365 Days of Books

Another foray into graphic novels: by ALan Moore, Kevin O'Neill, Ben DiMagmaliw, and Bill Oakley. One problem I had with this book was that I was not instantly familiar with the characters. It took me several hours before I recalled that Mina Murray was a character from Bram Stoker's Dracula and I could not place Allan Quartermain as the hero of "King Solomon's Mines" (I was enlightened by an irritated fan in the bookstore cafe). Other than that I followed the story easily. Five extraordinary characters are called together by the mysterious Bond (not James) and the mysterious M (this one is a James) to serve Britain. They are asked to use their talents to retrieve a stolen bit of dazzle before it can be used by the over-the-top stereotyped evil "Orientals" against their beloved homeland. They are suspicious of each other and wary but manage to retrieve the goods only to find out that they've been bamboozled. Q: Can they set it right? A: Sort of.

There were lots of puns and funny references to other literary characters which were amusing. It was an easy read and certainly lead me into entertaining and informative conversations with strangers.