Book News, In Brief

Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill are back with a third volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, titled The Black Dossier. This time around, the comic will not be serialized. Instead, it will be released on Nov. 14 in one hardbound, $30 package, including a 3-D section and a small 'Tijuana Bible' insert. For a sneak peek at the first four pages, click here.

In Australia, an imprisoned drug dealer and gangland murderer made things even worse for himself when a tell-all memoir that he wrote about his own exploits was seized by officers of the prison that he is housed in. While the corrections officials are claiming that the only reason the book was taken was to protect the author, it's probably safe to say that they're also going to be scouring it, looking for anything illegal that they might have missed the last time they had him in front of a judge. Prison officials also used their brief moment in the press' spotlight to critique the reprobate's prose, saying, "I couldn't see him giving Jeffrey Archer a run for his money...I think it's safe to say it would need a fair bit of ghost-writing." Shanks...er, thanks for the advice, warden.

Disgraced Canadian press baron Conrad Black may be barred from his homeland, but that didn't stop him from holding a book signing there this past Monday. Black used a do-hickey called the 'LongPen', a device which was designed by Margaret Atwood to allow her and her fellow authors to 'virtually' sign books from afar. According to an article in CTV.ca, "the LongPen comprises a video screen and digital writing pad at one location and a video screen and automated pen at another. People placed their books in the device at the Toronto bookstore, while Black wrote his message in an electronic writing tablet in Florida with a magnetic pen. Once he pushed 'send,' the pen inscribed the book, in real ink, at the other end."
Should that Aussie author doing twenty to life ever get his book published, I see this as a great way for him to hold meet and greets.