The closing years of the nineteenth century have been tumultuous for London. The City Fathers, the ancient spiritual defenders of the realm, allowed themselves to be murdered and dragged down a conspiracy of the great and the good with them. “Buffalo Bill" Cody came to town in search of a dragon’s egg, bringing with him an army of zombies, monsters, Chinese Hopping Vampires and eldritch beasts from beyond the veil. The mechanical genius Countess Irena Bernoulli took matters into her own claw-like hands and decided to change the city and its inhabitants by force, leading her to wage war from an invisible airship high above the metropolis. And always in the shadows, always working to bring his own designs to fruition: STICKLEBACK! The Pope of Crime!
Stickleback is dead. His gang too, or else scattered to the four winds. London has changed much in his absence, and will soon change again even more…
Stickleback appeared in 2000AD in British comic anthology 2007, and I’ve been trying to storytime the complete sequence over the last week or so to follow Ampney Crucis Investigates () and Leviathan () by the same creative teams. Just as those two were 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. If you're interested in the kind of fictional mashup universes of things like Kim Newman's Anno Dracula series or Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentleman and Providence there's a lot of appeal too.
If you're reading along please bump from time to time.
My internet connection remains pretty poor as well, but we'll struggle on as long as we can..
Carson Campbell
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Asher King
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Jayden Torres
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Nicholas Torres
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Anthony Reyes
This is Stickleback: The Number of the Beast.
Carson Martinez
Stickleback stories are stuffed to the gills with little background jokes and references, and part of the fun is looking out for them. On this page , for example, are a tonne of old Doctor Who, Ray Harryhausen and Godzilla/Godzilla knockoffs, while on this one we have Camberwick Green, Hellraiser and the original James Whale/Boris Karloff Frankenstein.
Orlando, the man in the fetching blindfold, is one of the villains from another Ian Edginton series, The Red Seas. The design is also a call back to Leviathan’s Hastur, though what that means has yet to be fully explored
Christian Garcia
I've been looking for Shakaranon threads for ten days trying to find out if there was any more Ampney Crucis, and you mean to tell me you've be doing other things entirely? You're breaking my heart Shakaranon!
Blake Diaz
This is how the last book ended .
The Judas Silver have previously appeared in Stickleback: England’s Glory. These are the 30 pieces of silver paid the apostle to Judas Iscariot for betraying Jesus Christ, which Stickleback has been using as currency to buy favours from Orlando Doyle and his Brotherhood of the Book.
Easton Morales
To be fair, to be ABSOLUTELY fair, I did do all of the published Ampney Crucis Investigates first and Stickleback directly links to at least one of Ampney's realities/timelines.
Its been a bit more sporadic at my end because my ISP keeps deciding to turn off the tubes, apparently on a whim, I had hoped to get this done in a couple of threads almost as soon as Ampney ended.
Joshua Martinez
Well I'll be a monkey's uncle.
Camden Bennett
The script-droids responsible for making 2000AD made a booboo in the first panel here and forgot to fill in the background of the text bubble. It reads:
>You know, there's a certain IRONY to be had here. This brave new world would not have come to pass had it not been for your intervention.
Professor Challenger is a character from Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Lost World”, the story of which is basically recounted here in the first couple of panels.
Brayden Clark
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Benjamin Jenkins
Spot the oriental tropes and/or actors. Hint: that’s a Victorian Kurt Russel in the middle.
Miss Scarlet is quite possibly the only living survivor of Stickleback’s original gang.
Nicholas King
The White Lotus Empress appeared at the end of England’s Glory to rescue Stickleback. She rules the Limehouse underworld, is one of the few people the crimelord appears to fear, and is the mother of his son.
She's essentially a female Fu Manchu.
Adam Ross
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Mason Gonzalez
Not directly relevant to Veeky Forums, but this is lovely use of panelling for storytelling purposes.
Brody Gonzalez
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Hudson Lee
Left, in the hat and moustache: Horror author Kim Newman (Anno Dracula sequence, Warhammer’s Genevieve stories as Jack Yeovil) with his heroines Kate Reid and Genevieve Dieudone. Top: Lord Talbot is Brian Talbot, veteran British comics illustrator and writer (whose work you might have seen in Book Four of Nemesis the Warlock, the Victorian pastiche one) Middle: Rodney and Del Boy Trotter, Only Fools and Horses.
Justin Jackson
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Anthony Perry
Doctor Septimus Pretorius appears in The Bride of Frankesntein (1935). He’s the mad scientist who convinces Henry Frankenstein to resume his studies in reanimation.
Jeremiah Perry
In the Kingdom of the Blind...
Angel Collins
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James Anderson
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Ian Butler
I suspect the American scientist mentioned here is one Curtis Connors of New York City, whom you may have read about in the Marvellous funny pages. Liked lizards, hated spiders.
Asher Butler
A self-experimenting doctor Henry with mood swings and a violent friend, now where have I read that before?
Toshing was a real job, and Toshers did tell stories of a Rat Queen who would bring them luck.
>A second myth, far more eagerly believed, told of the existence (Jacqueline Simpson and Jennifer Westwood record) “of a mysterious, luck-bringing Queen Rat”: >This was a supernatural creature whose true appearance was that of a rat; she would follow the toshers about, invisibly, as they worked, and when she saw one that she fancied she would turn into a sexy-looking woman and accost him. If he gave her a night to remember, she would give him luck in his work; he would be sure to find plenty of money and valuables. He would not necessarily guess who she was, for though the Queen Rat did have certain peculiarities in her human form (her eyes reflected light like an animal’s, and she had claws on her toes), he probably would not notice them while making love in some dark corner. But if he did suspect, and talked about her, his luck would change at once; he might well drown, or meet with some horrible accident.
It also has stories about the London equivalent to albino alligators – the feral sewer pigs.
Carter Ward
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Landon Mitchell
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Jeremiah Reyes
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Isaiah Butler
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Camden Bailey
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Asher Hernandez
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Robert James
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Jace Wilson
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Hunter Perez
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Thomas Rogers
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Matthew Torres
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Cooper Gonzalez
Remember how I said Miss Scarlet was the only ‘living’ survivor of Stickleback’s original gang?
Michael Nguyen
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Blake Thompson
JESUS MARY AND FRIGGIN' HAIRY JOSEPH! HE'S GOT A LITTLE FELLA INSIDE OF HIM!
Luis James
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Andrew Clark
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Angel Lee
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Henry Hernandez
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Angel Ramirez
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Bentley Parker
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Adrian Cruz
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Juan Gray
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Ryder Jones
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Ryder Howard
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Lucas Sullivan
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Joseph Garcia
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Cooper Foster
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Bentley Cook
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Jaxson Cox
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Brandon Bell
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Isaiah Reyes
In the first Stickleback story, Mother London, it was revealed that a mighty oak grew beneath the city with two mystic guardians bound to it for all eternity. Stickleback burnt the tree and its guardians…
One last Stickleback story remains to tie up a lot of loose ends. Hopefully I'll be able to do it later tonight.
Tyler Thomas
This is dank.
Juan Richardson
Geeze, harder to read on my phone than I thought it would be.
I can't keep up, but in damn well reading it all when I get home. You're a Christmas miracle, Shakaranon.
Josiah Hughes
Glad you liked it! ... I assume that means you liked it.
If you've not already read them, definitely go read Ampney Crucis (absurdly English toff and his butler bumble around foiling the plans of Lovecraftian abominations) and Leviathan (Event Horizon meets Titanic). I'm fairly certain I've got The Red Seas if you're interested in that too.
Oh its no biggie, just something I like doing. Captcha and the post cooldowns are a complete pain in the bum, mind you.
Is there anything you'd be particularly interested in me storytiming, either a specific story or a general genre? I can't promise anything but I can do my best.
Jaxson Morales
I liked eldritch stuff- Crucis, leviathan (when you shared it years ago)- Nikolai Dante and the more, uh, """serious """ Dredd stuff? Wally Squad, Simping Detective, libertie, egalitie, fraternitie, etc were all favorites. Anything you can provide commentary on is great too- is always fun to learn about stuff as I read it.
You've had pretty good taste, desu. Your curated tour hasn't gone very wrong that I can remember.
Oliver Reed
Bump the thread, make it real!
Jordan Collins
Oh great Shakaranon, where might I find copies of these to peruse at my leisure while my spawn sleeps in the night?
Sebastian Miller
Doh! Never mind. My sleep deprived mind sees it. Thank you OP
Isaac Cook
From left to right; Chang and Mr Sin from Dr Who: The Talons of Weng-Chiang, Thunder, Wind and Lightning from Big Trouble in Little China, and Lone Wolf and Cub. I suspect that I'm still missing someone.
Luke Roberts
Should be ready to go soon, ladies, gentlemen and amorphous star-things.
Okey-dokey, I'll see what I can see. I do find it funny seeing The Simping Detective in with "Serious" Dredd, though I get what you mean!
Quite alright, dealing with a brood saps the will of even the hardiest soul. How old is the spawn?
You missed: David Carradine twice, as Caine from the 70s tv show Kung Fu and Bill from Kill Bill, though the likeness isn't great.. Related to Kill Bill, Lucy Liu's O-Ren Ishii and the Crazy 88 are right at the back, while the sushi-maker chopping up tiny Cthulhu is Sonny Chiba, who played a similar role in the film. The White Lotus Empress is also a call back to the Hong Kong martial arts movie Clan of the White Lotus / Fist of the White Lotus. youtube.com/watch?v=2e6b4TNMMCU
I believe Quentin Tarrantino took the white-haired priest from that for Pai Mei in Kill Bill 2, rounding out things.
Nathan Foster
Ladies and Gentlemen, the final Stickleback story: The Thru'penny Opera.
The title of this final story is a play on ‘The Threepenny Opera’, a “play with music” by Elisabeth Hauptmann and Bertolt Brecht which first opened in 1928. The play is itself based on John Gay’s 18th century Ballad Opera ‘The Begger’s Opera’, and offers a socialist critique of a capitalist world threepennyopera.org/
Several of the songs have become standards you’ve likely heard, particularly The Ballad of Mack the Knife") and "Pirate Jenny".
Fleet, Walbrook, Peck and Effra are all lost London rivers. Some of them survive today in street names (Fleet Street is the traditional home of the British newspaper industry, as well as Sweeny Todd’s old manor), but most are now just part of the sewer network.
>In 1710 Jonathan Swift (author of "Gullivers Travels") mentioned the filth in the Fleet during a storm in a poem: >"Sweepings from Butchers Stalls, Dung, Guts and Blood, >Drown'd Puppies, stinking Sprats, all drench'd in Mud, >Dead Cats and Turnip-Tops come tumbling down the Flood"
My eyes might be deceiving me, but I do believe that's the symbol of Hastur topping the gentleman's cane.
Owen Myers
Ophidian (courtesy Oxford English Dictionary) noun Zoology: A reptile of the group Ophidia; a snake.
adjective Zoology: Relating to or denoting snakes.
Nicholas Miller
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Josiah Ross
There was a crooked man and he walked a crooked mile, He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile. He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse. And they all lived together in a little crooked house.
Elijah Butler
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Lincoln Morris
Grouty senior was burned alive five years (and a bit) earlier for defying Stickleback, at the start of London’s Burning.
Samuel Miller
The clearest evidence yet that Stickleback is somebody's PC.
Joseph Murphy
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Logan Rodriguez
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Landon Butler
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Samuel Edwards
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Zachary Wilson
Bit of word-play here with soles/souls - if the ladies are working on their back, so to speak, they'd have the soles of their feet up in the air.
Nathan Hughes
"To beard the Lion in his den" is a phrase meaning to confront danger or risk directly, especially with the possibility of rich rewards. Comes from the 1 Samuel.
Sebastian Sanchez
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Juan Myers
I would also have accepted the answer "a nun chewing razorblades".
I’m convinced Mr Bullish is from something, though what it is completely escapes me at the moment. A Red Top in general is the name given to a range of British tabloid newspapers like The Sun, which indulge in the most sensationalism (and generally have red logos).
Mason Flores
Famous bathtub brew of one man and his dog from Aberdeen in the first panel.
