Bump.

Loki wrote:

And one that should be at least a little easier:
Morticia Addams

to
Servalan

zuckyd1 wrote:

Loki wrote:

Bump.

Loki wrote:

Okay - this one is intended to be a b*st*rd, both in terms of identifying the characters, and then finding a route from them to the wider Omniverse (though they do exist).
From 
Ma

to
Malahora

 

I got nothing.

Okay then - a little assist. Ma is from "Marmy and his Ma", an old British strip. 

Meanwhile you can see Malahora on the cover of this comic, telling you the series he appeared in. 

zuckyd1 wrote:

1) Ma and Robot Archie appeared in Oink! #26.
2) Robot Archie and Judge Dredd appeared in 2000 AD #1280.
3) Judge Dredd and Captain America appeared in the Comic Relief Comic.
4) Captain America and Sirio-10 appeared in Avengers Forever #12.
5) Sirio-10 and Malahora appeared in Aníbal Gris #2.

Yep, that works, though you could even shorten it a step further, since that panel in Oink! #26 also shows Dan Dare,

and Dare is in the Comic Relief Comic:
(2nd left)
 
(on the right)

zuckyd1 wrote:

Loki wrote:

zuckyd1 wrote:

1) Ma and Robot Archie appeared in Oink! #26.
2) Robot Archie and Judge Dredd appeared in 2000 AD #1280.
3) Judge Dredd and Captain America appeared in the Comic Relief Comic.
4) Captain America and Sirio-10 appeared in Avengers Forever #12.
5) Sirio-10 and Malahora appeared in Aníbal Gris #2.

Yep, that works, though you could even shorten it a step further, since that panel in Oink! #26 also shows Dan Dare,

and Dare is in the Comic Relief Comic:
(2nd left)
 
(on the right)

I haven't seen the complete comic, only isolated pages and panels, so I wasn't clear whether the entire issue constitutes a single story or not.

Which is fair - it is a single story, despite how Comics.org seems to break it down, listing it as a bunch of separate tales. 

Bump.

Loki wrote:

From Morticia Addams

to
Servalan

zuckyd1 wrote:

Loki wrote:

Bump.

Loki wrote:

From Morticia Addams

to
Servalan

 

1) Morticia Addams and Velma Dinkley appeared in the New Scooby-Doo Movies episode “Wednesday is Missing”.
2) Velma Dinkley and the Doctor’s TARDIS appeared in The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part.
3) The Doctor’s TARDIS and Carnell appeared in the Doctor Who novel Corpse Marker.
4) Carnell and Servalan appeared in the Blake’s 7 episode “Weapon”.

Hmm. That second link is definitely valid, just not sure if it's an authorized appearance or not. Nevertheless, good route; worst case, it'd take another step or two to get from the Scooby Doo gang to the Doctor, and through him/her Carnell, who is (afaik) the only authorized route to Blake's 7. There are two other routes I know out of Blake's 7, but both are unauthorized and one I think is a dead end anyway (e.g. the universe it links to doesn't link to any other reality afaik). 

From Karl Fairburne

to
James Bond 

And since allowing "Easter egg" cameos of Bond would make it far too easy, for this one the stricter connecting rules are in place: No "unnamed, but clearly meant to be XXX" cameos; mythological and real world people are unique to specific companies unless (for the real world people) they were officially approved.

Loki wrote:

Last call on this one - if no one goes for it, I'll reveal a route tomorrow.

Loki wrote:

From
The Aerialist

to
The Paper Girls

 

1) The Aerialist and Madman appeared on the 0 cover of Dark Horse Presents #100. (If this one is invalid then I got nothing.)
2) Madman and Cassie Hack appeared in War of the Independents #1.
3) Cassie Hack and the Paper Girls appeared in I Hate Image.

1) The Aerialist and Flaming Carrot appeared in San Diego Comic-Con Comics #1.
2) Flaming Carrot and Cassie Hack appeared in War of the Independents #1.
3) Cassie Hack and the Paper Girls appeared in I Hate Image

Loki wrote:

All told, I recognise within the issue (and not just the page above):
Robocop, Concrete, Black Cross, the American, the Mask, Grendel, Bacchus, Zoo-Lou (from Roachmill), Sin City's Marv, the Eyeball Kid, the Next Men, Wacky Squirrel, Flaming Carrot, Judah Maccabee, Nexus, Marshall Law, Ren and Stimpy (not sure if those were official cameos - did Dark Horse ever publish a title with them?), Martha Washington, the Heartbreakers, Trekker and, of course, the Aerialist. And there are a few more I don't recognise.
 

I don't think Dark Horse ever had a license for Ren and Stimpy. Their Marvel series debuted just four months after this issue.
Also appearing, according to the indicia, are Argos (Race of Scorpions), Billi (Billi 99), Bob the Alien, Crash Ryan, The Creep, Nixon (Hard Boiled), Rocketeer, Sub Girl and Jet Girl (Tank Girl), and Zone.

Bump. One day to go for this one. As mentioned, I'll permit slightly looser linkage on this one.

Loki wrote:

I think the next one is going to have to permit unauthorized/looser linkages, but obviously the fewer the better.
From
Beowulf Shaeffer

to
James Bolivar DiGriz, a.k.a. Slippery Jim DiGriz, a.k.a. the Stainless Steel Rat

zuckyd1 wrote:

Loki wrote:

Bump. One day to go for this one. As mentioned, I'll permit slightly looser linkage on this one.

Loki wrote:

I think the next one is going to have to permit unauthorized/looser linkages, but obviously the fewer the better.
From
Beowulf Shaeffer
to
James Bolivar DiGriz, a.k.a. Slippery Jim DiGriz, a.k.a. the Stainless Steel Rat

 

1) Beowulf Shaeffer and Chuft-Captain appeared in Juggler of Worlds.
2) Chuft-Captain and Spock appeared in the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode “The Slaver Weapon”.
3) Spock appeared and the Seldon Institute of Psychohistory was mentioned in the Star Trek novel Spectre.
4) Hari Seldon (the creator of the scientific discipline known as psychohistory) and R. Daneel Olivaw appeared in Prelude to Foundation.
5) R. Daneel Olivaw appeared and Susan Calvin was mentioned in The Robots of Dawn.
6) Susan Calvin and the Stainless Steel Rat appeared in the short story “The Fourth Law of Robotics”.

That's some pretty darned good connecting! I'd not thought of using the Rat's appearance in Fourth Law because I'd not realized there was another link into the Foundation universe, so well done on the Spectre link.

My route also by necessity had to use at least one unauthorized link:
1) and 2) as per your route.
3) Spock has met the Doctor in Assimilation2.
4) The Doctor to Carnell in Corpse Marker.
5) Carnell to Vila Restal in Blake's 7 episode Weapon.
6) And then the obscure (and unauthorized) final link. In Blake's 7 Magazine #3, there's a text story, Vila's Big Score. In it, Vila attempts to steal an incredibly valuable diamond sphere known as the Starcore. However, when he succeeds, he finds it is a fake:

From 
Triston Farnon
to
the Doctor

Loki wrote:

Bump. One day left.

Loki wrote:

From Karl Fairburne

to
James Bond 

And since allowing "Easter egg" cameos of Bond would make it far too easy, for this one the stricter connecting rules are in place: No "unnamed, but clearly meant to be XXX" cameos; mythological and real world people are unique to specific companies unless (for the real world people) they were officially approved.

 

Okay, I guess this stumped everyone.
1) World War II sniper Karl Fairburne is the star of the video game series Sniper Elite. In the comic adaptation, published by Rebellion, he ran into the Rat Pack:

2) Rat Pack originally appeared in the British comic Battle, 

and during their run, when their normal commander was recuperating from wounds, they were temporarily placed under the command of another Battle character, Major Eazy.
3) Major Eazy was among the many characters included when Rebellion purchased the old IPC characters, which was reflected in comic by a small cameo filled story in one of the FCBD 2000ADs:

as seen in panel 4. This connects him to Tharg.
4) Tharg has met Judge Dredd any number of times, as detailed in several prior posts.
5) Dredd in turn met Captain Britain in the Comic Relief Comic, also detailed in prior posts.
6) Captain Britain and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher both appeared in Excalibur #32 and 33. Tharg has also shared stories with Thatcher, but crucially for the next link to count, we needed a version turning up in a Marvel title.
7) Thatcher phones James Bond to congratulate him at the end of his mission in the movie For Your Eyes Only. Marvel adapted that into a comic, and the scene is in that version too; while we actually see her in the movie, she's only a voice on the phone in the comic adaptation, but she's still present in the story even if she is off panel. 

zuckyd1 wrote:

Loki wrote:

Loki wrote:

Bump. One day left.

 

Okay, I guess this stumped everyone.
1) World War II sniper Karl Fairburne is the star of the video game series Sniper Elite. In the comic adaptation, published by Rebellion, he ran into the Rat Pack:
2) Rat Pack originally appeared in the British comic Battle, 
and during their run, when their normal commander was recuperating from wounds, they were temporarily placed under the command of another Battle character, Major Eazy.
3) Major Eazy was among the many characters included when Rebellion purchased the old IPC characters, which was reflected in comic by a small cameo filled story in one of the FCBD 2000ADs:
as seen in panel 4. This connects him to Tharg.
4) Tharg has met Judge Dredd any number of times, as detailed in several prior posts.
5) Dredd in turn met Captain Britain in the Comic Relief Comic, also detailed in prior posts.
6) Captain Britain and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher both appeared in Excalibur #32 and 33. Tharg has also shared stories with Thatcher, but crucially for the next link to count, we needed a version turning up in a Marvel title.
7) Thatcher phones James Bond to congratulate him at the end of his mission in the movie For Your Eyes Only. Marvel adapted that into a comic, and the scene is in that version too; while we actually see her in the movie, she's only a voice on the phone in the comic adaptation, but she's still present in the story even if she is off panel. 

I wasn't able to find anything on the Bond side. I misread the instructions and thought that only authorized real person appearances were allowed;

Yeah, sorry, I probably should have been more clear. I didn't want to make it too easy by allowing, say, the unnamed but clearly meant-to-be Bond cameos from LoEG or Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD. Real world people so rarely give permission (outside of writers and artists who include themselves in a story) that I only meant that the "it counts only if authorized OR its both appearances are for the same company" rule was in place. My bad for not making that clearer.

zuckyd1 wrote:

regardless I don't think I would have come up with the Thatcher-Excalibur connection.

The key really was Thatcher's presence, albeit only as a voice, in the Marvel adaptation of For Your Eyes Only. Way back when I first stumbled across Brian Cronin's CBR version of this game I noticed that a previous challenge had included Bond, only to be the only challenge ruled as impossible because they couldn't find a legitimate (by CBR's slightly stricter rules) link to Bond. However, another challenge had been solved by someone who used Margaret Thatcher as a link between (iirc) Spider-Man and New Universe's Spitfire, and when I saw that I recalled her cameo in the aforementioned Bond movie. A quick check of the adaptation to confirm the scene hadn't been cut for space, and I stored the info away for later as the only (afaik) legit link into the Bondverse. Of course, there's been several series of Bond comics in recent years, so it's feasible other links now exist.

zuckyd1 wrote:

From the other end the only link I found for Sniper Elite was via Zombie Army Trilogy to Left 4 Dead, which then links to a number of different properties.

Interesting - I didn't know about that link out of Sniper Elite.