Our setting is London, that ancient city of smog and stories, in a world not quite our own. Stickleback, the Pope of Crime, and his nefarious band of freaks and ne'er-do-wells lurk in the shadows of the great metropolis, spreading fear and mischief to all and sundry! But what do these villains really want, and are they the real threat to the future of the city? Detective Valentine Bey, hot on the heels of the crime lord, intends to find out - no matter the cost...
Stickleback appeared in 2000AD in British comic anthology 2007, with the first two stories collected into one book in 2008. It's another ripping yarn by Ian Edginton and frequent collaborator D'Israeli, the team behind Leviathan. Just as Ampney Crucis Investigates (storytimed here at the weekend ) and Leviathan () were excellent inspiration for pulpy Call of Chulthu games, Stickleback is an ideal basis for adventures in steampunk and neo-Victorian settings like Malifaux, Deadlands, Unhallowed Metropolis, Smog 1888 and Fallen London.
Gog and Magog appear in the Bible as enemies of God’s people, though what they truly are is a matter of some debate. Beings named Gog and Magog appear relatively frequently in Edginton’s work (in Ampney Crucis they were the names of two supercomputers), but there’s a specific reason for their appearance here beyond name dropping which I will hopefully remember when we get to it.
Nathaniel Allen
...
Austin Cooper
’Modern’ London, seen here, is based less on how it was in reality and more on the set design from the Carol Reed film adaptation of the musical Oliver!, particularly in the towering buildings linked by bridges.
As anyone with even a passing interest in Lovecraftian fiction knows, Abdul Alhazared is the writer of the dreaded grimoire Necronomicon. Spiritualism, meanwhile, is a belief that the spirits of the dead can communicate with the living through mediums. At its peak, between about 1840 and 1920, Spiritualist churches had millions of members throughout the English-speaking world with millions more occasionally dabbling. Widespread accusations of fraud began to hurt the movement in the 1890s.
Kevin Flores
...
Michael Torres
...
Jacob Campbell
Galatea is the name commonly given to the animated statue sculpted by Pygmalion of Cypress from Greek Mythology (and the origin of the Galateid lineage in Promethean: The Created). Interestingly the name arises in post-classical works – the original stories do not name the statue.
Hudson Thomas
...
Cameron Cook
A typical user, circa 1863.
Bentley Edwards
The Mechanical Turk was a fake 18th century chess-playing robot. While it was advertised as a thinking machine, in reality the Turk was puppeteered by a chess master in a hidden compartment.
Gavin Evans
...
Blake Gomez
...
Ryder White
...
Aiden Lewis
The Jolly Cripple is the favourite establishment of the characters in The Red Seas, another of Ian Edginton’s works. Several characters from this series also make cameos in the background.
Ali Pasha (1740 – 24 January 1822) ruled the Ottoman Empire’s European territories in what is now Greece, Albania and the Balkans.
Bentley Stewart
...
Mason Lopez
...
Brandon Lewis
This series has many, many little references and jokes in the background, and I doubt I’ll be able to get them all. On this page, from left to right, you can see; A sculpture portrait of the demon Hastur, from Leviathan. A poster advertising one Dr Lao, from the film 7 Faces of Dr. Lao The clock from After Eight chocolate mints. A statue of Kali from Ray Harryhausen’s The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
Keep your peeper peeled for more!
Sebastian Rogers
...
Brody Watson
...
Jayden Gomez
If anyone is reading along, would they mind commenting to keep the thread alive and bumpy? Thank you.
Carter Perry
...
Jace Nguyen
...
Austin Ward
“Excuse my French” is an English colloquialism for “pardon my bad language”. In this case, it’s because of the rude bit of punning about purple helmets.
Hunter Perez
Penny Dreadfuls were very cheap popular publications, usually serials and usually about ‘orrible things like murders and serial killings.
This is a Greek Orthodox church and marriage ceremony, specifically based on the Cathedral of Saint Sophia in Bayswater, London stsophia.org.uk/
Isaac Cooper
...
Colton Martinez
...
Mason Foster
...
Mason James
...
Cameron Thompson
The Monarch of the Glen is an 1851 painting by Edwin Henry Landseer with a bloody great red deer stag posed like the dog in the sign. That its this dog in particular indicates that this pub is likely owned by a certain man named Captain McLean from Aberdeen…
Did anyone here go to Asylum Books And Games in Aberdeen around ten years ago? If so, you might vaguely recognise some familiar faces.
Camden Sanchez
...
Lucas Ortiz
That’s a pretty necklace. Lovely design with all those concentric circles.
David Moore
Young Alistair Crowley there in the toga, saying his famous Law of Thelema. Bey’s costume is based on Vincent Price in Roger Corman’s Masque of the Red Death.
Jayden Robinson
Couple of ancient Doctor Who references here in the gargoyle and Lime’s mask.
Brody Gray
Oaks are central to Druidic religion, but enormous magical trees generally come more from Norse mythology.
Joseph Anderson
Nothin' personal kid.
The Salvation Army is a protestant movement and charitable organisation which derives from Methodism and began in 1865. Their uniforms tend not to have gas masks.
Ryder Baker
...
Austin Perry
...
Joseph Wilson
Christ.
Easton Gonzalez
Going back to the start, Gogmagog and Corineus were legendary figures in Welsh and later English folklore as, respectively, a giant and a companion of Brutus of Troy who founded Cornwall and fought giants. They appeared together in English pageantry since at least the coronation of Elizabeth I in 1558 and were instituted as guardian figures on the Guildhall in London in 1709, where they remained on display until their destruction in an air-raid in 1940. Over the years their names got changed to Gog and Magog, and images of them are still carried by Lord Mayors of the City of London in a traditional procession in the Lord Mayor's Show each year on the second Saturday of November. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gogmagog_(giant) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corineus
The next story, England's Glory, focused more on the eponymous arch-criminal and his gang. It also features dragons and cowboys and Jiang-shi, oh my!
Levi Wright
Black dog also sometimes refers to depression
Michael Gray
True, and Winston Churchill's use of the phrase to describe his black moods has lead some authors to suggest he struggled with some form of it himself. In context, however, its probably more about the hairy dog monsters.
Blake Sanchez
Bump
William Wilson
Love D'Isreali's art on these he really goes all out on the details
