The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 2 by Alan Moore

Wasn't anything that we necessarily set out to write. This is something that has purely emerged from the story. That the range of characters and ideas to draw upon have nowhere near the same breadth that they seem to back in the day. There is the thing of the richness of the Victorian or the Edwardian era. And there's also a marked sense that culture is possibly contracting in certain areas. So I suppose inevitably you're going to find in this book that there are contrasts that are going to arise between the different eras. And by the time we return to the League story in 2009, it's a much bleaker cultural landscape still. Certainly by 1969 where pop culture was predominant and previous culture was perhaps in danger of becoming increasingly marginalised. But changes in society over the first 50 years of the century meant that by the middle years culture had changed. They're more often drawn from popular culture, because of course popular culture has expanded incredibly in the 50 years since 1910 when culture was still largely the preserve of an educated elite. By the time we get to 1969 we've got some equally interesting characters but they're a kind of different category.

When we start out in 1910 we have a fairly rich background to draw from – we've got Brecht's Threepenny Opera which was set around that time, we've got all of those wonderful occult characters that were being created around then.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 2 by Alan Moore