica, something that her faher failed doing. She is also in competition with two other guys to get there.
So all that sounds ambitious, and not boring, but.. . it kinda still is boring to me. It's too much exposition, requires too much back story, too many links to explore, not enough real action. Too much talk, which is Moore's main problem in some of his comics.
The only thing that works for me is the relationship of Nemo and Jack, which it occurred to me this time is a little like the relationship between Alan Quatermain and Mina from LOXG. The hero of this tale is self-sacrificing older Jack. That part comes alive and isn't cardboard stiff for me. But on the whole it isn't all that engaging. I'm going to read all three, though, since I have them here! Moore is one of the greats of all time, so he is still worth checking out, but he misses sometimes. This is better than his Neomicon, at least.
League of Extraordinary Gentleman spinoff, ode to H.P. Lovecraft... horror tale...Some people here absolutely loved it... felt thin and disjointed to me...
But hearing that the trilogy is now completed, I thought I would read all three of them, and reread this one, of course. And then I thought I would read around about Captain Nemo a bit, be fairer to the story. I hadn't done my homework before last reading.
So: First, this trilogy is a spin-off from Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Jules Verne writes of Nemo in 20, 000 Leagues Under the Sea. He's in numerous books and movies. He's Indian, austere, sophisticated, smart, and has a particular rage against imperialism because it was responsible for the loss of family members (and of course many other very bad things that only get alluded to here). Captain Nemo also stays on the water almost all the time unless the land is uninhabited, as with this tale, which takes place in Antarctica, though in Moore's typical mashup conception, this tale features Nemo, and Moore's character is a woman, Janni Dakkar, and the tale is also an homage to H.P. Lovecraft's horror novel The Mountains of Madness, so it is set in 1925 as Lovecraft's story is. Whew, complicated right? And interesting, conceptually, potentially.
As I said about I.N.J. Culbard's graphic novel of Lovecraft's tale, and maybe of the original itself, it is supposed to be a tale of terror, and it just doesn't work for me. O'Neill's artwork is good but the big set pieces of both Vernian steampunk and Lovecraftian creatures just don't have the desired effect for me of shock and awe. The whole thing feels kind of slow and plodding and talky, as Moore struggles to explain, for instance, the science of why aliens might come to Antarctica. The story involves Janni's trying to achieve some kind of legacy by succeeding in an exploration of Antarctica, something that her faher failed doing. She is also in competition with two other guys to get there.
So all that sounds ambitious, and not boring, but.. . it kinda still is boring to me. It's too much exposition, requires too much back story, too many links to explore, not enough real action. Too much talk, which is Moore's main problem in some of his comics.
The only thing that works for me is the relationship of Nemo and Jack, which it occurred to me this time is a little like the relationship between Alan Quatermain and Mina from LOXG. The hero of this tale is self-sacrificing older Jack. That part comes alive and isn't cardboard stiff for me. But on the whole it isn't all that engaging. I'm going to read all three, though, since I have them here! Moore is one of the greats of all time, so he is still worth checking out, but he misses sometimes. This is better than his Neomicon, at least.
August 8, 2019
I've always enjoyed Lovecraft's work and I liked early League as well, but this one didn't hit all too well anymore for some reason. Sometimes mashing up two of the things you like, even if those things are close to one another and should go well, turns out as less than sum of its parts.
Also, Nemo the Second has a pretty freaky backstory even by Moore's standards.
Also, Nemo the Second has a pretty freaky backstory even by Moore's standards.
March 9, 2017
This is the first book of the Nemo trilogy and it picks up from the character's first appearance in the 1910 chapter of Century, the third volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. This book actually served as a better sequel to 1910 and stays true to the Victorian aesthetics of the line art, rather than the psychedelic 1969. Incidentally, I stopped reading Century with 1969 and I haven't had the heart to pick up the 2009 chapter yet.
Thematically, it fits better with this reader's imagination of a League story; it has steampunk machines, undiscovered realms, and new characters from the literature of the age. It also paces better and it's a better read than the 1969 chapter of Century. This reader would also like an author or editor's commentary and notes. Most of the characters are unfamiliar, and an end-note or two would have definitely helped.
Thematically, it fits better with this reader's imagination of a League story; it has steampunk machines, undiscovered realms, and new characters from the literature of the age. It also paces better and it's a better read than the 1969 chapter of Century. This reader would also like an author or editor's commentary and notes. Most of the characters are unfamiliar, and an end-note or two would have definitely helped.
July 19, 2016
Sada je na redu Ktulu mitos :) I ovog puta ne pratimo nase poznate karatkere nego je fokus na cerci kapetana Nema i njenim pokusajima da zaseni svoga oca. Ostali elementi su isto tu, uvrnuto, konfuzno sa mastovitim dizajnom cudovista.
Sta vec reci ako su vam legli raniji stripovi moze samo dalje.
Sta vec reci ako su vam legli raniji stripovi moze samo dalje.
January 24, 2022
There's a moment in "The Simpsons" where Homer is intently watching an episode of "Twin Peaks". A man is slow dancing with a horse under a tree that has a traffic light swinging off it. Homer simply says "Brilliant.... I have absolutely no idea what's going on."
That's me and the later volumes of "The League of Extraordinary Gentleman". The first two are very straight forward, after that I mostly just enjoy Kevin O'Neill's art and the occasional reference I did get, having been born in the late 20th Century as opposed whichever pocket dimension Alan Moore spawned from.
So, it's nice that this is a mostly self contained story about Captain Nemo's daughter coming into her own, going off on her own mission. I understood most of it, I just didn't always get the references.
That's me and the later volumes of "The League of Extraordinary Gentleman". The first two are very straight forward, after that I mostly just enjoy Kevin O'Neill's art and the occasional reference I did get, having been born in the late 20th Century as opposed whichever pocket dimension Alan Moore spawned from.
So, it's nice that this is a mostly self contained story about Captain Nemo's daughter coming into her own, going off on her own mission. I understood most of it, I just didn't always get the references.
January 26, 2018
M'ho he passat d'allò més bé amb aquesta enèsima revisió de "Las montañas de la locura". No té més: pur entreteniment i homenatge. I neu, molta neu.
March 22, 2013
Aptly named, Nemo is a lark with an ice-cold heart. In this spinoff from the Moore/O'Neill League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Janni, the daughter of Captain Nemo, takes the Nautilus crew, including first mate "Broad Arrow Jack" (a Victorian penny dreadful hero) and various other borrowed characters, to Antarctica, there to encounter cyclopean landscapes and creeping horrors stitched from Poe's Arthur Gordon Pym and Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness. They are pursued by Tom Swift and other leftover late-Victorian Edisonade science heroes, here recast as villains, who are working for, get this, Charles Foster Kane. Add in elements of Rider Haggard and Nicolas-Edme Rétif (hunting up the referents via Wikipedia is good fun), some ravishing drawing by O'Neill, bold, ice-blue coloring by Ben Dimagmaliw, an abstruse time-shuffling nonlinear sequence about halfway through in which the characters' memories become scrambled, and a sad, wan ending—the result is another baroque League exercise that promises pulpy terrors but ends up remote, ironic, and more icily impressive than thrilling.
Yet, once again, Moore and O'Neill aim for genuine poignancy amid the shenanigans: by the end we are supposed to understand something about Janni's change of heart, her turn from bloodthirsty piracy to love and resignation. They almost pull it off, though I think the discursive ending explains, as opposed to dramatizing, rather too much. Along the way, O'Neill delivers the goods transportingly well, so much so that this feels more like a showcase for his gifts than for Moore's ruminations on mortality, loss, and the futility of action. The friction between the two makes Nemo interesting: a romp and pastiche with a core of sadness.
Yet, once again, Moore and O'Neill aim for genuine poignancy amid the shenanigans: by the end we are supposed to understand something about Janni's change of heart, her turn from bloodthirsty piracy to love and resignation. They almost pull it off, though I think the discursive ending explains, as opposed to dramatizing, rather too much. Along the way, O'Neill delivers the goods transportingly well, so much so that this feels more like a showcase for his gifts than for Moore's ruminations on mortality, loss, and the futility of action. The friction between the two makes Nemo interesting: a romp and pastiche with a core of sadness.
June 24, 2013
This is a spin-off of the League of Extraordinary Gentleman series. I was skeptical going in because in my opinion the main series has been running out of steam for a few books now and I haven't been blown away by it since book two.
That being said, this was an impressive return to form. Moore seemed to remember what made the first two books work: Great storytelling and fantastically clever literary allusions. I'm probably biased because this book heavily reference H.P. Lovecraft, one of my all time favorites. Specifically, "At the Mountains of Madness," one of his best.
It was fairly short but was quite entertaining. One very interesting storytelling trick Moore used was having the characters enter an area where time was in flux and jumbling around all the panels so you see them in the wrong order and sometimes you see them multiple times. It was appropriately disorienting and helped to put the reader in the character's shoes effectively.
Moore didn't put as much gross out or overly sexual scenes in this, as he sometimes does and I was thankful for that change. A definite read for anyone who grew up on adventure and/or horror books.
That being said, this was an impressive return to form. Moore seemed to remember what made the first two books work: Great storytelling and fantastically clever literary allusions. I'm probably biased because this book heavily reference H.P. Lovecraft, one of my all time favorites. Specifically, "At the Mountains of Madness," one of his best.
It was fairly short but was quite entertaining. One very interesting storytelling trick Moore used was having the characters enter an area where time was in flux and jumbling around all the panels so you see them in the wrong order and sometimes you see them multiple times. It was appropriately disorienting and helped to put the reader in the character's shoes effectively.
Moore didn't put as much gross out or overly sexual scenes in this, as he sometimes does and I was thankful for that change. A definite read for anyone who grew up on adventure and/or horror books.
August 29, 2015
Is Moore anti-woman or just anti-Nemo? Another cruel inside joke. Another game of How Big is Nemo's Nose? by O'Neill, since it shrinks and expands depending on the panel. Tries much, achieves little.
March 7, 2013
the latest installment of the ongoing League of Extraordinary Gentlemen saga, Nemo: Heart of Ice is drenched w/gloom, foreboding, mystery & horror -- Alan Moore's trademarks! I have been loving every chapter and story in this series, but this one really hit me in a weird, wonderful way, more than any other. the plot is simple & inexorable, the multitude of references to fictional characters pleasantly at a non-distracting minimum this time around, & the whole book is suffused by the spirits of H.P. Lovecraft & Jack Kirby, two masters of storytelling in the realms of the unknown. creepy mysteries without resolutions, glimpses of ghastly prehistoric civilizations, strange, horrific life forms, an unshakable sense of doom, a capricious, deadly journey...all set in motion by the grim thoughts and moods of Janni Dakkar, daughter of the legendary Nemo & his successor as captain of the Nautilus. perhaps it is her presence at its gloomy center that anchors & focuses this story, as opposed to the other chapters where one's attention was spread between a number of "heroes." as always, the fantastic Kevin O'Neill art is well beyond anything one could hope for, & rewards slow (& repeated!) reading. thank the gods these two men resurface every now & then to remind us all that comic books are still capable of being mysterious & thrilling.
November 22, 2015
Having read most of Alan Moore's comic work and being a fan of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, this came at somewhat of a disappointment. The premise is fine: some 30 years after the original series we are introduced to the daughter of Captain Nemo and follow her on an adventure after which the events change her. The adventure in question has conflict, adventure and wonder, and the main character going through an arc, but it all seems shallow though.
I think the idea is to continue in the "world" of LOEG and perhaps use a simpler version the LOEG formula, traipsing through the world connecting various literary characters. It feels simpler though, which is fine, but it also feels like it can and should be fleshed out a little bit more, both character and plot. There are two more volumes and since they are relatively inexpensive I'm going to read those as well, because I know sometimes Moore likes everything to come together in the end.
O'Neill's art is about the same on LOEG, perhaps less detailed and maybe slightly less refined, but maintaining that style helps keep you mind in the same framework as LOEG.
I think the idea is to continue in the "world" of LOEG and perhaps use a simpler version the LOEG formula, traipsing through the world connecting various literary characters. It feels simpler though, which is fine, but it also feels like it can and should be fleshed out a little bit more, both character and plot. There are two more volumes and since they are relatively inexpensive I'm going to read those as well, because I know sometimes Moore likes everything to come together in the end.
O'Neill's art is about the same on LOEG, perhaps less detailed and maybe slightly less refined, but maintaining that style helps keep you mind in the same framework as LOEG.
March 8, 2013
I bought this today as a treat. It is by far the prettiest of the league books to date. It is a beautiful hardcover and is very much like a French comic with gorgeous illustrations and a shortish story. The story is very Lovecraftian, going to the South pole and finding only madness. Kevin O'Neill really out does himself with the graphics in this. The monsters, the cyclopean geography, the mountains of madness, all the things that are too unspeakable to describe, he manages to do and make them gorgeous. I think this was the first time that in the league book I actually preferred the art to the storytelling.
One of my favorite parts of this series though is the little short stories at the end. This was no exception. Totally hilarious piece by 1930s American woman journalist. It made me laugh lots! Brilliantly done in a gossip coloumn style of a debutante, talking about the wedding of Janni's daughter and the lord of the air pirates!
Definitely recommened even if you haven't read the other League books.
One of my favorite parts of this series though is the little short stories at the end. This was no exception. Totally hilarious piece by 1930s American woman journalist. It made me laugh lots! Brilliantly done in a gossip coloumn style of a debutante, talking about the wedding of Janni's daughter and the lord of the air pirates!
Definitely recommened even if you haven't read the other League books.
March 13, 2013
Nice to have Mr. Moore & O'Neill taking on a story a little lighter, more accessible, and less apocalyptic after the mind-melting, Harry-Potter-defiling finale to LXG: Century. And it's weird to use the words "lighter and more accessible" to describe a story with so much death and a visit to Lovecraft's Mountains of Madness. And while Moore continues to dance around the edge of copyright violation, I was more than a little pleased to find an old childhood hero, Tom Swift, finally appearing in the series, albeit as a villain. I wasn't sure Moore had anywhere left to take the League after Century, but I'll happily follow more little side-trips like this one should they choose to continue.
February 23, 2013
A swift reade.
March 19, 2013
very bland, alan moore seems to have utterly forgotten how to write a narrative and now just does gimmick shite. last one i'll be buying
June 15, 2016
closer to 4 stars than 3 .. but not as good as the original volume
January 29, 2023
Pretty good League of Extraordinary Gentlemen side story with Lovecraftian elements and character development
April 12, 2019
I have not read everything Alan Moore has written or even read all his works as they were being been published. Although he is my favorite comic author there are a few of hist works I have not enjoyed at all and his recent works have not appealed to me.
Although I thought League Century trilogy was a decent work it hardly matched the greatness of the first two sagas of this inventive pastiche that Alan Moore conceived and I know that Black Dossier is highly regarded literally speaking, but for me, I would definitely be happy with only the comics in that book. So there was something missing in these two comics that Heart Of Ice retakes majestically.
Janni, daughter of the deceased Captain Nemo, is now the commandant of the Nautilus and undergoes a journey, both internal and physical and decides to go the South Pole to follow literally her father's steps into a failed expedition. The ice is a clear metaphor for the emotional condition of Captain Janni who we know has suffered the worst in her past and who had decided to block herself. In the surface, this is also an adventure journey to the inner Antartica, in a universe Alan Moore can include events, characters, places of the fantastic fiction of early 20th century.
So, as we know, Alan Moore explores the Lovecraftian universe, this time without the bitterness of the awful Neonomicon and then succeeds marvelously into telling a story that keeps the reader immersed.
Kevin O'Neil is one of my top 3 favorite artists ( the other two being Mike Mignola and Jim Starlin ), so this is a visual splendor of comic art, although seriously cartoonish.
Welcome back Alan, and thanks again for such a fine story.
Although I thought League Century trilogy was a decent work it hardly matched the greatness of the first two sagas of this inventive pastiche that Alan Moore conceived and I know that Black Dossier is highly regarded literally speaking, but for me, I would definitely be happy with only the comics in that book. So there was something missing in these two comics that Heart Of Ice retakes majestically.
Janni, daughter of the deceased Captain Nemo, is now the commandant of the Nautilus and undergoes a journey, both internal and physical and decides to go the South Pole to follow literally her father's steps into a failed expedition. The ice is a clear metaphor for the emotional condition of Captain Janni who we know has suffered the worst in her past and who had decided to block herself. In the surface, this is also an adventure journey to the inner Antartica, in a universe Alan Moore can include events, characters, places of the fantastic fiction of early 20th century.
So, as we know, Alan Moore explores the Lovecraftian universe, this time without the bitterness of the awful Neonomicon and then succeeds marvelously into telling a story that keeps the reader immersed.
Kevin O'Neil is one of my top 3 favorite artists ( the other two being Mike Mignola and Jim Starlin ), so this is a visual splendor of comic art, although seriously cartoonish.
Welcome back Alan, and thanks again for such a fine story.
May 12, 2017
As much, and I will not run from prior statements, that I consider Alan Moore to be more than a bit full of himself, when he goes to the public domain characters that he uses in his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Tales (and spin-offs) , he does a hell of a job.
Look this is a quick breezy read, I'll admit that. Captain Nemo's (aka Prince Dakkar), daughter Janni has kept up her piratical ways, and is so doing has angered a guest of newspaper mogul Charles Foster Kane. Janni Dakkar decides she wants to be more than a pirate, and decides to complete what she considers her father's failed Antarctic expedition.
While she leaves for Antarctica, Kane hires Jack Wright, Tom Swftye (you should catch that reference) and Frank Reade Jr. to pursue Janni and if possible capture her, but above all recover the treasure Janni stole from she who must be obeyed.
The only thing that will slow you down as you read this fun piece is if you spend a lot of time trying to get all of the public domain character references.
Points to anyone who gets the Hildy Johnson and S.F.X. Van Dusen references without having to look them up (the fact that I got these immediately says something about me, not sure what it says though).
Look this is a quick breezy read, I'll admit that. Captain Nemo's (aka Prince Dakkar), daughter Janni has kept up her piratical ways, and is so doing has angered a guest of newspaper mogul Charles Foster Kane. Janni Dakkar decides she wants to be more than a pirate, and decides to complete what she considers her father's failed Antarctic expedition.
While she leaves for Antarctica, Kane hires Jack Wright, Tom Swftye (you should catch that reference) and Frank Reade Jr. to pursue Janni and if possible capture her, but above all recover the treasure Janni stole from she who must be obeyed.
The only thing that will slow you down as you read this fun piece is if you spend a lot of time trying to get all of the public domain character references.
Points to anyone who gets the Hildy Johnson and S.F.X. Van Dusen references without having to look them up (the fact that I got these immediately says something about me, not sure what it says though).
May 6, 2014
This review originally appeared on my blog,
Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neil’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series is some of my favourite work by Moore. It’s also one of the best comics of the last ten years. The series had been marked by a less than conventional publication history, beginning as a two mini-series followed by a hardcover graphic novel and, after that, a third series published in annual 80 page instalments. Moore and O’Neil told the story of the League from the end of the 19th Century to the first decade of the 21st Century. Having apparently nowhere else to go, they decided to tell one-off stories focusing on single characters and events from the long history of the League. Nemo: Heart of Ice, is the first of these one-shot stories. It is a story focusing on Janni Dakkar, daughter of Captain Nemo (from Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues under the Sea). I have to say, I enjoyed it a great deal.
The story focuses on Janni and how she deals with her father’s legacy. The story takes place in 1925, fifteen years after reluctantly accepting the mantle of Captain Nemo. For the last fifteen years she has followed in his footsteps, all the while improving on some of his inventions, adding new members to her crew and transforming the island which her father, and now she, calls home. She acts as if she’s her father’s successor, she acts as if she knew the man but it’s all a lie. She knows of his accomplishments, she knows of his inventions, she knows his crew and loved ones but she doesn’t really know him at all. She’s haunted by this and by choosing to undergo his most disastrous expedition, she hopes to put her father’s memory to rest by succeeding where he father could not. She decides to go on this adventure all the while ignoring the needs and desires of her faithful crew.
She’s going on this expedition for herself. Her crew doesn’t wish to go, they’re pirates. All they want to do is take what they need, as well as what they want, and live a relatively peaceful life when they��re not stealing and pillaging. However, in part because they’re faithful to Janni, but also because they feel an obligation to her father, they follow Janni to the ends of the Earth. Along the way some of them will willingly give her their lives and their souls hoping she will be able to find what she so desperately wants.
The story isn’t about the expedition and whether or not it will be a success. The story is more personal than that, it’s the story of Janni and how she deals with her father’s overbearing influence on everything she does. The difficulties of the physical journey through Antarctica parallel the difficulties of her more personally journey taking place within herself. At the beginning of the book she’s constantly asking herself if her father had done this and will she be able to do it better. Towards the end, she stops nearly all mentions of her father. It’s not about him anymore. Her journey to Antarctica has be transformative.
In the end, Janni comes to an important realization that the time of great adventurers and scupper scientists is over. By pursuing that same path and attempting to reach the same heights will only resolve in unnecessary trauma, pain and suffering. Instead, this new generation of adventurers and scientists should concentrate on forging/creating a new path no matter how unimportant and banal it may seem. What’s sad about Janni’s growth as a person is its cyclical nature. Fifteen years before the events of Nemo: Heart of Ice, Janni was refusing to follow in her father’s footsteps. Having always felt rejected by her father for being a girl, she wanted to be her own person. Due to the events in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century: 1910 she gave in to her father’s wishes and became Nemo, Pirate Queen for a decade in a have. After years of unnecessary struggles, she can once again be, simply, Janni.
Kevin O’Neil’s art excels with this type of story. His work had lost something important in Century. The tone was very different and the panels where too small and there weren’t enough fantastic and otherworldly things for him to draw. O’Neil is very, very good at drawing otherworldly things and Moore gives him dozens of opportunities to draw such things in this book. It’s some of his best art in many years and I hope Moore continues to write League stories which allow O’Neil to impress me such as he did here.
Nemo: Heart of Ice, is a bit of a throwback to the earlier stories of the League. It’s an adventure story with familiar literary characters and settings based on a few classic stories. This time Moore is influenced by Edgar Allan Poe, Jules Verne and H. P. Lovecraft. Unlike with Black Dossier and Century, Moore seems focused on telling the story more than he is on cramming in as many references and literary allusions as possible. No need to worry, there are still plenty of that sort of things for those who really like it. It just doesn’t get in the way of the actual story and it’s quite nice. In short, Nemo: Heart of Ice, is the story of an adventure, of the anger of an African Queen who’s belongings were stolen, it’s about sons and daughters dealing with the accomplishments of their parents, it’s about super science and lighting guns, giant penguins, aliens, lost and hidden cities and most of all it’s about personal growth. This newest story in the League saga revitalises my enthusiasm for the series and the stories still to come. I look forward to the next instalment by Moore and O’Neil.
Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neil’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series is some of my favourite work by Moore. It’s also one of the best comics of the last ten years. The series had been marked by a less than conventional publication history, beginning as a two mini-series followed by a hardcover graphic novel and, after that, a third series published in annual 80 page instalments. Moore and O’Neil told the story of the League from the end of the 19th Century to the first decade of the 21st Century. Having apparently nowhere else to go, they decided to tell one-off stories focusing on single characters and events from the long history of the League. Nemo: Heart of Ice, is the first of these one-shot stories. It is a story focusing on Janni Dakkar, daughter of Captain Nemo (from Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues under the Sea). I have to say, I enjoyed it a great deal.
The story focuses on Janni and how she deals with her father’s legacy. The story takes place in 1925, fifteen years after reluctantly accepting the mantle of Captain Nemo. For the last fifteen years she has followed in his footsteps, all the while improving on some of his inventions, adding new members to her crew and transforming the island which her father, and now she, calls home. She acts as if she’s her father’s successor, she acts as if she knew the man but it’s all a lie. She knows of his accomplishments, she knows of his inventions, she knows his crew and loved ones but she doesn’t really know him at all. She’s haunted by this and by choosing to undergo his most disastrous expedition, she hopes to put her father’s memory to rest by succeeding where he father could not. She decides to go on this adventure all the while ignoring the needs and desires of her faithful crew.
She’s going on this expedition for herself. Her crew doesn’t wish to go, they’re pirates. All they want to do is take what they need, as well as what they want, and live a relatively peaceful life when they��re not stealing and pillaging. However, in part because they’re faithful to Janni, but also because they feel an obligation to her father, they follow Janni to the ends of the Earth. Along the way some of them will willingly give her their lives and their souls hoping she will be able to find what she so desperately wants.
The story isn’t about the expedition and whether or not it will be a success. The story is more personal than that, it’s the story of Janni and how she deals with her father’s overbearing influence on everything she does. The difficulties of the physical journey through Antarctica parallel the difficulties of her more personally journey taking place within herself. At the beginning of the book she’s constantly asking herself if her father had done this and will she be able to do it better. Towards the end, she stops nearly all mentions of her father. It’s not about him anymore. Her journey to Antarctica has be transformative.
In the end, Janni comes to an important realization that the time of great adventurers and scupper scientists is over. By pursuing that same path and attempting to reach the same heights will only resolve in unnecessary trauma, pain and suffering. Instead, this new generation of adventurers and scientists should concentrate on forging/creating a new path no matter how unimportant and banal it may seem. What’s sad about Janni’s growth as a person is its cyclical nature. Fifteen years before the events of Nemo: Heart of Ice, Janni was refusing to follow in her father’s footsteps. Having always felt rejected by her father for being a girl, she wanted to be her own person. Due to the events in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century: 1910 she gave in to her father’s wishes and became Nemo, Pirate Queen for a decade in a have. After years of unnecessary struggles, she can once again be, simply, Janni.
Kevin O’Neil’s art excels with this type of story. His work had lost something important in Century. The tone was very different and the panels where too small and there weren’t enough fantastic and otherworldly things for him to draw. O’Neil is very, very good at drawing otherworldly things and Moore gives him dozens of opportunities to draw such things in this book. It’s some of his best art in many years and I hope Moore continues to write League stories which allow O’Neil to impress me such as he did here.
Nemo: Heart of Ice, is a bit of a throwback to the earlier stories of the League. It’s an adventure story with familiar literary characters and settings based on a few classic stories. This time Moore is influenced by Edgar Allan Poe, Jules Verne and H. P. Lovecraft. Unlike with Black Dossier and Century, Moore seems focused on telling the story more than he is on cramming in as many references and literary allusions as possible. No need to worry, there are still plenty of that sort of things for those who really like it. It just doesn’t get in the way of the actual story and it’s quite nice. In short, Nemo: Heart of Ice, is the story of an adventure, of the anger of an African Queen who’s belongings were stolen, it’s about sons and daughters dealing with the accomplishments of their parents, it’s about super science and lighting guns, giant penguins, aliens, lost and hidden cities and most of all it’s about personal growth. This newest story in the League saga revitalises my enthusiasm for the series and the stories still to come. I look forward to the next instalment by Moore and O’Neil.
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