R. Winninger notes that a date of 1867 would place the shot of Nemo during the time period covered by 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. Interestingly enough, there is a discrepancy between the chronologies presented in the original texts of 20,000 Leagues and Mysterious Island. The former states that Nemo travelled with Arronax, Land, and Conseil from 1867 to 1868. The latter gives the date as 1866 to 1867. Steve Costa notes that the shot of Nemo might be from the scene in 20,000 Leagues when the Nautilus has rammed a ship, and the bodies in the background are the dying passengers.

Joe Gallagher corrects me and points out that, given how pale Mina's eyes are in this picture, and that she's without her ever-present scarf, her picture on the cover is likely from before Dracula bit her.

Quatermain is wielding a Zulu shield & assegai (spear); Stephen Geigen-Miller noted that Quatermain is wearing chain-mail, which might mean that the image was a scene from King Solomon's Mines, which would mean that the warriors in the background were Kukuanas, rather than Zulus (the Kukuanas being Haggard's creation; he described them as being related to the Zulus and the guardians of King Solomon's treasure mines). David Crowe pointed out that at the end of Allan Quatermain Quatermain noted how handy the mail shirts were and had some new ones made, so that the scene could be from Allan Quatermain. Chick Lewis adds that the novel in question is likely King Solomon's Mines due to the presence of the Africans in the background; Allan dealt with white members of a lost civilization in Allan Quatermain. Paul Andinach adds that

Re: the Quatermain card on the cover of #2 -- my bet is that it's a representation of the big battle in chapters 13-14 of KSM. A few small details are off, but that's the scene it fits best, and on the whole it fits it quite well. I worry about the date at the bottom of the card, though. It appears to be 1886, which places it the year *after* KSM was published.

Mark Cannon adds the following about Bond's outfit: The thought that immediately struck me upon seeing the cover was that Bond was wearing sports clothing; to be precise, cricket gear. The cap looks like a traditional cricket cap (no idea of the significance of the skull and crossbones, but cricket caps traditionally have their team crest upon them). The jacket, though it would not be worn in the course of the actual game, could well be a club blazer; note that both it and the cap are black and red, which are probably the club colours. The clincher for me, though, is the open-necked white shirt. Not only is this consistent with cricket clothing, it's also hard to imagine that any proper upper-class British Victorian would have been photographed looking so informal (an open-necked shirt, indeed!) unless it was in a sporting context.

It would have been quite acceptable for somebody of Bond's social class to have played cricket; of course, he would have been a "gentleman" (ie, an amateur) rather than a "player" (a professional), a distinction which remained in English cricket well into the 1930s. There's also nothing unusual about somebody of Bond's bulk playing cricket; the greatest English player of the late 19th Century, W G Grace, was a huge tub of a man, and the same can be said of several great cricketers of the modern era.

Zimran Ahmed follows up with this:

His cap, as mentioned by someone else, is definitely a schoolboy cricket cap, at the club level, in England.  The jacket, because of its red trim, is almost certainly a club cricketing blazer as well.  Lastly, the skull and cross bones motif is actually far more common in such circles than one might think, one can often find it on suspenders, ties, socks, and velvet slippers, even today, that cater to those with atavistic anglophone tendencies (here in the US, J Press, Flusser Custom Shop, and Paul Stuart spring to mind.)  I believe, but I might be wrong, that they hearken back to the Charge of the Light Brigade, for some reason.

"Robur" is the creation of Jules Verne, and appeared in two books: Robur the Conqueror (1886) and Master of the World (1904). In Robur the Conqueror Robur has invented a very advanced "flying machine" and, although portrayed as a megalomaniac, is still somewhat sympathetic, representing the progress of science. In Master of the World, however, he is insane; to quote John Clute: Robur has become a dangerous madman, blasphemous and uncontrollable, and his excesses--like those of Wells's Dr. Moreau--seem to represent the excesses of an unfettered development of science.Robur's "hidden stronghold" is in the Great Eyry, an inaccessible mountain in the American Appalachians; League is set after the events of Robur, when he has become misanthropic and insane.

"Plantagenet Palliser" is from Anthony Trollope's Palliser/Parliamentary novels: The Small House at Allington (1864) (his first appearance; thanks to Giles Robinson for correcting my error here), Can You Forgive Her? (1865) (not, strictly speaking, one of the Palliser/Parliamentary novels), Phineas Finn (1869), The Eustace Diamonds (1873), Phineas Redux (1874), The Prime Minister (1876), and The Duke's Children (1880). Palliser, in the novels a politician, is the heir to the Duke of Omnium (gaining the dukedom in Phineas Redux) and eventually becomes the Prime Minister. (In real life the British P.M. in 1898 was the Marquis of Salisbury) In Trollope's books he is essentially the "perfect gentleman;" his personality, in the world of the League, is likely somewhat different.

Panel 4. The astronomer "Lavell" is, in the identity of "Lavelle of Java," from the H.G. Wells novel The War of the Worlds; in Book One he is said to have "set the wires of the astronomical exchange palpitating with the amazing intelligence of a huge outbreak of incandescent gas upon" Mars, which presages the arrival of the Martians. The War of the Worlds was written in 1898, which would indicate what Moore has hinted at in interviews: that the Martians are coming, and soon.

The "Reverend Septimus Harding" is from Anthony Trollope's The Warden (1855), and later appears in Trollope's Barsetshire books. In Trollope's novels he is a long-suffering and good natured old clergyman who is the Warden of an almshouse.

"Miss Coote" was mentioned in issue #1 of the League; she was the star of The Yellow Room, a piece of Victorian-era erotica; she also appeared in a series called "Miss Coote's Confession," which ran in the magazine The Pearl in the from July 1879 to December 1880. "Coot," by the way, is an arcane word meaning, among other things, "to copulate."

Page 10. Panel 1. Hawley Griffin's true identity, as the Invisible Man, from the eponymous 1897 novel by H.G. Wells, will become apparent later this issue, on page 18.

Panel 4. The thing that distracted Mina is the partially-obscured name on the sign: "Whitby." In Dracula, Whitby was the location of much of the action, including being the site of Dracula's arrival in England, via the Russian schooner Demeter. Marcia/KingMobUK (Columns Editor for the very-good webzine Sequential Tart) notes that the "Prospect of Whitby" is a real pub, and one of London's oldest.

From Campion's words we can assume that he is well aware of the events of Dracula.

Page 11. Panel 1. There's what looks like a torpedo being loaded onto the submarine, and tphile notes what looks like a mine also being loaded. R. Winninger points out that it's likely that the workmen we see replenishing the Nautilus in this panel are merely dockhands and not members of Nemo's crew. By the end of Mysterious Island, all the members of Nemo's crew were dead and Nemo was sailing the vessel unassisted. Paul Andinach notes that two characters we see in issue #4, Ishmael and Jack, seem definitely to be crewmen, so Nemo clearly changed his policy between Mysterious Island and the events of League.

Kelly Tindall adds,

Nemo stated to Harding that his crewmates upon the Nautilus' original sojourn were all expatriates from his home, who had all since passed away.  While this hardly explains the Frenchman taken by the squid in "League", it does explain why Broad-Arrow Jack and Ishmael would be taken aboard as crew of the Nautilus; Nemo favors those whom have been cast aside by circumstance.  Besides a hunger for adventure, this further explains his association with the League, the most cast-aside misfits in common literature...Nemo certainly does not require the money.

Harry's death was mentioned by Quatermain at the very beginning of the novel Allan Quatermain (1887). He died while working in the smallpox ward of a hospital shortly after getting his medical degree. This occurred just a couple of years prior to the events related in the novel, which occurred about three years prior to the publication of the novel, thereby placing Harry's death at about 1882, or 16 years before the events in League. Assuming that Harry was in his early 20s when he died, Stella's death would've occurred circa 1860, or close to 40 years prior to League.

Page 16. Moore, perhaps anticipating objections about the rape scenes in issue #1 and here, had this to say in a recent interview with Tripwire magazine, which Mark Coale was good enough to send me: I think that when you take the sex scene with Pollyanna that takes place in the second issue, you'll see that there is a lighthearted element to it. The scene where the Egyptians try to rape Mina is nasty but comical though. Rape is serious, the idea of rape is a horrible thing and there's no intention of trivialising it. However, one of the unspoken pillars of Victorian fiction was the notion of 'the fate worse than death.' Human sexuality, screwed up as it is, is a big part of Victorian fiction, as is the racism. When you see the Arabs in the first issue and when you see the Chinese in #3, I'm sure they'll be portrayed in the same way. This is what we wanted. We're not talking about real Arabs, real Chinamen, or even real women.

I suppose people could accuse me of wallowing in those elements under the guise of postmodernism and they'd probably be right. I don't think that you get an unpleasant atmosphere after reading the stories. It's more British attitudes that are being pilloried rather than the targets of those attitudes. What makes it funny is the absurdity of the Victorian vision, this idea of a supremacist Britain that ruled the entire world. It's one of the bits that I'm most enjoying, to explore all those Victorian attitudes. In the girl's school in issue #2, there's plenty of flogging scenes and this is because the Victorians believed that corporal punishment was good for the character.

Page 19. Panel 2. "Lord and Lady Pokingham" are from Lady Pokingham; Or They All Do It, another piece of Victorian-era erotica that appeared in The Pearl.

Panel 4. "Although I've been mishandled by a demon, I'm determined to remain optimistic, no matter what" is a perfect summation of being pollyannish.

Page 20. Panel 2. "Ayesha," aka "She Who Must Be Obeyed," is from H. Rider Haggard's She books: She: A History of Adventure (1887), Ayesha: The Return of She (1905), She and Allan (1921), and Wisdom's Daughter: The Life and Love Story of She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed (1923). Ayesha was an immortal goddess, worshiped in the African city of Kor; she encounters Quatermain in She and Allan, hence his special attention to the relics in this panel.

Panel 4. The skull in the glass case is a Yahoo, from Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726). The Yahoos were the nasty brutes who had vicious propensities and human forms; they were ruled over by the wise, benevolent horse-like Houyhnhnms.

Joe Gottman and Stephen Geigen-Miller point out what I should have gotten from the first; that the large skull that Nemo is looking at likely belongs to a Brobdigngnagian, one of the giants from Gulliver's Travels.

Joe Gottman, Stephen Geigen-Miller, and Joe Pacheco point out that the display case with the tiny figures most likely contains either live or stuffed Lilliputians, the tiny little people from Gulliver's Travels.

Page 21. Panel 4. Both of these objects are references to Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864). In that book a German professor, Otto Lidenbrock, found a book from a 16th century Icelandic alchemist, Arne Saknussemm (whose name is partially visible on the plaque to the top object); Saknussemm claimed to have journeyed to the center of the Earth. Intrigued, Lidenbrock followed Saknussemm's path, using his "AS" markers (as seen on the top object) to guide him. Among the other things that Lidenbrock found was an underground sea (the "Lidenbrock sea" on the bottom plaque) and various "prehistoric" animals (the ichthyosaur seen here).

Page 22. Panel 2. "Professor Selwyn Cavor" is from H.G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon (1901). Cavor, the inventor of a gravity-canceling device - "cavorite" - is described in the novel as "a short, round-bodied, thin-legged little man, with a jerky quality in his motions; he had seen fit to clothe his extraordinary mind in a cricket cap, an overcoat, and cycling knickerbockers and stockings." In the novel Cavor and his friend Mr. Bedford travel to the moon.

Page 23. Panel 1. Moore, I'm sure, knows this, but the idea that England might be subjected to an aerial bombardment with explosives was not unthinkable to the Victorians; quite the reverse was the case, aerial bombardment being something of a staple in Victorian British science fiction, as well as in the American science fiction of the time. (James Enelow points out that Alfred, Lord Tennyson mentioned the idea in "Locksley Hall") Paul Andinach counters that what is truly unthinkable is that the enemy should be allowed to bombard England.

"Captain Mors" is the hero of the Der Luftpirat und Sein Lenkbares Luftschiff ("the Pirate of the Air and his Navigable Airship") series of German dime novels (otherwise known as Kapitan Mors der Luftpirat - "Captain Mors the Air-Pirate") from roughlly this era. The creator of Captain Mors is unknown, but it is likely that well-known German science fiction writers of the era, such as Oskar Hoffman, may have been involved; Frank Astor is credited with having written at least two of the novels. Mors, the "Man with the Mask," is a Captain Nemo-like character, fleeing from mankind with a crew of Indians and involved in a prolonged fight against evil, both on Earth and on Venus, Mars, and the rest of the solar system.

Panel 2. Apparently Mina et al aren't the first League that the British Secret Service has assembled; Moore has said, in interviews, that he plans to do future League series using earlier groupings, and, presumably, this set of characters is one of them. The members of this previous League are, from left to right:

	"Lemuel Gulliver," the world-traveler and explorer from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. (Andrew Johnston notes that according to the chronology at the Gulliver's Travels Chronology site would be 127 in this portrait) (Stephen Johnston notes the presence, at the feet of Lemuel, of one of the Lilliputian cattle that he brought back after his first voyage)
	"Mr. & Mrs. P. Blakeny," otherwise known Sir Percy Blakeney and Marguerite Blakeney, the eponymous hero and wife from Baroness Emmuska Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905) and its ten sequels. The Scarlet Pimpernel was a dashing, French-Revolution-era Zorro and the enemy of Robespierre. Kathy Li points out that, properly speaking, they should be referred to as "Sir Percival and Lady Blakeney." Jason Tondro adds that "Lady Margeurite Blakeney was known throughout society as `the cleverest woman in Europe,' a fact which might help to explain her place in the League, and make her more than simply the Scarlet Pimpernel's wife." Myles Lobdell notes that the Pimpernell turned to heroics as a result of the Terror of 1792, and that he married Lady Blakeney in 1790 or 1791, which would make their presence together here something of an incongruity.
	"The Reverend Dr. Syn," from Russell Thorndike's Doctor Syn (1915) and its six prequels. Syn, the vicar of Dymchurch near the end of the 18th century, was also the notorious pirate and smuggler Captain Clegg, aka the Scarecrow.
	"Mistress Hill" is the bawdy heroine of John Cleland's pornographic novel Fanny Hill, Or, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1749). (It would appear that it is customary for the British Secret Service to employ at least one fallen woman...) (Andrew Johnston notes that she looks awfully young for someone who should be in her sixties)
	"N. Bumpo" is Natty Bumppo, aka "Hawkeye," aka "Leatherstocking," from James Fennimore Cooper's Leatherstocking novels, the most famous of which is The Last of the Mohicans (1826).

"Montagu House," written along the bottom of the label, was a 17th century mansion on whose site the British Museum was later built.

Keith Kole points out that this would seem to be a photograph, rather than a painting--something of an incongruity, given the date on the plaque. "Lobdell" mentions Giphantia (1760), a very early work of proto-science fiction by Charles François Tiphaigne de la Roche (1729-1774); in Giphantia the narrator is taken by a typhoon to another land which has, among other things, a kind of working camera. If Giphantia is in continuity in the world of League, it might explain the photograph.

Clarrie O'Callaghan says

I was reading 'League of...' over again and puzzling over 'Mistress Hill's' presence in the photograph of the past 'league', having, as she did, somewhat *ahem* limited talents... When it occured to me, what's the possibility that Allan Moore perhaps had Fanny Hill confused with Moll Flanders in his mind? Madame Flanders was at least a thief, and a more independant 'fallen woman' whereas Fanny Hill was just a big whore....

Page 31: an ad for the "Edison Patented Electrical Negro." The key to understanding this seemingly horrible ad is knowing about what science fiction critic John Clute dubbed the "Edisonades," examples of which include Philip Reade's Tom Edison, Jr. books and the Tom Swift novels. To quote Clute: As used here the term ‘edisonade' - derived from Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) in the same way that ‘Robinsonade' is derived from Robinson Crusoe - can be understood to describe any story which features a young US male inventor hero who uses his ingenuity to extricate himself from tight spots and who, by so doing, saves himself from foreign oppressors.As creations of the late 19th and early 20th century, the Edisonade characters (a grown-up version of which recently appeared in Warren Ellis' excellent Planetary #1) were quite typical of the time, embodying many of the ideals of their writers - which is to say, they were, quite unconsciously, racist, sexist, and imperialistic. Which is why the "Electrical Negro" is a perfect Edisonade invention. (The very first proto-Edisonade invention had been Edward S. Ellis' 1868 The Steam Man of the Prairie, a man-shaped steam engine; the "Electrical Negro" is a logical, if racist - and therefore typically Edisonade - extrapolation)

Nat Gertler adds that Edison himself had at least one black inventor on his squad, a rather daring move for Edison, given the time, and that it's inappropriate to link Edison directly with the Edisonades. While Edison may not have been a racist, the Edisonades were, and given how closely their creators took their inspiration and cues from the real Edison, it would be unfair and inaccurate to name the Edisonades after anyone but the real Edison. That said, it should definitely be stressed that the real Edison was not the racist that the Edisonades were, although Eric R. points out that he was an anti-Semite.

Gillman adds that This actually was a publicity stunt done by edison to promote the electric light when it was first introduced, and people were still unsure about the safety of having electricity in the home. The idea was that the light bulb hatted man would stand in some public place, handing out advertisements, and provide a "living demonstration" that the bulbs were not going to harm anyone, as well as providing quite a bit of novelty value in a world where flickering gaslight was the best artificial light most people had ever seen.Jon Meltzer wondered if the concept of the "Electrical Negro" is a tip of the hat reference by Moore to Matt Ruff's Sewer, Gas and Electric, in which the concept is also used, albeit ironically.

Page 32: an ad for "Quong Lee's Tea-House." Quong Lee was the creation of Thomas Burke for a series of short stories which later appeared in the books Limehouse Nights: Tales of Chinatown (1916) and The Pleasantries of Old Quong (1931); Quong Lee was a wise, elderly Chinese man in the books, similar to Charlie Chan.

Back cover: Professor Cavor's words about the "French attempt...with their artillery device" is a reference by Moore to Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon (1865), in which space flight is achieved by means of a spacecraft propelled from a very large gun. Jerry Boyajian pointed out that in From the Earth to the Moon it was a group of Americans who went to the moon from the barrel of a gun, not a group of French. (Steven Costa notes that it was a Frenchman who first proposed that the projectile be manned) The erudite Mr. Boyajian also noted that Cavor's quote mentions planting the Union Jack (the British flag) on Mare Tranquilitatus (the Sea of Tranquility), which of course was where Old Glory (the American flag) was planted during the Apollo 11 mission.Chris Davies notes that this might also be a reference to the 1902 Melies film Voyage dans la Lune, based on the Verne story and featuring a French character who is behind the attempt. Emilio Martin sees the comment as an allusion to the 1960s "space race" between the Americans and the Russians, and remembers a JFK speech in which he swore to plant the US flag on the Moon before the Russians.