In 2024, the copyright for Mickey Mouse is set to expire. That’s not to say it won’t be extended — it’s happened twice since 1984 — but could you imagine a timeline where the mascot of the largest entertainment conglomerate in the world is allowed to roam free, teaming up with everyone from Batman to James Bond to the Harlem Globetrotters?
But there was a time before our IP-obsessed world, a time when works of fiction could — and did — enter the public domain. If superheroes are our “modern mythology,” then characters like Dracula, Robin Hood and Sherlock Holmes are the Titans who threatened to eat these gods but were ultimately subsumed by them.
Still, Holmes remains one of the great works of classical fiction, and he lives on in four-color periodicals, often courtesy of London-based Titan Comics (Hmm, Titan … almost like I planned that).
Titan on Tuesday announced, exclusively through ComicsXF (Yay us!) a new Holmes story, Moriarty: Clockwork Empire, in which the world’s great detective tussles with another titan of the public domain, the two-in-one team of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Written by Fred Duval (Meteors, XIII Mystery) and Jean-Pierre Pécau (The Secret History), with art by Stevan Subic (Riddler: Year One), Moriarty: A Clockwork Empire is a stylish steam-punk story featuring Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s iconic characters, Sherlock Holmes and Watson, as well as the gothic juggernaut, Mr. Hyde.
The pitch, per Titan:
In a London opium den, a monster is killed by the police with seven bullets to the body. At the Diogenes club, an investigator and his partner thwart the Machiavellian plans of a card-playing automaton, and that evening the monster’s alter ego will come out of the hospital unscathed … and Holmes and Watson are on the case.
“’We’re very excited to bring out this brand new take on the Sherlock Holmes mythos from the amazing team of artist Stevan Subic and writers Duval and Pécau,” said editor Calum Collins. “It’s a fantastic steampunk reimagining, with all the energy and mystery you could ask for!”
Check out covers below, followed by the basic deets.
MORIARTY: CLOCKWORK EMPIRE #1
Writers: Fred Duval, Jean-Pierre Pécau
Artist(s): Stevan Subic
Colorist: Scarlett Smulkowski
Letterer: Lauren Bowes
COVER A: LENKA SIMECKOVA
COVER B: STEVAN SUBIC
COVER C: ANDREA OLIMPIER
SC, FC, 48pp, $4.99
On sale: Feb. 22, 2023
Dan Grote is the editor-in-chief of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts WMQ&A: The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Winston Wisdom.
