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1/19/2020 3:04 am  #1


Strange visitor from another canon - Proper cameos edition

The thread on Omniversal Kevin Bacon got me thinking: It might be nice to have some threads tracking interdimensional (read: cross company) crossovers. And this is the first of such. Everyone should feel free to contribute both sightings and new threads, but the first thread of each should be used to maintain an index of the appearances and maintained by whoever has editing powers (I'm assuming the thread starter and/or moderators). I'm thinking of splitting the threads thusly (but feel free to suggest additional ones or amendments):
Easter egg cameos - just somewhere in the background, not explicitly acknowledged.
Proper cameos - not a full on crossover or heavily involved in the story, but not hidden unacknowledged in the background. Usually done with the permission of the copyright holder if the character is not public domain.
Guest appearance - full on participant in the story.
You seem strangely familiar - Major player in the story, but since use of given character would breach copyright, some cosmetic changes have been made to avoid this. As TV and films based on real life events might say "Only the names have been changed to protect the guilty." Sometimes such characters only make a single appearance; on other occasions they end up making many (c.f. Squadron Supreme); in the latter instance, the only issues to mention would be the first time the character appears.

 

1/20/2020 7:03 am  #2


Re: Strange visitor from another canon - Proper cameos edition

Ultraforce/Avengers #1, and during a period of dimensional instability heroes from various realities come together to fight alongside one another in one spectacular double page spread. From the indicia, these are all authorized cameos. 

As well as Avengers (and some alternate reality versions of same) and Ultraforce (ditto), there's also:
Ash from Event Comics
Mighty Magnor
Several of Dan Brereton's Nocturnals
Barry Windsor-Smith's Adastra, Axus, Bron and Strangehands
Some of Tekno Comics I-Bots
Rick Flagg (American Flagg)
Edge from Bravura Comics
Cyberella
Characters from Epic's Dragon Lines
Sachs and Violens
Black and White
AX (Man Called AX)
Jim Starlin's 'Breed
Groo
a couple of characters from George Perez's Crimson Plague
and more not yet identified.
A more detailed breakdown can be found here:
http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix7/hardcase-hawke-uv.html#various

 

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1/29/2020 12:46 pm  #3


Re: Strange visitor from another canon - Proper cameos edition

While writing the third volume about his part-demon character 'Breed, Jim Starlin took the opportunity to bring together many of his other creator-owned characters via the interdimensional realm of Elsewhere, coming together in 'Breed III #6:

For those not already familiar with them, they are:
Kid Cosmos

Wyrd the Reluctant/Mystic Warrior and his gargoyle cohort D'jinn

Darklon the Mystic (whose team ups with other Eerie characters links them all to the Warrenverse, and whose slightly renamed older version Darklore provides linkage to Marvel)

Dreadstar and his feline pal Oedi (and through Dreadstar's appearances while First Comics were publishing him, we get direct connections to multiple First series including Nexus and Grimjack)

and of course Ray Stoner ('Breed)
[img]https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51syo21l3vL._SX298_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg[/img]
The hooded Wayfarer is, afaik, a new character who debuted in this story.

Last edited by Loki (1/29/2020 12:46 pm)

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1/30/2020 2:19 pm  #4


Re: Strange visitor from another canon - Proper cameos edition

Now's Sting of the Green Hornet miniseries from 1992 includes full cameos in issue #2 by Steve Rogers, Nick Fury, and Dum Dum Dugan.  Issue #3 also (if memory serves) includes a reference to Namor, but he doesn't actually appear.  If this series is compatible with 616 continuity (there's already a 616 version of the Lone Ranger, so why not his great nephew the Green Hornet?), it would be fun to have an easter egg reference to it in one of their handbook updates (probably not Cap or Nick, since they have so many appearances, but maybe Dum Dum?).

 

1/30/2020 3:39 pm  #5


Re: Strange visitor from another canon - Proper cameos edition

vanhornluke wrote:

Now's Sting of the Green Hornet miniseries from 1992 includes full cameos in issue #2 by Steve Rogers, Nick Fury, and Dum Dum Dugan.  Issue #3 also (if memory serves) includes a reference to Namor, but he doesn't actually appear.  If this series is compatible with 616 continuity (there's already a 616 version of the Lone Ranger, so why not his great nephew the Green Hornet?), it would be fun to have an easter egg reference to it in one of their handbook updates (probably not Cap or Nick, since they have so many appearances, but maybe Dum Dum?).

Also Erskine, since we see the "Doc" who experiments on Rogers. However, there are some issues with it being 616 - for a start, the attack that kills "Doc" is carried out by multiple Nazi agents, not just the one guy, and the Nick Fury counterpart is recognizable by his eyepatch, but 616 Nick had two eyes until much later in the war. That said, these appearance belong in the Easter eggs cameos, since the characters aren't properly named. We get "Steve" but that's it.

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1/30/2020 4:05 pm  #6


Re: Strange visitor from another canon - Proper cameos edition

The multiversal Kevin Bacon thread has mentioned a few links in comics related to tabletop rpgs, but I thought it might be worth covering them in a little more detail here.

The house magazine of TSR, publishers of Dungeons and Dragons, was Dragon Magazine, and over its lengthy run had multiple comic strips at the back, ranging from single panels to multiple pages. In Dragon#359, the final print issue (before it went to being purely digital), one of those strips was Order of the Stick, and they included cameos for many of the other ongoing strip the magazine had published:

Top panel, bottom left is Finieous Fingers, who appeared in the early issues of the run.
[img]https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZyQguZRTL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg[/img]
Above him is an armored female and a long-snouted individual being flung through the air - these are Snarf (long snout) and his girlfriend Telerie (armored woman) from Snarfquest.
[img]https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/610m1Grl9vL._SX383_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg[/img]
Being knocked to the floor by the passing dragon, and then standing back up in the next panel are Phil (Foglio) and Dixie, from Foglio's strip What's New? with Phil and Dixie.

The smoking dragon standing next to Phil and Dixie in the second panel (and also visible, if partially obscured, in the first) is Wormy from the strip of the same name, another from the earlier part of Dragon's run.

The group riding the larger dragon are the strip's stars, the titular Order of the Stick

Beneath the dragon in the first panel you can see the top of the heads of The Knights of the Dinner Table

And at the right hand side of the top panel, trying to get out of the dragon's path, is Yamara

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1/30/2020 4:21 pm  #7


Re: Strange visitor from another canon - Proper cameos edition

That final issue Order of the Stick strip isn't the only time there were crossovers between strips. Not included in the cameos were two strips which were still in Dragon Magazine as of that same last issue, Nodwick and Dork Tower. However, Nodwick had crossovers of its own covering that:

In the second panel, Nodwick visits the world of PvP (Player vs Player)

The third panel is Phil and Dixie's world from What's New? with Phil and Dixie, as seen in the previous post, and the fourth and fifth are the world of Dork Tower.

Last edited by Loki (2/08/2020 7:16 am)

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1/30/2020 4:33 pm  #8


Re: Strange visitor from another canon - Proper cameos edition

Meanwhile, in other Nodwick strips we see Nodwick and his team of adventurers meet:
Raistlin from Dragonlance, Elminster from Forgotten Realms and D&D creator Gary Gygax

That's not Gary Gygax's only appearance in Nodwick either. Nodwick then connects to another D&D realm, the horror themed Ravenloft and its most infamous resident, the vampire Strahd.

Nodwick creator, Aaron Williams, also created PS238, about a school of young superhumans; in PS238 #39, some of them dimension/time travel, and run into Nodwick's band of adventurers.
Back in the Nodwick strip, we have yet another crossover with a TSR property - the cast of the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon!
 

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1/30/2020 6:50 pm  #9


Re: Strange visitor from another canon - Proper cameos edition

Going through Millennium Index #1-2
Nancy Reagan has made a number of appearances in comics, but perhaps her oddest was in Millennium #3 (and subsequent chapters), where she was revealed to be a Manhunter agent. I won't make references too often to political figures as they appear too often, but this one's too interesting not to mention.

Likewise I won't list off appearances by J. Edgar Hoover as such, but All-Star Index #1 notes that J. Edgar Hoover appears as G. Henry Mover in Batman#8

Last edited by Andy E. Nystrom (1/30/2020 6:53 pm)


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1/31/2020 5:38 am  #10


Re: Strange visitor from another canon - Proper cameos edition

Loki wrote:

Meanwhile, in other Nodwick strips we see Nodwick and his team of adventurers meet:
Raistlin from Dragonlance, Elminster from Forgotten Realms and D&D creator Gary Gygax

That's not Gary Gygax's only appearance in Nodwick either.

As mentioned, Gary Gygax appeared again in the same episode that the characters from the D&D cartoon turned up in. After someone warned Nodwick's group to prepare to "face the wrath of Gygax!", we got:

With just the initials, it might have been considered an Easter egg cameo, but the name clinches it as a proper cameo.

I also missed some more cameos in the story where Raistlin takes on Elminster, as both drag in their patron goddesses and Raistlin also calls on another ally, adding to the mix:
Mystra

Takhisis and Dalamar

all three established characters from the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance series.

One last for the moment, which is a combination of proper cameo with Easter egg. In Dragon Magazine #298, Nodwick's team draws the ire of the evil spider goddess Lolth (an established AD&D character); to placate her, they strike a deal, resulting in what I presume is an unofficial but very recognizable guest appearance linking Nodwick and co to Marvel:

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2/03/2020 1:49 pm  #11


Re: Strange visitor from another canon - Proper cameos edition

Going through The Official Teen Titans Index series; probably too minor for the You seem strangely familiar thread:
New Teen Titans #10: Boris Batinov is based on Boris Badenov (Rocky & Bullwinkle).
Tales of the Teen Titans #3: The characters Captain Tim and Leonard in the show within the comic Space Trek:2022 are probably based on Star Trek’s Captain Kirk and Leonard McCoy.
New Teen Titans #21: The trucker Belcher is based on Mick Belker from Hill Street Blues.
New Teen Titans (second series) #14: Doc Smith, a doctor is based on novelist EE “Doc” Smith
 


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2/08/2020 5:37 am  #12


Re: Strange visitor from another canon - Proper cameos edition

2000 A.D. Prog 24 has the story Tharg and the Intruder; I've already mentioned it in the thread for Easter egg cameos, thanks to a number of erstaz Marvel characters appearing, but it has several proper cameos too, providing what I think might be the first linkage between both strips within 2000 A.D. and to strips from other IPC/Fleetway titles:

So we have a link from Tharg to Robot Archie (though at the time this was published Archie could only link (iirc) to the Spider and the Sludge - I don't think he'd had a proper crossover with any other strip yet.
The next page shows Tharg's museum, and that provides a ton of links to the strips of 2000 A.D.'s early strips:

A very incomplete breakdown (more for matching which strips are represented than covering everything depicted):
Top left is the Mekon, linking to Dan Dare.
Below him is a T-Rex, and more distinctively, a Trans-Time skimmer from Flesh!

Below the skimmer is a Lawmaster bike from Judge Dredd:

Moving across from the bike we see a man in a clear tube - that's John Probe from Mach One, during his empowering:

and in the bottom right corner we have Giant's uniform from the series Harlem Heroes:
[img]https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61cgz%2Bw8F0L._SX357_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg[/img]
The only strips which had debuted by this early stage that I can't see being clearly represented are Invasion and Shako. 
On the final page we get a stronger link to Judge Dredd in the form of supporting cast member Walter the Wobot:

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2/28/2021 7:41 am  #13


Re: Strange visitor from another canon - Proper cameos edition

Beano Annual 2009, and Baby Face Finlayson invites a group of fellow villains over. While I'm pretty certain these were unauthorised cameos, they are in now way disguised, so I think they have to fall into the proper cameos category.




Not sure who the guy in the suit and sunglasses is meant to be, but the rest are fairly easy to identify.

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