If you have been to the movies within the last few weeks, you may have seen the trailer for this film, based on a comic-book series...all of you cephalophiles will dig Captain Nemo's Nautilus...has a beautiful articulated ceph on the top/prow of the submarine...if you like comics, do yourself a huge favor and pick up the first volume!

...and pick up the published chapters of Volume II, in which the League squares off against the Tripod-driving, heat-ray wielding cephalopods from Mars.

:heee:

AARRRGGHH! I haven't been able to get that one yet...perhaps I can sneak out tonight while my wife watches tv or something...

Issues 1-4 of Volume II have been released; issue #5 is due to ship this week (four months late, might I add). The first couple of issues have been collected in a "Bumper Compendium" edition, which will probably be easier to find than the individual issues.

Just tell your wife that a mysterious cylinder has fallen to earth on the outskirts of town...

:heee:

Clem

That is how I got the first volume...one binding. I shall call my bookstore asap...I don't know about the cylinder bit with Shanlyn (my wife)...although after reading the last few posts over my shoulder, she is on page 7 of the first volume...maybe I can convince her to get it??? Hey, whatever works, right?

Stop it, you lot. You are winding me up too much!

I've got LOXG vol.1, the Nautilus is fantastic, it looks like a giant squid straddling a sperm whale in a wonderful 19th century steampunk design. Perfect! I really hope the movie version resembles the same. I particularly love the fact that vol.1 starts off in my home town, Dover, in the UK!

Vol.2; any ideas when it will be out as a compendium? Personally I do not really see the point in shelling out for these things in three or four different formats when the whole thing will be released together in a few months.

Actually I am surprised HG Wells has not really been mentioned that much on these pages:

"A huge rounded bulk, larger than a bear rose up, it's skin glistening like wet leather. It's lipless mouth quivered and salivated and snake-like tentacles writhed as the clumsy body heaved and pulsated" (Tess of the D'Urbevilles. ch5, pg 78)

Phil,

You'll be glad to know that Kevin O'Neil (artist of LOEG) has remained faithful to Wells's description of the Martian. Nemo himself appears upset by the looks of the thing.

Have you fellows read Wells's short story "The Sea Raiders?" Very creepy. Wells understood that the requirements of ruthless horror dictate that small children on holiday be eaten.

:goofysca:

Clem

"the Sea Raiders" classifies as one of the best ceph short stories of all time...he certainly had a grasp of the predatory nature of the cephs! I agree, the Nautilus in the comic is fantastic...I also like the button that holds Nemo's turban together...way cool. From what I could see in the trailer, the film seems to be holding true to the drawn version...I can hardly wait! Even Shanlyn is getting into it...gosh, a comic that draws families together??? :)

No, I have not read 'The Sea Raiders', but I believe it is almost regarded as a precursor to WOTW in that it covers much of the same ground in a short-story format though (I think) it was written a couple of years before.

Actually a book worth finding if you like this sort of 19th century sci-fi is a book called 'War of the Worlds; Global despatches' ed. Kevin Anderson. It covers what happened in other parts of the globe outside England during the Martian Invasion seen through the eyes of people such as Mark Twain and Pablo Picasso. It is in short story format but is good fun.

Still love the album though.......

I also like all of the references to classics like "Treasure Island", and "Dracula". Wonderful stuff!

Uh-oh! She was walking by while I was scribbling down that title...oh well, perhaps I can tell her it will be good for the kids bedtime stories?

RE: the sea raiders:
The story is about some squid ( perhaps based on Humbolt current?) that occasionally pop up off of the coast of England and prey on bathers...very well written, though flavoured with the opinions of that time, of course... you can find it in most anthologies of horror...perhaps even online?

The story is about some squid ( perhaps based on Humbolt current?) that occasionally pop up off of the coast of England and prey on bathers...

I wish! We have the odd Archi washed up on the Scottish coast in the North Sea every ten years or so. Otherwise, I have only found cuttlefish remains washed on the wind blasted pebble strewn shores of East Kent. My dream is to find an Archi one day, but it just isn't going to happen.....

Have to content myself with ammonites and bits of shrapnel or bullets one can still occasionally find left over from World War Two.

Dream on.......

if you do happen to find the story, you will chuckle a bit...the cephs crawl across rocks, etc. to get at their victims...hardly squidlike! Oh well...it is a very fun short story...and I hope you find a nice big Arch. sometime soon! Hopefully in a safe fashion! :)

A picture of the Nautilus has finally been released. Unfortunately it seems to bear absolutely no resemblance to squid/sperm whale sub of the comic book. I shall give no details away as I would not want to spoil the fun, but for those who are interested there are depictions of the new movie version here:

http://www.lxgmovie.com/

Well I'm looking forward to it, even if no-one else is!

Phil,

Was Kevin O'Neil's rendition of the Nautilus too interesting? Too good? Too Irish?

May the director suffer the same fate as the Invisible Man did at the hands of Mr. Hyde.

:x

Clem

Adam,

Any idea when LOXG vol,.2 will be released as a compendium? I'm desperate to read the take on HG Wells' Martian invasion.

P

Phil,

Since there's still one chapter unpublished, we'll be lucky to see a full collection released this year. What's more, the interval between Chapters 4 and 5 stretched out to five months. This delay was made tolerable only by the payoff: Mr. Hyde did something really awful (and richly deserved) to the Invisible Man.

"Don't worry, Griffin. I won't [kill you]. Not for ages."

-Mr. Edward Hyde

All,

I thought artist Kevin O'Neill's conception of the Martian war-machines (tripods) looked familiar. They hew very close to H. G.'s description in The War of the Worlds, adjusted to reflect the nature of their drivers: cephalopods from Mars. It would appear that O'Neill had a certain squid in mind.

Here's the cover of "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," Volume Two, Issue Four:

http://www.icarusfalls.com/league/images/cov2_4.jpg

And, here's Mr. O'Neill's likely inspiration, the "Mystery Squid" recorded in several deep-ocean locations, whose existence was publicly revealed in 2001:

http://www.mnh.si.edu/cephs/vetal01/magnapinna2.jpg

Additional stills and video of the "Mystery Squid," with notes by Michael Vecchione et al, are here:

http://www.mnh.si.edu/cephs/vetal01/vetal01.html


:goofysca:

Clem

i thought the heat rays were supposed to be invisible :grad: ..... oh well.... i do love the name of the battleship in the book.....

i thought the heat rays were supposed to be invisible :grad: .....

WK,

Fear not: the heat-ray devices as drawn produce no visible beam. The weird flamethrower wielded by the tripod on the cover is just that, a weird flamethrower (augmented by one of the Martians' Black Smoke weapons, itself a nasty form of "inking").

Clem

OK This is probably the most nerdy post that I have ever written, but here goes anyway...........

i thought the heat rays were supposed to be invisible :grad: ..... oh well.... i do love the name of the battleship in the book.....

Absolutely, the heat rays were indeed invisible in the book, though this does not make for a very dramatic image in illustrations so I think we can forgive artists for depicting visible beams!

As you probably know, there never was an HMS Thunderchild. Interestingly, although it normally seems to be depicted as a battleship, such as the Formidable class (?) vessel on the Jeff Wayne's musical version cover, the Thunderchild is referred to as a torpedo ram in the novel. Indeed the Royal Navy did indeed have a vessel of this type in service at the time of the WOTW setting (1894) and this vessel must have provided the inspiration for Wells when he chose the ship type. The vessel in question was HMS Polyphemus which was built in 1881 and served much of its career in the Mediterranean. The construction type was unusual as it had a massive ram under the bow in a manner similar to ancient Greek and Roman triremes. It was armed with forward and midships torpedo tubes below the water line and six quick firing rotating machine guns on deck. It seems the Martians must have been vunerable to machine gun fire! I attach a picture of HMS Polyphemus if anyone is interested.

Anyway, on the subject of cephalopods it is interesting that HG Wells depicts the Martians as very octopus like with a quivering beak and sixteen tentacles arranged around the mouth in two bunches of eight. There is a subtle implication in the text that this form of arrangement is the ultimate end of the evolution of hands, and that the Martian form stems from creatures not too dissimilar to ourselves. The Martians also brought with them bipedal creatures to feed on en route to earth in their cylinders, doubtless reinforcing the view that vertebrates were just cattle to the aliens and that the cephalopod arrangement was a far superior one.

Perhaps we are all changing into cephalopods slowly?

Hmm..........must get out more.

I attach a picture of HMS Polyphemus if anyone is interested.

Phil,

Well, she was a trim vessel, wasn't she? Was this class of torpedo-ram originally intended to serve as a coastal defense vessel? That low COG would've been perfect for toppling alien milking-stools.

Not that I think about such things, mind you.

Anyway, on the subject of cephalopods it is interesting that HG Wells depicts the Martians as very octopus like with a quivering beak and sixteen tentacles arranged around the mouch in two bunches of eight. There is a subtle implication in the text that this form of arrangement is the ultimate end of the evolution of hands...

Can't you just see young Wells under Thomas Huxley's tutelage, peering at an octopus preserved in a cylindrical jar of alcohol? H.G. puts his hand on the cylinder and thinks.

Sorry to see your latest post-pub ammonite acquisition got so messy.

Clem

Was this class of torpedo-ram originally intended to serve as a coastal defense vessel? That low COG would've been perfect for toppling alien milking-stools.



Yes, that's right. Apparantly she was built as a response to the appearance of small torpedo boats that were believed to be a potential threat to the large capital ships. Polyphemus would was supposed to engage torpedo boats using its own torpedos and used its ram as a secondary weapon. This ship had a strange arrangement of a second rudder in the bow section that was retractable; this was to allow for last minute course corrections in a ramming attempt. The ship was by necessity fast and could reach a speed (I think) of 18 knots. It was believed at the time that as armour was developing faster than naval artillery, the naval gun could potentially be made redundant, which is why the ram was adopted.

I think the ship may have served as coastal defence off Gibralter but I have not been able to confirm that.

Nice idea about Wells and Huxley and the genesis of TWOTW; you never know, you may have cracked it!

Ulla!

Phil