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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2021 21:44:15 GMT -5
There are a lot of great fictional characters like Tarzan or Conan that also had long successful comic book runs. I'm looking for characters like James Bond or Sherlock Holmes that have minimal appearances in comics books.
For me my go to character is Sherlock Holmes. I have read all of the stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I have read many of the new adaptions by other authors. I have watched most of the TV shows or movies featuring the character.
There is something about the character that pulls me in time & time again. I just read all of the books by James Lovegrove that I received as gifts. I am also re-watching the excellent Sherlock BBC TV series.
Recently I had a "Sherlock" moment at work. I had a patient with a right wrist strain. I said "at least you are left handed." He was startled because neither me or the nurse had asked. I noted that he wore his watch on his right wrist and that usually left handed people wear their watch on their right wrist. It felt pretty cool.
So who is your favorite fictional character not associated with comic books? |
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Post by berkley on Feb 11, 2021 22:56:17 GMT -5
I don't know if I can name a single favourite character, even if I narrow it down to the recurring characters of the kind you mean, but Holmes and Bond would be up there. I might add Holmes's fictional predecessor, Edgar Allen Poe's Auguste Dupin, though he only appeared in three stories. Modesty Blaise and Willie Garvin would also on my list - I know them more from the novels than from the comic-strip. Chandler's Marlowe. Rex Stout's Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe ...
I love Agatha Christie, but most of my very favourite of her books were stand-alones. I like all her famous series too - Poirot, Miss Marple, Tommy and Tuppence, etc - but I don't think any of them would quite make my list of favourite characters, though Tommy and Tuppence come close - I think what holds them back for me is that I didn't enjoy any of the later books in the series quite as much as the first one, The Secret Adversary.
The Three Musketeers plus D'Artagnan are contenders, though my favourite of them all, Athos, isn't quite the same in some of the later books.
I'd also have to include some of PG Wodehouse's recurring characters - most obviously Jeeves and Wooster, but also Ukridge and Psmith.
Good topic!
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Post by Duragizer on Feb 11, 2021 23:56:52 GMT -5
Creedence Leonore Gielgud from Troll 2.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2021 1:52:34 GMT -5
As with berkley, I am not sure I can narrow it down to just one. There have been some that defined a particular phase of my life, others that have endured through my life.
As a wee lad, it would have been the Hardy Boys and Luke Skywalker (though Star Wars certainly had its share of comics exposure too). Both have waned over time. Hardy Boys is now pure nostalgia, and though I still dig Star Wars, Luke is no longer my favorite character in the franchise.
In my adolescence through college years, it would have come down to Gandalf the Grey or King Arthur. My passion for Tolkien has endured, while my fascination with Arthurian myth has waned through the years. Honorable mention for that era would go to Holden Caufield from Catcher in the Rye, which had a huge impact on me when I read it my freshman year in high school, and is the only book besides LOTR that I would reread regularly over several years (though it's been a decade or more since I reread either).
In my grad school years, it would have been either Casaubon (from Eco's Foucault's Pendulum) or Hagbard Celine from Shea & Wilson's Illuminatus trilogy. Both were avatars, in a sense, of that decade of my life's search for identity, truth and meaning. Honorable mention to John Keating a splayed by Robin Williams in Dead Poet's Society as I was a young teacher in those days, and he was a bit of an inspiration.
That leaves the age 30+ years (i.e. the 21st century), where a few characters were in the forefront of my favor, Harry Dresden from Jim Butcher's Dresden Files files, a sort of mash up of a hard-boiled PI and a wizard, Rick Blaine, perhaps Bogie's best performance from Casablanca, Fox Mulder and his search for truth (a recurring theme in a lot of my favorites from the Hardy Boys on).
But there is one character who has fascinated me equally from the time I first encountered him on the lighted screen of a cinema in 1980 until the present, a character who epitomizes a lot of the traits that drew me to several of the characters I listed previously, who can get me to stop and watch whenever I come across the first three films featuring him or the prequel TV series to those films on TV somewhere, and that is Indiana Jones (who has had some minor exposure in comics, but I've actually only read a handful of Marvel series and none of the DH, so the comics-and the novels which I read only one or two of-have had little to no impact on my fandom of the character). So if I had to point to just one, it would be Indy (but Gandalf comes real close in both the length of fandom and the depth of passion I had for the character).
-M
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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2021 1:54:36 GMT -5
Almost all of mine show up in comics eventually....James Bond, Doctor Who, even Number 6 (The Prisoner).
So I'll go with my favourite tv villain of all time.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2021 11:05:13 GMT -5
@mrp I loved the Hardy Boys as a kid. They were my go to as a kid. And berkley I devoured Agatha Christie novels in my early teens. One summer a neighbor moved and gave me all her books. That summer I read 53 novels (my all time reading record). Many of those were Agatha Christie. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Feb 12, 2021 11:20:06 GMT -5
I thought about this a fair bit. Philip Marlowe came to mind. Hap Collins also (and Leonard Pine for that matter). Lije Bailey.
Ultimately, the final answer is pretty easy. Atticus Finch. Finch, along with real-life individual Clarence Darrow, is as responsible for my work life as anyone. He is everything a defense attorney strives to be and is unlikely to be able to ever attain. He combines that with being a good single father. And the best shot in the county.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2021 11:56:42 GMT -5
Daniel Dravot and Peachy from The Man Who Would Be King. I never read the book, so I don't know how true the characters are to the source, but their film's most entertaining pair of rogues.
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Post by badwolf on Feb 12, 2021 14:45:00 GMT -5
The Doctor
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Post by berkley on Feb 12, 2021 18:17:10 GMT -5
If we're including figures from myth and legend under the category of "recurring fictional characters", then there are quite a few: Gilgamesh, Odysseus, Achilles, Helen, Circe, Siegfried, Brunnhild, ... almost too many to mention them all. But I'm not sure I would include them as by definition, legendary figures like these sort of straddle the line between fictional and historical - though of course thy do featire in straightforward literary fiction as well.
And then there are the gods of mythology (as opposed to those of contemporary, "living" religions) - we think of them as imaginary characters now, but once they were believed in as real entities, just as today's worshippers believe in the reality of the god or gods of their own religion. So it seems almost disrespectful to cite one as a favourite fictional character - although of course once again, there are straightforwardly fictional versions of many of them, such as Marvel's Thor. But these aren't often as interesting as the "actual" god of mythology, though.
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Post by Rob Allen on Feb 12, 2021 19:52:02 GMT -5
Steerpike from Gormenghast was particularly memorable.
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Post by codystarbuck on Feb 12, 2021 22:30:41 GMT -5
Daniel Dravot and Peachy from The Man Who Would Be King. I never read the book, so I don't know how true the characters are to the source, but their film's most entertaining pair of rogues. It's actually a short story; but, the film captures the essence of the characters, from the story. It follows the basic plot of the story, then kind of embellishes things, in a good way. |
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Post by tartanphantom on Feb 12, 2021 22:42:55 GMT -5
Flashman, Harry Paget. Brigadier-general, V.C., K.C.B., K.C.I.E.; Chevalier, Legion of Honour; Order of Maria Theresa, Austria; Order of the Elephant, Denmark (temporary); U.S. Medal of honor; San Serafino Order of purity and truth, 4th Class. b May 5, 1822, s of H. Buckley Flashman, Esq., Ashby and Hon. Alicia Paget; m. Elspeth Rennie Morrison, d. of Lord Paisley; one s., one d. educ. Rugby School. 11th Hussars, 17th Lancers. Served Afghanistan, 1841-42 (medals, thanks of Parliament); chief of staff to H. M. James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak Batang Lupar expedn, 1844; milit. advisor, H.M. Queen Ranavalona of Madagascar, 1844-5; Sutlej campaign, 1845-6 (Ferozeshah, Sobraon, envoy extraordinary to Maharani Jeendan, Court of Lahore); polit. advisor to Herr (later Chancellor Prince) Von Bismarck, Schleswig-Holstein, 1847-8; Crimea staff (Alma, Sevastopol, Balaclava), Prisoner of war, 1854; Artillery adviser to Atilik Ghazi, Syr Daria campaign, 1855; Sepoy Mutiny, 1857-8, dip, envoy to HRH the Maharani of Jhansi, trooper 3rd Native Cavalry, Meerut, subseq. att, Rowbotham's Mosstroopers, Cawnpore, (Lucknow, Gwalior, etc., V.C.); Adjutant to Captain John Brown, Harper's Ferry, 1859; China campaign 1860, polit. mission to Nanking, Taiping Rebellion, polit. and other services, Imperial Court, Pekin U.S. Army (major, Union forces, 1862; colonel (staff) Army of the Confederacy, 1863); a.d.c. to H.I.M. Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico, 1867; interpreter and observer Sioux campain, U.S. 1875-6 (Camp Robinson conference, Little Bighorn, etc.); Zulu War, 1879 (Isandhlwana, Rorke's Drift); Egypt 1882 (Kassassin, Tel-el-Kebir); personal bodyguard to H.I.M. Franz-Joseph, Emperor of Austria 1883; Sudan 1884-5 (Khartoum); Pekin Legations, 1900. Travelled extensively in military and civilian capacities among them supercargo, merchant marine (West Africa); agriculturist (Mississippi valley); wagon captain and hotelier (Santa Fe Trail); buffalo hunter and scout (Oregon Trail); courier (Underground Railroad); majordomo (India), prospector (Australia); trader and missionary (Solomen Islands, Fly River, etc.); lottery supervisor (Manila); diamond Broker and horse coper (Punjab); dep. marshall, U.S.; occasional actor and impersonator. Hon. mbr of numerous societies and clubs, including Sons of the Volsungs (Strackenz), Mimbreno Apache Copper Mines band (New Mexico), Kokand Horde (Central Asia), Kit Carson's Boys (Colorado), Brown's Lambs (Maryland), M.C.C., Whites and United Service (London, both resigned), Blackjack (Batavia). Chmn, Flashman and Bottomley, Ltd.; dir. British Opium Trading Co.; governor, Rugby School; hon. pres. Mission for Reclamation of Reduced Females. Publications: Dawns and Departures of a Soldier's Life; Twixt Cossack and Cannon; The Case Against Army Reform. Recreation: oriental studies, angling, cricket (performed first recorded "hat-trick"; Wickets of Felix, Pilch and Mynn for 14 runs; Rugby Past and Present v Kent, Lord's 1842; 5 for 12, Mynn's Casuals v All Engand XI, 1843). Add. Gandamack Lodge, Ashby, Leics.
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Post by codystarbuck on Feb 12, 2021 22:45:00 GMT -5
Hard for me to say just one, though I can pick a select few.
Holmes is one, though I am not a huge Sherlockian. I enjoy the character and the stories and he works well in the hands of others.
D'Artagnan, of the Musketeer novels is another, moreso than his comrades. He is the main focus of the books, though, if we were going with the film versions, then it would be Frank Finlay's Porthos, from the Richard Lester versions.
Zorro is a movie favorite, though I never thought much of the original Curse of Capistrano story. I think the filmmakers handled him better, especially the Tyrone Power version, the Alain Delon one, and the Mask of Zorro.
The Scarlet Pimpernel is a literary favorite, as he sets the tone for every bored playboy-turned-adventurer. Without Sir Percy Blakeny, there is no Zorro, Batman and even Superman.
In purely literary form, there is Commander Sam Vimes, head of the City Watch of Ankh-Morpork, in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. An old copper from the streets who rises to great authority and responsibility, due to a persistent nature and a burning desire to bring justice along with law and order. Vimes steps all over the toes of the elite to get to the truth and forces change by exposing the corrupt to the world. He knows all of the tricks, fights dirty, yet cares more for the poorest citizen than anyone in power.
Another would be Kim Newman's Genevieve Dieudonne, who appeared in his Warhammer novels (written as Jack Yeovil), his Anno Darcula metafictions, and has appeared in his Diogenes Club collections (in at least one story). She was turned to vampirism in her teens and maintains that youthful appearance, but is an old and shrewd vampire.
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Post by MWGallaher on Feb 13, 2021 9:03:31 GMT -5
My so-far-unmentioned favorite of the ilk you seem to be aiming for is Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger. After plowing through the Holmes short stories as a teen, I read all of the Challenger stories and I think I liked them more, favoring science fiction over mysteries at that time. It surprises me that the irascible and abrasive Challenger has made so few appearances in the comic book pages as he seems to have.
Not that he's my "favorite fictional character", though. That has to go to Xanther Ibrahim, of much more recent vintage, whose 27-part story was sadly put on hiatus after only five 800+ page novels, the greatest disappointment that the world of publishing has ever dealt me.
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