The Terrific Truth of 'Trails and Tribulations of Miss Tilney.'
"Cub Reporter Henrietta Tilney is sent on her first assignment, to interview accused mass murderer Lord Beowulf Harwood. But young Henrietta quickly finds out there is much more to this story and its subject Lord Harwood. Will this plucky young reporter get her story and survive with her life intact?"
A Penny Dreadful in three parts!
Dusk Comics is currently publishing the illustrated Penny Dreadful, The Trials and Tribulations of Miss Tilney. To the casual observer it would seem like this book is a new item written and drawn by people of this modern age, but that casual observer would be sorely wrong.
The Trials and Tribulations of Miss Tilney was originally published in 1890 by the Doub Publishing and Novelty Company. This company was created by writer and poet Anton Doub. Current publisher of Dusk Comics is David Doub, a descendant of the original Anton Doub, and he has spent years of time, effort, and resources to recover and restore the original catalog of the Doub Publishing and Novelty Company.
The history of 'The Trials and Tribulations of Miss Tilney' is tied closely to Anton Doub so we're going to get a bit more of his history first. Anton Doub's history is quite obscured with various rumors and tall tales, but from reading what history there is of him, that seems to be the point. Various papers and books have Anton Doub listed as a writer, poet, playwright, occultist and magistrate-at-large (it's hard to pin down the definition of that last title). Additionally, some reports paint him as a con man. His usual tactic was to impress rich women with other people's poetry or writings in order to obtain their patronage. Anton's greatest find was the embellished memoirs of Lord Beowulf Harwood of York.
Lord Harwood was known as a libertine, a lothario, and had many adventures across the globe hunting game of the four (and two legged) variety. But even a wealthy man like Lord Harwood is bound to run out of money eventually, especially if is not working at more profitable ventures. The story goes that Lord Harwood starting gambling in order to fill his dwindling coffers. Apparently, the risk and excitement was enough to make it seem like a sport and worthy of the Lord's time and effort. Sadly for Lord Harwood, he met Anton Doub who was not about playing games and had set the outcome before hand. Thanks to Anton’s unethical skills and Lord Harwood’s stubbornness, Anton took Lord Harwood for all he possessed. But full of the world-renowned British pride, Lord Harwood made once last gambit by betting all the manuscripts of his live history. Lord Harwood was planning to sell it to a publishing firm to be a penny dreadful. These manuscripts were of a great interest for Anton Doub. With these stories, he would be able to pluck plenty of farthings from gullible young society women.
The wager was made and accepted and Lord Harwood lost. Supposedly after this incident Lord Harwood disappeared off into the Far East, following clues to hunt dragons. Lord Harwood had a theory that the Dragon’s of European myth came from Asia and that some still lived in the tallest mountains in the world, safely tucked away from mankind.
As for Anton Doub, he had a more public and profitable plan in mind. Tired of going from one hustle to the other, he decided to do one big gambit. He would work all his past patrons into sponsoring him going into business as Publishing Magnate. He had a sound business plan of various strong-arm tactics to get texts for cheap and the use of time-proven plagiarism. Eventually Anton Doub, wouldn’t have to work at all. The business would run itself and he would be left with the arduous task of spending the profits. Who knew that legitimate business would become his ultimate success?
Thus, the Doub Publishing and Novelty Company was born. The Novelty side was apparently a front for smuggling, but the jewel in the company’s crown was the penny dreadful series 'The Harrowing Happenstances of Lord Harwood.' With an ad campaign that heavily insinuated H. Rider Haggard and his works (in some cases there were “misprints" that stated that H. Rider Haggard was the actual author), the Lord Harwood stories were a success. However it soon became clear that readers were looking for Gothic and Historical Romance stories. While the Lord Harwood series had plenty of “wooing,” there was very little actual romance. Anton Doub hit on an brilliant idea to market the books to women. Refit the Lord Harwood story with a female lead and that should surely get the shillings from all those lonely housewives.
That's how Miss Tilney was born. One story states that Anton Doub made Tilney a woman reporter to poke fun at a male reporter who was investigating the Company’s “novelty” business. Another story claims that a Miss Tilney was mentioned in the margin notes of the original manuscript. It stuck out to Anton Doub, because the notes didn’t seem to refer to this Miss Tilney as conquest, as all other woman Harwood interacted with did.
It’s unknown if the new Trials and Tribulations of Miss Tilney would have been very successful, because the offices of the Doub Publishing and Novelty Company were burnt to the ground a week before the book was to go to press. Around this time, Anton Doub disappeared, and there are only vague reports of him moving to America to live with distant family.
So now the year is 2012 and the latest Doub, who doesn’t have nearly as nefarious of a reputation, is attempting to give Miss Tilney her second chance at success. Will this cub reporter finally get her story? Will a Doub finally be a legitimate publishing success? Will the ghost of Lord Harwood haunt the “bordellos” of the modern age? Pick of a copy of 'The Trials and Tribulations of Miss Tilney' to find out.
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