Anyone picking this up? I bought it on Wednesday, and have just finished reading it. Deliciously good.

Alan Moore... the God of comics.

Not yet but, along with Top Ten, LXG is definitely my favourite Alan Moore book of recent years, so it's only a matter of time before I do.

If it's even half as good as Book 1, I may even forgive him for the two and a half volumes of filler in Promethea!

I was going to but it got pushed back. Apparently there's an issue with the US having a shorter time period for creations to enter the public domain (75 years) than Canada and the UK (99 years). I'm not sure why DC wouldn't have noticed something like that before announcing the book though, so that might not be the reason. Nevertheless my FLCS hasn't gotten it in yet.

Its on my "to read list."

I'm inching my way through some DC books as well as my usual monthly reading list. So I doubt I'll be reading it any time soon.

With regard to why it's not currently available in the UK:

Mania Comics
"Now, it almost looked, at one point, as if DC's legal department were trying to say that they had only just realized that The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was a work full of literary and cultural allusion," Moore comments, "which after having published the thing for two previous volumes, I would have thought that they would have figured that out by then... This does suggest either an almost unbelievable level of illiteracy and incompetence or a certain degree of pettiness and malice.

"In either event," says Alan, "it has certainly decided me upon my course of action for the future, which is that if I want to do works of the complexity of The Black Dossier, which I certainly do, then I really don't think that the mainstream American comics industry should be allowed anywhere near them. I don't really think they are competent to publish works of this level."

I can't recommend Black Dossier highly enough. And I'm not even through digesting it. It's a hell of a trip. Reading it I felt like a kid again, pouring through the Adventures of Tintin, having my sense of wonder ignited. Except this is more like Tintin on acid.

It's uplifting to know that Alan Moore also writes fan comics of mature, literary value. I'm kinda insecure about that from time to time, even though I love it and I know I have good company in Japan.

So I'm the only one here who's actually read this? I'm amazed. It's the book of the year.

I bought this for my wife for Christmas and I can't open it to read it. It's wrapped in plastic and I can't bring myself to open her gift. Soon, I shall read this greatness though!

I'm about half the way through. It's VERY layered & overwhelmingly steeped in classic fiction.

Moore really takes comics to the next level.

Later,
Chip

I didn't know it was out! Gots to get it.

Is it worth getting? I read a couple of reviews which basically panned it.

http://fraggmented.blogspot.com/
(It's a few posts down the page now, but he makes some good points about the comic and Alan Moore recently in general.)
I can't seem to find the other one, unfortunately, it was on CBR and it was a very interesting review. Basically the jist I've been hearing is that the Black Dossier is overly referential, to the point that it's unreadable as just a story in its own right, obsessed with high class porn and full of a sense of its own cleverness rather than just telling a good story.
I'll have to have a look at a copy some time, see what conclusions I come to.

Darth Mongoose
Is it worth getting? I read a couple of reviews which basically panned it.

If you haven't read the first 2 volumes, check those out first. If you like them, then get this one. It really builds and expands upon the first 2 books.

I don't know why Moore puts up with DC in the first place. A man of his talents should just do independent publishing or find a freelance artist. There's tons of talent riddled across the world (just pick up any one of the Flight anthologies) and any budding comic book artist would probably SHIT THEIR PANTS if they got an email from Alan Moore suggesting a partnership.

I know I would... I'd still be shitting my drawers far after changing them.

angry_black_guy
I don't know why Moore puts up with DC in the first place. A man of his talents should just do independent publishing or find a freelance artist. There's tons of talent riddled across the world (just pick up any one of the Flight anthologies) and any budding comic book artist would probably SHIT THEIR PANTS if they got an email from Alan Moore suggesting a partnership.

From what I've read, Moore has quit DC for good and Black Dossier is supposedly the last thing he will ever produce for DC or any of their affiliates.

And Alan doesn't do e-mail. He's a self-confessed technophobe. I believe he still uses a typewriter rather than a word processor. Mind you, this is just from what I've heard and read.

Well, it turns out that Moore himself claims to be a huge fan of the Simpsons (and he even lent his voice during one episode along with several other comic book artists/writers) so he can't be that big of a technophobe :D

I did a little research and he's said that he will be going back into the independent "I'm not doing this for the money" world... again. I say again because this isn't the first time he's receded back into his own personal world. As a person, he reminds me of Robert Crumb in the fact that he's sort of embarassed with his popularity but men with their talents are bound to attract a huge crowd. I don't know either of them personally so it's not really fair to judge them based on heresay.