With his third book of annotations on Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series, Jess Nevins continues to prove what an amazing researcher he is. The Black Dossier in some ways is the most ambitious of the "League" volumes to date, because it is something of a sourcebook to the long history of the League and its world. As ambitious as the original work is, Nevins goes above and beyond, finding source referents for not only almost every character squeezed into the background by artist O'Neill, but also every space ship in the scenes that take place in a space-port in England.
The book features an introduction by Alan Moore, who is a huge supporter of Nevins' work on these "unofficial companion volumes." And the book ends with yet another interview with Moore conducted by Nevins for the book. Of course, the topic of Moore's aggravation with the American comic book publishing industry comes up; while many people enjoy Moore's take on the subject, I felt it took up a bit too much of the interview. I would rather have been reading more about how Moore chose to include certain characters or moments. But that's just me.
What really matters here is Nevins' scholarship which deserves a ton of credit and a wide readership. Nevins is also the author of the very hard to find, out of print Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana. It seems to command high prices on the used books side of Amazon, and I'd love to read it.
(It is almost poetic that I'm writing this review on my last night in Orlando, FL, while one of the main characters in The Black Dossier is the immortal Orlando.)