The Baker Street Peculiars Gives Full Art Credit
Out today is the fourth and final issue of The Baker Street Peculiars by Roger Langridge and Andy Hirsch. It turned out to be much more a “group of kids save the day from fantastic monsters” than the classic mystery its name might suggest, but there were still some bits of Sherlock Holmes involved (although fans will quibble with the portrait of the Great Detective as being wrong).
I was particularly taken, though, with the required denouement, when Martha Hudson explains the reasons for her deception. (This is not a spoiler, since this particular disguise has been known since issue #1, and this art is posted with the publisher’s approval.)
(I can’t be the only one reminded by Mrs. Hudson’s words of the opening to Remington Steele, can I?)
Usually, in cases like these, there’s reference made to Arthur Conan Doyle as a literary agent or some such, in order to pull the author into the deception. Instead, Langridge’s characters mention a lesser-credited contributor, classic illustrator Sidney Paget. That’s really neat — and what I’d expect from artists — since Paget did so much to establish the portrayal of Sherlock Holmes, as we think of him, as shown in this illustration from “The Man With the Twisted Lip”.
That’s followed, by the way, by a surprising declaration for the time and place, but one right in tune with today’s market:
It remains to be seen whether we’ll be able to read more adventures of this diverse and unusual trio of kid detectives in the future, but this battle against the golems of London was cute enough to hope for more. I’m still wondering what everyone will think of the reshaped statues, though.
