Review: The Vesuvius Club

Here’s a fun adventure graphic novel I’ve just discovered: adapted from his own book by gay writer Mark Gatiss, The Vesuvius Club tells a story of Lucifer Box, a decadent, bisexual secret agent working for the British Crown at the turn of the XXth Century.
What’s funny for me is that, even though I only recently learned about the existence of the Vesuvius Club, I already knew Gatiss’s name: he’s written a nice biography of gay film director James Whale (Frankenstein, The Invisible Man; also the main character of the excellent film Gods and Monsters), and he’s worked on Doctor Who, including the current, gay-friendly series.

Box shoots straight

In this 100-page graphic novel, Gatiss builds a slightly skewed world where secret agents meet in loos (was that a reference to Marvel’s SHIELD having an entrance at a barber’s shop?) and an original type of zombies roam the night. Not that far from the ambiance of Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, in fact (the use of period ads for the inside covers is another resemblance). Box himself is a portraitist and lives at 9, Downing Street–he probably doesn’t have to worry about the neighbors. He’s also a very competent and amoral secret agent who finds himself on the trail of the murderers of a bunch of vulcanologists. A trail which leads him to Italy, and the arms of Charlie Jackpot, a young, hunky servant begging to be removed from the service of an old fogey. Box is more than pleased to help a young man in distress…

The delightful Charlie Jackpot

Ian Bass’s art is a lot of fun. He’s got an attention to detail that helps realise Gatiss’s vision, and his style is a good balance between realism and cartoony (the way he draws faces, and especially eyes, made me think of early Barry Windsor-Smith). That, and he draws cute guys.
The tone of the book is rather light, even in the more somber or action parts, but the humor isn’t forced. The Vesuvius Club (available at Amazon) is a really entertaining read, and I now intend to buy the book from which it was adapted and see what Gatiss alone can do. A second book has also just been published.