Zoop has recently completed their campaign for the special edition hardcover of THE WHISTLING SKULL, originally published 2012-2013 by DC Comics. Very grateful to those guys for doing every bit of heavy lifting while Tony Harris and I basically just cleaned up and tweaked some files.
Below is a little introduction to the Skull Universe (the Skullverse!) from its original run with DC Comics, with some insight into our world:
The Whistling Skull is a generational hero. The mantle of the Skull is passed down from one adventurer to the next. The current Whistling Skull, William Massey, possesses the ability to draw mentally upon the experiences of his predecessors, allowing him to learn from their history as he navigates his legacy.
One of the memories William accesses is of his predecessor battling alongside an early twentieth century group of combat rogues called the Broken Hearts Club.
The Skull and his partner, Nigel Singleton (Knuckles), have been friends since childhood. They travel Europe in a medical waste van that houses an extraordinary mobile laboratory.
The previous Whistling Skull, John Singleton, seems to have vanished somewhere in Japan. His fate remains unknown…
Agent Nash, an associate of the Whistling Skull’s support network, the Skeleton, was dispatched to Japan to find the missing Skull’s body.
Back in London, the lineage of the Whistling Skull is tended to by the law firm of Teagle & Sons. Michael Keene is a mysterious associate of both Teagle & Sons and of the loose international crime fighting collective, the Wheel of Justice.
At the “hub” of the Wheel of Justice is a group of mystery men called “The Company” (which is short for the name established at their founding during World War I, the Costumed Seekers of Adventure in Good Company). Two prominent members of the Company are Simon Daye and Dexter Fields, otherwise known as Dayknight and the Night Surgeon.
The man tasked with assuring the Whistling Skull is operating at the peak of his physical and mental abilities is the very weird and very strange Doctor Archibald Moon.
Another associate of the Skull’s, and longstanding member of the Skeleton Network, is Johannes. Like so many other members of the Skeleton Network, Johannes possesses a freakish affliction. In his case, an encounter with an unnatural gas-based weapon during the first World War has left him partially invisible.
(these unusual members of the Skeleton are researched and recruited by a department of Teagle & Sons called the Skeleton Key)
One weapon of the Whistling Skull’s is the Wormwatch. Before using it, he must have it rewound by its creator, the dimensional hermit, Fagan. Fagan only appears in this plane of reality at particular times, and his workshop is found inside London’s Big Ben clock tower.
The Orphans are a particularly savage group of adolescent boys who’ve been left homeless due to the war. They operate in the European war zone, rejecting much adult supervision. They are still considered a part of the larger Wheel of Justice.
The first adventure of the new Skull and his partner, Knuckles, involves dealing with unhinged renegade Nazi scientist Dr. Hellman and a disturbing group of seemingly augmented freaks (Der Karneval).
Tony Harris’s newly painted cover for the hardcover.
B. Clay Moore 