Mignolaverse Fictional Timeline

[Skinkie]

Agreed, this looks excellent

[Power Hungry Monkey]

Thanks guys.

As I've said before, most of the content is taken word-for-word from the Companion but I have then gone through every entry and tried to find where these events are referenced in the comics. Some of them have been made up for the timeline, to fill in a bit of info of characters like the birthdates of some of the characters and others I haven't dug into enough yet to find. I have then gone over it and tried to add in as much from stuff published post Darkness Calls and Killing Ground as I could find. Thankfully there are plenty of dates mentioned that I was able to add into and stories like The Whittier Legacy and Those that go down to the Sea in Ships have a lot of dates that I can slip into the timeline. Actually for Ships I got a bit of info from real life to match up dates for Blackbeard's death and such.

As far as I know nothing from the Weird Tales collections is counted as cannon even though a lot of it is written as if it where. I certainly haven't been able to find any dates or entries that match up to any of the stories. Also I have inculded the dates for Hellboy's death as mentioned previously as right now I think that actually is an acurate date and its the only one I've seen anywhere. This is still a work in progress (as you can see by the March 1932 entry) and I struggle sometimes to give an account of the events in a time without just re-telling the whole comic. I, like the creators, don't want to give all the info away. I've put this here to make people want to read more of the comics, not to read instead of the comics.

I hope you all enjoy the look into the world of Hellboy and for anyone who was like me and only read one of the titles for ages I hope this gets you in the mood to branch out into the entire 'verse. Once again any help of information is welcomed and greatly appreciated. I'd like to make this as comprehensive as possible and if possible make it a community effort for anyone who is as interested as I am.

Cheers. PHM

[Power Hungry Monkey]

Hello all!

Been a while since I've done any work on the timelone, been waiting until Frankenstein Underground comes out but with the last issue of Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. revealing a bit more info on what's going on I thought I would update the entry for 1952. This lead me to go back to all the Lobster Johnson stuff and get that updated and then I took a look back at Hellboy in Hell and realised I hadn't put in anything for The Three Gold Whips, so that's in there too now. Not a big update but its another few entries than before. Once Frankenstein kicks off I'm hoping to add a lot more as every interview and review says its going to give a lot of info on the history of the Mignolaverse, hopefully a lot of dates too.

Here's the link to the updated timeline and I'll update the link in my sig too.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4M...ew?usp=sharing

Cheers, PHM

[Kees_L]

Once Frankenstein kicks off I'm hoping to add a lot more as every interview and review says its going to give a lot of info on the history of the Mignolaverse, hopefully a lot of dates too.

Well, the exact wordings of the press release on Frankenstein Underground (http://www.darkhorse.com/Blog/1857/m...underground-20) were that it would "add a new wrinkle" and "shed new light on some of the biggest mysteries of the Mignolaverse".

I personally doubt that wouldn't go further than merely adding dates or adding perspective in a linear or chronological sense.

Since storytelling would most generally be transcending such, at least any storytelling such as what the Mignolaverse has been amounting to would certainly be trancending such.

I don't mean to sound or speak as if I wouldn't or couldn't appreciate a timeline, since I can like them fine.
But at the same time it seems to me that the experience of going through the Companion or any of the many assembled timelines for Hellboy's world as yet, openly signifies how the storytelling aspects appear made as to be suiting storytelling moreso than timelines.

Like if a story world would be an ant-farm, it wouldn't be scientific or factual all of a sudden, or only if there would be kept a 24-7 study and analysis and log if not full footage to any of it. Even if a story world would be really nifty and intricate, a story world would differ from reality or factuality per se, because authors both as readers and in case of the Mignolaverse even the characters would be part of what any of the storytelling would end up as being to amount to.

Plus, be it reality or fiction, points of reference may work differently than merely proving categorical or chronological or apt to being fixed or pinpointed most minutely, in case of duality or paradox or mystery as needing to arise.

For instance the duality between the Ogdru Jahad as a creator-deity and the Hand Anung Un Rama hasn't (yet) received a date stuck onto it, but due to the comics revealing them to having existed as far back as the ancient times of King Thoth (a name referencing ancienthood and even as equating to the proto-Egyptian God of Writing!) getting portrayed as Hyperborean King, having been married to the Goddess Hecate already in her human form, before she would be to become a Goddess for Witches and the Wayward, between which there will have passed aeons.

As for Hellboy himself, time may very well be different than normal, having a dad named Azzael, a name identifiable with a fallen angel of sorts, something as according to the comics having taken place in the early times pertaining to the Ogdru Jahad, yet as containing no dates.
Hellboy's mom does render a date, however as needing to be tens if not hundreds of thousands of years later in time.
So either Azzael will have been capable of aging well, or he'll have had something to look forward to, as the promise or splendor to Anung Un Rama would be to befall his favorite son.
Potentially. As depending on how to be reading each or any reference from the comics.

And regardless of dates or what lifetimes to belong to, Kate Corrigan could become trapped in somebody's painting as convening with collectible demon lords. Both as Liz or Abe or Hellboy could become saught out by whomever. They could come to be dealing with slain crusaders or either dead yet bearded DIY reanimators, as proving poignant in ways yet not necessarily chronogically but the very opposite more rather.

In case of Frankenstein Underground I believe mr Mike divulged - prior to publication - that to him his particular Frankenstein monster contains a lot of Mary Shelley's novel but also he's meant to sound a lot like actor Boris Karloff's version.
Those features hardly seem clinically factual or chronological too much, but still apparently mr Mike thought it of note to introduce potential readers onto such, eventhough he leaves it open whether any of it would come to being poignant or significant at all.

Anyway, just for adding to the conversation.

[Power Hungry Monkey]

Hey Hey!

So it seems its been almost a year since I last updated the timeline here, sorry for the threadomancy but that was always gonna be the case with this one. I've been slowly adding in dates and events as they've cropped up in the comics (the Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. series and the recent Abe Sapien arc have been great for this) and have also had a look back at a few of the older comics that I felt I missed stuff in.

There's a good bit of new material in there now with info from Abe Sapien, Hellboy in Hell, Lobster Johnson, Hellboy and the B.P.R.D as well as some of the Dark Horse Presents and Christmas specials. Hopefully its enough to interest people. As always, please let me know if you can see something I've missed or that you think is explicitly referenced in an additional title to what I have it attributed to. Link below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4M...ew?usp=sharing

Thanks again, PHM

PS. I know the B.P.R.D. Vampire stuff for the late 40's has still not been updated. It'll happen

[Power Hungry Monkey]

Back again!

Another update to the timeline and this time its a pretty major one. Lots of stuff on Gustav Strobl thanks to Abe Sapien: Witchcraft and Demonology and The Black School and a few things for Hellboy from the 1953 series. The big input comes from the B.P.R.D. story arcs after Killing Ground. As I've said, a lot of the info in the timeline comes from the Companion, since that runs out just after Killing Ground and Hellboy: Darkness Calls its been hard to add in anyhting thats set since then due to a near complete lack of dates. Well I've gone back and re-re-re-read The Black Goddess, The Warning and King of Fear and managed to fit some stuff in thanks to the Abe reference at the end of Witchfinder: The Mysteries of Unland. So a whole mess of stuff has been added in there up to the begining of the massive Hell on Earth arc. I'm anticipating a good deal more info popping up in the new Rise of the Black Flame too. That's actually what got me back into the timeline again, page one, opeing panel: Liz and the Black Flame, New York, 2014 during the events of Reign of the Black Flame. I had a date to work from and so got back into it.

Here I've run into a serious problem though. Namely, the events in B.P.R.D. and those in Hellboy set at the same time (The Wild Hunt, The Storm and The Fury) seem to be about a year out given the dates set down in the Companion. What got me thinkining this is the letter from Hellboy that he sends to Kate and the rest of the B.P.R.D. team after he washes up on shore back in England after drifting around for a few years. This is mentioned in King of Fearby Kate while she and Bruno are taking Johann (possessed by The Lobster) to Haunte Castle. Problem. This is happening at the end of 2006 going off mentions on events and knowing that Killing Ground occurs in late 2006 (as mentioned in Companion). The same Companion mentions corrosponding Hellboy events being in late 2007. Another issue is that the Salton Sea creature pops up at the end of King of Fear (2006) and Hellboy sees a report of it in the news in The Storm (2007) at the same time. Lastley, the destruction of England, caused by the battle between Hellboy and Nimue is mentioned in B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: New World (early 2007) and occurs in Hellboy: The Fury in late 2007. Gah!

Ok, I know I'm going a bit nuts with this but I finally made a brake through on the rest of B.P.R.D. only to discover this problem. I know the probable reason is just that the Companion isnt acurate or that none of the writers were that concerned about the dates lining up so exactly. We all know what's supposed to line up to what and where things fit together over all the titels (for the main part anyway). Its just me being pedantic and wanting the timeline to be as accurate as possible.

If anyone knows what the heck it is I'm rambling about and cares to help mein figuring this all out it'd be greatly appreaciated. As it is once we I get into Hell on Earth the dates for things vanish again but its fun to try to nut it out. Below and in my sig are links to the latest update. There are a lot of sections that I've half-started or left open that need to be completed (I still haven't gotten back to Vampire yet to finish that off either).

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4...1UyMjZOY2VyMzg

Thanks in advance.
PHM

NB: I've also come to realise that the abriviated timeline published by Dark Horse a while ago (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4...VhfdDdZMlI2ZW8) is infact totally out of syn with the actual timeline as was previously mentioned to me. I have yet to edit/remove that info from my timeline

[Kees_L]

Back again!

Hello. It's fun to see you are having fun with your reading.

You appear to be proposing how "the timeline" and any logic or chronology to distill from Mignolaverse titles would somehow have to be this one singular thing?
I personally would think a timeline more rather abbreviates things or particularizes certain viewpoints moreso than encorporating just everything?

I think the point to any timeline or schematic would be to highlight or make plain certain aspects, preferably never all-at-once or all-too clutteringly. Which seems the opposite of encorporating everything?

No matter how adequate (or not) a timeline could be made, I would believe the more designated way onto perceiving a story world would have to be the appreciating the stories moreso than anything else?

I share much of your apparent enthusiasm towards figuring things out, but I'd consider the reading of the stories more important than even the completest timeline I'm sure.

I do not think there'd have to be but one viewpoint set in stone or but one all-encompassing timeline necessarily at all.
Plus I hardly think the Hellboy Companion was ever designed to be or become such. Any reader can read in its "official foreword" how any "official timeline" wouldn't remotely need to be either "100% correct" or either all encompassing.

I don't think Dark Horse will ever "update" their 2008-version, being a timeline they did back then in 2007-2008. Presumably they would make a new version now, because the story world itself hasn't been this static thing since 2008.
But instead its evolvement would have to get regarded as proving a constant factor eversince. as much as it did at any point before.
Plus readers both as creative contributors both as any viewpoints to have wouldn't neededly but correspond or prove only static neither.

In order to 'fit' or prove 'complete' and 'correct' I'd believe countless or at least various different timelines would be possible.
And for wonderment and mystery any apparent 'mistakes' or 'inconcistencies' would be plusses instead of anything bad. Should everything just totally align or prove in-sync in Hellboy's world, that's the moment as a fan you know you'd never wanna witness. Would be my take.

[Power Hungry Monkey]

Thanks for the feedback Kees_L.

The story to me is the important part of all this, the timeline is an extra bonus for me. I think a lot off people (going of some of the feedback here and comments elsewhere) were really excited to read the Companion timeline when it came out and to see where some of the pieces fit together. I certainly wasn't all that interested in the greater Mignolaverse outside of Hellboy until I read it and saw how much else was going on the the world and the other titles. The timeline prompted me to read B.P.R.D. and from there to carry onto Abe Sapien, Lobster Johnson and Witchfinder and to get immeresed in this world more than ever. Now I get every issue for every title as it comes out.

That's what I'm hoping to encourage with my updates and expansions to that timeline. I know other people are dieing for an official update that will never happen (for good reasons that have been mentioned an re-hashed many times) so I'm hoping to do the next best thing for myself and for anyone who's interested. This was always a personal project for my own enjoyment and its given me a greater enjoyment of the 'verse as a whole and respect to the various writers and artists who are able to take mentions of stuff from 20 years ago and give it a nod or expand it into a full story or character. I've shared this here so that others who are interested can see it and so I can hopefully get some help where I'm stuck on a reference or the like.

Its never going to be a finished thing even if I manage to source where every event in the comics takes place because there is still so much that will never be explained and large chapters in history that will be left blank. In the end, its a fun project that gives me a good excuse to paw over comics for hours on end

[Kees_L]

Its never going to be a finished thing even if I manage to source where every event in the comics takes place because there is still so much that will never be explained and large chapters in history that will be left blank. In the end, its a fun project that gives me a good excuse to paw over comics for hours on end

Cool, thanks for explaining that. I'm glad you won't or wouldn't be experiencing any apparent anomalies in the dates to seeming *faults* in your own eyes!

I'm personally still not certain whether or not any strange time lapses or inconsistencies between Hellboy and 'the normal world' may have been made to seemingly occur on purpose. As of Hellboy: Strange Places.
And after that Hellboy seems to hop or shift in and out of the normal world potentially, like his stay at a dead man's house or him facing a li'l dude in a stove / li'l big ears person or how he faces the Russian comb-girl-benevolent spirit / the House-of-the-Fly gatekeepin' demon or that chess lady Morrigáin who hardly seems normal neither. With on the other hand the police guy or the car trip or the handwritten letter which pretty much do seem part of the normal world.

For Hellboy and likely Alice it won't necessarily be abnormal to encounter or convene with weirdness (since Alice counts as "touched by faeries" as a baby) but still, to me it seems likely that leading up to the Fury's finale they may actually have been 'walking the edge of realms' already a good deal. Which could explain apparent anomalies at least between Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. eversince Hellboy's departure from the team.

[Power Hungry Monkey]

I've been thinking about Hellboy not really fitting into 'normal' time anymore since leaving for Africa. There is a lot of time that passes in the real world that just seems to vanish for Hellboy during that time. A good example is him drifiting round on the world's oceans for 2 years after his encounter with the Bog-roosh and the events of The Island. That may go a good way to explaining anomolies betwen the Hellboy titels and others such as B.P.R.D.

After my last post and mentioning how working on this timeline has helped me enjoy the 'verse in a whole new way, I picked up Witchfinder: City of the Dead issue 2 and was rewarded instantly. Not only did Mohlomi pop up (a link that has been waiting to happen since Hellboy: The Island) but we also got Tefnut at the Heliopic Brotherhood hideout (Frankenstein Underground) and as the best part, a throw-away line from Hellboy: Wake the Devil has finally come round after 20 years and we get more on Vladamir Girascue and Sir Edward's encounter with him (not to mention Hecate making a return to the 'verse as well). I was litterally grinning like a moron when it was mentioned that the graveyard was owned by a European family that has held the title for centuries. I'd been waiting for Grey to meet Girascue and this was the tip off.

That is why I've enjoyed working on the timeline and why its given me such a greater appreciation and knowledge of the Mignolaverse.

[MajorHoy]

By the way, here's what Dark Horse is offering as a Hellboy-related timeline:


https://images.darkhorse.com/darkhor...setimeline.jpg