The Queen’s Hand – A Brief History

Many, many years ago, I began thinking about mash-up novels. This was around the time that I was REALLY invested (from a time and financial standpoint) into comics and would devour dozens of these literary gems every week. This was around the time that several of the competing comic publishing companies sprouted into existence, such as Image and Dark Horse Comics. During this time we began seeing many cross-over one-shots, where characters from one universe or company began appearing in tales of other universes and companies, mashing them together. I remember thinking at the time that it would be very cool to take existing literary characters and put them in twisted and corrupted version of their respective universes or completely new settings (think of the various modern day and futuristic Sherlock Holmes stories that have appeared over the years).

At this time I thought about all the different character and setting mash-ups I would have liked to have seen. One of the only ideas that I retained over the years (in the last 20+ years mind you) was an idea involving The Three Musketeers.

Fast forward a couple decades.

Nowadays mashup novels are fairly common and are gaining mainstream recognition, such as: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter; Pride and Prejudice and Zombies; Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monster; Android Karenina; Little Women and Werewolves; and Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter, to name a few.  Along those lines, the tale I have floating around in my noggin involves The Three Musketeers in an alternate reality, facing a daemonic incursion and infestation that has been building for centuries. I’ve been working on some outlining, the preface, and the first couple chapters so far… hopefully I can find the time to work on this more in the near future…