Alan Moore's pornographic Alice/Wendy/Dorothy graphic novel

Alan Moore, the genius co-creator of Watchmen, has written a steamy, pornographic new three-volume graphic novel called Lost Girls, co-created with Melinda Gebbie.

Lost Girls tells the story of the adult selves of Alice from Alice in Wonderland, Wendy from Peter Pan, and Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, who find themselves guests at a little Austrian hotel at the brink of World War I. The three become lovers, and retell their fairy-tale origin-stories, showing how each might be an allegory for a much darker, pornographic life-history.

This is a remarkable trilogy. It's by turns filthier than a Penthouse Letter, erotic as Anais Nin, and beautiful and provocative as the best of graphic novels. The fine artwork and writing are beautifully matched, even seeming at times to vie for attention -- each trying to outdo the other for virtuosity.

The meta-story of the three heroines of Lost Girls is fascinating. JM Barrie, author of Peter Pan, suffered such terrible emotional abuse as a boy that he developed something called "psychogenic dwarfism," which caused him never to go through puberty. Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), took chaste-but-creepy photos of naked little girls. L Frank Baum based Dorothy on a downtrodden and abused girl he met as a Kansas schoolteacher. (see update below) Previous authors have made the link between these girls, their authors, and the buried dark erotic sub-currents in their stories -- see, for example, Geoff Ryman's World Fantasy Award-winning novel WAS, about L Frank Baum and Dorothy.

But as fine as those attempts have been, none can touch Lost Girls for unflinching, unabashed depraved eros. This book wallows in the porn that Victorians like Dodgson and Barrie could only drop frustrated hints at, transgressing every boundary of taste and sense, plunging the reader into something steamy, uncomfortable, and beautiful.

One final note about the physical object -- this is a fantastically well-designed and well-made artifact. The three oversized volumes, their slipcase, and their dustjackets are handsome, solid, and well-thought through. This would make the kind of gift that causes jaws to drop. Link (Thanks, Olga!)

Previously: Alan Moore's erotic "Lost Girls" and Peter Pan copyright woes

Update: Check out this interview that sexologist Susie Bright conducted with Moore and Gebbie -- and the accompanying Flickr set.

Update 2: Eric sez, "There is absolutely no truth to the story of Baum basing Dorothy on an abused student he met when he was a teacher. This is an incident that was created entirely for the novel 'Was'."

posted by Cory Doctorow at 11:16:24 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments