The history of science fable is full of unforgettable persona . So it ’s no surprise that celebrated writers often appear in fiction themselves — either by name , or wearing the thinnest of disguises . Here are our 10 favorite skill - fabrication writer cameos .
HG Wells , Time After Time
HG Wells pop up in fiction on a regular foundation . He has cast by Lois and Clark : The New Adventures Of Supermanin his guise as a clip traveller , met the Colin Baker - era Doctor in “ Timelash , ” and most late come out on Warehouse 13 ( though in greatly neutered shape ) .
But it ’s 1979 ’s Time After Time that really commit to HG Wells as a fictional character . The movie suggests Wells did n’t just stargaze up a time machine — he in reality built one . alas , just as he reveals the machine to his learned friends , Jack the Ripper dash into his townhouse , looking for a spot to hide from the law . The serial killer knows a getaway when he determine one , so he hops in the time machine and takes off for 1970s - geological era San Francisco . The vehicle dumps him out and returns mechanically to Victorian London , but the adventurous Wells is n’t going to simply leave it at that . He follows the Ripper , and so we get to see H.G. Wells do all sorts of thing that would have seemed highly science - fictional to the man himself , like feed at McDonald ’s .
Darius Just / Harlan Ellison , Murder at the ABA
One year at the American Booksellers Association ’s annual trade show , a science fiction author finds a colleague dead in his hotel room . The police force rule it a self-destruction , but the obstinate writer disagrees . He digs in and decide to unravel the secret on his own . Oh , and one more thing : The protagonist of Isaac Asimov ’s execution at the ABA operate by the name Darius Just , but is commonly believe to be a lightly fictionalise Harlan Ellison . Asimov even take on as much in his memoir , I , Asimov .
Isaac Asimov , Inferno
Asimov also insert himself into execution at the ABA – he ’s there to research a mystery novel about a slaying at the ABA . But for sheer plot impact , his best cameo comes in Larry Niven ’s Inferno . Scifi writer Allen Carpentier is set about to shanghai his fans at a convention after - party with an ill - advised , drunken party legerdemain claim from War and Peace . Balanced precariously on the shelf of an 8th - floor window , he ’s in the process of downing an entire feeding bottle of outpouring — without have got on to anything — when Isaac Asimov stroll in and everyone discontinue paying attention . Out the windowpane Allen hold out , and then he ’s wake up up in the Vestibule to Hell . That ’s a big impact for a one - sentence appearance , but such is the awesome exponent of Asimov .
Mark Twain , Riverworld
Samuel Clemens , author of A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur ’s Court , is another speculative fiction ducky . He appear as a struggling author in Sandman ’s “ Three Septembers and a January , ” being honored as Official Storyteller by Joshua Abraham Norton , San Francisco ’s self - proclaimed Emperor of These United States . He spends an entire two - part episode of Star Trek : The Next propagation tagging along behind the crew of the initiative . information attracts the source ’s care when a secular perturbation land him in the 19th hundred , and he spends the eternal rest of “ Time ’s pointer ” following the cast ’s every move . But his splashy fictional role is as the principal character of The Fabulous Riverboat , Philip José Farmer ’s second Riverworld novel . Farmer imagine him building a giant , weaponize riverboat and chugging upstream to investigate the world ’s source .
Grant Morrison , Animal Man
author put their characters through the wringer for our entertainment value , and Grant Morrison is no exception . Take his discourse of Buddy Baker , AKA Animal Man , a exhaustively decent cat who fights wickedness using his power to borrow animal attributes . In Animal Man # 26 , Buddy ’s family is savagely murdered while he ’s forth — and it ’s not even for any good plot - related reasons . He goes seem for the Orcinus orca , and his lookup lead him to Morrison himself . But rather than vanish in a puff of meta - fancied smoke , Buddy confronts the writer about his cheapjack treatment of his characters , and Morrison in conclusion relents and brings back Buddy ’s family .
Jules Verne , The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne
The frequenter saint of steampunk sure as shooting has n’t escaped fictionalisation . Most notably , he experiences the events of his own novel in The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne . Developed by SyFy ( back when it was still the SciFi Channel ) , the show depict Verne running around with Phileas Fogg and Passepartout in a airship predict the Aoura . They queer nefarious secret plan and flow out with diachronic notability like Alexander Dumas and Queen Victoria , as new Jules call for the material for what will become his novels .
Philip K. Dick , Philip K. Dick Is Dead , Alas
It ’s 1982 . In his fourth condition as president , Richard Nixon holds America in the iron grip of fascism . Who can save us ? Philip K. Dick , of class . His science fabrication novels are banned , but lapse around the resistance . The man himself dies in the opening night pages , but that ’s not give-up the ghost to stop him from stick it to the world . There ’s also beena span of other novelsin late years that feature thinly veiled versions of Dick : Lint by Steve Aylett and Cardboard Universe by Christopher Miller .
https://gizmodo.com/the-third-fictional-coming-of-philip-k-dick-5217907
Edgar Allen Poe , The Venture Bros
Poe is a popular choice among novelist , in particular , for reimagining the past times : In Matthew Pearl ’s The Poe Shadow , Rudy Rucker ’s The Hollow Earth , Seth Grahame - Smith ’s Abraham Lincoln , Vampire Hunter . But for sheer bonkers amusement value , you ’ve got to watch him in the Venture Bros , “ Escape to the House of Mummies Part II . ” Poe gets interracial up in the son ’ sentence trip escapade and subjected to all fashion of indignity . Brock set him in a headlock , just because his face is handily pumpkin - like . Later , to keep Hank ardent against glacial weather consideration , he slice Poe clear like a Tauntaun .
Kilgore Trout / Kurt Vonnegut
Kilgore Trout began his literary lifespan as a fictionalized version of Theodore Sturgeon , but gradually morphed into his Almighty ’s vox over the eld . He crops up again and again in Vonnegut ’s fiction , from Timequaketo God Bless You , Mr Rosewater . He ’s a brilliant , prolific little storey writer , with over two - thousand skill fabrication pieces to his recognition . But he does n’t wield much effort to get them release , so his stories typically serve as literary padding in adult magazines . He ’s almost always a major fictitious character or a sinewy influence on the plot , and it ’s intemperately not to see Vonnegut in his bio — and his outlook on sprightliness .
Stan Lee , Mallrats
A Stan Lee cameo is practically a requirement for throw a topnotch hero motion picture , but he ordinarily look in a small-scale , retiring part . But the short show that makes you require to have him hang around dispensing life advice is his turn in Mallrats . He block up by the promenade for a book - signing and ends up deliver Brodie and T.S. some solid amorous advice . He also suggests Brodie get assistant for his compulsion with superhero sex organ , which someone needed to say .
extra reporting by Alasdair Wilkins , Cyriaque Lamar , and Marc Bernardin .
BooksH.G. WellsHarlan EllisonJules Vernekurt vonnegutLarry NivenStan Lee
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