Nemo: River of Ghosts

[The Adventurer]

Book turned up on ComiXology this week, so obviously I devoured it. Overall I liked it as much as the other Nemo titles. Fun adventurous romps through the reference layden world of LOEG.

I will say one thing, I LOVE [spoiler]Hugo. He seems like a genuinely likable guy, as well as being absurdly powerful. [/spoiler] which is actually a bit weird for LOEG [spoiler]to have a character that purely likable and not have anything to suggest he's a monster of some kind[/spoiler] In a lot of ways he reminds me of the classic interpratation of [spoiler]Popeye[/spoiler]. Which based on a little research is not a coincidence.

Edit: also, good use of [spoiler]the Stepford Wives[/spoiler]

[Dark Jimbo]

I will say one thing, I LOVE [spoiler]Hugo. He seems like a genuinely likable guy, as well as being absurdly powerful. [/spoiler] which is actually a bit weird for LOEG [spoiler]to have a character that purely likable and not have anything to suggest he's a monster of some kind[/spoiler] In a lot of ways he reminds me of the classic interpratation of [spoiler]Popeye[/spoiler].

I assume, as an American, you don't really know who [spoiler]Desperate Dan[/spoiler] is?

[The Adventurer]

I picked up on that with the pie scene, but he's not actually suppose to be [spoiler]Desperate Dan[/spoiler] is he?

[Dark Jimbo]

[spoiler]Dan's father[/spoiler] - but knowing that character goes a long way to making sense of Hugo.

[TordelBack]

Hugo Hercules is an existing newspaper strip character from the 1900s - apparently credited with being the first superhero. In his wonderfully Mooreish way, Alan links him back to actually be Irish larger-far-than-life-itself hero Cuchulainn ('Hugo Coghlan') and foward to be[spoiler] Dan's Pa (and I dimly remember Dan's Pa making several appearances as a rather ornery character who believed his son to be a sissy). [/spoiler]

I wonder, if he's therefore an immortal has he been referred to before, somewhere in Orlando's recollections? At 1975 he's obviously lived through Mina's Age of Superheroes and not joined in.

[Frank]

http://jessnevins.com/annotations/rosesofberlin.html

Cheers, Eamonn, but did you mean this: http://jessnevins.com/annotations/riverofghosts.html

Nevins and pals do their usual fantastic job of enriching a second read with the knowledge that character and place names aren't just stuff Moore's copied off the back of a box of cornflakes. Although, because the Goldfoot films were news to me, the conflation of Martin Bormann and chesty ladies struck me as a reference to Russ Meyer's Supervixens, which adds another layer, and the Wikipedia entry for Doppel-Kreuz alone suggests that phrase is working in different ways and at multiple levels throughout the narrative:

Double Cross (character) , the character #

Double Cross (musical notation) , a musical accidentals to increase by two semitones

Patriarchal cross , a Christian cross with a second, shorter transverse beam

Cross of Lorraine , a French cross with two crossbars

the parody of the swastika in Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator

a genealogical character meaning "line extinct"

I really enjoyed this book, especially the way Moore finally found a way to acknowledge the dominant form of British comics in a series which has encompassed just about every other form of fiction under the sun. The [spoiler]cow pie[/spoiler] and the character of Hugo made what could have been a very dark conclusion great fun to read. Moore's decision to leave the industry and shake off the mantle of being the greatest writer ever to work in the medium seems to have allowed him to relax and have fun, letting one of the greatest artists the medium has produced do the heavy lifting.

Thanks to the digital fraternity of the board for informing me this was available without unfairly adding to the burden of my postie or taking the train to somewhere with a comic shop.

[TordelBack]

Good man Sauchie!  It doesn't seem to ge linked from his various blogthings, and for some reason I'd failed to find that on Google. Always a joy to read.

[Dunk!]

That's the ticket Sauchie, my Sunday reading is set.

Cheers,

Dunk!

[The Adventurer]

Anyone know if Nevins has a contact e-mail. I'd like to point out that...

Page 26. Padraig O Mealoid writes, "The markings on the plane's wings are M for Mors, and an interlinked R & N for Robur & Nemo. Note that one of the dinosaurs - possibly a brontosaurus, now refuted by science, but possibly still real in League-land - has a dinosaur version of a Howdah, or elephant carriage-seat.

That's not just a elephant carriage. That's a Slate Rock & Gravel Co. crane attachment, from the Flintstones.