{"id":962,"date":"2016-01-15T16:41:03","date_gmt":"2016-01-15T16:41:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/?p=962"},"modified":"2016-02-26T01:40:02","modified_gmt":"2016-02-26T01:40:02","slug":"hellboy-santiago-caruso-the-three-sir-edward-greys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/hellboy-santiago-caruso-the-three-sir-edward-greys\/","title":{"rendered":"Hellboy, Santiago Caruso & the Three Sir Edward Greys"},"content":{"rendered":"

We like history. We like real history (if there is such a beast), and we like weird, invented history as well. So today’s broadcast starts with Santiago Caruso<\/strong><\/span>, the talented Argentinian illustrator mentioned on here before. Why? Because of Sir Edward Grey<\/strong>. We are greydogtales<\/em>, our first new Carnacki story was Grey Dog<\/em> and we’ve just completed the novella A Study in Grey<\/em>. We couldn’t resist this one.<\/p>\n

This post will go backwards. It may make more sense than our forward ones. The other day our enormous South American intelligence network (OK, mostly Diego Arandojo<\/strong> and Sebastian Cabrol<\/strong>) alerted us that Santiago Caruso<\/strong><\/span> had illustrated an edition of the comic Abe Sapien<\/em> from Dark Horse. Abe Sapien #30 \u2013 Witchcraft and Demonology<\/em>, to be precise.<\/p>\n

\"25886\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As far as we know this is Caruso’s first major comics project, and it looks fabulous. Much of his main body of work is dark, even surreal, and his style really suits the comic.<\/p>\n

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santiago caruso<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But who or what is Abe Sapien<\/em>? Comics enthusiasts will know the character from Mike Mignola<\/strong><\/span>‘s various series concerning Hellboy, who first appeared in 1993 in a promotional short produced with John Byrne<\/strong>. Abe Sapien himself had his own first spin-off comics outing in 1998, in Drums of the Dead<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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santiago caruso<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Film fans will know him, in a slightly different version, from the original 2004 Hellboy<\/em> film and the sequel, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army<\/em> (2008).<\/p>\n

\"Abe_Sapien\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Abraham Sapien<\/strong> was born as Langdon Everett Caul, became a scientist in Victorian times, and ended up the way he is because of experiments performed on him after an encounter with an aquatic deity\/monster. These occult experiments were conducted by the Oannes Society. There are two great things about this information.<\/p>\n

The first is the old sailor’s legend that people born with a caul around their faces will never drown (the caul is part of the birth membrane, and occasionally has to be removed from the new-born). These were once prized by mariners, who thought they brought good luck and protected them from death at sea. Given that Abe Sapien is amphibious and potentially immortal, the surname Caul was well chosen.<\/p>\n

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mike mignola (we think)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The second is that Oannes is, of course, another name for Dagon<\/strong>, beloved of H P Lovecraft<\/strong> and those who wrote after him \u2013 and a Middle-Eastern deity who had the form of both fish and man. Dagon is also the God of the Philistines in the Hebrew Bible. Oannes was supposed to rise from the waters and bring artistic and scientific gifts to mankind.<\/p>\n

As part of Mignola’s Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defence<\/em>, Abe, Hellboy and others protect America from paranormal and supernatural threats. And in that role they encounter, yes, you guessed it, Sir Edward Grey, Witchfinder<\/strong>. You knew it would make sense, didn’t you? No? Oh well.<\/p>\n

We have a declared interest in characters who survive beyond their natural years through one method or another. We always loved Adam Adamant<\/strong>, the TV series where an Edwardian adventurer was frozen in a block of ice and thawed out in the 1960s. It had a great theme tune, too, sung by Kathy Kirby – and Juliet Harmer as Georgina Jones was gorgeous, too.<\/p>\n