Comics Alternative

This week the Two Guys with PhDs are rappin’ to the beat with two new books that will funk you up. That’s right, DJ D and Kunka Kool spend this episode getting down with Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen III: Century (Top Shelf/Knockabout) and Ed Piskor’s Hip Hop Family Tree 2 (Fantagraphics). First, they look at the latest hardbound collection from Moore and O’Neill, bringing together all three of their previously published Century installments: 1910, 1969, and 2009. The guys spend a good deal of time discussing the kind of readers that come to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, what their expectations might be, and how some may not be ideal for Moore’s kind of writing. Can those unfamiliar with the previous League stories truly comprehend what’s going on in Century? Can readers unfamiliar with — or uninterested in — literary and pop-cultural marginalia come away from the book with an understanding of what Moore is attempting to do? These are some of the questions Andy