League of Extraordinary Gentlemen #1, America’s Best Comics, March 1999
I think the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (LOEG) is one of the best ideas to come out of comics ever! That’s a big statement to make but I believe it to be true and that’s why this week’s Undervalued Spotlight has to be League of Extraordinary Gentlemen #1.
Co-conceived by writer Alan Moore and artist Kevin O’Neill the comic audaciously tries to supplant classic Victorian England popular fiction characters into a comic book superhero team format. This is the All Star Comics #3 for Victorian Age characters.
Moore’s choosing of the comic medium for this project speaks to the level of respect he had for comics as a platform and for the faith he had that comics were the way to go. If LOEG worked it would open up endless story telling possibilities to a medium that already had endless storytelling possibilities.
The likes of Allan Quatermain, Captain Nemo, Edward Hyde and Wilhelmina Murray borrowed from the likes of Haggard, Verne, Stevenson and Stoker and thrown together into a comic book like they knew each other all along. This was going to be good.
And it was good, LOEG lived up to expectations and enjoyed critical and commercial success.
So what happened? CGC 9.8 copies barely get $60, the property is stalled, nothing is in print etc. etc.
Well for starters 2003’s LXG happened. This was the LOEG box office movie bomb. The film did not follow the comic hardly at all and many blame the derailing on the LOEG property on this movie. Alan Moore walked away from movie involvement of any kind after LXG flopped.
Alan Moore also happened, he basically moved onto other projects like creative writers of his ilk do.
So how can such a good idea, one that had quality, one that had initial success be so dead right now?
I’m not sure but my Spidey Sense is tingling and it’s telling me there is more to this property. 20th Century Fox knows there’s more, as late as last year rumors and reports were on the net discussing the studio going back and doing the job right.
Studio and future movie aside LOEG was an epic achievement and LOEG #1 should be a comic trading a lot more briskly (there are no links to copies for sale on the GPA website as of this post) and at higher values that it is getting today.
The 46th Overstreet price break for this book is $9/$12/$15 in the 8.0/9.0/9.2 grade splits.
Reasons to buy this comic book as an investment.
- 1st League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
- Ground breaking work by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill
- Now they are cheap, cheap, cheap
Walt, I couldn’t agree more! These books went a long way to cementing comics’ new reputation beyond tights and capes. I would take this series over Watchmen any day just for that reason.It also happens to be one of the best books to hook non-comic readers with and turn them into fans of the medium.
I was also happy to see that you used the proper acronym instead of the idiotically Americanized LXG. Everybody knows “Extraordinary” doesn’t start with an “X.” And LOEG (if you assume the “OE” is pronounced as in “Oedipus”) still gets pronounced as “league.” Moore is smarter by half than most comic creators and he likes to show it off once in a while.
I also think the DF Variant for this book would be a good choice for an Undervalued Spotlight as well.
Good call on that dynamic forces variant, Nathan. Although Overstreet has it priced at only $18 in NM, I’ve never seen one for under $75-100. The regular edition has already quintupled in price, but somehow the far less common variant lags at less than twice its original cover price.
Love all the League material too; sub in Willingham and Elementals for Moore and League and you’ve got another spotlight, far as I’m concerned. Only problem I see for both is lack of new material bringing attention to the deserving olde material that “ought” to be worth more (ought to be more loved and sought after for certain!)