League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - Who else could be in it?

[Black Omega]

Excellent stuff.

I'm aiming more for sticking with then Victorian era so I doubt I'd use much from the Mystery Men period of the 1930's and on. But that doesn't mean it could not be adapted. If an Aging Dupin from Poe's works in the 1830s and 1840's could appear, then certainly some precursers to the Pulp heros would work. For example, Clark Savage Jr. (AKA Doc Savage) would probably have been an infant in 1900. But his father, Clark Savage Sr. would have been in the prime of his adventuring career.

And good lord, some interesting ideas. Captain Jas. Hook? O.Z. Diggs? Gives me a good reason to read the old stories.

Count of Monte Cristo is an interesting idea, though it would be another 'years later' thing, since the story is set around 1810.

 

[Viking Bastard]

Planetary (the comic) has a recurring storyline detailing heroes from around the turn of the century.

They specifically use Sherlock, the Invisible Man, Dracula, and I believe Edison, as well as others.

In contrast to them were the 'other' iconics....the Jungle Lord, the Man of Adventure, the Man of the East, the aviator, the investigator, the inventor...

All based on literary characters. Fu Manchu, Doc Savage, the Shadow, Tarzan....I'm sorry I don't know the last three, although I believe Tom Swift was supposed to be one of them.

Here's from the script for Planetary #2:


PAGE FOURTEEN

Pic 1;
FULL PAGE PANEL. Seven icons stand or sit in the center of their hidden complex, a room hewn from rock, chewed out from within the mountain. A bizarre gentlemen’s club, a drawing room of the gods.

Seven icons, living and breathing, torn out of pre-War literature and made real in a secret base inside an American mountain... (BRASS just entering)

DOC SAVAGE -- THE RENAISSANCE MAN - DOCTOR AXEL BRASS

The character is, obviously, Doc Savage, but with enough alterations to prevent lawsuits (as with all the boys below). RED hair cut very short, tanned, dressed like a hunter, white hunter, all in white...

(Ellis note 3/99: There was a fuller description of Axel Brass on a previous page of the script)

FU MANCHU -- THE INSCRUTABLE ORIENTAL - HARK

We’re not going to go the full Fu Manchu route with this guy. I want him dressed very simply, in a black suit, no tie, the only unusual point being his remarkably long, elaborately painted fingernails.

TOM SWIFT -- THE INVENTOR - EDISON

All-American genius boy grown up into a strapping lad, slim and hard; white t-shirt, blue jeans, gun holstered on his hip, the long white lab coat pushed behind the holster, goggles hanging around his neck, oil on his fingers. A gunfighter-mechanic, if you like... an inventor-adventurer.

TARZAN -- JUNGLE KING - "HIS LORDSHIP"

The English Lord raised by gorillas; tall, muscular, dressed in an fine English suit, shirt, waistcoat -- aristocratic -- a cravat of leopardskin betraying his childhood. Seated, perhaps, fingers steepled in front of him, eyes burning, savagery barely contained beneath the veneer of civilised man.

THE SPIDER -- THE MILLIONAIRE

Like The Shadow, only without supernatural powers, and far, far crazier. A genius, but possessed by the need to save the world. Batman with guns and no mood stabilisers. Long leather coat, slouch hat, guns visible. A Spider design down one breast of his longcoat, in grey against the black.

G-8 -- THE AVIATOR

Tan leathers, cracked and worn... old-style jacket, fur trim and all... the very epitome of the Thirties flyer.

OPERATOR 5 -- THE AGENT - "JIMMY"

The Secret Agent; a thin scar over one eye like Fleming’s Bond, American suit and tie (blue, like The Spirit’s?); shoulder holster under the jacket, perhaps shades sticking out of the breast pocket. Young, but sharp, knowledgable beyond his years...

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

There were so many nice historical characters from that time period, I'm finding it difficult to come up with fictional ones.

Something to do with Wild Bill's Wild West show would be interesting, even during that time period that was an odd mix of history and fiction.

 

[Ranger REG]

Wow. So no one mentioned Tom's buddy, Huck Finn?

 

[Black Omega]

Wow. So no one mentioned Tom's buddy, Huck Finn?

Thankfully no.

 

[Viking Bastard]

Why is Tom Sawyer such a big character in the states when
compared to Huck Finn? For a decade I only knew Tom Sawyer
as that lame friend of Huck's.

I doubt the majority of kids here below 12 have ever heard of
Tom, but they've probably most heard of Finn.

 

[Dr_Rictus]

Why is Tom Sawyer such a big character in the states when
compared to Huck Finn? For a decade I only knew Tom Sawyer
as that lame friend of Huck's.

Possibly, at least in part, because he was actually a bigger character for Mark Twain. Most people only know "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," but Twain also wrote a number of other Tom Sawyer stories in "Tom Sawyer Abroad, Tom Sawyer, Detective and other stories."

So making Tom out as a detective is not in fact something they're "doing to Tom Sawyer for the movie," as a previous poster said. It's something Twain himself did, if perhaps a bit off-handedly.

Also, since "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" was actually published nine years before "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," there was plenty of time for Tom to be established as the main character, at least in America. I don't know about the publication dates abroad.

 

[CCamfield]

Unfortunately, virtually none of those characters with analogues in Planetary are appropriate for the Victorian age. It's like saying the 50s and 90s are the same time period.

A pulp-era League could be a LOT of fun, though. I believe there was a crossover episode in the Shadow Strikes comics in which he tangles with Doc Savage and his group. (And I think nearly gets operated on...)

There have been a lot of threads on rpg.net speculating about "what characters could you have in the League in such-and-such a period".

 

[Black Omega]

A pulp-era League could be a LOT of fun, though. I believe there was a crossover episode in the Shadow Strikes comics in which he tangles with Doc Savage and his group. (And I think nearly gets operated on...)

There have been a lot of threads on rpg.net speculating about "what characters could you have in the League in such-and-such a period".

There have been at least two crossovers with The Shadow and Doc Savage. One in which a disguised Shadow was nearly given Doc Savage's 'humane' docilization surgery. AKA a lobotomy.

There would be plenty of pulp heros you could draw upon. The Spider: Master of Men among many others.

I do agree the period can make a big difference in feel. The 1920's pulps were distinctly difference from the 30's mystery men period. And both were quite different from the more gentile victorian age. I might have to look up those threads for ideas, though.

 

[Villano]

Dark Horse published a pretty good Tarzan comic series several years ago. It started off with him in adventure stories typical of the ERB books. However, near the end of its run, it sort of became "Tarzan Meets..." with Tarzan running into famous characters each issue.

Some that I recall were Frankenstein's Monster, Mr. Hyde, and the Phantom Of The Opera. In a few limited series, he also encountered a few other of ERG's creations, traveling to Pelucidar (the prehistoric center of the Earth), Mars (John Carter of Mars books), and, I think, Venus (Carson of Venus books).

I'm not sure if any other characters popped up.

The comic in and of itself was great. If you can find any issues, you should pick them up. I think they may have even collected some of them in TPBs.