"I see. You're aware, of course, that we are being followed?"
"For the last twelve blocks. You propose we do something about it?"
"For the last twelve blocks. You propose we do something about it?"
Originally appearing in 2000 AD, Necronauts is a graphic novel which features a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen style team-up involving none other than Harry Houdini, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, H. P. Lovecraft and Charles Fort facing Cosmic Horror. The story is set in 1926, created in 2001 by Gordon Rennie and Frazer Irving. It draws heavily from Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos and many of the legends surrounding Houdini.
This comic provides examples of:
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Charles Fort, Arthur Conan Doyle, Harry Houdini and H. P. Lovecraft go up against the Cthulhu Mythos.
- Dream Team: The comic book presents a fictional team-up between Arthur Conan Doyle, H. P. Lovecraft, Charles Fort and Harry Houdini.
- Dream Weaver: When Harry Houdini and H.P. Lovecraft journey into the dream dimension, Lovecraft finds that Houdini is already a very experienced dreamer who doesn't need his advice on how to shape the dream.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Sleepers in the Void are shapeless beings from between dimensions who devour human souls. Houdini has angered them many times by traveling to the border between life and death and escaping their grasp every single time, while Lovecraft is inspired to write his stories after his encounter with them.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Harry Houdini chooses to not return to the world of the living so as not to give the Sleepers in the Void the ability to find their way there with his body as a guide.
- I Have Many Names: The Sleepers in the Void, The Great Old Ones, The Dark Ones, Shadows at the Threshold etc...
- The Mole: H.P. Lovecraft has been recruited by the Sleepers in the Void to spy on Houdini and his allies. He redeems himself when they break him free of their influence.
- No Body Left Behind: The human(ish) servants of the Sleepers in the Void vanish into thin air when they are killed.
- No Historical Figures Were Harmed: The Aviator of the Unknown, Charles Lindbergh, who sacrifices his first born child so he can survive when the Sleepers awake.
- The Roaring '20s
- Spooky Séance: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is part of a seance in London when the summoner is possessed by the Sleepers in the Void and rips his own face off. This is a sign to Arthur that he needs to help his friend Houdini.
- Technicolor Death: When Fort destroys one of the cultists' sleeping bodies to demonstrate that they're not bluffing about having found their headquarters, the cultist's dream avatar lights up like a christmas tree.
- Tear Off Your Face: A medium tears off his face when he's possessed by entities from beyond during a seance.
