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  1. #1
    Uncanny Member MajorHoy's Avatar
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    Default Has Witchfinder ever met up with . . .

    Have there been any stories where Sir Edward Grey ever met up with / encountered:
    * Sherlock Holmes and/or Dr.Watson?
    * Charles Dickens and/or Wilkie Collins?
    * Bram Stoker?
    * Count Dracula?
    * Jack the Ripper?

  2. #2
    Spectacular Member Skinkie's Avatar
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    No stories out there, though it's mentioned that a dispute about the identity of Jack the Ripper is what eventually leads him to leave the service of the crown.

  3. #3
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    Interesting question. What is the canonicity of these characters? In my mind, since Frankenstein's monster exists in this world as an actual entity, it is possible that Dracula and Sherlock Holmes do too. I think it's also likely that Shelley, Stoker, and Doyle exist too, though maybe their works were either non-existent or more documentary than fictional in this case. Dickens exists, and I'd imagine Collins did too.

    He certainly had a run-in with Jack the Ripper, and I really hope we get to see that in print. It's one of the things I am anxiously waiting on in fact. How could they not?

    I'd imagine Dracula's death at the end of Dracula would prevent him from meeting the vampire. Frankenstein's (the novel) canonicity in the Hellboy world would suggest (but only suggest) that Dracula would also be canon. His meeting Sherlock might be interesting, but I'd imagine the two of them move in quite different circles, as Sherlock dealt more with actual crime and Grey deals with the supernatural. They'd probably dislike one-another.

    What would a meeting between Edward Grey and a writer of fiction such as Dickens serve in story terms? Would we see the usually dour and scientifically minded Dickens ruined by the truth that the supernatural actually exists? Didn't they already do that story on Doctor Who? Who knows.

  4. #4
    Uncanny Member MajorHoy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by zerodemon View Post
    Interesting question. What is the canonicity of these characters? In my mind, since Frankenstein's monster exists in this world as an actual entity, it is possible that Dracula and Sherlock Holmes do too. I think it's also likely that Shelley, Stoker, and Doyle exist too, . . .
    I didn't include Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley in my questions because she died in 1851. When was Grey suppose to have been born? (I'd imagine he would have been quite young when she died.)

  5. #5
    Uncanny Member MajorHoy's Avatar
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    Another one that might be interesting is Grey encountering an early Sigmund Freud (who was born in 1856).
    Maybe Freud's theories could be based in part on some interactions with demons or such?

  6. #6

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    Considering Frankenstein and the pop culture around Frankenstein (like the Karloff films) exist in the Hellboy Universe, I'm reasonably certain Mary Shelley does too. I know they changed the dates in Frankenstein Underground from the floppies to the trade so that it fit in better with the novel, suggesting that Shelley's novel is at least somewhat accurate. Whether her book is regarded as fiction, historical fiction, or non-fiction though still remains a question. Frankenstein is a rare exception though. In general, Mignola tends to prefer creating his own version of characters rather than using someone else's. So Giurescu is clearly drawn from Dracula, and yet distinctly a different entity.

    The Jack the Ripper stuff will show up in Witchfinder when the books get to 1888 and 1889. As for other historical figures, maybe? I like that stuff kept to a minimum personally. I find it makes the past seem like a very small world. Witchfinder could make it work though, since Sir Edward knows Queen Victoria and she can function as a pretty solid link to famous figures of the time.

    Quote Originally Posted by MajorHoy View Post
    I didn't include Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley in my questions because she died in 1851. When was Grey suppose to have been born? (I'd imagine he would have been quite young when she died.)
    Yeah, Ed Grey was born September 1956.

  7. #7
    The Claw of Justice!
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    Did Mike once say that the vampire in House of the Living Dead was Dracula?
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  8. #8
    Incredible Member Kees_L's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by LobsterJohnson View Post
    Did Mike once say that the vampire in House of the Living Dead was Dracula?
    Well there is a CBR Mignola interview from April 2011 (link: https://www.cbr.com/mignola-announce...e-living-dead/) in which mr. Mike announces the book as follows:
    It’s really a parade of crazy things. It’s sort of a Mexican version of one of those Universal “House of Dracula,” “House of Frankenstein” kind of movies. It’s got a parade of different creatures that come and go pretty fast. It’s one of my favorite things I’ve done.
    I don't think just any Dracula would be made part of the Mignolaverse, but I do believe that specifically old movies as potentially the aforementioned House of Dracula movie have been mentioned by mr Mike as being influences for Hellboy as having developed in Mignola's own head onto becoming the vehicle he wanted to make his books about, as the monster stuff he wanted to draw?

    I think Edward Grey is in ways a very particular period-specific kind of character both as comic title in being Victorian, but the stuff Grey encounters or which he involves himself with is not limited to being Victorian only. As Middenway says his world is made bigger than that.

    But in regards to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein I feel mr Mike brings his character back to being Victorian by portraying him with as much feeling and frailty and Romantism in the sense of Frank proving as much a toy or husk for heavy weathers to mess with as much as any (ex-)being.

    To say that "Victorian" won't be only a period by date but also a modern time where stuff was regarded in a specific way in some specific parts, like for instance how nobility or privilege-by-lineage was (*finally*) accepted as being no longer a thing but upbringing or education was what would *make* a person as much as their character. Like also how the idea of "free time" or hobbies would seem particularly Victorian ideas rather much?

    The question mark as referring to me being Dutch and not native to Britain in the slightest as such, to stipulate that the label "Victorian" will in itself be British in origin and not used in my native Netherlands during the same period, eventhough the times and customs or developments may have been shared or appeared quite similar.
    I work at a historic municipal archive and around 1850 there were certain specific stuffs happening, such as rich clueless or hobby-seeking folk returning to their Fatherland from out of exotic colonial places because their exploitative reign would be over. And their new houses and enterprises and clothing would be most distinctly altering the lands at least back then.
    Last edited by Kees_L; 08-01-2018 at 10:20 AM.
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  9. #9
    The Claw of Justice!
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    I thought I remembered him actually confirming that the vampire was Dracula, but I might be misremembering. And he may have been joking.
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