Richard Willis > Luke BlanchardJanuary 19, 2026 at 5:16pm
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1798)
I'm more of a prose reader, but this is very good. The albatross, then thought to be good luck, because of this poem many today think it's bad luck. Killing one was bad, not the bird itself.
Luke Blanchard > Richard WillisJanuary 20, 2026 at 2:14am
I thought the AI scored hits with Merritt/"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", and Austin/"The Rape of the Lock". Possibly also Dickens/"The Deserted Village", but I haven't read that one. Bond/"The Rape of the Lock" is a wild miss: the work is a comic parody of poems in which the action is ornamented with mythological elements, and the title refers to the theft of a lock of hair.
I've read "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and skip-read "The Rape of the Lock". I haven't read the others, but they're all very famous. Looking for early mystery writers I've tended to find the same: it suggests ones I already know about. But some exotic prompts I've tried found less-known works. I asked it if there were any good nineteenth century neo-Shakespearan plays and got
>Yes, there are several highly regarded, or at least historically significant, "neo-Renaissance" or neo-Shakespearean plays written in the nineteenth century, often produced by Romantic and Victorian authors aiming to revive the style, verse, and dramatic intensity of Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre.
Here are some of the notable examples:
Percy B. Shelley's The Cenci (1819): Perhaps the most famous, this is a verse tragedy heavily influenced by Elizabethan revenge drama (particularly Webster).
Robert Browning's Strafford (1837): A historical tragedy that, while not a box-office hit, was highly regarded as a serious literary drama.
Joanna Baillie's Count Basil (1798/early 1800s): Part of her series of "plays on the passions," these were deeply influenced by the psychological depth of Shakespearean tragedy.
Oscar Wilde's The Duchess of Padua (1891): A later Victorian attempt to write in the elevated, passionate style of Jacobean tragedy.
Algernon Charles Swinburne's Rosamond (1860) and The Duke of Gandia (1908): Verse dramas that adopted the style of the Renaissance.
Henry Hart Milman's Fazio (1815): A popular verse tragedy that fits within this neo-Renaissance trend.
Charles Lamb's John Woodvil (1802): A conscious effort to revive Elizabethan dramatic verse.
Richard Hengist Horne's Cosmo de Medici (1837): Another example of the attempt to mirror the intensity of Renaissance drama.
Contextual Notes
Neo-Victorianism: While some nineteenth-century plays directly imitated the style, others in the latter part of the century began to look at the production of Shakespearean plays themselves (e.g., Charles Kean's, in 1856).
Burlesque: It is worth noting that alongside these serious attempts, the nineteenth century also saw a massive trend of "burlesques" or "travesties" (like Hamlet Travestie in 1849) that mocked the pomposity of mainstream Shakespearean productions.
JD DeLuzio > Richard WillisJanuary 21, 2026 at 8:50pm
I own a handful of these.
They appear to have forgotten the very brief and wholly unlicensed crossovers that Marvel and Gold Key staff snuck into an issue of Dr. Strange and an issue of Dark Shadows, bringing their worlds together.
But Batman and Elmer Fudd is excellent, too:
"Sometimes the wain comes down so hawrd you fowrget you've ever been dwy. I twy to see it, out thewe in the past or in the future wainbows waiting. Going into Powrky's that day, I twy my best to wemember. I weawy do. Things wewrn't awways this way. They won't awways be this way."
Orson Welles guested in a story in Superman #62, "Black Magic on Mars!" This advertised the movie Black Magic.
Ann Blythe appeared in "Superman and the Mermaid" in Action Comics #130. This advertised the movie Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid.
Pat Boone guested in "Superman's Mystery Song!" in Lois Lane #9.
Allen Funt guested in "The Day Candid Camera Unmasked Clark Kent's Identity!" in Action Comics #345.
The Jolly Green Giant guested in a sequence in "The Touch of Life!" in Jimmy Olsen #118.
Luke Blanchard > Richard WillisJanuary 22, 2026 at 1:07am
Young Davy Crockett guested in stories in Tomahawk.
Richard Dragon fought a pupil of Bruce Lee in Richard Dragon, Kung-Fu Fighter #14. In the story this means he's a super-capable fighter.
Benjamin Franklin seduced Clea in Doctor Strange #18 (1976), but the next issue, with a new creative team, implied it hadn't really happened.
Albert Einstein (unnamed) guested in Elliot Maggin's issue of DC Challenge, where he solved the mystery of "der unified field" and became "unbound by der reschtraints of time! From my home here, I can see, even visit anywhere!" A later issue backed off from the idea that this was really Einstein.
The Avengers appeared on David Letterman's show in The Avengers #239.
JD DeLuzio > Luke BlanchardJanuary 22, 2026 at 7:32am
One of two incidents from my university days that renewed my interest in comics.
Oh, there was also a Marvel/Image Howard the Duck/Savage Dragon inter-company crossover, but the Image half of it revealed that, while in the Image universe, Howard adopted the identity of "Leonard" and sent a duplicate back in his place (I can believe that). Essentially, Steve Gerber "stole" back Howard. I wrote more about it HERE.
Replies
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1798)
I'm more of a prose reader, but this is very good. The albatross, then thought to be good luck, because of this poem many today think it's bad luck. Killing one was bad, not the bird itself.
I thought the AI scored hits with Merritt/"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", and Austin/"The Rape of the Lock". Possibly also Dickens/"The Deserted Village", but I haven't read that one. Bond/"The Rape of the Lock" is a wild miss: the work is a comic parody of poems in which the action is ornamented with mythological elements, and the title refers to the theft of a lock of hair.
I've read "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and skip-read "The Rape of the Lock". I haven't read the others, but they're all very famous. Looking for early mystery writers I've tended to find the same: it suggests ones I already know about. But some exotic prompts I've tried found less-known works. I asked it if there were any good nineteenth century neo-Shakespearan plays and got
>Yes, there are several highly regarded, or at least historically significant, "neo-Renaissance" or neo-Shakespearean plays written in the nineteenth century, often produced by Romantic and Victorian authors aiming to revive the style, verse, and dramatic intensity of Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre.
Here are some of the notable examples:
Percy B. Shelley's The Cenci (1819): Perhaps the most famous, this is a verse tragedy heavily influenced by Elizabethan revenge drama (particularly Webster).
Robert Browning's Strafford (1837): A historical tragedy that, while not a box-office hit, was highly regarded as a serious literary drama.
Joanna Baillie's Count Basil (1798/early 1800s): Part of her series of "plays on the passions," these were deeply influenced by the psychological depth of Shakespearean tragedy.
Oscar Wilde's The Duchess of Padua (1891): A later Victorian attempt to write in the elevated, passionate style of Jacobean tragedy.
Algernon Charles Swinburne's Rosamond (1860) and The Duke of Gandia (1908): Verse dramas that adopted the style of the Renaissance.
Henry Hart Milman's Fazio (1815): A popular verse tragedy that fits within this neo-Renaissance trend.
Charles Lamb's John Woodvil (1802): A conscious effort to revive Elizabethan dramatic verse.
Richard Hengist Horne's Cosmo de Medici (1837): Another example of the attempt to mirror the intensity of Renaissance drama.
Contextual Notes
Neo-Victorianism: While some nineteenth-century plays directly imitated the style, others in the latter part of the century began to look at the production of Shakespearean plays themselves (e.g., Charles Kean's, in 1856).
Burlesque: It is worth noting that alongside these serious attempts, the nineteenth century also saw a massive trend of "burlesques" or "travesties" (like Hamlet Travestie in 1849) that mocked the pomposity of mainstream Shakespearean productions.
The Weirdest Comic Book Crossovers of All Time
Den of Geek Article
:The Weirdest Comic Book Crossovers of All Time | Den of Geek
I own a handful of these.
They appear to have forgotten the very brief and wholly unlicensed crossovers that Marvel and Gold Key staff snuck into an issue of Dr. Strange and an issue of Dark Shadows, bringing their worlds together.
But Batman and Elmer Fudd is excellent, too:
"Sometimes the wain comes down so hawrd you fowrget you've ever been dwy. I twy to see it, out thewe in the past or in the future wainbows waiting. Going into Powrky's that day, I twy my best to wemember. I weawy do. Things wewrn't awways this way. They won't awways be this way."
Orson Welles guested in a story in Superman #62, "Black Magic on Mars!" This advertised the movie Black Magic.
Ann Blythe appeared in "Superman and the Mermaid" in Action Comics #130. This advertised the movie Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid.
Pat Boone guested in "Superman's Mystery Song!" in Lois Lane #9.
Allen Funt guested in "The Day Candid Camera Unmasked Clark Kent's Identity!" in Action Comics #345.
The Jolly Green Giant guested in a sequence in "The Touch of Life!" in Jimmy Olsen #118.
Young Davy Crockett guested in stories in Tomahawk.
Richard Dragon fought a pupil of Bruce Lee in Richard Dragon, Kung-Fu Fighter #14. In the story this means he's a super-capable fighter.
Benjamin Franklin seduced Clea in Doctor Strange #18 (1976), but the next issue, with a new creative team, implied it hadn't really happened.
Albert Einstein (unnamed) guested in Elliot Maggin's issue of DC Challenge, where he solved the mystery of "der unified field" and became "unbound by der reschtraints of time! From my home here, I can see, even visit anywhere!" A later issue backed off from the idea that this was really Einstein.
The Avengers appeared on David Letterman's show in The Avengers #239.
One of two incidents from my university days that renewed my interest in comics.
They left out my favorite: Steve Englehart took his character Mantis from Marvel to DC (where she was called "Willow") to Eclipse back to Marvel.
Oh, there was also a Marvel/Image Howard the Duck/Savage Dragon inter-company crossover, but the Image half of it revealed that, while in the Image universe, Howard adopted the identity of "Leonard" and sent a duplicate back in his place (I can believe that). Essentially, Steve Gerber "stole" back Howard. I wrote more about it HERE.
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