Nemo: Heart of Ice by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill
| Nemo: Heart of Ice by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill | |
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| Category: Graphic Novels | |
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Reviewer: John Lloyd
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| Summary: One for the completist only, as side-characters from the series engage in action in the snows - and cities - of Antarctica. | |
| Buy? Maybe | Borrow? Maybe |
| Pages: 56 | Date: February 2013 |
| Publisher: Knockabout Books | |
| ISBN: 9780861661831 | |
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The Nemo here is merely the daughter of the great Captain Nemo, as defined by Jules Verne, although given that heritage there is more than enough talent in her bloodline for piracy and adventure. Here, fleeing a royal family that has just been looted, Nemo turns to her father's logbooks and journals, and decides there is unfinished business in the southern polar wastes. But while she's off looking for more edifying action, others are off looking for revenge on her…
This is Alan Moore leaving the main thrust of his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen far behind, despite it always being a universe he could play exceedingly fast and loose with. The last volume I witnessed was definitely inspired by too much bad 60s music and too many bad drugs, while this is completely different, adding one more incoherent step down the line for the happy completist, and not much at all for anyone else. This is certainly more Lovecraftian in the end, but its brevity suggests it really is a side-issue.
You can add to that too the fact that this doesn't read as being brilliantly put together. The rhythm of the graphic page seems off, with too many splash pages being crunched into splash images, and too much rigidity in the grid of pictures. It goes some way to complicate things with intertwining narratives (pictorially aided by one party wearing an N for Nemo, the rest a handy R}, yet at the same time leaves great chunks of drama out, and ends up just too slight and unsatisfactory, especially for those who remain with the thought that they're being left to one side by the cognoscenti and their own ignorance, and not welcomed instead as potentially returning audiences of the future.
Kevin O'Neill similarly serves just enough, putting a lot of character into his set pattern of ugly, angular faces, and allowing himself the chance to open out with grandeur now and again. But again, his world seems too closed off to those visiting for the first time, and even with a short prose fiction piece to close, there is not enough here in content or quality to make one want many a return ticket.
I must still thank the publishers for my review copy.
We like Modesty Blaise: Live Bait by Peter O'Donnell and its kin for graphic action-adventures with strong women.
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