Captain Ben Daimio

[ChrisTheHomunculus]

Well, I finally picked up The Dead and The Black Flame a few weeks ago, and this guy is confusing me slightly. I havent actually read any of The Universal Machine yet, so bear with me, and from what I've read on Wikipedia The Universal Machine could go some way to explaining my confusion.

Whats with the monkey-ish creature in the jar?
We see one clinging to the Oriental lady in the mugshots section in The Dead, amongst the Nazi (and perhaps other Axis) villains, then Daimio finds the jar later on, with a suprised look on his face...

The wiki states that he started having the treatments with the "Chinaman" after finding this monkey creature, is that right? And that the thing appeared to him before his death?

We also see the monkey-thing in the personal Nazi museum of the Black Flame, so whats going on with this thing? Is Daimio being influenced by it somehow? Is it a plot hook to keep us guessing about Daimio?

Thanks for reading my rambling!
Chris

[ChrisTheHomunculus]

Oh, and did that mugshot page make anyone want Mignola to work on another timeline, back to the 1930s and 40s, with Allied heroes against good old fashioned pulp villains? Lobster Johnson versus the Steel Hawk? The Torch of Liberty versus the original Black Flame?
Chris

[Neil Hill]

Oh, and did that mugshot page make anyone want Mignola to work on another timeline, back to the 1930s and 40s, with Allied heroes against good old fashioned pulp villains? Lobster Johnson versus the Steel Hawk? The Torch of Liberty versus the original Black Flame?
Chris

Who wouldn't like to see Mike illustrate such stories?! :) For my money though, I'd rather see him illustrate those things currently that make him happy and help him grow as an artist and comics creator. Not that these stories wouldn't do that, but I just don't see it happening any time soon.

[el seth]

Well, I finally picked up The Dead and The Black Flame a few weeks ago, and this guy is confusing me slightly. I havent actually read any of The Universal Machine yet, so bear with me, and from what I've read on Wikipedia The Universal Machine could go some way to explaining my confusion.

Whats with the monkey-ish creature in the jar?
We see one clinging to the Oriental lady in the mugshots section in The Dead, amongst the Nazi (and perhaps other Axis) villains, then Daimio finds the jar later on, with a suprised look on his face...

The wiki states that he started having the treatments with the "Chinaman" after finding this monkey creature, is that right? And that the thing appeared to him before his death?

We also see the monkey-thing in the personal Nazi museum of the Black Flame, so whats going on with this thing? Is Daimio being influenced by it somehow? Is it a plot hook to keep us guessing about Daimio?

Thanks for reading my rambling!
Chris

Yeah, these are the Big Questions about ol' Ben. No one really knows John Arcudi and Mike have up their sleeves at this point.

You really need to read The Universal Machine, because it's excellent, but it creates more questions about Ben than it answers.

[Kelly Tindall]

If you've read the Wikipedia entry, then you know as much as I do, because I wrote most of it myself.

-K.