''The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume One'' is a

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

limited series Limited series may refer to: *Limited series, individual storylines within an anthology series *Limited series, a particular run of collectables, usually individually numbered *Limited series (comics), a comics series with a predetermined number of ...

written by

Alan Moore Alan Moore (born 18 November 1953) is an English author known primarily for his work in comic books including ''Watchmen'', ''V for Vendetta'', ''The Ballad of Halo Jones'', ''Swamp Thing'', ''Batman:'' ''The Killing Joke'', and ''From Hell' ...

and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill, published under the

America's Best Comics America's Best Comics (ABC) is a comic book publishing brand. It was set up by Alan Moore in 1999 as an imprint of WildStorm, an idea proposed to Moore by WildStorm founder Jim Lee when it was still under Image Comics. History ''America's Best ...

imprint of

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

in the United States and under

Vertigo Vertigo is a condition where a person has the sensation of movement or of surrounding objects moving when they are not. Often it feels like a spinning or swaying movement. This may be associated with nausea, vomiting, sweating, or difficulties w ...

in the United Kingdom. It is the first story in the larger ''

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

'' series. The story takes place in 1898 in a fictional world where all of the characters and events from

Victorian literature Victorian literature refers to English literature during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901). The 19th century is considered by some to be the Golden Age of English Literature, especially for British novels. It was in the Victorian era tha ...

(and possibly the entirety of fiction) coexist. The characters and plot elements borrow from works of writers such as

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for '' A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...

Bram Stoker Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912) was an Irish author who is celebrated for his 1897 Gothic horror novel '' Dracula''. During his lifetime, he was better known as the personal assistant of actor Sir Henry Irving and busine ...

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...

Plot

Issue 1: Empire Dreams

In 1898, one year after her encounter with

Dracula ''Dracula'' is a novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. As an epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist, but opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking ...

Mina Murray Wilhelmina "Mina" Harker (née Murray) is a fictional character and the main female character in Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel '' Dracula''. In the novel She begins the story as Miss Mina Murray, a young schoolmistress who is engaged ...

has divorced her husband and now works for the British government. She meets with

MI5 The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), G ...

agent Campion Bond (the grandfather of

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

), who gives her the task of gathering selected members for the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, a secret task force whose job it will be to protect the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

from potential threats.

Captain Nemo Captain Nemo (; later identified as an Indian, Prince Dakkar) is a fictional character created by the French novelist Jules Verne (1828–1905). Nemo appears in two of Verne's science-fiction classics, ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' ( ...

escorts Mina to Egypt, where she finds a heavily intoxicated

Allan Quatermain Allan Quatermain is the protagonist of H. Rider Haggard's 1885 novel ''King Solomon's Mines'', its one sequel ''Allan Quatermain'' (1887), twelve prequel novels and four prequel short stories, totalling eighteen works. An English professional ...

in an

opium Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...

den. Two Arab men enter the den and attempt to rape Mina, but Allan intervenes and kills one of them. As the other man rushes off to tell the authorities, Mina drags Allan through the busy streets towards the docks, where Nemo's submarine, the ''

Nautilus The nautilus (, ) is a pelagic marine mollusc of the cephalopod family Nautilidae. The nautilus is the sole extant family of the superfamily Nautilaceae and of its smaller but near equal suborder, Nautilina. It comprises six living species in t ...

'', emerges from the sea. Nemo fends off the Egyptian police with a harpoon gun, and Allan is brought on board the ''Nautilus'' to recover from his opium addiction. For their next assignment, the League travel to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and meet with

C. Auguste Dupin ''Le Knight, Chevalier'' C. Auguste Dupin is a fictional character created by Edgar Allan Poe. Dupin made his first appearance in Poe's 1841 short story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", widely considered the first detective fiction story. He rea ...

to investigate a recent string of violent murders. Mina poses as a prostitute to lure the killer into a trap, but is kidnapped. Allan and Dupin trace the killer to his apartment and find Mina, but are attacked by a large monster.

Issue 2: Ghosts & Miracles

After a brief fight, Allan forces the monster out of the apartment window, and the fall renders it unconscious. Once on the ''Nautilus'', the monster transforms into a frail, terrified man with no memory of recent events. The man is Dr Henry Jekyll, while the monster is his

alter ego An alter ego (Latin for "other I", " doppelgänger") means an alternate self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or true original personality. Finding one's alter ego will require finding one's other self, one with a differen ...

Mr. Hyde. Mina bids farewell to Dupin, and the ''Nautilus'' leaves Paris. When the League return to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, Bond sets them their next task: going undercover at a girls' school to investigate three separate cases of sexless conception. Mina, Allan and Nemo visit the school undercover and meet the

dominatrix A dominatrix (; ) or femdom is a woman who takes the dominant role in BDSM activities. A dominatrix can be of any sexual orientation, but this does not necessarily limit the genders of her submissive partners. Dominatrices are known for inflic ...

headmistress,

Rosa Coote Rosa Coote is a fictional dominatrix appearing as a stock character in a number of works of Victorian erotica, including ''The Convent School, or Early Experiences of A Young Flagellant'' (as the notional author) by William DugdaleHenry Spencer As ...

. The girls believe they have been impregnated by the

Holy Spirit In Judaism, the Holy Spirit is the divine force, quality, and influence of God over the Universe or over his creatures. In Nicene Christianity, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is the third person of the Trinity. In Islam, the Holy Spirit acts as ...

, and the league stay the night for their investigation. Late at night, Mina catches an unseen force sexually assaulting one of the girls,

Pollyanna ''Pollyanna'' is a 1913 novel by American author Eleanor H. Porter, considered a classic of children's literature. The book's success led to Porter's soon writing a sequel, ''Pollyanna Grows Up'' (1915). Eleven more ''Pollyanna'' sequels, know ...

, and throws a tin of paint over it, making the entity partly visible. The League successfully apprehend the "Holy Spirit", which is actually

Hawley Griffin This is a collection of the characters from ''The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'', a comic book series created by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill (comics), Kevin O'Neill, and its spin-off ''Nemo''. Overview Character's name *Original source/au ...

the Invisible Man ''The Invisible Man'' is a science fiction novel by H. G. Wells. Originally serialized in '' Pearson's Weekly'' in 1897, it was published as a novel the same year. The Invisible Man to whom the title refers is Griffin, a scientist who has devo ...

, and take him to their new headquarters within the secret annexe of the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. Bond promises Griffin that if he agrees to work for them, he will be granted a

pardon A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the ju ...

for his past crimes and MI5 will research a cure for Griffin's invisibility.

Issue 3: Mysteries of the East

With the League fully assembled, Bond gives them the task of recovering a stolen supply of Cavorite from a crime lord referred to as "The Doctor" (an alias for

Fu Manchu Dr. Fu Manchu () is a supervillain who was introduced in a series of novels by the English author Sax Rohmer beginning shortly before World War I and continuing for another forty years. The character featured in cinema, television, radio, comic ...

, which name the comic was not allowed to use, for trademark reasons). He explains that Britain was secretly planning a moon landing to coincide with the turn of the 20th century celebrations, supervised by Professor Selwyn Cavor and using Cavorite to power and levitate heavier-than-air machines. The League are dispatched to London's

Limehouse Limehouse is a district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London. It is east of Charing Cross, on the northern bank of the River Thames. Its proximity to the river has given it a strong maritime character, which it retains throug ...

district in order to learn more about The Doctor. Mina and Griffin question Quong Lee (a storyteller from books by Thomas Burke), who reveals that The Doctor is indeed operating within the area, but only gives them information in the form of a cryptic riddle: "The waters lap beneath the heavenly bridge. The dragon sleeps below it. My advice to you: do not awaken it". Although Griffin is sceptical, Mina concludes that The Doctor's activities must be taking place beneath Rotherhithe Bridge. Meanwhile, Allan and Dr Jekyll enter The Doctor's lair, where they spy on him carving Chinese symbols into a man's flesh with acid. The league re-group on the ''Nautilus'' and organise their evidence. Mina believes The Doctor has stolen the Cavorite for some nefarious purpose, and suspects that he is building an aerial war machine in the unfinished

Rotherhithe Tunnel The Rotherhithe Tunnel, designated the A101, is a road tunnel under the River Thames in East London, connecting Limehouse in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets north of the river to Rotherhithe in the London Borough of Southwark south of the ...

. She and Allan return to the Limehouse district to investigate activity around the abandoned Rotherhithe Tunnel, and eventually find a large cavern where The Doctor's airship (the "dragon" from Quong Lee's riddle) is being constructed.

Issue 4: Gods of Annihilation

Allan and Mina infiltrate The Doctor's lair, but are caught by a guard. An unnoticed Griffin kills the guard and Allan disguises himself in his uniform, planning to get inside the airship and steal back the Cavorite. Griffin meets with Jekyll and tells him to create a distraction. Jekyll turns into Mr Hyde and starts slaughtering the guards, while Allan and Mina sneak into the ship, locate the Cavorite engine and steal it. They reunite with Hyde and Griffin in an underwater glass tunnel, but are cornered by more guards. To escape, Allan shoots a hole in the glass and Mina activates the Cavorite, propelling them upwards through the cascading water. The Doctor's lair is flooded, the ship is destroyed, and the ''Nautilus'' rescues the league as they fall back down into the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

. Bond congratulates the league on their success, and leaves the ''Nautilus'' with the Cavorite, telling them he will take it back to his superior M. A suspicious Griffin follows Bond back to the Military Intelligence Headquarters, and discovers that M is in fact criminal mastermind

Professor James Moriarty Professor James Moriarty is a fictional character and criminal mastermind created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to be a formidable enemy for the author's fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. He was created primarily as a device by which Doyle could ...

Issue 5: "Some Deep, Organizing Power..."

A flashback shows the climax of

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...

's short story "

The Final Problem "The Final Problem" is a short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring his detective character Sherlock Holmes. It was first published in ''The Strand Magazine'' in the United Kingdom, and ''McClure's'' in the United States, under the title ...

", in which

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...

and Professor Moriarty have their final confrontation atop the

Reichenbach Falls The Reichenbach Falls (german: Reichenbachfälle) are a waterfall cascade of seven steps on the stream called Rychenbach in the Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland. They drop over a total height of about . At , the upper falls, known as the ...

in Switzerland. However, Moriarty survives his fall into the water below (though his spine and right arm are broken and heal in a deformed state), and is rescued by Campion Bond and

Colonel Sebastian Moran Colonel Sebastian Moran is a fictional character in the stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. An enemy of Sherlock Holmes, he first appears in the 1903 short story " The Adventure of the Empty House". Holmes once described him as "the second m ...

. His criminal empire is in fact a front created by British Intelligence, which Moriarty now controls along with London's West end criminal underworld, while The Doctor controls the East. Moriarty has built his own aerial warship, which he can now power with the Cavorite. Griffin returns to the ''Nautilus'' and informs the league of what he's discovered, and that Moriarty plans to bomb London's East end and destroy what remains of The Doctor's criminal empire.

Issue 6: The Day of Be-With-Us

Moriarty launches his airship and starts to bomb the East end of London. While the Doctor sends armed boarders to the airship on gliders, the League boards the ''Victoria'', a hot-air balloon Nemo had stored on the ''Nautilus'', and anchor it to the airship. While Mr Hyde and Nemo attack the crew, Mina and Allan ascend to the top deck where Moriarty is waiting for them. Allan guns down the guards, but Moriarty shoots him in the shoulder and prepares to kill him. Mina smashes the Cavorite engine's container with a monkey wrench, and Moriarty rushes toward the device, grabs onto it, and is propelled into the night sky. The League leave the airship in the ''Victoria'', and are once again rescued by the ''Nautilus'', this time manned by Nemo's first mate

Ishmael Ishmael ''Ismaḗl''; Classical/Qur'anic Arabic: إِسْمَٰعِيْل; Modern Standard Arabic: إِسْمَاعِيْل ''ʾIsmāʿīl''; la, Ismael was the first son of Abraham, the common patriarch of the Abrahamic religions; and is cons ...

(the narrator from

Moby-Dick ''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is the sailor Ishmael (Moby-Dick), Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Captain Ahab, Ahab, captain of the whaler, whaling ship ''Pequod (Moby- ...

). The story ends with

Mycroft Holmes Mycroft Holmes is a fictional character appearing in stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle from 1893 to 1908. The elder brother (by seven years) of detective Sherlock Holmes, he is a government official and a founding member of the Diogenes ...

(the brother of Sherlock Holmes) becoming the new director of British Intelligence, congratulating the League for their work, and telling them to remain in London should there be further need for them in the future. Meanwhile,

Martian Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, has appeared as a setting in works of fiction since at least the mid-1600s. It became the most popular celestial object in fiction in the late 1800s as the Moon was evidently lifeless. At the time, the pred ...

ships fall from the sky and descend on

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in northwest Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'' and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement o ...

, setting in motion the second volume.

Extra material

Each issue of the comic also includes a chapter of a short illustrated prose prequel called ''

Allan and the Sundered Veil "Allan and the Sundered Veil" is a six-part horror comic story written in the style of a boy's periodical by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill, included at the back of each issue of ''The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume I'' an ...

'', which features Allan Quatermain, John Carter, H. P. Lovecraft's Randolph Carter, and the Time Traveller from

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

The Time Machine ''The Time Machine'' is a science fiction novella by H. G. Wells, published in 1895. The work is generally credited with the popularization of the concept of time travel by using a vehicle or device to travel purposely and selectively for ...

''. The entire story is included in the book version of Volume One. Also at the back of Volume One are several extras, including the covers of all issues contained in the volume. Also included is a "paint by numbers" drawing attributed to Basil Hallward, who was the painter of the eponymous ''

The Picture of Dorian Gray ''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' is a philosophical fiction, philosophical novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 issue of the American periodical ''Lippincott's Monthly Magazine''.''Th ...

'' in the novel. A second version is seen two pages later, coloured, and clearly intended to be the portrait towards the end of the novel when Gray's painted visage has become decrepit and horrid, thus reflecting Gray's personality. The blurb about the paint-by-numbers drawing mentions Hallward's mysterious disappearance, which is a reference to a part of the novel where Dorian Gray, upset that Hallward found out about the fate of his artwork, kills Hallward and has a friend dispose of the body, leaving no trace of evidence. The blurb for the second version of the drawing also mentions failed attempts at a paint-by-numbers by Richard Pickman (of "

Pickman's Model "Pickman's Model" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft, written in September 1926 and first published in the October 1927 issue of ''Weird Tales''. It has been adapted for television anthology series twice: in a 1971 episode of ''Night Gallery' ...

") and a cabinet-making kit by Caligari (of '' The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari''). A painting of Nemo's submarine, the ''Nautilus'', in the background of the cover of volume one also bears Hallward's signature.

Second press run on issue 5

Issue #5 contained an authentic vintage advertisement for a Marvel-brand

douche A douche is a device used to introduce a stream of water into the body for medical or hygienic reasons, or the stream of water itself. Douche usually refers to vaginal irrigation, the rinsing of the vagina, but it can also refer to the rinsing ...

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

is DC's chief competitive rival within the comics industry and Moore had had a public dispute with Marvel, his former employer. This ad caused DC executive

Paul Levitz Paul Levitz (; born October 21, 1956) is an American comic book writer, editor and executive. The president of DC Comics from 2002–2009, he worked for the company for over 35 years in a wide variety of roles. Along with publisher Jenette Kahn ...

to order the entire print run destroyed and reprinted with the offending advertisement edited. In a later title, Moore creates a "Miracle Douche Recall" headline on a newspaper, which is not only a reference to the furor, but is also a reference to the Marvelman, when Marvel Comics had previously retitled

Marvelman Miracleman (Michael ("Micky" / "Mike") Moran), originally known as Marvelman, is a fictional superhero appearing in comic books first published by L. Miller & Son, Ltd. Created in 1954 by writer-artist Mick Anglo for publisher L. Miller & So ...

, which was written by Alan Moore, to Miracleman, despite Marvelman having been around for 40 years.

Awards

''Volume I'' won the 2000

Bram Stoker Award for Best Illustrated Narrative Nominees are listed below the winner(s) for each year. * 1998: (no award) ** ''Sergio Aragones' Dia de las Muertos (Day of the Dead)'' by Sergio Aragones & Mark Evanier ** ''Preacher'' by Garth Ennis ** ''The Son of Man'' (''Hellblazer'' 129-133) ...

Collected editions

* hardcover: * paperback: *

Absolute edition DC Comics Absolute Edition is a series of archival quality printings of graphic novels published by DC Comics and its imprints WildStorm Productions and Vertigo. Each is presented in a hardcover and slipcased edition with cloth bookmark consisting ...

(deluxe hardcover): , including Moore's original scripts and additional artwork by O'Neill

Annotations

Jess Nevins Jess Nevins (born 1966) is an American author. Nevins is the author of the ''Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana'' and other works on Victoriana and pulp fiction. He is employed as a reference librarian at Lone Star College-Tomball. Comic book ...

' annotations for this volume are available in a book entitled ''Heroes & Monsters: The Unofficial Companion to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'' and features: * Annotations to the "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", revised and expanded from the versions previously available online. * Essays by Nevins on the history of the "Yellow Peril" archetype, pivotal to the first LOEG miniseries; on the origin of the "crossover" concept and team-ups in fiction; and on the Victorian character archetypes present in the LOEG miniseries. * Biographies of the main characters in the LOEG miniseries * Biographies of the authors whose creations are featured in the LOEG series. * Interviews with and commentary by the creators of the LOEG * An introduction by Alan Moore

Film

Elements from ''Volume One'' are present in the loose 2003

film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dial ...

. Similar to the comic, Professor Moriarty is revealed to be the antagonist in the film, though here he physically approaches the League as M, with no presence of Campion Bond. The revelation is not made clear until well into the film's climax, with no reference to Sherlock Holmes or Moriarty apparent at any earlier point. The film also mimics ''Volume One'' in a sequence where the Invisible Man (here named Rodney Skinner, a thief who stole Griffin's invisibility formula) departs from the team to spy on the antagonists while the League wrongly accuse him of betraying the group. Subtle references to the comic are also made in the background, such as a mutual newspaper front page which speculates the Martian phenomenon leading to the

invasion from H. G. Wells' ''

The War of the Worlds ''The War of the Worlds'' is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells, first serialised in 1897 by ''Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and by ''Cosmopolitan (magazine), Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US. The novel's first appear ...

''.

References

; ''Heroes & Monsters: The Unofficial Companion to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'' (paperback, 239 pages,

MonkeyBrain MonkeyBrain Books (MonkeyBrain, Inc.) is an independent American publishing house based in Austin, Texas, specialising in books comprising both new content and reprinting online, international, or out-of-print content, which show "an academic ...

, 2003, ,

Titan Books Titan Publishing Group is the publishing division of Titan Entertainment Group, which was established in 1981. The books division has two main areas of publishing: film and television tie-ins and cinema reference books; and graphic novels and co ...

, 2006, ) * {{DEFAULTSORT:League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume I 1999 comics debuts Comics by Alan Moore Comics based on works by Jules Verne Adaptations of works by H. G. Wells Fiction set in 1898