Abe Sapien #31: The Black School

[middenway]

Basically, the timeline works until March 2006, when Roger dies. From then on it gets rather patchy. The first story to really break the timeline was The Pickens County Horrow which made references to the time being 2012. Throughout Abe Sapien Dark and Terrible and B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth this has gotten worse. The stories are for the most part treated as if they are set in the same time period that they come out, but the time that elapses between each story is relatively short, creating an ever widening gulf between when the story is set and when the story should be set according to the timeframes mentioned by the characters.

I've basically given up at this point. The timeline's a mess. All I really care about is when an event happens relative to another event. So the current Abe Sapien story is set after The Devil's Wings, but before End of Days.

[Kees_L]

Basically, the timeline works until March 2006, when Roger dies. From then on it gets rather patchy. The first story to really break the timeline was The Pickens County Horrow which made references to the time being 2012. Throughout Abe Sapien Dark and Terrible and B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth this has gotten worse. The stories are for the most part treated as if they are set in the same time period that they come out, but the time that elapses between each story is relatively short, creating an ever widening gulf between when the story is set and when the story should be set according to the timeframes mentioned by the characters.

I've basically given up at this point. The timeline's a mess. All I really care about is when an event happens relative to another event. So the current Abe Sapien story is set after The Devil's Wings, but before End of Days.

Interesting.
Without wanting to quibble or be to put words into anybodies mouths, I myself at least don't feel that any timelines would neededly seem broken at any point for any of the stories.

To me it seems deliberate that the Mignolaverse storytelling may be keeping itself from cornering itself with still wanting to allow any perspectives to be picked up on as organically as possible, towards how readers themselves could be experiencing their own reading or expectancies for themselves a good bit.

I don't think that the storytelling as even with producing dates to events or encounters (some dates yet never all the time) are necessarily offering timelines without any lapses to occur for any new panel or turn of a page. Readers could estimate timeframes but they couldn't be to pinpoint the date to everything as a result? Even as per story? Since each new reading or estimate could feel different already?

It even appears so that any potential title might alter certain deliberations or readings into things for as long as continuities would be continuing.

Since dates stuck onto events (or usually not dates but 'years' more rather) wouldn't necessarily make stories or whatever deliberations onto them as neededly being to equate?

Just saying.

I don't think it's faulty for comics or storylines to appear "lapsy" or "patchy". It's logical that daytime or nighttime shadow-positions aren't used as a plot point for how many hours or days a mini-series might involve. I think that storytelling in itself will likely transcend or differ from any straight-up being or occurring as-is. As how pacing or phrasing will likely amount to such quite pivotally, more rather than not?

Dates adding up will be dandy, but stories setting out to doing more than just "adding up" would seem way more spectacular or fun to me. Especially for something as organical and intricate as what each of the Mignolaverse titles could be amounting to, on the whole - not just for myself but for any types of readers potentially?