Sherlock Holmes (17) and James Moriarty (also 17) are best friends. They’re on the trail of a mysterious smuggler operating in the East India Company Docklands, a dangerous and forbidden part of London polluted by the refuse of the Victorian steampunk revolution. Together, nothing can stop Holmes and Moriarty, not even the fierce matron of their dormitory at Long Hall college, but when they’re apart, it’s a different story, and The Question of the Future is a very different story indeed.
James’s estranged father returns to take care of his son after James’s mother is killed by a criminal in the city known as the London vampire, so called after his peculiar technique. Sherlock sees a connection between the murder and their investigations in the docklands, and is too excited by the chase to pay real attention to James’s grief. Influenced by the advice of his father, James begins to suspect Sherlock’s sociopathic qualities will keep them from ever being real friends.
The danger strikes even closer to home when their curious roommate, Malichi, disappears on one of Sherlock’s dangerous trips into the docklands. Then there’s the matter of Chetan, an Indian servantmaid who insists she can help them in their investigations by predicting the future, and a boy by the name of John Watson who is assigned to fill the now empty bed in their room—and ultimately replace the jealous James as Sherlock’s right hand man.
Sherlock Holmes and the Question of the Future is a dense 60 pages of script for the graphic novel format. The script was edited by Hayena Studios and published by Markosia Enterprises in 2011 as The Young Sherlock Holmes Adventures.
