'Extraordinary' Book Gets Media Attention
While many people in Hollywood will be profiting
from the movie "The League of
Extraordinary Gentlemen," which will open in theaters next month, SHSU assistant
professor Jess Nevins has already started profiting from it.
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The cover of Nevins' book "Heroes and Monsters:
The Unofficial Guide to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen"
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Nevins, a librarian in the Newton Gresham Library, wrote a book about the
original six-issue series comic book that was released
in 1999. The book, "Heroes and Monsters: The Unofficial Guide to 'The League
of Extraordinary Gentlemen," is a compilation of annotations, as well as three
essays and an interview with the writer, regarding the Victorian and 19th Century
literary allusions within the comic book.
"On just about every page (of the comic book), in just about every panel,
there is some sort of reference to something, and so I started annotating it
because there's a lot of material in the comic book that would go unnoticed
by people if they didn't really know Victorian literature and history," Nevins
said. "The comic book has gotten a lot of favorable critical attention from
respectable literary magazines and critics, and so my book is getting some
of that favorable attention."
Some of that attention has come by way of National Public Radio.
"NPR decided to do a piece on the comic book and the movie, and they wanted
to bring me into it to talk a little bit about the comic book," Nevins said. "Then
they discovered that the studio was not helping with the movie, so I got more
airtime-well I'm assuming I'm going to be getting more airtime-because they're
not going to be talking much about the movie at all; so it will basically be
about the comic book and my book."
Though a definite broadcast time and day for the interview has not been set
the interview will be aired either on "Morning Edition," the NPR morning news
show, or "All Things Considered," the afternoon news show. NPR can be found
on Houston radio stations KAMU 90.9 FM and KUHF 88.7 FM.
"The piece will be archived on the NPR Web site (www.npr.org)," he said. "So
people will be able to listen to it whenever they want."
The comic book, as well as the movie, revolves around characters from different
novels throughout that time period.
"The premise of the comic book is that Mina Murray, the heroine of 'Dracula,'
is hired by Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock Holmes' older, smarter brother, to bring
together Allan Quartermain, who is the hero of a series of 19th Century novels
written by H. Rider Haggard, Captain Nemo, Dr. Jekyll, and of course his alter
ego, and the Invisible Man," Nevins said.
"Mina Murray brings together all these characters to recover an antigravity
element which appears in H.G. Wells' novel, "The First Men In The Moon," which
has been stolen by Fu Manchu.
"It's a fun premise," he said. "The comic book has dozens of sort of cameo
appearances by characters from all sorts of Victorian writers, like Emile Zola
and (Honoré de) Balzac, and there are all sorts of references to Victorian,
19th Century popular literature, culture and history."
Soon after the comic book was released, Nevins began annotating the allusions,
to which he devoted a Web site in 1999.
"People kept sending me stuff, and eventually, when the publisher said, 'We
want to make this as a book,' I started advertising on the Web site that this
Web site will appear as a book," he said. "So people online have known about
it for several months now."
Though Nevins said he is pleased with all of the attention his book has generated,
he is also a little embarrassed by it.
"It's a little unnerving because I didn't expect it, but this is great. I
thought the book would do OK but I didn't expect to be interviewed by NPR," he
said. "I'm a little uncomfortable with the attention, but if it brings more
people to read my book, then great.
"I fell into it by pure dumb luck. I started this off as a hobby, as a diversion,
but it's turned into a book that's selling pretty well, and I'm really happy
about that," Nevins said. "It's helping me because I'm working on another book
right now and I'm going to get some name recognition from that."
Nevins' book, which went on sale at the beginning of June, can be purchased
for $18.95 at www.amazon.com, on the publisher's (MonkeyBrain Books) Web site,
www.monkeybrainbooks.com/Heroes_and_Monsters.html, or at Barnes and Noble Bookstores
within the next month.
- END -
SHSU Media Contact: Jennifer Gauntt
June 13, 2003
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