Mark Tweedale: Welcome to Mignolaversity, Multiversity Comics’ home for all things Mike Mignola. Next Wednesday, the second “Baltimore” omnibus edition comes out, and with it, a new introduction from Christopher Golden in which he discusses the future of The Outerverse.
By the time you read this, you’ll likely already have heard the term The Outerverse. If you haven’t, you will. The seeds for all of that are planted in the volume you hold in your hands.
Mark: If you’ve been reading “Baltimore” and “Joe Golem,” you almost certainly already know these two series exist in a shared universe—a shared universe that until now didn’t have a name. Now that it’s been christened The Outerverse, we know what the focus of this universe shall be going forward: the Outer Dark (also known as “the Other-Space”), an abyss that exists outside our reality.
The Outer Dark has been a part of this universe since its beginning, when the original Baltimore, or, The Tin Soldier and the Vampire prose novel came out in 2007. Throughout the novel, Lord Baltimore’s focus had been the vampire Haigus, but it was the power that was behind him that was the true threat—the Red King, a lord of the Outer Dark. Near the end of the novel, Lord Baltimore stirred the Red King from his slumber when he slashed a painting of him.
From “Baltimore: Chapel of Bones”
Art by Ben StenbeckThe firelight plays across the hideous portrait of the Red King.
With a cry of rage and frustration, Baltimore slashes the canvas, the saber cutting the image in twain.
In the very moment that the blade splits the canvas, a terrible weight fills the room. The air grows heavy and so cold that its frigid density snuffs the flames. Charred ceiling beams crack and buckle, but do not collapse. Not an ember still burns. The blackened, fire-ravaged wall looks as though the blaze was extinguished months ago, rather than seconds.
Baltimore feels it there in the room with them, a presence so massive that it seems the whole building might explode from its intrusion. The artist had built a temple to his god, but the ancient malevolence had never taken notice until the moment that saber defiled its image.
Realization staggers him as, at last, he understands. In all the years he stood against the darkness, for all the filthy vermin he has exterminated, he has been fighting the symptoms instead of the plague itself. The true enemy has barely been aware of him.
Until now.
Now the Red King has noticed him.
From “Baltimore: Chapel of Bones”
Art by Ben StenbeckThe image on the slashed canvas seems to shift, the paint flowing as it stares at him. Its crown burns with red flame and the stink of death fills the room, assaulting him with the memory of that predawn hour on the slaughter fields of the Ardennes when he awoke buried beneath the corpses of his men.
It lasts only a moment.
Then the painting is just a painting.
—Excerpt from Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire, page 278.
Mark: That presence in the painting, that’s what the Outerverse is about. Mignola and Golden pushed this further in the comics, as the vampire lords like Haigus were revealed to be the high priests of the Red King’s cult, and near the end of the series, the Red King himself came into play. Meanwhile, a new series, “Joe Golem: Occult Detective,” came out and began making subtle hints at connections to “Baltimore.” These were so subtle, even some of the artists weren’t sure the two existed in the same universe at first.
Continued below‘I had no idea this was a shared universe,’ said [“Baltimore” and “Joe Golem” artist Peter Bergting]. ‘To be honest, I thought all Mike’s books were set in the same universe, but at different time periods, so not really “shared” but still… I mean, Hellboy showed up in that Batman/Starman comic so I really didn’t think about it.’
‘I think I knew that this was a shared universe pretty early on,’ said “Joe Golem” artist Patric Reynolds, ‘but If I remember correctly I actually heard it from “Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.” writer Chris Roberson. We were at a party sometime in the year 2015 and he asked me what I was currently working on, and I said “Joe Golem!” and he replied, “Oh! That kind of shares a universe with “Baltimore,” right?” and I said “Uh…. SURE!”
‘I got the confirmation when I read the script for the third issue of ‘The Ratcatcher,’ and came across a flashback scene that took place in 15th century Croatia that opened up on a shot of an old mill with occult symbols painted on it. Christopher Golden left a note that they should be the same symbols that appeared in “Baltimore.”
—From The Mignolaverse in 2017.
Mark: But for readers that were paying attention, there were little teasers for a larger plan to come.
Art by Patric Reynolds
In ‘The Drowning City’ and ‘The Conjurors’ arcs of “Joe Golem: Occult Detective,” we got to see the devastation when the Outer Dark comes into contact with our reality when Orlov the Conjuror was returned to his natural form, that of one of the creatures from the Outer Dark. It was chaos, even though Orlov was relatively benign compared to what else lurks out there. Even the Red King in “Baltimore” was restrained to a human form. We’ve barely begun to see what the Outer Dark holds and what its inhabitants are truly capable of.
So, how’d I go? Did I guess it?
Christopher Golden: As you’ve already worked out, the name The Outerverse refers to the Outer Dark. Though we’re not going to spend a lot of time exploring it directly, there really was no other name we felt was appropriate. The root of all evil and in many ways the roots of all of the stories we’re telling and have told go back to the Outer Dark. We’ve revealed some of its history and how connected it is to the formative years of our planet, and we’ll learn more going forward, as we meet new characters and visit with old friends, all of whom are fighting to survive in a world that’s been infected with evil since its birth. “Lady Baltimore” is just the beginning.’
Mark: We’ll find out more soon.
