These sketches with your visions/interpretations of the Holmes canon has prompted me to pick up the stories again. (I last read them back when the 19th century was still the previous century.) The racism, sexism, classism, and unexamined imperialism running through Doyle's work is far more jarring to me now than in my 20s, and your awareness of these issues in your presentation makes the stories much more enjoyable to me.
The collection I have presents them in order of publication, so it's surprising that The Sign of Four is only the second Holmes narrative, while the Milverton story comes much later, but Watson's unreliability as a narrator (a result, as you pointed out, of Doyle's carelessness as a writer) means that we can't rely on publication order to tell us anything definite about chronology. I had, for example, remembered that Watson's war wound shifted from shoulder to leg, but I hadn't realized that the shoulder injury was established right at the start of the very first story, only to contradicted right at the start of the second one published. :)
Do you think Doyle truly was sloppy, or was he deliberately contradicting himself for some reason?
Anyway, I continue to greatly enjoy these sketches and would definitely be willing to throw some money at you to make it easier to make more, should you desire it.
Hey, Molly! I have a question about your chronology/interpretation of events. In your illustrations of The Noble Bachelor and The Reigate Squires, you mentioned Watson being engaged to a woman but then breaking it off. Are you going by a Baring-Gould type timeline where Watson has been engaged to multiple women, or was Watson’s fiancée in those two stories supposed to be Mary Morstan and you’ve just changed your mind since? (Either way I’m 100% on board with your version of events, because I love Mary Morstan and Watson’s platonic friendship so much 💜💜💜)
I started by following B-G’s timeline, which had Watson with three wives, but quickly I was like “this is stupid”. So my idea was that Watson got engaged to an unnamed lady in NOBL because he was in love with Holmes and going crazy and trying to escape the situation. I actually drew a comic of him talking to Hayter abt this but I think it only ended up on my not so secret Holmes tumblr! By REIG he’d broken it off because Holmes had such a bad reaction.
Hi! Any chance you might come to the Small Book Expo in Sept?? We did not see any other tour dates in the mid-Atlantc. Or is next year a better bet for SBX because Deep Dark is in this year's Ignatz window?
These sketches with your visions/interpretations of the Holmes canon has prompted me to pick up the stories again. (I last read them back when the 19th century was still the previous century.) The racism, sexism, classism, and unexamined imperialism running through Doyle's work is far more jarring to me now than in my 20s, and your awareness of these issues in your presentation makes the stories much more enjoyable to me.
The collection I have presents them in order of publication, so it's surprising that The Sign of Four is only the second Holmes narrative, while the Milverton story comes much later, but Watson's unreliability as a narrator (a result, as you pointed out, of Doyle's carelessness as a writer) means that we can't rely on publication order to tell us anything definite about chronology. I had, for example, remembered that Watson's war wound shifted from shoulder to leg, but I hadn't realized that the shoulder injury was established right at the start of the very first story, only to contradicted right at the start of the second one published. :)
Do you think Doyle truly was sloppy, or was he deliberately contradicting himself for some reason?
Anyway, I continue to greatly enjoy these sketches and would definitely be willing to throw some money at you to make it easier to make more, should you desire it.
I love your version much better than the canon! Thank you for sharing it!
I love your version of this story so much!
Hey, Molly! I have a question about your chronology/interpretation of events. In your illustrations of The Noble Bachelor and The Reigate Squires, you mentioned Watson being engaged to a woman but then breaking it off. Are you going by a Baring-Gould type timeline where Watson has been engaged to multiple women, or was Watson’s fiancée in those two stories supposed to be Mary Morstan and you’ve just changed your mind since? (Either way I’m 100% on board with your version of events, because I love Mary Morstan and Watson’s platonic friendship so much 💜💜💜)
I started by following B-G’s timeline, which had Watson with three wives, but quickly I was like “this is stupid”. So my idea was that Watson got engaged to an unnamed lady in NOBL because he was in love with Holmes and going crazy and trying to escape the situation. I actually drew a comic of him talking to Hayter abt this but I think it only ended up on my not so secret Holmes tumblr! By REIG he’d broken it off because Holmes had such a bad reaction.
Thank you for clarifying! If you ever want to post it here I would love to see that bonus comic!
here it is :) https://www.tumblr.com/contact-guy/743981068570492928/part-two-of-reigate-squires-forgive-me-for?source=share
Hi! Any chance you might come to the Small Book Expo in Sept?? We did not see any other tour dates in the mid-Atlantc. Or is next year a better bet for SBX because Deep Dark is in this year's Ignatz window?
Is that the same as the small press expo in Bethesda? I didn’t have plans to but I might reach out to my publisher bc I really do love that show
Hi. Yes, it is the same. Good vibe at SBX.. Lots of indie and established creators. It would be great if you could make it.