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Morrison, G.. Os Invisíveis.
vb. criado em 26/09/2013, 10h25m.
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Há um palácio em sua cabeça, garoto! Aprenda a viver nele! (v.2).
Tudo o que acontece com você é real, até mesmo seus sonhos. Principalmente eles! (v.2).
Sua cabeça é como a minha, como todas as cabeças; grande o suficiente para conter todo deus e diabo que já existiu. Grande o suficiente para segurar o peso de oceanos e estrelas. Universos inteiros cabem lá! Mas o que escolhemos para guardar nesse armário milagroso? pequenas coisas quebradas, bijuterias tristes, e brincamos com elas de novo e de novo. O mundo gira nossa manivela e tocamos nossa musiquinha de novo e de novo e pensamos que essa música é tudo que somos. (v.3).
O diabo tem o melhor de tudo. A grande falha dele, no entanto, é que aceita seu lugar no grande plano, e não tenta fazer do inferno um paraíso (v. 5).
A alma não está no corpo. O corpo está dentro da alma (v.16).
Nossa época é uma época de razão. Uma época de linha e medida. A razão fará da mãe natureza uma meretriz amarrada para nosso deleite, e nos colocará em altos tronos, como mestres do universo (v.7).
Esse mundo é louco, e eu sou louco por viver nele (v.7)
Eu construí uma porta feita de palavras e escapei por ela (v.7).
E aí veio a revolução, e vi os fracos se tornarem fortes e fazerem por sua vez o que os fortes sempre fizeram aos fracos (v.7).
notas diversas
Ragged Doll, referência a Raggedy Ann. Esfarrapada, imperfeita, em pedaços, irregular. Flor.
Bedlam é hospício e também confusão, barulheira.
erdische (terrestre ou da terra?) método bom, forte (mais forte?) proprietário. país mental.
O espelho mágico que o corpo projeta (v. 10 e 13) parece com o mercúrio de promethea.
No v. 5 há várias pendências. Quem é a mulher com a criança deformada? E o pianista que Shelly e Byron visitam no hospício?
No v. 13 aquele telefone na pág. 26 é misterioso. Fala da reabertura da divisão X (quem fala com quem?). No v. 14 Jack Flint é convocado para reassumir.
A cabeça do profeta, o motor da profecia, fala glossolalia, vogais e consoantes aleatórias. Cada um ouve o que quer, ou precisa ouvir. Não é uma língua nova, mas a língua eterna. a língua do êxtase e dos sonhos, a língua primária do fogo. É a voz original do inconsciente. Inconsciente falando com inconsciente, fala invisível (v.7).
O dalang não é somente um titereiro. Seu trabalho é fazer-nos crer que há uma guerra entre dois exércitos. Mas não há guerra nem exércitos. Há somente o dalang. (v.5).
Coletado da internet
volume 1
1-1
The title is actually a far cleverer encapsulation of lots of points in the story than might at first seem apparent. As far as I'm concerned, there are at least three elements at work here: 1. A pun on the fact that dead members of 'The Beatles' appear in the strip (obviously). 2. A pun on the idea of the beetle as symbol of death and resurrection, mirroring the loss of John a' Dreams and the introduction of Dane to the Invisible cell - note that the thing Elfayed shows King Mob is a 'mummified scarab' - i.e. a dead beetle. 3. A pun on the slang expression 'deadbeat'. It may be entirely British slang, I'm not sure, but it basically refers to a person who's a 'good for nothing', a 'layabout', a 'bum'. Dane would seem ,to the outside world in general and to those at Harmony House in particular, to be just such a figure, and it may be interesting in this connection that his predecessor in the cell took the name of 'a stupid, dreamy fellow'. Malcolm refers to Dane's classmates as 'deadweights' on page eight, panel six, which is very nearly the same expression and with the same meaning. (LR)
o (page 1) According to 1.17 page 9, this scene occurs in September, 1994. (RL) (panel 1) Giza. The pyramids dedicated to Keop, Kefren and Micerino. (PV) (panel 2) The bald one is King Mob. (JdL) "Khephra": Khepra Ra, the god of the sun (and) Creator of the universe, was symbolized by the head of the scarab and was called Khepera, which signified the resurrection of the soul and a new life at the end of the mortal span. (From "The Secret Teachings of All Ages" by Manly P. Hall) (MST) (panel 5) "Scarab": The (symbolic figure of the) Egyptian scarab (...) was evolved by the erudition of the priestcraft from a simple insect which, because of its peculiar habits and appearance, properly symbolized the strength of the body, the resurrection of the soul, and the Eternal and Incomprehensible Creator in His aspect as Lord of the Sun. (...) Initiates of the Egyptian Mysteries were sometimes called scarabs (...) The scarab was the emmisary of the sun, symbolizing light, truth, and regeneration. Stone scarabs called heart scarabs, about three inches long, were placed in the heart cavity of the dead (...) (From the Egyptian book of initiations, the Book of the Dead:) "And behold, thou shalt make a scarab out of green stone..."(From The Secret Teachings of All Ages") (MST)
o (page 2) This, in all his splendor, is Dane MacGowan. The name is an obvious play on real-life Irish barfly bard Shane MacGowan, former vocalist for the Pogues (short for "pogue mahone," Gaelic for "kiss my ass") and now "leader" of the Popes. (JdL/JB) I can't remember where I read it, but Dane's stance here supposedly evokes Situationist propoganda - certainly, there are many Situationist posters featuring people preparing to throw molotov cocktails at shops and the like. (LR)
o (page 4) (panel 1) The Carlsberg reference on Dane's 'T' is because it is a soccer top, and the team, Liverpool, are thusly sponsored... (??) Gaz (Gary), Dane and Billy. Billy will reappear in 1.21. (RM) (panel 4) Under the King Mob tag, you can read "G.M." (for Grant Morrison?). (PV) See the short essay Historical Origin of the Name "King Mob". Another graffiti: "Everton": the second 1st division football club from Liverpool. (RL) Liverpool and Everton (barely) are in the Premier League (our top division). There is no working class divide between the teams, with many families being divided. Both clubs came from the same church team. If there is any divide in Liverpool it is a religious one (catholic and protestant) but the clubs seem to have avoided that. (ADE) There IS an area of Liverpool called Croxteth, it may be adjacent to Toxteth which was renowned for its riots in the early 80s. "Crocky" is possibly a bit posher. (ADE) Dane yells "We are the Boys! We are the Boys!" This would seem to be inspired by the "We are the Mods! We are the Mods!" gang chant from The Who's film, "Quadrophenia." (JB)
o (page 5) (panels 2-3) If you have read Morrison's "Dan Dare" comics, you will recall a similar such ending; that is, Dan Dare nuked London with a fusion bomb to thwart the advent of a Cthulhu-like creature from taking over. (Geoff Garvoille?)
o (page 6) (panel 1) Eiffel Tower, Paris. The old woman is Lady Edith Manning. KM met her in the past, maybe during one of his time travel. More about their first encounter in 1.18 and 2.8-2.10 (PV) In King Mob's personal timeline, his 1924 encounter with Edith has not yet occured. (BSI) panel 4: "John-A-Dreams": A stupid, dreamy fellow, always in a brown study (absence of mind; apparent thought but real vacuity) and half sleep. (from "The Wordsworth Dictionary of Phrase and Fable") (MST) "Yet I, /A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak, /Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, /And can say nothing." --Shakespeare: Hamlet, ii. (from "The Secret Teachings of All Ages" by (Manly P. Hall)) (MST)
o (page 7) (panel 1) The instructor is Mr Six, although we don't learn that until 1.21. 6 was also the number of the Prisoner in the TV show. (BSI) (panel 5) Molotov, Vjaceslav Michajlovic. Pseudonyms of the Soviet politician V. M. Skrjabin (1890, Kukarka, died ). He was one of Lenin's collaborators and editor of Pravda. (PV) Of course, a 'Molotov cocktail' was what Dane used to destroy the library. (BSI)
o (page 10) (panel 5) Stu Sutcliff was the first Beatles bass player. John Lennon: everybody knows him. (PV) I guess Lennon and Sutcliffe showing up here is inspired by the film "Backbeat" which was showing a couple of months before issue 1 was released. "Backbeat" was about the early Beatles' Hamburg stay and in particular about Sutcliffe's fall out with them. (RL)
o (page 12) (panel 2) "Mr. Lennon!": Refers to the 1980 murder of John Lennon by Mark David Chapman, who yelled "Mr. Lennon" before shooting him. (CE) I don't think that it was Dane saying "Mr Lennon." I read it more of Lennon having a flash-forward to his own assassination (hence the "car backfiring" in the next panel). The time-bending in evidence. (CGU)
o (page 13) (panel 2) Dane's "inner demon" Jack Frost. More on him in 1.17 (RL) panel 3: "Erdische Methode gut": not a complete sentence, only fragments. Could translate as "Earthly method good", "good method of/from earth." (RL) "Starker Besitscher", correct spelling is "starker Besitzer": "strong/poweful owner." (RL) "Seelisches land" = "psychic land", the human mind? (PV) Selischesland is not just the Psychic land, but the Shadowland, the dark side of the Psyche...(who?) The reverse of the moon (the home, according Jack Frost) is the dark side of the moon, the side we will never see from the Earth. It could symbolize the inner self, or the madness inside us. This is also another musical quote: "The Dark Side of the Moon" is also the title of the best-selling album by Pink Floyd.(PV) The reverse of the moon is likely to refer to Barbelith - it says later (issue 23, page 14) that Barbelith is "behind the moon". also, the first issue of vol 3 refers to "the invisible star" (pg. 15), and "behind the moon"(pg. 21, sir miles dream visitor). (Br) Dead at 22: Sutcliffe; dead at 40: Lennon. (RL)
o (page 14) (panel 1) "TDA" means "Taking and Driving Away", sometimes called TWOCcing (Taking Without Owner's Consent), but basically good old car theft, a major pastime of Britain's dissaffected youth. (??)
o (page 16) (panel 2) "E": the drug Ecstasy, associated with rave culture. (RL)
o (page 18-19) According to Morrison, these two pages are entirely inspired by a ritual he made with the help of LSD. (PV) The evocation of John Lennon, as stated by King Mob on page 33, follows traditional methods of ceremonial magick. That is, one banishes from the Temple forces contradicting the intent of the operation, and then uses symbols to suggest the intent of the operation. There are two basic operations in magick: invocation, which is to say identification with a godform; and evocation. The former being summoning the entity in you, the latter, being summoning the entity outside you. (KF)
o (page 18) (panel 1) The Beatles albums are: "Revolver," "Rubber Soul" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." (PV) "Pentagram's drawn, banishings completed": This is a reference to the Lesser Banishing Pentagram Ritual, the ritual that most students of Magick start with. It is a fairly simple ritual, which is intended to strengthen the Body of Light (The Astral Body) as well as preparing the Temple for the work to come. The next stage of the operation is to use images and symbols that suggest the godform evoked. The basic tool for this is the use of Kabbalah. Here every god, magical weapon etc. is considered to have a relationship, and the tree of life with its ten sephirahs and 22 paths are used as a map. If we look at "777", a book by Crowley dealing with just these correspondences between ideas, we get the proper picture. (KF) (panel two) "The number 9 of Lennon": If we look at the number 9 in "777" we find the following correspondences: Ganesa (page 540) , Jasmine (page 543), moon (542), beetle (543). The numbers are from the extract of 777 which you can find the the appendixes of Liber ABA, of Crowley. All of these are central to the story in 1.01. Ganesh, the elephant deity, is mentioned; jasmine is burned as incense; etc. (KF) "Revolution 9" is a song by the Beatles, with a background voice that repeats "number 9, number 9". If you play the song backward, the voice says "Turn me, on dead man." Nine is King Mob's number, too. It's the number of his god, Ganesh (see issue 5). (PV) "More popular than Jesus". Famous Lennon quote: "The Beatles are now more popular than Jesus", led to the burning of Beatles records in the American South. (RL) (panel 4) "monks chanting": Beatles trivia: Lennon wanted to record "Tomorrow Never Knows" with Buddhist monks chanting in the background. As this was impossible, every Beatle had to come up with strange sound bytes (nature noise, backward tapes) that ran in the song's background. (RL)
o (page 19) (panel 2) "Eggmen": a reference to "I am the Walrus," from "Magical Mystery Tour." (BSI) "Let me take you down": a reference to "Strawberry Fields Forever", also from "Magical Mystery Tour", although originally released as a single four months prior to "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." (BSI/JB) (panel 3) "Say the word": from 'The Word', on "Rubber Soul." According to the song, the word is Love, BTW. (BSI) "It is not dying": from "Tomorrow Never Knows," off of "Revolver." Grant mentions the song as possibly the most psychedelic song ever in the lettercol of 1.08.(BSI) The first lines of "Tommorrow Never Knows" are lifted from Timothy Leary's LSD guide..., i.e., "When in times of stress...relax...float on down the stream..." (??) "fade up volume on monks chanting the backward static hum of the big bang": This is a reference to the eastern matra "AUM." It is the backward static of the Big Bang, since the Big Bang was from Nothing (Zero) to Everything. The symbolism of AUM is as follows: A - The beginning of Breath, birth. U - The Prolonging of Breath. life. M - Closes the breath, death. I.e. the breath dies out. (KF) (panel 4) "Double Fantasy" was released a couple of days before Lennon's death (after a five-year absence from the music biz). People were surprised that Lennon and Yoko Ono came back with a record praising family life, best examplified by "Beautiful Boy," a song for their son Sean Ono Lennon. (RL)
o (page 19) (panel 5) Kropotkin (Moscow 1842 - Dmitrov 1921) was a Russian revolutionary and anarchist. After he resigned from the Army, he dedicated himself to scientific speculations in Siberia and Manchuria (1862-67). In 1872 he joined the International and then he left it to become promoter of an anarchism with scientific claims. Arrested and put in jail a lot of times, in 1917 came back in Russia. Among his more famous works: "Paroles d'un revolt" (1885), "La conquete du pain" (1888), "L'anarchie, sa philosophie, son idal" (1896) and "Reci revolutionera" (1906). (PV)
o (page 23) Miss Dwyer's first appearance. (CAG) "Dwyer" means "the dark one" in Gaelic. (HE)
o (page 24) Mr. Gelt. "Gelt" is the Hebrew word for "castration." (PV) PV's note that "'Gelt' is the Hebrew word for 'castration'" is slightly off (probably due to a mistake printed in the issue 2 letter column). "Geld" in German or "gelt" in Yiddish means "money." "Geld" in English means to castrate. According to my Webster's, the two meanings were both present in Old English, with "gelden" meaning "to pay tribute" -- an unsettling association and also appropriate in Mr. Gelt's case. (Webster's also lists the Greek word "gallos" meaning a eunuch-priest in the Cybele cult, which is neat but seems like quite a stretch etymologically speaking.) (EB) "Geilt", also sometimes spelled "gelt", is the Irish word for "insane" or frenzied; as in Suibhne Geilt, "Sweeney the Mad", a mythical Irish king who is driven mad by a saint as punishment for blasphemy; Sweeney is a character in some of Yeats's poetry, and (possibly) Eliot's as well. (HE)
o (page 26) (panel 1) The Moon XVIII. This card has a cyclic aspect that announces some changes in the life of consultant. Externally it means travels, commercial exchanges and circulation of goods. Internally it means instability, restlessness and uneasiness. (PV) I heard somewhere that the moon card in the tarot deck that Robin uses should have beetles included in its design but the artist was unaware of this. I cannot confirm this. (L) panel 4: "The Beetle's supposed to stand for death and resurrection, isnt it! Trials. Initiations.": The Moon in the Tarot pack, have a beetle crawling with the sun, through the dark night. This is a symbol of initiation, passing through darkness and into the light of the new morning. (KF)
o (page 27) "An apple for the teacher": Pupils who want to suck up to their teachers traditionally bring an apple to school for them. In this case I would guess KM is being flippant. Should we see significance in the fact that despite saying she won't fall for the same trap that Eve did Robin is nonetheless eating the apple at the end of the page? (L) Apples have significance to the Beatles. Their record label was called Apple, and they set up a number of companies under this banner, filled with drop-outs and freaks. They lost a lot of money, but boy, did it look fun!" (JBU) The apple, in addition to being the Beatles' company, could refer to the apple from the Garden of Eden (which comes from the Tree of Knowledge). Also, a possible nod to the Discordians, and the Golden Apple of Eris. This would also be an indirect nod to the "Illuminatus" trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson. (BSI) For more apples, see also 1.6, pages 6, 14-15; and 1.13, page 20, panels 7-9. (JB) When he started writing Invisibles, Grant intended for Ragged Robin to be Crazy Jane from Doom Patrol. After about a year he decided that this did not fit in with the story so started to reorient the character in preparation to reveal her past in 2.06. At the moment we have the 'Ragged Robin is really Crazy Jane' version. (Source: SFX Magazine, Issue 21). (L) (panel 2) "Ragged Robin": A wildflower (Lychnis floscuculi), from the ragged appearance of its fringed petals. The word is used by Tennyson for a pretty damsel in ragged clothes. "The prince/Hath picked a ragged robin from the hedge" --Tennyson, Idylls of the King (The Marriage of Geraint) (From "The Wordsworth Dictionary of Phrase and Fable" by Brewer) (MST) What is Boy doing in New York? Fanny is apparently at the Academy. This is probably a reference to the Invisible Academy that we see in 1.21 and 2.6. (L) panel 4: When King Mob announces that he always wanted to grow up living in a 60's spy series, he's surely foreshadowing the fact that his alter ego, Gideon Stargrave, whom we first meet in issue 17, is more or less literally living in a 60's spy series. Considering the realtionship between Grant Morrison, King Mob and Stargrave, it may also be worth noting that Morrison's love of all things 60's is reflected in the tastes of these heroes. K.M. says something about the mid - 60's T.V. show 'Batman' in 'Black Science: Kickin', referring to the set - up of the enemy base in New Mexico. Jolly Roger informs him that the enemy must have watched the same T.V. shows he did as a kid. (LR) '60s spy series: There's Danger Man" from the British ITC (called Secret Agent Man in the US), starring Patrick McGoohan. McGoohan later starred in The Prisoner ITC series (PL/JdL). The other major British '60s spy TV series that I'm aware of is The Avengers. (JB) Grant did a comic book version of "The Avengers" called "Steed and Mrs. Peel"; it was released by Eclipse in 1990. (BSI) Robin and King Mob are talking in the place that Dane is brought to by the address on the slip of paper at the end of issue four - it should be noted that it's a disused school - the first place where a person is likely to experience indoctrination during their life. The Invisibles are reversing the usual practice within a school by inititaing Dane into rebellion there, rather than into the tradition of submission. Hence, the play on the fact that King Mob later gives Robin 'an apple for the teacher' etc. It could well be important that Malcolm (alias Mr Six) chose to work in a school - presumably he was attempting to bring about a subtle form of rebellion in the minds of his students (notice how he's teaching them all about revolution). In fact, I'm not certain that his 70's style appearence here (later explained by his Mr. Six aspect) isn't meant to be reminiscent of the 'progressive ' types of teachers who appeared in films like 'Kes', back in the 70's. Dane was ,however, evidently too much for him to handle - which ,considering he is, by King Mob's admission, 'the world's greatest Invisible' may be significant - unless ,of course, Malcolm's inability to tame Dane was all part of the intended initiation. (LR)
o (page 29) (panel four) The King of All Tears talks to Gelt about his blindness and castration - both are metaphorical symbols for the willing subjugation of servants of the enemy. In essence, they can no longer 'see' the realities in the world about them clearly (contrast, for example, Dane's discovery of his 'Third Eye' a.k.a. Barbelith in issue 16, which demonstrates to him the brilliance of the universe around him) - they 'blindly' obey orders issued to them from above. Equally, they are effectively neuteured (in issue 22, there is some suggestion that Miss Dwyer no longer possesses human sex organs), both in physical and spiritual terms. It may be interesting in this sense that, later in the issue, Archie gets shot in the balls, while Bobby is shot in the eyes (see issue 12 for another perspective on this). (LR)
o (page 30) What the hell are those things shooting round Dane's head when he wakes up ? They look like white blood cells. Go figure. (LR)
o (page 32) There is an early episode of 'The X-Files' which finished the first season of the programme. It's called 'The Erlenmeyer Flask' and it featured decidedly similar scenes in which pickled aliens (rather than souls ?) were found stored en masse in secret depositories. Just thought I'd mention it. (LR)
o (page 35) (panel 2) "The Invisibles": a name of the Freemasons, the Order of the Rosy Cross, and other neo-Templar groups in London and Paris in the 1600s. So called because their influence could be felt in religion, politics, art and the sciences, but the groups themselves could not be seen or found out. (JH) (panel 4) It seems a simple guy dying, but issue 12 will explain everything. (PV) Most of the Harmony House sequence, especially this panel, is reminiscent of Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation of Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange. (JB) The film of "A Clockwork Orange" is not actually banned in the UK. A "banned" film implies that the government won't allow it to be shown, and this is not the case here. On its release it was given an X certificate (only people over 18 could see it). After a lot of media hype about copy-cat violence and the like Stanley Kubrick asked the distributor (Warners?) to withdraw the film and (surprisingly) they did. It is therefore illegal to show the film as it would be a breach of copyright, because there is no way to get the required permission to allow it to be shown. Oddly this is actually worse than the film being "banned", as there are legal ways to show a "banned" (i.e. "uncertified") film. (JdL)
o (page 36) (panel 3) If Grant is following in the tradition of eyes being "windows to the soul," this is why we hardly ever see the bad guys' eyes. Although in 1.19, Miss Dwyer takes off her glasses and appears to have no eyeballs in her sockets. (L) (panel 5) "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" is a "a bestselling short novel by James Hilton (who also wrote "Shangri-La," which is about "the mythical land of eternal youth and safety from war, supposedly situatied somewhere in the interior of Tibet") that deals sentimentally with the life of an English schoolmaster." (Benet's) A famous film was made of it, as well. Film details, anyone? (JB). The "Mr. Chips" line also appears in R.A. Wilson's "The Golden Apple" (Part 2 of the "Illuminatus!" trilogy). (mr.friday)/
1-2
The title is a reference to George Orwell's book, "Down And Out In Paris And London." (PV)
o (page 1) This is presumably Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park, London. It's a place which is supposed to embody the right to free speech, in that anybody at all can come along, stand up and say anything they like without fear of prosecution or libel action. Obviously this was a lot more significant in the days when failure to agree with the present government carried the death penalty. I should imagine the choice of location is deliberate, though--another token concession by the powers that be. (PO) The speaker in this scene is King Mob in disguise. Throughout this issue all individual members of KM's cell pop up monitoring Dane. (RL) (panels 1-5) Good sourcebooks for the study of electromagnetic mind-control technology are: "Matrix III: The Electromagnetic, Chemical and Biological Control of Human Consciousness, Volume 1 and 2" by Val Valerian, "Operation Mind Control" by Walter Bowart, "Mind Control, World Control" by Jim Keith, and "Psychic Dictatorship in the USA" by Alex Constantine. (JH)
o (page 2) "ELF": "Extremely low frequency" generators. (PV) ELF generators have been a staple of good conspiracy theories for a long time. (BK)
o (page 3) Boy wears the same earrings wore by Ruby in Sandman 43. And she's very similar to Ruby too. (PV)
o (page 4) (panel 2) The spiked-hair girl is a spy working for the enemy (as will see in 1.11). (PV) (panel 4) Ragged Robin (PV)
o (page 5) Ah, Tom O'Bedlam. The OED defines a Tom O'Bedlam as a madman discharged from Bedlam and licensed to beg on the streets. Cynics would say that this is more or less the Government's current policy on dealing with the mentally ill. Tom spends a great deal of this story quoting lines from Act 3 Scene 4 of Shakespeare's The Tragedy of King Lear. All the lines he quotes are more or less complete gibberish spoken by Edgar, who is IMPERSONATING a Tom O'Bedlam at the time. Presumably that's the point. BTW, Grant isn't quoting these lines in the order in which they appear in the scene. (PO) "Tom's a-cold... star-blasting and taking" is a quotation.(PO) panel 3: "Take heed... proud array" is another Lear quotation. (PO) panel 4: "Who gives anything... fire and flame" is another. (PO) Tom O'Bedlam: "You thing rike (like) jellyfish pretty soon now." This is a line from William S. Burroughs' "Nova Express" book. (JH) (panel 5) "This is... the harelip" is another Lear quotation. (PO)
o (page 6) (panel 3) Planet X is a comic shop in London. Dane is so upset because he sees the bracelets and the collar worn by the mannequins: perhaps they're another sign of constriction (?) (PV) Dane more likely trashed the building as it looks to be an expensive boutique, and he's currently homeless. (JBU)
o (page 7) (panel 3) Tom's slapping Dane always confused me. This clears it up a bit even though the results are different. (from "The Art of Dreaming" by Carlos Castaneda)
"So, to make my assemblage point (the essence and energy all humans have) shift to a position more suitable to perceiving energy directly, don Juan slapped my back, between my shoulder blades, with such a force that he made me lose my breath. I thought that I must have fainted or that the blow had made me fall asleep. Suddenly, I was looking or I was dreaming I was looking at something literally beyond words. Bright strings of light shot out from everywhere, going everywhere, strings of light which were like nothing that had ever entered my thoughts . . . "'I made your assemblage point shift,' he went on, ' and for an instant you were dreaming the filaments of the universe. But you don't yet have the discipline or the energy to rearrange your uniformity and cohesion. The old sorcerers were the consummate masters of that rearranging. That was how they saw everything that can be seen by man."
Don Jaun claimed that by shifting Castaneda's assemblage point from the habitual placement (between the shoulder blades), he could shift Castaneda's consciousness to different planes of reality. (Jason and Sarah)
o (page 8) (panel 5) "Swithin... foal" is another Lear quotation. (PO)
o (page 9) (panel 2) "The Prince of Darkness... Mahu" is another "Lear quotation. Incidentally, it doesn't even seem to be a true statement. My dictionaries reveal that "Modo" and "Mahu" were indeed names for demons, but suggest that they were high-ranking officers in the Army of Hell rather than actual names for Satan. "Modo" was responsible for the 7 Deadly Sins, as near as I can make out. "Mahu" is thought to be a corruption of "Mahound", and ultimately a reference to Mohammed. No references to either name is listed for after 1603, and both are (not surprisingly) labeled obscure. (PO) (panel 5) "Through the sharp... warm thee." Another "Lear" quotation. (PO)
o (page 10) (panel 1): "Pillicock sat..." is, again, from "Lear." A pillicock, incidentally, is an obsolete word for a penis. The word survives in modern English as "pillock." (PO)
o (page 11) (panel 3) "Little Winstons..." Tom's referring to Winston Churchill (the statue is dedicated to him). Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (Blenheim Palace, Oxford 1874 - London 1965) was a famous politician and the man that lead the UK during World War II. An interesting note: it seems that Churchill was taught the V-for-victory sign by Aleister Crowley, the famous occultist. The V-for-victory is a powerful magickal sign. (PV)
o (page 12) (panel 1) The Big Issue is a newspaper about issues affecting the homeless which is sold on the streets of British cities by homeless people and whose proceeds benefit the homeless. (PV/JB) panel 4: Lord Fanny. (PV)
o (page 14) This is the first appearance of Sir Miles Delacourt and his cronies. The significance of the girl is unknown: is she another Invisible or do they hunt the general homeless? It is odd that the hunters--the forces of evil--can would work so openly. After this, however, they tend to be shown working more covertly. (L)
o (page 15) (panel 4) Blooding a child during a hunt is a ritual of initiation: the boy becomes a man and a hunter, leaving childhood. (PV) "blooding a child": See 1.18 p. 11. (RM)
o (page 16) (panel two) Tom is going on about trains running underground through the dark "with what passengers? What freight?" he asks. I have no idea if Grant intentionally thinks this far ahead, but it did remind me of the 'porcelain trains' of the enemy, which carry the results from the Roswell Autopsy in "Black Science." (LR) panel three: Tom says "It's a place of initiation. We've always had our caves and deep places'. There's a lot on this subject in Joseph Campbell's works on prehistoric/early historic society, such as The Masks of God, where he considers how effective ancient cave systems, filled with awe - inspiring carvings and paintings, would have been in introducing young tribesmen to the secrets of the universe. There is quite possibly an intentional reminder of this during the Australian Aboriginal sequence with King Mob in 1.18. (LR) panel 5: A cross here. Does it relate to Dane's religious edge to his Invisibles life (cf. 1.23)? (PV)
o (page 17) (panel 3) "Luan-Don" is old Celtic for City of Luan, Lune, Luna, Moon. Lon-don. Also, as London was a moon city, it is interesting to note, that where the Houses of Parliament now stand once stood a Roman temple to Apollo in an attempt to spritually subjugate the landscape (R). (panel 4) "The strange lights of the spires": This is where Tom goes after he finishes teaching Dane in 1.04. Possibly it is heaven, as Tom says on the previous page "The road to Heaven runs through the depths of Hell." (L)
o (page 18) (panel 3) "Everything's speeding up. Breaking." A reference to Eschaton/McKenna Timewave theory...but also apparently part of the initiatiate's state-of-mind experience during initiation. (JB) (panels 4-6) Barbelith might come from the ancient Greek language: barbaros (read "barbaros") and litos (read "lithos") meaning respectively "alien" and "stone". It could be the implant/third eye in Dane's head. More about this "stone" concept in 1.16, page 10. (PV) "Barbelith": Morrison has used the word Barbelith before. In the 7-page comic "The House of Heart's Desire (A1 issue 3, b/w art by Dom Regan, Atomeka Press) in which the protagonist carries a door through a surreal landscape. On his way he crosses through the city called Barbelith, the "city of whispers". Quote: "Half of the population were silent, the other half only existed as disembodied voices, screams, mutterings." (RL) I swear in the great name of Grant that this is true. When recently on a visit to some friends in London, we broke into the old Morningston Crescent Tube station and written on the wall in black spray paint is the word "Barbelith" ("pArAdOxUs") The bad news is that Mornington Crescent is just about to reopen and has no doubt been decorated. (ADE) panels 10-27: The lost button, the aliens in the surgery room and the traffic light could symbolize the loss of something that could tie or that was attached to Dane's mind. We'll learn the real identity of the aliens in 2.06. (PV) (panel 22) What is this? (L)
o (page 19-20) (page 19, panel 1) The airships setting the scene in the 'alternate London' are interesting - they may be (possibly) a reference to 'Watchmen', in which airships noticeably patrolled the sky of an alternative universe. They may also have connections with Michael Moorcock's work - his character, Sir Oswald Bastable, for instance, arrived in 'The Warlord of the Air' in an alternate universe where airships, not aeroplanes, were the primary form of transport. Equally, airships are occassionally mentioned in the 'Jerry Cornelius' books as features of the late 20th century life of alternate realms. On the other hand, though, there might be nothing much in this - to have airships operating in the 1990's, rather than to have had them fall into disuse during the '30s, is a fairly easy shorthand way of revealing that a new location isn't quite the world we know and live in. (LR) The "alternate London": could it be in the same place where is the Invisible College (on the edge of the universe A - see 2.06) (PV) This place has similarities with the Invisible College we see in 2.06. However, in 2.06 the College looks like a single building whilst this place looks like a city. Unless it's purely how different artists respond to Grant's script, I would say this is a different place. (L) (panel 1) See some of the writings of the French Situationists about a city as an ecosystem, as an artform, etc. A good sourcebook is "The Situationist International Anthology." (JH) Major Situationist works: Raoul Vaneigem's "Revolution of Everyday Life" (whose major points are paraphrased by Tom here) and Guy Debord's "Society of the Spectacle." A good SI page is http://www.nothingness.org/SI/. (JB) (panel 4) Urizen is a Greek/Roman water god, like Poseidon, I believe. (BK) "Urizen": Urizen (pronounced 'You Reason') was considered by Blake to be the Demiurge, the Gnostic 'secondary' or 'false' God of matter; a god of restriction. It is fitting that in this (astral?) world, he is chained. Albatross V Urizen in chains, the so-called "Celery-Headed, Vaginal-Eyed Monster" in issue 1, is in chains. Could they be one in the same? (R)
o (page 21) Canary Wharf is a building in the London Docklands. Southern Dragon Line: according to Feng-shui (the Chinese art of building in selected locations to gain the positive energy from the earth), there's a huge dragon sleeping at the center of the Earth. His nervous system corresponds to several energy lines that flow through the Earth. This concept is very similar to the Ley Lines. To learn more about Ley Lines, go to http://www.witcombe.bcpw.sbc.edu/EMLeyLines.html (PV) Canary Wharf is a horrible building usually thought of in Britain as a symbol of what went wrong with Thatcherism. Millions of pounds were poured into redeveloping the Docklands, with Canary Wharf as its centrepiece. It was completed just in time for the property crash, lost a fortune, and remained empty for quite a while. It's now in use as a set of offices, as far as I remember. (PO) Canary Wharf is Europe's tallest building, capped with a scale model of the Pyramids of Aegypt... It was originally to be a pair, and stands on a junction of (at least) 2 Ley lines, connecting to Buckingham Palace(!) in the West, and connecting the BBC transmitter at Crystal Palace in the South up to a place in North London called Leytonstone and beyond... Ley stone town...! Look at it as a battery of occult power... since it has been built a large part of it has stood empty! (R) This building will appear again in 1.04 and 2.10. (JB)
o (page 22) (panel 1) The Dog Star is Sirius. (PV) Note that the Dog Star is Sirius, the star which the burial chambers in the pyramids were aligned to, and to which the god Isis is aligned to. As opposed to Osiris, her 'dark twin'. Recently it has been discovered that Sirius has a 'dark twin'... Hunt down references to Aegyptian mythos, also RA Wilson's Cosmic Trigger 1 2 and 3, and references to the Dogon and Bozo tribes of Africa and their worship of Nommo the fish god... (R?) (panel 6) "Child Roland... British man" is a quotation from Lear once again. It's Tom's last line in this issue, and Edgar's last line in the scene. (PO) "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" is a poem by Browning (sp?). Among other things, it was a major inspiration for Stephen King's Dark Tower series. (BSI)
1-3
o (pages 1-3) King Mob and the other Invisibles are dressed-up like the the fox hunters in 1.02. Another part to the initiation. Interesting how Tom disappears, then returns after Dane's meeting with the cell. (JBU)
o (page 3) A lot of Dane's conscious education seems to revolve around his unimportance. It's only his unconscious education which comes out later which reveals how important he is. (L)
o (page 5) (panel 3) Regarding the blank badge: In the Beatles Anthology video there's a clip from a press conference in New York in '68 with John & Paul when they were forming Apple, and someone asks "what's that badge?" and the camera zooms in on it and he says "it's a badge with nothing on it" or something. Interesting the badge link and the apple link too. (TH)
o (page 6) (panel 2) Boy with strange red hair or a girl very similar to her? (PV) Notice that the hat the jogger is wearing is the same one Boy is wearing in 1.02.3.5. I'd guess it's a coloring error here. (CG)
o (page 8) (panel 3) "When me he spies, away he flies...": What's this a quote from?(PV)
o (page 9) The building is St. Paul's Cathedral. (JBU) Is this some friendly bird spirit or is the conflict the Invisibles are involved in duplicated in other creatures? Is this how birds see the enemy? (L)
o (page 12) (panel 1) "Open your eyes, go back to sleep." Tom obviously doesn't think Dane has learnt nearly enough yet, he can open his eyes but his brain will still be asleep. 'Here endeth the lesson', a double meaning in the sense of Tom as the teacher, but the phrase is originally religious, maybe tying in with the cross in Issue 2. (L)
o (page 13) (panel 2) KAR 120C. This is the license of the Prisoner's car. The car could be Kink Mob's car because is very similar to the one shown in issue 1.05. (PV) Although it has the KAR 120C plates, the car is clearly not a Lotus 7, like the Prisoner's car. (BSI)
o (page 15) (panel 1) "Pan and Dionysus... and we must be incandescent...". See 2.08-2.10. Pan and Dionysus are ancient greek Gods. Pan is the god of nature and Dionysus the god of pleasure and fun.(PV) panel 3: "Frateretto calls me, and tells me that Nero is an angler in the lake of darkness" - Tom quoting King Lear again. The original meaning was that the emperor Nero was fishing in hell. (EB) (panel 4) Hand of glory: The hand of glory is a powerful magickal item. It's created by severing the hand of a hanged man charged of murder and then mummified following secret rituals. These rituals give the hand the powers to command the elements, to acquire riches, to charm people and create curses. The most powerful hand of glory ever created was the one created by occultist John Dee. (PV)
o (page 16) (panel 1) "Dark emperor Mammon" is probably a personification of the economic power. Jesus said to the merchants before the temple that they couldn't serve in the same time God and Mammon. (PV) Mammon is a demon associated with wealth. Ambrose Bierce writes in his "Devil's Dictionary": "The god of the world's leading religion. The chief temple is in the holy city of New York." (CG)
o (page 17) (panel 3) The sculpture is Cleopatra's Needle. Among the hieroglyphs there's a picture of a beetle with the sun. It's Kaphra, the sacred beetle as seen in issue 1.01, page 1. (PV)
o (page 19-21) Tom is using a rough, immediate type of Reichian therapy on Dane. He's earlier referred to Dane as "little man," which was Reich's generic term for people addicted to authority, afraid to think for themselves. (See Reich's excellent book "Listen, Little Man") Here Tom calls Dane a "little robot," a Reichian term synonymous with "little man". On page 21, panel two, Tom: "Feel it Dane. Be born. Crack open the armor and let the air in." A goal in Reichian therapy is to break through character armor, the encrusted character formations one accumulates over a lifetime of social power games, sexual neuroses and acculturation into the work world. (JH) Page 20, (panel 2) Mahu and Modo again (see 1.02); any idea on Obidiant, Hobbididance and Flibbertigibbet? (L) "Obidiant ... Flibbertigibbet" - more Lear quotes. "Mopping and mowing" means "moping," i.e., depression. (EB) : "Five...head" is a King Lear quote. (CG)
o (page 23) (panel 6) Tom is partly quoting the Noel Coward song "If Love Were All": "I believe in doing what I can/In crying when I must/In laughing when I choose." (L)
o (page 24) Canary Wharf again, as previously seen in 1.02, and will be seen in 1.04 and 2.10. (JB)
1-4
o (page 1) (panel 2) The frisbee makes a red circle; paranoia or Barbelith again? (JBU)
o (page 3) (panel 2) "...I stayed for you because I was asked. An old friend asked me." That old friend would be Edith. (JB) (panel 4) "What a long, strange dream its been." Has a Grateful Dead quote somehow slipped into Tom's endless King Lear allusions? (RM)
o (page 4) (panels 2-3) "Our languages hypnotize us and traps us in little labeled boxes." In 1.19, we'll learn there's a demon who confines our thoughts through the alphabet. (PV) This is also an explicit reference to theories of language propagated by author Robert Anton Wilson in some of his recent books, most notably "Quantum Psychology." (JB)
o (page 7) The Canary Wharf building, which appears in 1.02, 1.03 and 2.10. (JB)
o (page 8) (panel 5) "Auric interference ??? (PV)
o (page 9-13) Jack's in the "other universe" where the Invisible College is. See 2.06 for more information on it and the nature of the universe. (CG) (pages 9-10) This jump that Dane and Tom take is a direct parallel to the jump Gloucester took in "King Lear." Gloucester has been blinded (in a terribly manner) and now wants to commit suicide. He meets his son, Edgar, who is disguised as Tom O' Bedlam and asks to be lead over the cliffs of dover. Tom does not reveal himself to his father, as he is being hunted by his evil brother, the bastard Edmund. He takes Gloucester to the beach at the bottom of the cliff, and tells him he is standing on the brink. Gloucester jumps and thinks he has died, although he only falls a few inches. Edgar, still in disguise, revives him, and says that it has been a miracle he survived. Gloucester, through this miracle, starts to see the point of life again and is put back on the path of redemption. The building jump is mechanically similar to the jump taken by Edgar (Tom O' Bedlam) and Gloucester. This would make Dane like Gloucester. Also, Gloucester gained understanding, enlightenment, and insight (true sight), which made up for his lack of real sight. Dane's jump similarly brings him "true sight" or enlightenment. Sight is such a powerful symbol in the first few episodes of The Invisibles, both with Gelt etc. having no eyes, and the sequence where Dane gets the eyes of birds. (ZA) (page 13 panel 3) The Cosmic Traffic Light turns green, but Dane pulls back from it. Was he just about to enter the Invisible College as King Mob and Robin do in 2.06? (RM)
o (page 16) (panel 5) This is the same room from 1.01 where King Mob asked Ragged Robin to read the tarots. (PV)
o (page 17) (panel 1) "Big brother is watching you." From "1984" by George Orwell. (PV) (panel 4) "Smile": Smile was a Neoist multiple identity, like 'Luther Blissett.' The tract 'Viva Neoism' says, "Neoists call their pop groups Smile, their performance groups Smile--even their magazines are called Smile." It seems that the Invisibles go so far as to give the name to their hand grenades (RJ) (panel 5) "School's out" is the title of a famous song by Alice Cooper. (PV)
o (page 19) (panel 5) "It's a man's life in the Invisible Army" is a reference to the (former?) recruiting slogan of the British Army. (CG)
o (page 20) Sex orgies and cabinet ritual power collections of the CIA and upper crust elite. In the conspiracy literature there are many references to the "sex circuses of the CIA," especially in relation to the Monarch mind-control program. These involve black magick rituals designed to generate psychic energy and fuel to power covert and magickal operations. (The same kind of thing that trapped Quimper into physical form in 2.20 and provided "quite a feast for the governors" upon the death of Princess Di.) (JH) (panels 2 and 3) The blood on the table is from Orlando's acquisition of a new face. How he does it is explained in 1.05. (RL) ** panel 3: "Rex Mundi" (Latin, "King of the World") was the Cathar name for the Demiurge, the half-wit creator of the physical world and its archons (Greek, "princes"), known to the early Gnostics as Ialdabaoth. The Cathars were a Gnostic sect in southern France that was violently wiped out by the Catholic Church, which in typical fashion, then proceeded to justify such action on the necessary on the grounds that the Cathars (often ascetics) were sexually deviant heretics. The Cathars are also connected to Arcadia, the Holy Grail, and the motherload of conspiracy theories through Rennes le Chateau and Nicolas Poussin's painting, both of which are near the very heart of Catharism in southern France. (DMD) (panel 5) Number 10 at the door is a clue that this is Downing Street, traditional home of Britain's Prime Minister. (PV) "Cabinet ritual ... up to our knees in blood and spunk" - American readers might want to know that "spunk" generally means semen. (EB)
o (page 21) (panel 4) Myrmidons are the opponents' agents (1.05, page 17). (RL) The Myrmidons were the warriors of Achilles. Achilles was pissed off because his rival Agamemnon had claimed as his prize a beautiful slave who "rightfully" belonged to Achilles. The Greeks wrote a book about it. The Invisibles have just claimed their prize. (DMD) (panel 5) Notice Boy writing on the chalkboard. (CG)
o (page 22) "The old Dane died in the fall... you can sit by his grave for the rest of your life." This is exactly what Dane is doing in 1.23. (CGU)
o (page 23) "Forth...mad": This is Tom O'Bedlam's last speech in King Lear as well as here. (CG)
1-5
o A brief outline by James Burt of "Holy Blood, Holy Grail," a book very important to understanding some of the references in this story: Berenger Sauniere (BS) renovated the church at Rennes le Chateau (RlC) and somehow came into money at the same time. There is a lot of debate as to what the treasure at RlC is, but there is the idea that it is related to the head which the Templars worshipped. The order of the Knights Templar were later suppressed due to their heresy and worshipping of graven idols. The painter Nicholas Poussin (who painted King Mob's postcard) enters the story as he made a hint in a letter about a great treasure. He was later imprisoned, and held incommunicado. Louis XIV then hunted down the original of the painting 'Les Bergers d'Arcadie' and when he found it hung it in his private quarters. The tomb shown in the picture, reading IN ARCADIA EGO, was found in the early 1970s in...Rennes le Chateau. The story leads to the discovery of the 'Prieure de Sion,' an ancient conspiracy who guard the bloodline of Christ, ready to reveal it when the conditions are right (the model for the Grail in Preacher- yes, all the UK comics writers rip off the same sources :-) ) There is a lot of rubbish in the book, but it proved very popular, and seems to answer a number of questions about certain historical mysteries. However, the authors relied on too many ancient texts which later 'disappeared', if they ever existed at all. The Annotations
o (page 1) The dalang (the puppeteer) is telling a story very similar to the basic idea running through all the Invisibles issues: there are two (apparently) opposing forces fighting to control or to free the humanity. But the true meaning of the story is that the two forces are maybe only one--two sides of the same coin. (PV)
o (page 2) The text shown in this page is from "Julian and Maddalo" by Shelley, a suggestive picture of himself in comparison to Byron's portrayal. (PV)
o (page 3) (panel 4) Poussin, Nicolas (Les Andelys, France 1594 - Rome, Italy 1665). (PV) From Benet's: "French painter. The great master of the classical school, Poussin worked chiefly at the studio he established in Rome. In his rational, clearly composed paintings of mythological, historical and religious scenes, he imitated the measured gestures of antique sculpture and the clean draftsmanship and effortless order of Raphael. His work exerted an enormous influence on the course of art..." (JB) The painting referred to here is at the Louvre. (PV)
o (page 6) (panel 3) Ganesh, the Hindu god "who breaks down obstacles." We'll see another reference to King Mob's god in 2.3 (PV) Ganesh is invoked in 2.2 as well. (CG) panel 5: The "shortpath" is a reference to KM's ability to shift between universes (more on it in 2.06). (RL)
o (page 8) Boy says "something happened to one of our members." She's referring to John-A-Dreams. See 1.01, page 6, panel 4 for first reference to him; also see 1.09, pages 1-3, for his first appearance. (JB)
o (page 9) (panel 5) Who's the pianist? (PV) I may be mistaken, but I believe this whole sequence with Byron and Shelley visiting the asylum is all accounted in the poem "Julian and Maddalo" including the guy playing the piano. The poem is supposed to be based on actual conversations and events. I'm not sure who this real person was. I'm not sure if this is correct. (CH)
o (page 11) (panel 3) Boy's speech here becomes far more significant in the light of 2.11 (RJ)
o (page 12-13) Uh... Where/when is this scene taking place? (JB)
o (page 16) (panel 2) Ragged Robin gives further proof of her psychic ability, foreseeing the exact moment of KM's arrival. (PV) Well... later on in "Entropy in the UK" (1.17-1.19), Robin has to call in Jim Crow to find KM, as he is normally totally "psi-invisible." Therefore, just to be picky, the issue 5 bit is either a) a boo-boo by Grant or b) Robin trying to impress the others with her psychic mastery although she just saw him in the window or something. (RD)
o (page 17) (panel 1) We'll learn more about Jim Crow in 1.10. (PV)
o (page 19) Here's the actual postcard pictured in panel 2... (BvS)
The Invisibles seem to have encountered Orlando before yet he does not know that Fanny is a trannie. Or did they only know of Orlando from Fanny telling them all what she saw when she was initiated (1.13-15)? (L)
o (page 20) (panel 4) The windmill-time machine is a reference to the Gideon Stargrave character (for more info see 1.17, page 21, panel 4). (PV)
o (page 24) (panel 1) The executee is reciting Psalm 23, a common one for those who are dying or dead. (CG)
1-6
o (pages 1-2) Where do these quotes come from? (JB)
o (page 3) (panel 4) Marquis Donatien Alphonse Francois de Sade (Paris 1740 - Charenton 1814). This French writer saw eroticism/sado-masochism as a way to oppose society's norms and religious commands. He exalted the erotic pleasure originating in the physical suffering inflicted on others in his most famous novels: Justine ou les malheurs de la virtue (1791), La philosophie dans le boudoir (1795), Nouvelle Justine suivie de l'Histoire de Juliette sa soeur (1797). Followed by scandals, he escaped in Italy and then he was imprisoned in the Bastille. He died in an asylum in Charenton (France). (PV) The "Arcadia" arc focuses specifically on DeSade's "Les 120 Journees de Sodome" ("120 days of Sodom"; adapted into film in the 1970s by controversial Italian director/poet Pier Pasolini). (JB)
o (page 6) (panel 4) Who is this mysterious man? According to someone, he could be the hitchhiker in 1.14. Another appearance in 2.06, page 6: He's in the background, playing chess. (PV) My theory is that he is the devil, in some form. Offering the apple, going back to the garden of Eden. (BSI) Notice the apple... Same as in 1.1, page 27; 1.13, page 20, panels 7-9. (JB) panel 5: Members of the Pythagorean Brotherhood (from whom the Freemasons and Rosicrucians draw a lot of symbolism) would offer an apple to a suspected fellow member as a secret sign of their membership in the order. The Pythagorean apple as a secret sign of membership is briefly discussed in "The Mars Mystery" by Graham Hancock, pages 107-108. If you haven't read Hancock before, "The Mars Mystery" is by no means his best book, but it's a worthwhile read anyway... If you haven't read his "Fingerprints of the Gods" you should definitely check that one out; most highly recommended!(JH)
o (page 7) (panel 1) According to Etienne, the French Revolution was a very complicated power-game between very different forces. (PV) "Alessandro Cagliostro" was a nickname for a man called Giuseppe Balsamo (1743, Palermo-1795, Italy). Cagliostro was the most famous occultist in the second half of the 18th century, very influential in UK and Germany. Famous for his dinners with the dead (one evening he organized a dinner and all the guests saw the ghosts of their dead relatives near them), for his many magical filters and potions (like the one to change the dimension of diamonds or the eternal youth filter). He was damned for a scam regarding the queen Mary d'Antoinette's collier. He was innocent but his fame worked against him, going free due to the French people's will. He died after a years in prison because the Inquisition declared him culprit of sorcery. (PV) St. Germain (Paris 1758 - ???). Claude Louis, count of St. Germain was an adventurer, occultist and alchemist. He found the secret potion that granted him the eternal life. Among his work there are the "industrial processes" to wash the paper and to better the quality of the silk. Due to his immortality, he often changed his identity from Count Weldonne to the Italian alchemist Fulcanelli. (PV)
o (page 9) The song is 'Pop goes the weasel', an English nursey rhyme. (JBU)
o (page 11) (panel 3) "Cyphermen": What does this word mean? (PV) "Cypher" means "a person or thing of no important or value; nonentity." (JB) The "Cybermen" in Dr. Who have cybernetic enhancements and de/reprogramming, rendering them emotionless. in motivation, origin and speech style, though not in appearance, very much, as many people have commented, like the Borg. They look more like the Cyphermen. GM wrote a DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE story called "The World Shapers" (DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE #127 through 129). (RK)
o (page 15) (panel 3) Rosicrucians, according to Benet's, were "a mystical society of religious reformers, who first appeared in Germany in the early 17th century and who were said to have knowledge of magical secrets. Their symbol was a red rose upon a cross. "Illuminism" (again, according to Benet's) was "a pseudoscientific movement of mystics and visionaries in the 18th century which influenced literature in the 19th century. At first inspired by Christian doctrines, illuminists sought to live according to the Gospel and to regenerate their souls by direct contact with the divine. They also, however, believed in spiritism, magnetism, alchemy and magic and professed to invoke the invisible and the arcane. Among the most famous illuminists were Swedenborg, who conversed with the dead; Lavater, a believer in black magic, who thought to contact God by magnetism; Claude de Saint-Martin ("the unknown philosopher"), who sought to hasten the coming of Christ by meditation and prayer; Mesmer; the Comte de Saint-Germain, who (claimed) to be several hundred years old and to possess the elixir of eternal life; Gall; and famous Cagliostro, who evoked spirits. An almost instinctive reaction against 18th-century rational philosophies, illuminism under many names (e.g. millenarianism, syncretism, neopaganism, pythagorism, thosopophy, etc.) influenced some writers of the romantic period. It revived a sense of religious exaltation and mystery and created, or recreated, a need for the infinite, a belief in man's inner nature and a feeling for the mysteries of nature and of love." (JB) panel 5: Like the hitchhiker, he doesn't share his name. (BSI)
o (page 17) (panel 1) Does this panel--and the last one on the previous page--contain a quotation from a de Sade book? (JB) panel 4: "Jiminy Cricket" is the character representing one's conscience in "Pinnochio." (JB)
o (page 24) (panels 4 and 6) As a young man, William Burroughs cut off the tip of his pinky with garden shears in a (horribly failed) attempt to impress a potential lover. (JH)
1-7
o This issue is an explicit variation on Sade's "120 Days of Sodom", adapted into film in the 1970s by controversial Italian director/poet Pier Pasolini. For those looking for Pasolini's film version of "120 Days of Sodom," it's called "Salo." (EB) the title: American readers might not get that "Sod All" in the title of the issue is equivalent to "fuck-all" in the US, i.e., "nothing." The pun is actually a bit literal-minded since "sod" is an abbreviation of "sodomy/sodomite" -- therefore equivalent to "bugger" and therefore used more or less interchangeably with "fuck." (EB)
o (page 2) (panel 3) I suppose this is the setting from Sade's book...but maybe the snow in these scenes is not a coincidence? Perhaps it has something to do with the other end-of-time/"snow" scenes in the series? (JB)
o (page 9) (panel 2) Venice. The name of the bridge is "Ponte dei sospiri." (PV) (panel 3) what kind of flower is that? It's the same yellow flower that appear in page 19, panel 5 and in page 20, panel 1. (PV) (panel 4) "Laon and Cythna" are characters from a Shelley poem of the same name; according to Benet's, it's an "allegorical poem on the French Revolution" and later revised it into "The Rise of Islam" the last poem he wrote before leaving for Italy in 1818. The poem "is similar in ideological content to Shelley's 'Queen Mab' (also the nickname of an Invisible in 2.08-2.10!!!) ...(which was) written in 1812-13, a long work inveighing against orthodox Christianity and secular tyranny." (JB)
o (page 11) (Also page 18): These descriptions of the scientific addiction to obsessive categorization, and the modern-day culmination and consequence of the age of reason, closely match the ideas of the linguist and philosopher Jacques Lacan. Lacan held that to assign a name and meaning to an object/process is masculine, the object/process merely IS, and the conceptual space between the object/process and its name is feminine. The four men, the banker, judge, bishop and duke represent a world where everything is sacrificed to pure reason. In magickal studies to name something is to gain power over it, a power granted to Adam in the book of Genesis. The men in the castle are the extreme end result of that power granted to mankind in the Garden of Eden. (JH) panel 3: The barcode--a sign of late-20th-century commodification. (JB)
o (pages 14-15, 23-24) Ragged Robin is visiting an unidentified man who seems to be St. Germain (see 1.06 and 2.06, page 6 for other appearances). (JB) Again: from "Holy Blood, Holy Grail": Berenger Sauniere (BS) renovated the church at Rennes le Chateau (RlC) and somehow came into money at the same time. There is a lot of debate as to what the treasure at RlC is, but there is the idea that it is related to the head which the Templars worshipped. The order of the Knights Templar were later suppressed due to their heresy and worshipping of graven idols. The painter Nicholas Poussin (who painted King Mob's postcard) enters the story as he made a hint in a letter about a great treasure. He was later imprisoned, and held incommunicado. Louis XIV then hunted down the original of the painting 'Les Bergers d'Arcadie' and when he found it hung it in his private quarters. The tomb shown in the picture, reading IN ARCADIA EGO, was found in the early 1970s in...Rennes le Chateau. The story leads to the discovery (pages 23-24)of the 'Prieure de Sion,' an ancient conspiracy who guard the bloodline of Christ, ready to reveal it when the conditions are right (the model for the Grail in Preacher- yes, all the UK comics writers rip off the same sources :) ). (JBU) Knights Templars. From Benet's: "An order of knighthood founded about 1118 to guard the passage of pilgrims to Jerusalem. Begun in poverty--the seal shows two knights riding on one horse--it was joined by many noblemen who brought great wealth to the order. Their independent conduct on the battlefield eventually became an embarassment rather than an aid to the king of Jerusalem, and their wealth and political power a threat to the kings in Europe. Thus the order was savagely crushed by many rulers, notably Philip IV of France, and officially suppressed by the Pope in 1312." (JB) Poussin: See notes in 1.05 annotations.
o (pages 17-19) I dunno...is this the metaphorical button that brings on Eschaton? Are KM, Boy and Sade wandering through the snow-like apocalypse? (JB) The "button" here is, I presume, the nuclear holocaust button. Here Morrison is writing his own ending to de Sade's book, adding the General to the cast and suggesting that there's no other logical conclusion to the orgy of destructive control. (EB)
o (page 20) (panel 2) "Mazeppa": anyone know anything about this Shelley poem? (JB)
1-8
The Title: "H.E.A.D." stands for "Hedonic Engineering And Development" (see page 16, panel 6) (JB) "Head" is also the title of the psychedelic movie the Monkees made when they tried to distance themselves from their TV series image. The screenplay was co-written by Jack Nicholson. (RL)
o (page 1) (panel 3) Timothy Leary was an "acid guru" who popularized LSD. He died in 1996. Leary gave many people acid, including some Hollywood stars. Kesey wrote "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest," which was made into the film starring Jack Nicholson. The money from the book financed the bus journey described in Tom Wolfe's 'The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test." (JBU) Available online: the Timothy Leary website and my interview with Leary, conducted in person six weeks before his death. (JB) (also page 3, panel 3): This is a reiteration of an argument that Timothy Leary and Charles Manson had in prison. Manson argued that Leary had shown the world the path to freedom and evolution (LSD), but had let everyone down by then refusing to lead us onto the path. Leary maintained that true freedom meant that, shown the means, people had to lead themselves onto the path, without assistance from leaders. Leary only wanted to open the gate; Manson thought he should have led us through it too. This ongoing debate (Leary and Manson were in neighboring solitary confinement cells for a while in the early 1970s) is recounted in Dr. Leary's book "NeuroPolitics." (JH)
o (page 3) (panel 1) "O brave new world that has such people in it." is from Shakespeare's "The Tempest." The line is spoken by the wizard Prospero's daughter Miranda. The title of Huxley's novel was a reference to this. (RM)
o (page 4) (panel 6) The first dialogue caption being spoken by the Head of John the Baptist is a lyric from a song by '80s cross-dressing new wave band Dead or Alive. (JB) In Wilson/Shea's "Illuminatus" trilogy, much of the plot revolves around "immanentizing the eschaton." (BSI) "33 1/3, 45 and 78": the speeds to play vinyl albums, singles and old grammophon records. (RL)
o (page 5) (panels 1-3) The eschaton is the end of the world. This is an explicit reference to Terence McKenna's timewave/Eschaton idea. (JB)
o (page 6) (panels 1-2) "The Subterraneans" is a 1958 Jack Kerouac book. Anyone know anything about the film version? (JB) "Beat Girl": (From the back on the video box) BEAT GIRL (1960). Starring Gillian Hills, Christopher Lee, Oliver Reed, Nigel Green, David Farrar. Directed by Edward T. Greville. A film about a rebellious teen who becomes a stripper. The original playbill for the movie claimed "SEE Wild parties in back street 'SIN CELLARS'", "SEE Uninhibited striptease '...Melt! Melt! Melt!'", and the famous "My mother was a stripper... I want to be a stripper too!" which sums the film up rather nicely. Thin plot, but the party scenes are great. (CGU)
o (page 10) (panel 1) These are the same words spoken by Fanny in issue 1.05, page 16, panel 4. (PV)
o (pages 11-12) page 11, panel 3: What poem is this line from? (JB) page 11, panel 5 and page 12, panel 1: Re: Pantisocracy, Southey and Coleridge. From Benet's: "Robert Southey (1774-1843), English romantic , one of the so-called Lake poets. Though a leader in his day, he is considered by modern critics to have been a mediocre talent... In his youth (1794), Southey joined Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) in the utopian scheme of pantisocracy and married Edith Fricker, whose sister married Coleridge. His early liberalism was superceded by a conservatism that was attacked in satire by Lord Byron." Coleridge was the leader of the English romantic movement, a friedn of Wordsworth, and is the author of the poems "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and "Kubla Khan." He was also an opium addict. (JB)
o (page 13) Incidentally, Byron's daughter Ada Lovelace (who would've been three at the time of this story) was the lover of Charles Babbage, the inventor of the Difference Engine, a steam-driven computer designed in the mid-1800s. Ada helped create the machine's programming loops and some of the programmed subroutines. The Pentagon honored Ada by naming its classified internal Defense Department computer program "ADA." So through his daughter, Byron did eventually contribute to the creation of his pessimistic vision, via Pentagon computer control systems. For more info see "In the Age of Intelligent Machines" by Raymond Kurzweil. (JH)
o (pages 14-15) Everything regarding Fanny's powers will be explained in issues 1.13-1.15. (PV) page 14, panel : "These are old names from an earlier sun." This is a reference to Mayan mythology, which is explained (somewhat) in 1.13, page 1 (JB)
o (page 16) (panel 6) "Hedonic Engineering and Devlopment"--"H.E.A.D." (JB)
o (page 17) (panel 2) How can you work the date out with the I-ching? According to I-ching, 35 means success. The development of everything appears fast, successful and simple. The communication is very important. Inside us there's a very powerful energy, something like a "primary nucleus." During our lives, this nucleus could become weak but there's the possibility for it to return strong and shine. (PV) Another set of explicit references to Terence McKenna's timewave/Eschaton idea. (JB) panel 3: Here's a site with info about DMT extraction and the DMT trip: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~dunnat/dmt.htm (RD)
o (page 19) "When one reaches my age, one sees through the struggle. One sees it all for what it truly is. Just a game." This is an important statement that we'll come back repeatedly to later in the series: 1.12. (JB)
o (page 20) What's the poem quoted here? (JB)
o (page 23) (panel 1) "...boys becoming girls,girls becoming boys WHO DO BOYS LIKE THEY'RE GIRLS." This is a quote from Blur's song "Girls and boys"(Parklife lp) (CI)
o (pages 23-24) Page 23, panel 1: Note the "Et in Arcadia" graffitti behind the male prostitutes. Is this the heaven we've made? Is our contemporary world the conclusion of the project set in motion by the Templars, gone horribly wrong? (JH) Page 24, panel 3: "I am to be no particular age, no particular sex. I am to be fluid, mercurial." These are all attributes of the alchemical magus Hermes Trismegistus. As the Egyptian Thoth, the Greek Hermes, Dante's Virgil, etc., Hermes is ageless. Hermes Trismegistus is also held in alchemical literature as the Androgynia, the holy hermaphrodite, the antitotalitarian god of boundary dissolution. As such, he/she is also frequently described in the Corpus Hermeticum as "fluid, mercurial," and was actually called Mercury by the Romans. Has de Sade been brought forward in time to participate in the creation of a new, postmodern Hermes Trismegistus? (JH)
1-9
The I-ching hexagram on the cover is for number 27, not for the intended 23. A production error, says Grant. (PV) The title "Things Fall Apart" comes from a 1921 WB Yeats poem entitled "The Second Coming:"
"TURNING and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity." (DK)
o (pages 1-3) This is John-a-Dreams and King Mob with a buzzcut.(JB) (panel 2) "Tsathoggua" is a H. P. Lovecraft creature. "Voltigeurs": ? "Hand": the stolen Hand of Glory first mentioned in 1.03 (PV) Pre-pierced King Mob! (JH) page two: The large dead beast is a quite similar to the "Old Ones" described in H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness (from a dissection report mentioned in the story): "Objects are eight feet long all over. Six-foot long, five-ridged barell torso three and five tenths feet central diameter, one foot end diameters. Dark grey, flexible, and infinitely tough. Seven foot membranous wings of same color, found folded, spread out at furrows between ridges... Around equator, one at central apex of each of the five vertical, stavelike ridges are five systems of light grey flexible arms or tentacles... At top of torso blunt, bulbous neck of lighter grey, with gill-like suggestions, holds yellowish five pointed starfish shaped apparent head covered with three-inch wiry cilia of various prismatic colors..." (DS)
o (page 3) Mushrooms? Toadstools? What's going here? Do these relate in some way to Jack's vision in 1.03, page 11? (JB) This is probally another McKenna reference. In a radio interview (published, I think, in Archaic Revival) he puts forth the theory that mushrooms are alien to our planet. Apparently they don't go back far in the fossil record. Also, spores are able to survive a vacuum. He puts forth the fun idea that another civilization could be using them as communication devices. An hallucination would be an alien message. (RaJ)
o (page 6) (panel 3) The soldier is referring to the assault team that appeared at the end of issue 1.04 (PV)
o (page 7) (panel 4) When King Mob asks himself who could be the traitor, Ragged Robin is drawn outside the circle formed by the other four Invisibles. (PV) Then again, this could be because she's preoccupied with detecting the Myrmidons' imminent arrival...(JB) : "Myrmidon": According to Webster's: Myrmidon, from Greek Myrmidon / 15th century / 1 capitalized: a member of a legendary Thessalian people who accompanied their king Achilles in the Trojan War 2: a loyal follower; especially: a subordinate who executes orders unquestioningly or unscrupulously (MST)
o (page 8) (panel 2) Fanny's using a lipstick. As will we see in 1.15, her grandmother give her this lipstick to use it when Fanny was in danger. (PV)
o (page 9) (panel 5) "The Producers" is a brilliant Mel Brooks film. It centers around shares being sold in a play, and it being over-subscribed, so when it goes belly-up, the producers will make a mint. They pick the worst musical they can find, one based on the second world war, written by a pro-Nazi: "Springtime for Hitler". It is absolutely amazing and has aged quite well. (JBU)
o (page 23) (panel 5) The first mention of Mister Six. (PV)
1-10
Grant said in this issue's letter column that his sources for this story are: "Divine Horsement" by Maya Deren; "Voodoo and Hoodoo" by Jim Haskins; ""Mama Lola" by Karen McCarthy Brown; and "The Voudoun Gnostic Workbook" by Michel Bertiaux. Note on Jim Crow's name: "Jim Crow" was originally a derogatory term for blacks, it has come to describe the situation of segregation that existed in the U.S. South after the Civil War ended slavery but before the Civil Rights movement. (RM) The voodoo gods are commonly referred to as Les Invisibles. (RL)
o (page 2) panel 2: "Twilight Zone" and "Outer Limits" are two '50s/'60s American TV anthology fiction shows known for their overarching weirdness. (PV/JB)
o (page 3) panel 1: "Les morts, les mysteres, les Marassa": French for "the dead, the occult arts and the ???" (PV) The "Marassa" are the Divine Twins of the Vodoun pantheon. Twins have a great deal of religio/magical significance in West African religions (most if not all African elements in Vodoun come from West Africa). (HE) panel 3: "Water-woman": Lamerci's referring to her element. (PV) "Water-woman" is also a reference to La Sirenne, the mermaid form of Erzulie, the capricious Loa of feminine beauty and sexuality. (HE) "Mambo": the name of the priestess in Voodoo. Sometimes the spirit gods "ride" (possess) the mambo. (PV) "Papa Guedhe"/"Baron Samedi": names of the Voodoo god of the dead. (PV) Guedhe is also the loa of sexuality and wild partying. He's sort of the Vodoun Dionysios. (HE) panel 4: Jimi Hendrix: famous left-handed guitar player. (PV) panel 5: "bel garcon" = handsome fellow (French). (PV) An alternative translation might be "pretty boy." (JBU) This is a translation of a Vodoun song about Papa Guedhe, which has parallels to a real event in Haitian history- during one of the more recent dictatorships, a host of Vodoun priests, all "ridden" by Guedhe and dressed to the nines, descended on the presidential palace in Port-au-Prince and caused much genial havoc. (HE)
o (page 4) On the tombstone you can see the penciller's name (Christopher Weston). (PV) Let's not forget that the Ace of Spades (in Jim's hatband) is associated with death. Also, the skull on the crotch of JC's pants is symbolically important, since he says in v1.23 that his gun turns sexual thoughts into death. Is there any significance to the time on his clock? The hands stay at basically the same positions, far as I can tell...(RD)
o (page 5) panel 2: The "ouija bird": Morrison used something similar in his graphic novel, Mystery Play. (PV)
o (page 7) panel 2: "magickal record": Mages often keep journals reporting all of their magickal operations. (PV) panel 4: Many of the words in this invocation are in "langage", a garbled mix of several West African languages, used by Vodoun initiates for magical purposes. "ti malice" = Little Troublemaker is one of the many titles of Papa G., so probably much of the rest of it is, too. And I'm pretty sure that "zozo" means "penis". (HE)
o (page 8) panel 1: "Season of ghouls"? "October meadows"? (PV) The blue puddle is a type of fluid intelligence often encountered during trips on tryptamine hallucinogens such as ayahuasca or DMT. The blue puddles are used by tribal shamans to view the spirit world of the dead or to divine the future. Try dimethyltryptamine, or read The Yage Letters by William Burroughs, or True Hallucinations by Terence McKenna. (JH)
o (page 9) panel 6: "Let's go walk with a zombie.": "I Walked With a Zombie" is a famous song--covered by REM, among others--by notorious acid casualty Roky Erickson of the '60s Texan psychedelic band 13th Floor Elevators. (CG/JB) "I Walked With a Zombie" is also a movie by Jacques Tournier, of "Cat People" fame. (RD) It's probably one of the earliest films using zombies. (RL)
o (page 10) panel 1: "Ville-aux-camps" = The City of Camps. Called "Lavilokan" in Haitian Creole, this is the otherworld of the Loa and the Dead, which supposedly lies under the sea. (HE) On the interstate highway sign is the fish-symbol of the the Nommo, the Dogon/Sumerian amphibious gods from the star Sirius. See The Sirius Mystery by Robert Temple for an incredibly in-depth study of the Nommo and their apparent impact on early human culture. (JH) panel 4: Magic mirror ??? See also issues 13-14 and 24 (PV) panel 5: "Molten imagination, the bricks and mortar of the universe, endlessly morphing, infinitely pliable. Liquid-looking glass. The door to Everywhere." This "liquid" will appear again and again in the rest of the series... See 1.13, page 9. (JB)
o (page 12) (panel 2) "stag thing": Refers to "stag parties": males-only gatherings, usually for viewing of porn films, etc. (JB)
o (page 13) (panel 1) "Our scientists ... found a way to design the crystals so that they would resonate at a given frequency." See Terence and Dennis McKenna's 1971 attempts to use electron spin resonance frequencies to permanently bond psychedelic molecules with the human genetic code in their book The Invisible Landscape. Also, the CIA has done research with the molecular frequencies of various substances to test their effects on the human nervous system. LSD has a resonant frequency of 11,000 cps (cycles per second) and when the brain is exposed to that frequency hallucinations and other bizarre phenomena are reported. The experiencer has a psychedelic trip from the chemical frequency, without requiring the actual chemical. (JH)
o (page 14) (panels 1-2) Jim Crow is singing a rude Guedhe song, this one having to do with Papa G's interest in both the "holes" that pretty women have. (HE) (panel 4) "Good UFOs" and "bad UFOs"? Could UFOs be metaphorical manifestations of good and evil emotions? (PV)
o (page 17) (panel 2) King Mob owes Baron Zaraguin...(JB)
o (page 20) (panel 1) "Bring out your dead!": A quote from the film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." (BSI) The Monty Python quote is a reference to the rag&bone men who used to go around streets with a barrow collecting unwanted stuff from houses, and to the Plague (which is something of an anachronism by approximately 1000 years if King Arthur was around c.600.) (AD)
o (page 22) (panel 5) Crow quotes the opening line of Michael Jackson's song "Bad." (RL)
o (page 24) "Straight outta Camptown!" is a play on L.A. gangsta rap group N.W.A's hit album "Straight Outta Compton." (JB) "Camptown Races" was, I believe, a staple of minstrel shows. Can anybody verify? (BSI) Indeed it is. Although the song title might be "Camptown Ladies": "Camptown ladies sing this song, doo dah, Camptown racetrack five miles long..." (RM)
1-11
o (page 1) (panel 6) Jean Cocteau (1889-1963): "French poet, novelist, dramatist, essayist, film writer and director. In the vanguard of almost every experimental artistic movement in the first half of the 20th century, particularly cubism and surrealism... (friends with) Picasso, Stravinsky... " (Benet's) His most famous film is probably 1945's La Belle et la bete ("The Beauty and the Beast"). (JB)
o (page 2) There's a creature in Lovecraft's dream stories very similar to the, uh, Earl of Strathmore, called the moonbeast. (RM)
o (page 4) (panel 2) Sir Miles' birthday wish will come more or less true. Be careful what you wish for, you might get it. (BSI) panel 3: Isn't it unusual, even for a high brow aristrocat like Sir Miles, to refer to Dane as "the McGowan creature"? Does he regard Dane as non-human? (RL) (panel 4) Sir Miles introduces the theme of the Coronation. (PV)
o (page 5) (panel 3) The homeless girl with spiked purple hair from 1.02 re-appears. (JB)
o (page 6) (panel 1) Macbeth was Thain of Glamis and this is apparently his castle (Duncan being the King he murdered). It is indeed in Scotland. (L) (panel 4) Lord Halifax's famous ghost book is an attempt to list every haunted place in UK. (PV) panel 5: "Haunted Britain" by Anthony D. Hippisley Coxe (Pan, 1973). It says of Glamis castle "whatever the truth is, the 15th Earl, the great grandfather of Queen Elizabeth II, said 'If you could only guess the nature of the secret, you would go down on your knees and thank God it was not yours.'" The book also says that it was the Queen Mother's favourite haunt and there was a minor scandal a few years ago when some of her cousins were found to be residents in one of our psychiatric hospitals. In another reference, the "secret" is said to be the rightful heir to the Earldom which lived for almost 200 years until the 1920s. (AD)
o (page 7) This discussion centers on the then-alive Princess Diana of Wales, her divorce from Prince Charles and the resulting anticipation of the impending collapse of the Royal Family. Sir Miles claims that Diana's "firstborn (William) was to have been the moon-child, the incarnate shadow-king of a new England, the terrible messiah of the dark millenium." (JB) panel five: An "etheric window" is a place in material reality where the spirit world/astral plane is very close, or bleeds through. Haunted houses are etheric windows, as well as fairy rings, graveyards, etc. Mister Six actually creates one when he heals the rift in reality brought upon by the King-of-all-Tears in 1.24. (R)
o (page 12) (panel 1) The butler is reading a book written by Kirk Morrison (King Mob's secret, or former identity). (PV) "The Killing Moon" is, of course, a common phrase, but knowing Grant's pop music tastes, it may also be a nod to the Echo & the Bunnymen song of the same name. (JB)
o (page 14) (panel 6) "The game's afoot": A Sherlock Holmes quote. (L)
o (page 15) (panel 4) The monster is the son of an alien probe and a member of the royal family. Maybe the Archons are trying to conquer the Earth and this monster could be the future leader of the new interacial society? (PV)
o (page 20) Kate reveals she is one of "them." Her friendship with Dane in 1.02 was no accident--which makes her line of questioning in that issue take on a whole new light... (JB)
1-12
The cover has a double meaning with the Mod icon/target. (L) This issue: "In the vast and never-ended cosmic struggle of Good vs. Evil, what makes anyone want to be a bad guy? And are bad guys born or made? One man's life and death may hold the key..." (Grant Morrison,1.11 letter column)
Note from Grant on the title: "Best Man Fall, for those of you unfamiliar with the game, is played by childrenin Scotland and possibly elsewhere. The rules are savage and simple--one person takes the part of a soldier and the other players represent his opponents. The soldier is allowed to choose the imaginary weapons against him. He then runs wildly at his opponents and is cut down mercilessly by gunfire or shrapnel or whatever. The object of the game is to 'die' in as spectacular, theatrical or brutally realistic a manner as possible. When the original 'soldier' has been killed, one of his opponents takes over, while the soldier gets to join the team of killers and the process repeats itself. When everyone has had the opportunity to be killed by his peers, the winner is the player who 'died' most convincingly. Herein lies wisdom." (Grant Morrison, 1.12 letter column)
o (page 1) "Try to remember. It's only a game.": A recurring phrase in the series. (JB)
o (page 7) This scene, in which the baby Bobby suddenly and inexplicably says "Edith says to call him Boody," is revisited in 2.10 (JB).
o (page 11) (panel 4) The gas mask--also on page 13, panel 6.. Think King Mob's "costume"--and the masks of the Cyphermen. Perhaps therein lies a clue...? (JB)
o (page 15) (panel 1) "Did you see all those wee guys just sitting like zombies?": Bobby is referring to the post-brainwash kids at Harmony House. (JB)
o (page 16) (panel 1) "Did you see that Baywatch last night? What a woman, eh?" Of course there's a number of women Archie could be referring to, but Pamela Anderson seems to get mentioned repeatedly in the series (and appears in 1.19 page 2). (RM)
o (pages 17, 20, 23) Revisiting the events of 1.01, p.33-34 from Bobby's point of view. (JB)
o (page 24) Again: "It's only a game. Try to remember." (JB)
1-13
o (pages 1-2) These two pages are key. Fanny's explication of Mayan mythology is important in three ways: it explains her background, Mayan mythology, and how Mayan mythology ties in/coincides with McKenna's theories. (JB) (page one) The caterpillar's devouring the leaf is an image that will be used by Elfayed in 1.17, page 9. (JB) (page two) (panel two) "Do you feel as though time's speeding up, darling? I mean ACTUALLY getting faster." Fanny's question echoes through the series: 1.8, pages 4-5 (John the Baptist's head) and page 17, panel 2. (JB) (page 2) (panel 3) King Mob's speech is a description of the structure of Terence McKenna's fractal Timewave temporal resonance theory. (JH) (page 2) (panel 4) "It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it." King Mob is referring to the tantric sex ritual he has/will perform with Edith. (RM)
o (page 5) (panels 2 & 4) This statue is the Cristo Redentor ("Christ the Redeemer"), located in Brazil. (RD) panel 3: The books on the shelf: "Gone ..." is probably "Gone with the wind." (PV) "Bar..." = "Barbra Streisand" (see page 6) or "Barbara Cartland". I think Barbara Cartland.(PV) FWIW, I think Barbra Streisand. (JB) "Teddy B..."= "Teddy Boys" ? (PV)
o (page 6) Note the two tickets for Barbara Streisand concerts on the wall. (PV)
o (page 7) Brodie looks like actor Lewis Collins who played William Bodie in the British late-70s/early-80s TV series, "The Professionals." Also his dialogue is very reminiscent of Bodie's. In the series Bodie (who had a very tough and macho attitude) and his partner Doyle were "top operatives for the government department CI5 -Criminal Intelligence 5, a Home Office department set up to deal with terrorism in all forms" (quoted from the web page "PRIMETIME ACTION - by James Pimentel-Pinto"). Their boss was George Cowley, the controller of CI5. The fast paced action series was very succesful in Europe. Division X of 1.25 looks like a cross between The Professionals and the X-Files. (RL) panel 3: Jack/Dane appears, on the run away from the Invisibles. This scene also appears in 1.16, page 2. (PV/JB) (panel 5) "Oneiric energy"? Webster's says "Oneiric" = "having to do with dreams." (JB) "Dream catchers" are those circles of string, supposedly handcrafted by Native Americans, which people often hang from their rear view mirrors like New Age fuzzy dice. Brodie and Sir Miles' exchange suggests that they really work! (RM)
o (page 8) (panel 1) "They'd lock you up for that now: a cat called Darkie." It's not really a reference, but: H.P. Lovecraft's cat was called "Niggerman." (RM) (panel 2) A mention about "reopening" Division X. (PV)
o (page 9) (panel 6) Fanny is interacting with what seems to be the "molten imagination" used by Jim Crow in 1.10. (PV/JB) More of the hallucinogenic blue fluid common in tryptamine visions, as practiced by South American shamans and bruja in yage rituals. (JH)
o (page 10) This page is drawn in the "exaggerted anatomy/pin-up" style of Rob Liefield. (PV/JB) Grant said the borrowing of various styles was borrowed from the movie 'Natural Born Killers' in the lettercol of issue 1.17 (BSI)
o (pages 11&20) These pages are drawn in the style of Dave Gibbons' work on "Watchmen," using a nine-panel grid. (PV/JB) page 11, panel 2Second mention of Edith's psychic "link" with Tom; first was in 1.1, page 6, panel 4. (JB/BSI) (page 11) (panel 3) "that awful building": Canary Wharf. And ol' Edie is smoking marijuana ("skunk"), a "cure for arthritis." (JB) (page 11) (panel 7) Another mention of the mysterious "loss" of John-a-Dreams from KM's cell; see1.9, (page 7) (panels 1-3) (JB) Can someone please ID the picture hanging on the wall? (JB)
o (pages 12-15) These pages--and 18,19, 21 and 22 too--are drawn in the naturalistic, thick-lined syle of Gilbert Hernandez's "Love & Rockets" work set in the magic realism/Central America world of his "Heartbreak Soup" serial. (JB) (panel 4) Drawn and narrated in the "Ripley's Believe It or Not" style, as per the lettercol of 1.17 (BSI)
o (pages 14) (panel 1) Fanny mentions that hir mother was 'stabbed at Mardi-Gras by some drunk wearing a papier-mache dog's head. Of the group who later rape and damn near kill Fanny (when she's a prostitute, before meeting John-A-Dreams), one is wearing a papier-mache dog mask (V.1 #15, page 15, panel 4). This is the same group that's got Quimper chained to the wall behind them (he's there in V.1 #15 right behind the 'cat', just crudely drawn, he's more apparent in the redrawing of the sequence in V.1 #25). (Jack Frost)
o (pages 16-17) These pages are drawn using Frank Miller's "Sin City" style. (PV) (page 17) (panel 2) Vivienne Westwood is a famous English fashion stylist. Heaven is a discotheque in London. (PV) (page 17) (panel 3) the movie is "The Elephant Man" by David Lynch. (PV)
o (page 18) The tea is probably ayahuasca, also called yage, a mixture of DMT (dimethyltryptamine) and harmaline. Yage and salvia divinorum (a super-psychedelic plant native to Mexico) both commonly generate insectoid/alien visions, along with puddles of liquid intelligence as manifest in blue, silver or violet fluid. (JH) (panel 2) All images that we know and love or will soon: The Greys again...Brodie's cat...the hands and legs at the top right look like Babies limbs so that's possibly a reference to Hilde's birth/initiation as a sorceress. Not sure about the cockroach with a cloak (Orlando?) and as for what looks like corn on the cob lying on a couch, I've NO idea! (Loz) (panel 4) The red light again. (PV)
o (page 19) (panel 5) "naguel" = totem protector (PV)
o (page 20) (panels 7-9) An apple, again. See 1.01, page 27; 1.06, p. 6, 14-15. (JB) (panel 9) "You must brave the jaws of the dragon, dear. Each of you in turn I shouldn't wonder." A fair enough synopsis of issues 1.13-1.24. (RM)
o (page 23) (panel 4) Note the reflection of Mictlantecuhtl in the mirror. (BSI)
o (page 24) This member of Division X is probably Mr. Six. (PV)
1-14
o (page 5) (panel 2) Another clue about the mysterious "liquid": "It's the time stuff, isn't it? The mirror stuff comes from outside the bubble and reflects it..." (JB) (panel 4) "like Martin and..."... and Lewis. Actors Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis: Martin was the handsome, charming, serious guy and Lewis was the goofy weird guy. In their movies they were always bounded by a strong friendship (not so in their real lives). (PV)
o (page 6) Is this page's style -- an illustration with smoke-text, etc. an homage/reference to something? (JB) Lady Edith and King Mob are going to perform a sex-based ritual to find Jack. This is the second time they do this kind of thing: the first one was in 1924 - which we'll see a glimpse of in issue 1.18, and then again 2.10. (PV/JB)
o (page 9) Jack Flint is a member of Division X--more about him in 1.25. (PV)
o (page 10) The two-feature style is from old Sunday comic pages when they still had a whole page. There would sometimes be a second strip above or below the main feature. (BSI)
o (page 11) (panels 2-4) This information will turn out to be "true" in some sense; see 2.1-2.4. Perhaps this hitchhiker is more significant than he seems upon first reading--and perhaps he is St. Germain, who would still be alive, as, uh, he's immortal? A clue is that a point is made that KM didn't catch his name, which is the same comment Mary Shelley made... (see 1.06, 1.07, 1.08, 2.06) (JB) panel 8: The meaning of this card is that a great change will happen in someone's life. Only if the card is drawn upside down does it mean "death." (PV)
o (page 12) (panel 1) According to issue 13 the dog should be yellow. A mistake made by the colorist? (PV)
o (page 15) (panel 2) The hitchhiker says 'guess you didn't' in reference to King Mob catching his name. This may me another clue he's the devil... 'Hope you guess my name' from the Rolling Stones' 'Sympathy for the Devil.' (BSI) The aura emanating from the hitchhiker here is similar to aura that the modern King Mob radiates when he travels back to the '20s (2.08, (page 9) (panel 2)). I believe this aura is an indication of psychic time-travel; a bit of a dead give-away in fact. Is the hitchhiker/St. Germain/the Devil (take your pick) a time-traveller? It seems very likely: time-travel is certainly a plausible explanation for this character's appearance in multiple time periods. Just two questions, then: how does Mob see the hitchhiker's aura, and why does the photograph pick it up? (Zenkidu) (panel 4) Perhaps the halo above the hitchhiker's head followed by king mob's "ha" (as in realization) and boy's muttering of "jesus" lead to the hiker's identity. (WW)
o (page 22) (panel 3) Of course, 'The Crying Game' also has a transvestite in it... (L)
o (page 23) (panels 3-4) More clues as to the nature of reality: "I understand the secret of magic. There is only ONE day. There is only ever one day and it TODAY, the day of nine dogs, day of magicians, day of initiations." (JB) The "day of nine dogs" is a reference to the Mesoamerican calendar cycle (called the "short count" in Maya calendrics), which matches 13 day numbers with 20 day names to make a 260-day repeating count. Add the 365-day Maya year, and you get a cycle that repeats every 54 years. This cycle, called the "calendar round" or tzol k'in, was and is important in Mesoamerican magic and religion. See http://www.halfmoon.org/calendar.html for more about the Maya calendar. (HE)
1-15
o (page 1) (panel 1) This panel takes place simultaneously with page 9, panels 15-16...all of which takes place after the events of 1.16, pages 13-22. (JB) This panel refers to a Christmas carol. (L)
o (page 4) (panel 1) Orlando's true form. (JB)
o (page 5) (panel 2) Is it just me, or does the man resemble DeSade? (BSI) (panel 4) The pig mask worn by one of the men is the the same we'll see in Quimper's office and in House of Fun (see issue 25). What's the glowing ball on the table? (PV) Also: Fanny's mother was murdered by "a drunk wearing a papier mache dog's head" at a Mardi Gras parade. (1.13) (JB) The animal masks are similar to those worn by followers of Anton LeVey's (sp?) Church of Satan in the US. Perhaps this is why Fanny doesn't know "what's making me think of demons", as this is a Satanist gathering? That might explain the hokey crystal ball in the background. (DS)
o (page 9) FWIW, this page's 16-panel format recalls Miller's Dark Knight and Chaykin's American Flagg. (JB) (panels 1-4) The explosions and injuries outlined here by the newscaster are actually Jack's battle with Sir Miles that appears in 1.16. Miles' injuries are evident in panel 6. (JB/PV) (panel 4) A reference to Orlando's killings in 1.05. (RL)
o (page 11) (panel 5-6) John-A-Dreams. (PV)
o (page 15-16) Another clue: "We god are only masks. Who wears us? Find it out!" says Mictlantehcutli. Fanny asks "'Show me who you really are.' And suddenly she sees seven doors revolving. She sees with her eyes she had forgotten how to use." She sees the red circle. The "violet superfluid" is described as the stuff "sorcerors produce from their bodies, condensed soulstuff which comes from outside." (JB) (page 15) (panel 4) The menstruating tree is a symbol in Tunguska shamanism (and many other shamanic traditions worldwide) for the World Axis or World Tree that holds up the sky and defines the rotation point for planet Earth. In some variations the tree also produces a river of milk, on which the newborn human species was nourished in the early days of the world. (JH)
o (page 21) (panel 2) Again: "You should know now that NOTHING begins nor does it end. Things are ever-present." (JB)
1-16
o (page 2) (panel 3) The man in the car is Brodie. This is the scene from 1.13, page 7. (PV/JB)
o (page 3) (panel 4) This is Dane's fantasy; he doesn't actually reveal his feelings for Boy until 2.09 -- more than a year later. (PV/JB) (panel 5) The name of the only cybercafe around Tottenham Court Road is Cyberia (just parallel behind Goodge Street Underground) - it is one of the first in the world. I have never seen them sell smart drinks. (TEC)
o (page 4) (panel 2) I believe handguns are almost completely illegal in England. Dane got his back in issue 1.09. (BSI) Privately owned guns are now totally illegal in Britain, even for shooting clubs. (AD) (panels 3-4) and (page 5) (panel 1) Flashback to the events just after 1.09, page 20. (JB)
o (page 5) (panel 5) Dane is feeding the pigeons. It seems he learned Mad Tom's lesson (1.03). This seems to be a flashback to 1.03, but the dialogue is new and does not correspond to that issues's page 8. In this issue and in 1.21, Grant is showing us new stuff re: Jack/Dane, filling in some blanks left from 1.01-1.04. (JB)
o (page 6) (panel 3) Some have speculated that these the two men could be members of Division X. But who--and how? If you follow the time-line, Mr. Six, Jack Flint and George are still not working together again... (PV/JB) I doubt they're Division X. First of all, it seems that Mr. Six, Jack Flint, and George are just about the entirety of Division X. Also, Division X deals in occult type stuff (basically a British take on The X Files), and these guys are entirely bewildered by the behaviour of the security TV. They could be the same as the Men in Black who hassle Division X in 1.25, but I'd guess they're just everyday Conspiracy Cops. (RM)
o (page 7) (panels 3-4) Underworld are an electronica group along the lines of the Prodigy; at the time of this comic they had recently released their second album 'SecondToughestInTheInfants' and were soon to have their fifteen minutes of fame after their track 'Born Slippy' was used on the Trainspotting soundtrack. Supergrass are a Britpop band, as are Pulp, the lead singer of which, Jarvis Cocker, wiggled his arse at Michael Jackson at the Brit Music Awards a few years back. 'At This Stage I Couldn't Say' looks like Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, two English comedians who present 'Shooting Stars', a mickey take of celebrity game shows and 'The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer' from which the picture is taken. Sorry, where were we...? (L) "Root Doctaz" is Jim Crow's band; note that they are on tour, and that is one reason why he's in London in time for the events of 1.18 (PV/JB)
o (page 8) This scene, which starts on page 7, panel 4, is placed chronologically around the pivotal 1.02, page 18, panel 6. (JB)
o (pages 9-13) More of what really happened during Jack's inititiation in 1.02 is presented here for the first time. (JB) Almost all of the fringe elements regarding time, language, the 'elves' or 'DMT machine elves', the magic matter, and even the 'LUV LUV LUV' spot in Gideon's recollections (see 2.05) are all borrowed from one text by Terence McKenna: TRUE HALLUCINATIONS. This book should be heavily touted for those wishing to understand some of what Grant's rabbiting on about. (JOB) The aliens' thought-dialogue includes statements where sounds are placed within slashes and parentheses, like "/(word)/." It seems that these blanks must be filled in by the listener, and sometimes the listeners has more than one way of perceiving the word...or none at all. This may in turn tie back into the conversation regarding glossolalia -- "the original tongue" -- that St. Germain has with Ragged Robin 1.08. (JB) A magic stone is inserted into Jack's head by aliens in order to activate his "/(third eye/ajna chakra)/." This is why Jack has a scar on his forehead in 1.02 after page 18. (JB)
o (page 11) (panel 4) "The implant will form a four-dimensional super-conducting crystal structure designed to bond with neural DNA. Call it a /(magic mirror/ufo)/." Or Fanny's liquid superfluid from 1.13-1.15? Seems to be the same soul-stuff... (JB)
o (page 12) (bottom lefthand panel) "Understand: you are the /(chosen one)/ This is /(your time)/ your world is dying but you can lead your people to /(global peace and harmony)/" Jack has been chosen/elected...he's practically a Buddha figure. (JB) (final panel-page 13) Now we will show you the /(truth)/ Watch the /( )/ find it out." This is a direct echo of Fanny's experience in 1.15, page 15, panel 1--including the phrase "find it out," the red circle and the SuperFluid. (JB) "The soul is not in the body. The body is inside the soul." A major tenet of sorcery? (JB) The quote is reminiscent of The Book of the Law (Aleister Crowley), 1:8 - "The Khabs is in the Khu, not the Khu in the Khabs." "Khu" can be translated as "soul" (or, more typically, "spirit"), but unfortunately "khabs" means "star" rather than "body". Still, it's likely that Grant was trying to evoke the quotation. (CM) "Try to remember." --That phrase again. (JB)
o (page 13) (panel 1) The Mobius strip: a simbol of infinity. "Which side are you on?" may mean that there's only one side (this is the same discussion as seen in 1.05 when King Mob attends to the puppet show). (PV) It looks like there's writing behind the Mobius, possibly from the Koran. Can anyone identify it? (L) This scene is very similar to the opera 1000 Airplanes on the Roof, written by someone or other and music by Philip Glass. I don't remember the story very well, but I do remember that a man is abducted and the aliens force a small sphere up his nose. I think that the man realizes that the aliens see part of themselves in him. This sounds similar to the lines from page 13: "Look. We are you. Try to remember." Anyway, the first time I read this, I was reminded strongly of the opera. (goofy)
o (page 14) (panel 3) "My name's Gallagher": Dane's using the famous Gallagher brothers' family name. Liam and Noel are vocalist and guitar player-songwriter for Oasis. (PV/JB)
o (page 15) (panel 4) Pamela Anderson, infamous fake buxom star of Baywatch. Previously alluded to on 1.12, page 16, panel 1.
o (page 17) More new info about Dane's initation; and his first call on Jack Frost.
o (page 18) (panel 3) How does he know ? Carbon monoxide's odourless and colourless. (RJ) That's assuming it IS carbon monoxide... (L)
o (page 23) (panel 3) Number 23 again (see the discussion about 1.09's cover). This is page 23 too. (PV) 23 is a holy number to Discordians (See Principia Discordia, pg.16), and also appears constantly in Robert Anton Wilson's fiction and nonfiction. (BSI) panel 4: Tesco is a chain of supermarkets. (PV)
o (note) Dane's story continues in 1.17. (JB)
1-17
The story arc's title is a play on "Anarchy in the UK," the Sex Pistols' tune. The second law of thermodynamics, explained on page 1, panel 4 is the basic definition of entropy. (CE) Also, one of Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius books is called "Entropy Tango." (RL) Note: Check out Bard Sinister's notes on Gideon Stargrave's first appearance in "Near Myths."
o (page 1) (panel 1) "Post-Syd" refers to Syd Barrett, a member of Pink Floyd who left, and became something of a recluse, turning his back on celebrity. (JBU) panel 2: "Hope I Die Before I Get Old": from My Generation, by The Who. (BSI) I have no idea what a "Dux" is in this sense, nor if Evelyn Cruikshank is a 'real' person. (JBU) panel 3: "Wizard Prang, old bean!": "Prang" is WW2 fighter pilot slang for "crash." "Wizard" is slang for "ace" or "brilliant." (L) panel 4: Mr. Fish is (or was) a real boutique, according to Grant in the Lettercol for 1.20 (BSI) I have no idea Shelly's shoes is a real shop. BTW, Marks and Spencers was still selling Paisley underwear in the '80s? Who was buying it ??? (JBU)
o (page 3) (panel 1) The chapter headings and short chapters are another nice reminder of Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius books. (JBU) panel 4: This seems to be another appearance of Barbelith. (JBU) "...sets the controls for the heart of the sun.": "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" is a song on the 1968 (Syd-Barrett era) Pink Floyd album, "Saucerful of Secrets." (JB) * This song is, apparently, based on a Mike Moorcock book, probably called the Fireclown (although it was renamed in the US/UK) (MSW)
o (page 5) (panel 3) Krousher's "Physical Interrogation Techniques" is a real book: ISBN 0-915179-23-7. (CE)
o (page 7) (panel 1) Biggles was a character in a series of books for children by Captain WE Johns who was a fighter pilot. (JBU) The change in styles of chapter titles is another nod to the Cornelius Chronicles. (BSI) (panel 2) "Baby's in Black" is on the Beatles album "Beatles for Sale." (CE)
o (page 8) (panel 6) I guess the atom bomb is exploding in the alternative London, destroying the hive. (JBU)
o (page 9) (panel 2) Elfayed is another of KM's instructors from the monastery (cf. 1.19, page 8). (JBU) (panel 3) Of course, we've already seen a caterpillar devour a leaf and then metamorphose into a butterfly in 1.13, page 1. (JB) "As above, so below" is also a transmission from Barbelith to Dane in 1.21, page 23, panel 5. (JB) (panels 3-4) Elfayed's ideas on things repeating themselves on all scales is an idea echoed in much of modern science, particularly since the invention of chaos mathematics and the idea of self similarity. In addition, "as above, so below" is a major mystical tenet. (JBU) It's from Hermes Trismegistus' teachings. Here is a translation of The Emerald Tablet from whence this text came: "The Emerald Tablet Truly, without Deceit, certainly and absolutelyÑ That which is Below corresponds to that which is Above, and that which is Above corresponds to that which is Below, in the accomplishment of the Miracle of One Thing. And just as all things have come from One, through the Mediation of One, so all things follow from this One Thing in the same way. Its Father is the Sun. Its Mother is the Moon. The Wind has carried it in his Belly. Its Nourishment is the Earth. It is the Father of every completed Thing in the whole World. Its Strength is intact if it is turned towards the Earth. Separate the Earth by Fire: the fine from the gross, gently, and with great skill. It rises from Earth to Heaven, and then it descends again to the Earth, and receives Power from Above and from Below. Thus you will have the Glory of the whole World. All Obscurity will be clear to you. This is the strong Power of all Power because it overcomes everything fine and penetrates everything solid. In this way was the World created. From this there will be amazing Applications, because this is the Pattern. Therefore am I called Thrice Greatest Hermes, having the three parts of the Wisdom of the whole World. Herein have I completely explained the Operation of the Sun." (??)
o (page 10) (panel 5) Fanny and King Mob seem to have an organized routine for capture, based upon their real-life cover. Hopefully we'll see more of this; Boy is an ex-cop, Dane a runaway criminal and Ragged Robin is actually a time traveler. So how would these three deal with such an interrogation, considering they will have little in the way of cover? (JBU) (panel 6) It is at this point Fanny steals Sir Miles' handkerchief. (JBU)
o (page 12) (panel 3) Jerry Cornelius, acknowledged as the inspiration for Gideon Stargrave, was one aspect of the eternal champion, who was used to tie all of Michael Moorcock's books into a single universe. As an aside, apparently Michael Moorcock sued Grant Morrison for plagiarism; anyone have more details? (JBU) Jerry Cornelius, like Gideon Stargrave, continually jumped between identities and realities. Another Cornelius- Invisibles correlation: both series deal heavily with the Harlequinade, although I haven't been able to find any direct connection between the two series versions (yet). As far as the lawsuit goes, I have no idea. (BSI) In the latest issue of Michael Moorcock's Multiverse comic from Helix (issue 10), the lettercol has a paragraph on the influence of the Cornelius stories on comics and names Hellblazer and Transmetropolitan as examples, as well as naming Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Warren Ellis as examples of comics writers influenced by these stories. The fact that Grant and Invisibles are so conspicuously not mentioned, when the Gideon Stargrave stories, and really a lot of the regular Invisibles storyline (the Harlequinade, chaos vs. control, pop music/culture references, etc.) are actually much more strongly influenced by the Cornelius stuff, suggests to me that there really might be a lawsuit, or at least Moorcock is not happy with the homage. By the way, Jerry Cornelius and the Harliquinade are both in the Multiverse comic. (CH) "Occam's razor" is a philosophical rule invented by a medieval monk, which states that you should not multiply entities beyond necessity (or, the simplest explanation is probably the correct one). It is arguable that he was a major influence on Western philosophy. (JBU/JB) William of Occam (c.1285-1349) was an English philosopher and exponent of Scholasticism. According to encyclopedia.com, "Occam is remembered for his use of the principle of parsimony, formulated as Occam's razor, which enjoined economy in explanation with the axiom 'It is vain to do with more what can be done with less.'" (CVU) (panel 5) Another link to KM's deal with the scorpion Loa, which was mentioned first in 1.10. Scorpions seem to hold a special relevance to KM's life. Perhaps because Morrison is a scorpion? (he was born in January) You can see the similarities between KM and GM. (JBU) If Morrison were a "scorpion", assuming you mean scorpio, he'd have to be born between October 24-November 22. January births fall under Capricorn and Aquarius... according to Mark Millar in 1.22's lettercol, "Gideon Stargrave is Grant Morrison with a girlfriend, cool clothes and no stammer." (CE)
o (page 13) (panel 2) "The direction that cannot be pointed at" seems reminiscent of the weird non-Euclidean geometry which Lovecraft refused to describe in his books. Maybe there is a similar origin for the Archons (see 2.06 for more info) (JBU)
o (page 14) Does anyone else think the benign tumor story is familiar? I could've sworn that I had heard it as "Casper, the Friendly Growth" somewhere. Any other attributions? (CE) panel 3: Ragged Robin's jacket has a number 6 on the lapel- is this another Prisoner reference? (JBU) I certainly read the 6 as a Prisoner reference. (BSI) Robin is reading a copy of "Time Out," which is a magazine which tells literally everything which is happening in the greater London area during the week, from clubs to movies to concerts to theater and so on. If you look on the cover of the magazine, it reads "Which side are you on?" (CG)
o (page 15) (panel 4) "and I go see a band." The band would be Root Doctaz - Robin is going to contact Jim Crow. (RM) page 5: "Deja Vu"? What does this refer to? It seems to foreshadow something that has yet to happen, possibly an event when KM visits the future, and Robin is 15. (JBU) In 1.23 page 20 panel 4, Robin cradles KM's head in her lap and says, "That's so weird, I've done this before." Not the source of her deja vu, but connected no doubt. (CE)
o (page 16) This is the second Division X recruitment. One more to go... (JBU)
o (page 17) (panel 4) In his book (novel?) Chariot of the Gods, Erich von Daniken discusses mummification, suggesting links to the aliens which landed on earth in our pre-history. It's a seriously weird book, and raises some interesting questions. The main problem people had was when von Daniken began to answer them. (JBU)
o (page 19) first caption: "Ultra-violence" comes from Anthony Burgess' "A Clockwork Orange," a book about a group of rebel teenagers who don't give a damn about authority. See also 1.01, page 35, panel 4 annotation. (CG/JB) panel 1: The events in this reality seem to echo the plots mentioned in "Royal Monsters" (1.11), where the English throne is to be given to an 'alien'. (JBU) Gideon's pose here is nearly identical to young Gideon's pose on p.22 (CE) panel 2: left to right: Ronald Reagan, airplane schematics, the Invisible College?, Margaret Thatcher, a sports utility vehicle, the planet earth, and Duran Duran's album "Decade." (CE) "The ballad of John and Yoko ends with murder" refers both to the Beatles song "The Ballad of John and Yoko" and the 1980 murder of John Lennon by Mark David Chapman, who yelled "Mr. Lennon" before shooting him. Dane yells "Mr Lennon" in 1.1 page 12 panel 2, right in the middle of Stu and John having a discussion about life and death. (CE) panel 3: "Thatcher wants to have (Prince) Charles burned in a wicker man this summer. She reckons it'll bring down inflation." In many variants of magickal and Satanic practice, a wicker man is used as a focus point for ritual energies. The wicker man becomes a conduit through which a minor action can ripple outward and affect the entire planet. Various satanic serial killers in the US in the 1970s used the motif of the wicker man to channel their murders into world-changing events, in an attempt to forge a satanic kingdom on Earth. See the book Secret Societies and Psychological Warfare by Michael Hoffman III. (JH) The Wicker Man dates form approx. 3rd Century BC. A Celtic (Druidic) ritual of burning huge effigies of Gods. Most accounts say that these were crammed with dozens of human sacrifices, but there is a likelihood that some were not. There is an excellent (Hammer?) film called The Wicker Man starring Christopher Lee and Edward Woodward where a modern day village has continued the ritual (1973). See The Original 'Wicker Man' Home Page. There is also a story by Clive Barker called In The Hills, The Cities (I think) in the Books of Blood which describes the building of a two similar giants. (AD) panel 4: Incest is yet another Jerry Cornelius correlation. (BSI) panel 5: Among the guitar bands listed are "The Mixers", Grant Morrison's own band; and "The 5", KM's band (1.19, page 3, panel 1). (RL)
o (page 20) (panel 1) "I'm cutting me own throat here." Cut-me-own-throat Dibbler is the shadiest wheeler-dealer in Ankh-Morpork, in Terry Pratchett's Discworld books. (L)
o (page 21) (panels 1-3) The dialogue is directly quoted from the normal opening credits of The Prisoner. Also, the white circle of Rover is echoed several times on the next 3 pages: pg 22, panels 2&3, pg23, panel 3, and the last panel of pg. 24. Is this supposed to evoke some sort of 'anti-barbelith', one used by the enemy? (BSI) Not just the dialogue is quoted from The Prisoner. King Mob is dressed as the Prisoner running on the beach (a scene in the opening credits) and Sir Miles is dressed as the Prisoner's nemesis Number Two. He even seems to be sitting in Number Two's "space age" spherical chair. (RM) panel 4: We have yet to meet Dr. Cohen properly, but the time machine does appear to be the one used in the "Arcadia" (1.05-1.08) arc. Is this an alternate reality or not? (JBU)
o (page 23) (panel 1) Room 101 is a reference to the ultimate torture room in George Orwell's "1984." (JBU/JB)
1-18
o (page 1) (panel 3) also (page 3) (panel 5) British comedian Peter Sellers often played Indian characters (like in the film "The Party"). He also did a song called "Goodness Gracious Me," with Sophia Loren, in which Loren sung about her love problems to her Indian psychiatrist, spoken with an over-the-top Indian accent by Sellers. At the end of each chorus she sang "My heart goes boom-bee-dee-boom-bee-dee-boom..." with Sellers commenting "Oh goodness gracious me." This was from the swinging London era. (RL)
o (page 2) The title page with nudes seems very reminiscent of the opening credit sequences from James Bond movies. (RM)
o (page 3) (panel 1) 'Trest in Allah!': is this supposed to be a reference to something? (BSI)
o (page 5) The effects of Key17 (subject incorporates written words into his/her personal universe as the objects they describe) are a direct steal from Time Out of Joint by PKD. In TOOJ, Ragle Gumm (U.S. pun) discovers that the objects in his environment are only words on paper and that he and his neighbors have been conditioned to act as if they were real. Where he expects to see a soda drink stand he finds only a slip of paper with the words "soda stand." A PKD classic! (CAG) The Key 17 premise probably is from Philip K. Dick, but another possible source (which might itself be a PKD steal) is "White Noise" by Don DeLillo, in which a side effect of the drug Dylar allows a man to be killed by the word "bullets." (EB) Grant himself developed a facial abcess a couple months after this issue was written. He commented on correlaries between the book and his illness in the Lettercol of 1.24 (BSI) (panel 5) First mention of Jolly Roger, from 2.01. (RL)
o (page 6-7) Mary Brown the cleaning lady's entrance reminds me of an old Malcolm McDowell film called "O Lucky Man!" A similar scene occurs in that film, if I remember it correctly. (CG) CG is right: the line "Would the young man like anything?" is from the torture scene in "O Lucky Man!" (which also includes a trick question Sir Miles would like: "Which is more important, loyalty or obedience?"). (EB) Ms. Brown also appears in 1.22, pages 18-19. (JB)
o (page 8) (panel 1) "Millionaire author": so we finally get to know how KM finances his lifestyle. It's always convenient to have millionaires in your comic series (like Batman/Bruce Wayne). (RL)
o (page 9) The magic stone, embedded in the earth, just as a stone is embedded in Dane's forehead? (JB)
o (page 17) (panel 1) Yikes! What is that? (JB)
o (page 18) (panel 3) "Sounds like he's..ah...speaking in TONGUES.": A reference to glossolalia, a recurring motif in 1.0 (JB)
o (page 19) (panel 4) Baron Zaraguin, I presume? (RM) From P.K. Dick's "VALIS" (1981), p. 100: "50. The primordial source of all our religions lies with the ancestors of the Dogon tribe, who got their cosmogony and cosmology directly from the three-eyed invaders who visited long ago. The three-eyed invaders are mute and deaf and telepathic, couldnot breathe out atmosphere, had the elongated skull of Ikhnaton and emanated from a planet in the star-system Sirius. Although they had no hands, but had, instead, pincer claws such as a crab has, they were great builders. They covertly influence our history toward a fruitful end." (JB)
o (page 20) This scene reflects two encounters KM had with Edith. One was first hinted at (but not seen) in 1.14, pg. 6, the other was was shown in 2.10, pg 15. (BSI)
1-19
o (page 1) (panel 5) Gideon is singing the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the UK." (CG)
o (page 2) Pictures in the background include O.J. Simpson, Pamela Anderson, and the AIDS Quilt (?). (RM) Picture of Marilyn Manson? (KF)
o (page 3) (panel 1) 5 is a key number in Discordianism. (BSI) Grant took part in a band called The Five. (RK) "An occult group in Leeds": Obvious reference to the the chaos magic group the IOT which originated there circa 1978 formed by Peter Carrol and Ray Sherwin. The IOT was the first organized chaos magic group. Liber Null andPsychonaut by Carrol and Condensed Chaos by Phil Hine introduce the chaos magic paradigm; most people will be able to find them readily available offline. (RK) (panel 4) I believe this temple or whatever it is is where KM "first" meets Edie in 1988, while he is contemplating suicide. KM talks about this event in 2.10, pages 17-18. (JB)
o (page 8) (panel 2) Does the 'm' with the hook on the door have any significance? (BSI) It's the zodiac sign for the scorpion. (PV) < panel 6: First appearance of Jolly Roger? (BSI)
o (page 11) (panel 2) "plausible like Michael and Lisa-Marie being in love": Of course a reference to the marriage of Michael Jackson and Lisa-Marie Presley, which was often in the news during that time and later failed. (RL)
o (page 15) Who is controlling Sir Miles here: King Mob or Fanny? (RM) I think Fanny attacks Sir Miles, weakening him for King Mob's attack who then gains control over Miles. (L)
o (page 18) (panel 1) That's an "A to Zed" that Jim's got there. It's a complete index of all the streets in London. (CG)
o (page 21) (panel 1) "Be seeing you." This is an oft-repeated line in The Prisoner (completing the reference from 1.18). (RM)
o (page 23) Is there any significance to the fact that Gideon and Genevieve have managed to destroy a world without getting killed? (L) The idea of a couple (possibly brother and sister) surviving the end of the world to start a new one comes from Norse mythology, where a man and a woman (Askr and Embla?) survive Ragnarok and presumably start things anew. This ties in with Gideon hanging from the powerline, like Odin (and/or the Hanged Man from the Tarot). (HE)
1-20
o (page 4) (panel 1) A sign behind Boy's head says W.A.S.T.E., a reference to Thomas Pynchon's Crying of Lot 49 that will reappear in the next Boy-centered storyline--see the annotations for 2.11. (RM) panel 5: Oscar says that he talked with Boy's brother: this could mean the two men share the same ideas because they're are all Invisibles (see the end of this issue). (PV)
o (page 9) That wino yelling about the "Empire" and "Black Iron" looks a LOT like the real-life Philip K. Dick. (CAG) panel 4: "The empire never ended" comes from "VALIS" and "Radio Free Albemuth" by Philip K. Dick. (The second is a sorta darker retelling of the first). See either book for details. In VALIS/RFA, the fascistic administration of U.S. President Ferris F. Fremont, a thinly-disguised Richard Nixon (Fremont, Calif. maps onto Whittier, Calif., Nixon's birthplace and FFF=666, geddit?) is a continuation of the Roman Empire which suppressed the Essenes/Christians. (CAG)
o (page 10) (panel 2) Wesley Snipes is an actor (his first famous role was with Sylvester Stallone in Demolition Man) (PV) panel 3: "The Cosby Show" was a nice, happy '80s NBC sitcom starring Bill Cosby which portrayed a black family in an affluent suburb of Chicago (I think). (CG) panel 4: Eezy D is slang for Easy Dope. (PV) He's reminiscent of rapper Eazy E of N.W.A, one of the first gangsta rappers, who later died of AIDS. So calling yourself "Eezy D" is not very original. The whole stereotypical setup of Boy's family makes sense in the light of 2.11. (RL)
o (page 11) (panel 4) "I guess I never really knew him": right! (PV)
o (page 12) (panel 3) Rex 84. 23 detention camps. It this story true? (PV) U.S. concentration camps in real life: Various "reservations" for Indians during the wars against them in 19th Century. Chiefly marked by neglect Civil War. Both the North and South had 'em. Andersonville (Georgia?) was the most notorious. The camp doctor hanged, the Confederate officers in charge walked. Notable feature was the "dead line," marked by planks. If you walked past it, the guards shot you. Japanese-Americans kept in camps such as Manzanar during World War II. U.S. government eventually made some reparations to victims and relatives In sorta real life: Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) - founded 1979, answers to the President, via National Security Council. A Miami Herald article published 5 July 1987 reported that U.S. Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North, then employed to draw up national security contingency plans, often met Louis O. Guiffrido, then head of FEMA, between 1982 and 1984, to discuss FEMA's role in the event of civil unrest and the imposition of martial law. Guiffrido produced a plan for mass roundup and imprisonment of subversives, recycled from a plan he devised in 1970 for the Army War College in the event of an uprising of black militants (!). The Miami Herald got a copy of the 2 Aug 1984 memo detailing the plan, to be included in an Executive Order or National Security Directive that President Reagan was supposed to sign. According to various right-wing web pages, this is NSDD 58. The Herald story says it's unclear whether it was signed. As for REX-84, the Winter 1990 issue of the Covert Action Information Bulletin reports a series of simulations designed to coordinate the various agencies, civilian and military, needed under the above arrangement. One of these wargames was called REX-84/Night Train (!!). Whatever the ultimate fate of this program, it may have cost FEMA the resources it needed to its ostensible job: disaster relief. FEMA was utterly unprepared for Hurricane Andrew when it hit Florida in 1992 and was therefore overhauled. Neither source cited above says whether camps were actually built, though a few web pages list possible sites. In the 1980s, some politicans wanted mandatory ID of AIDS victims, followed by relocation to hospitals little better than charnel houses. Didn't happen. In fiction: Vineland - Thomas Pynchon (1980s) - There's one in northern California. Unreconstructed hippie Zoyd Wheeler finds it. Squirrelly U.S. government (FBI?) agent Brock Vond dreams of raising families of informants to travel around the country busting opposition groups. It Can't Happen Here - Sinclair Lewis (1935). Fascists led by the folksy Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip win the 1936 election, defeating FDR. Detention camps for dissidents, victims of grudges and almost all blacks and Indians. Two coups follow, each worse than the last. Camp Concentration - Thomas A. Disch. Government experiments on political prisoners. Great! (CAG) The Number 23 shows up again (see 1.16, page 23) (BSI)
o (page 13) Notice the mannequins in the room that blows up, nearly taking Boy and Oscar with it? A similar fire starts off the Illuminatus! trilogy. While investigating its aftermath, cops Goddman and Muldoon find two burned dummies and initially mistake them for bodies. (CAG)
o (page 14) (panel 4) Eliot Ness is the man who put Al Capone in jail. For more info, see "The Untouchbles," a film starring Kevin Costner and Sean Connery, based partly on an old American TV series. (PV/JB)
o (page 15) (panel 1) Blood and Crips are famous L.A. street gangs. (PV)
o (page 16) (panel 6) The trains are shown running at 17:00 and 23:00. The 23 is showing up again. (17 is sometimes associated with 23 in Illuminatus) (BSI)
o (page 21) (panel 6) "It's not Oscar anymore": this could mean that Oscar was only a fake name. He could be an Invisible whose duty was to watch over Lucille/Boy until she'd join the Invisibles (like it happened to Dane/Jack). (PV)
o (page 22) (panel 3) The "English bald guy" is King Mob. This could be a proof that Oscar is an Invisible too. (PV)
o (page 23) (panel 5) Mr. Six is watching Boy's notebook burn. (BSI)
1-21
o (pages 4-5) These pages revisit 1.4 (CG) page 5, panel 4: The red globe is addressing Dane, calling him Lost One. But ...the Lost Ones are the enemies (???) (PV) Well, Dane does say that no one knows what he is, and he does save Sir Miles in 1.24, so maybe... (L)
o (page 6) (panel 3) Root Doctaz is Jim Crow's band. (PV)
o (page 8) (panel 4) This is the Invisible College from 2.06 (BSI)
o (page 11) (panel 3) Oasis poster on the wall. (PV)
o (page 12-13) The phrase "Try to remember" pops up frequently during appearances of the Barbelith sphere, apparently manifest as a satellite on the far side of the moon. Compare this to the following quotes from Philip K. Dick's Radio Free Albemuth pages 160-161: "You have remembered. You know. There is now no forgetting.... the disclosure to the ancient initiate. I had undergone the Orphic ceremonies... to emerge suddenly into the chamber of light... (to be reminded) of my own nature and my past: trip across space from Albemuth, the far star, migration to this world.... The enemy had soon followed and the garden we built had been polluted and made toxic with his presence.... We became half blind; we forgot until reminded. Reminded by the rotating voice in the nearby sky, placed there long ago in case a calamity occurred.... (and if the satellite was found, it would be) old and pitted. It had been there thousands of years.... without memory we had fallen victim to our adversary.." Try to remember, indeed! (JH)
o (page 13) (panel 4) "Doctor Who" is an English sci-fi TV serial. (PV)
o (page 20) (panel 2) Is this a real logo for a show? King Mob used a found Sigil in the Absolute Vertigo story. (BSI) "Top of the Pops" is a long running chart rundown show, it's been going since the 60s and is famous for having bands come on and mime to their hits (if anyone's seen Nirvana 'Live! Tonight! Sold Out!' their weird version of 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' is taken from TOTP) The logo is broadly consistent with what I can remember of the time, seeing as the events in the comics were by that time about a year and a half before the issue date. It's not an exact copy, probably for copyright reasons. (L) (panel 3) There's a Marylin Monroe poster on the wall. (PV)
o (page 22) (panel 3) The name "Mr. 6" may be a reference to the Marquis de Sade. In a letter written by Sade to his wife in 1783, while a prisoner at Vincennes, he continually refers to himself in the third person as "Mr. 6," that is, the occupant of Cell #6 of the prison. (RR) (panel 4) The policeman has some kind of metal thing in is head. What could it be? (PV) In Stephen King's "The Tommyknockers," the hero is able to resist the aliens for so long because of the metal plate he had in his head after a skiing accident. Perhaps this policeman had been to Argentina like the guard King Mob shot (1.01 and 1.12).
o (page 23) Barbelith, as a satellite on the dark side of the moon, seems very similar to VALIS from Philip K. Dick's novels, at least to me. (BSI) In The Secret Gospel of John, "Barbelo" is the first thought of the Unknowable All. The name sounds awfully similar to Barbelith, and I thought it an interesting coincidence that the satellite which is talking to humanity in its thoughts has a name similar to the first thought. Barbelo comes into existence when the logos sees its reflection in the stream of light surrounding it, hence she is called "the image of the spirit." I believe someone says elsewhere in the Annotations that the red dot (Barbelith's symbol) is the image of the perfect soul. Maybe I'm reaching here, but I want to point out the similarity between "the image of the spirit(logos)" and "the image of the perfect soul." (TL) (panel 5) "As above, so below.": Barbelith's transmission echoes Elfayed quote in 1.17, page 9, panel 4. (JB)
1-22
If you put together the covers for 1.22, 1.23 and 1.24, you'll have a very interesting image. (PV)
The title, "House of Fun" is the title of a "Madness" song, at least in part about coming of age. The chorus runs like this: Welcome to the House of Fun Now I've come of age Welcome to the House of Fun Welcome to the lion's den Temptation's on his way Welcome to the House of Fun" All of which sounds pretty appropriate for this issue. The song does suggest that The House of Fun is a joke shop, in the lines : I'm sorry son, but we don't stock Party gimmicks in this shop Try the House of Fun, It's quicker if you run, This is a chemist, not a joker's shop" (AW) In a story for 2000AD called 'Really and Truly', Grant used the "House of Fun" as a portable house for government drug agents. (Mr. White)
o (page 1) (panel 5) "Alan Dunn's House of Fun": Is this a reference to someone? (PV)
o (page 3) (panel 2) "Outer Church": We'll see more of it in 2.03-2.04 and 2.12. (PV/JB)
o (page 4) (panel 3) The vampire Lestat is the main character in the vampire books by Anne Rice (PV)
o (page 7) (panel 2) Jim Crow is speaking Creole. "Papa te rekonet mwen, gwo zozo, sil vu ple" translates as, "papa, you know me, (something) my penis, please." It's a reference to him asking the Loa to empower him. The reference to a penis is not unusual for dealings with the Ghede loa, who are known to be playfully vulgar in speech. My suspicion is that he's saying "charge me up," or something along those lines. (DK)
o (page 12) (panel 1) Jim Crow is again speaking Creole. "papa Legba ouvri bay - a pou mwen pou mwen pase, le ma tounen, sa salyi lwa yo" translates as, "papa Legba open this door - for me so I can enter, (something something)." Crow's speaking to Legba (appropriate, since he is the Loa of crossroads, passage, and gateways, among other things) and asking him for help gaining entry. The end of his request is probably a promise of repayment, which is pretty common in these situations. (DK) "le ma tounen, sa salyi lwa yo" means (approximately) "when I go out, I will praise the loa". The whole phrase is part of an invocation to Legba, who is always invoked for any Vodoun ceremony, as he guards the gate between this world and that of the Loa. (HE)
o (page 13) (panel 2) "Welcome to the house of fun" is of course a line from the song "House of Fun" by Madness. (RL) This is what John A'Dreams found in 1.09. (L)
1-23
The title is a reference to Nikos Kazantzakis' novel "The Last Temptation of Christ," which was adapted to film by Martin Scorcese. (JB)
o (page 1) I might be wrong, but nonetheless: The guy with Dane is Gary. "Gaz". The missing member of the Croxteth Posse. Several years older, and lobotomized, but that's definitely Gary. (CGU) panel 2: According to 2.06, the man with Dane is the Buddha on the road. Who is he? (PV) I don't think the reference in 2.06 was to this guy. After all, since Jack is supposed to be the Buddha, it probably isn't this guy. In addition, there is the phrase "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him," which basically is a warning against false prophets and the like. But as to who the man is Jack's talking to, I have no idea. (CG) Dane is not "the" Buddha, he is a buddha. There is a gnostic concept in that we were once all God, but we've all forgotten it. Morrison is using Balbelith as the signpost we all created when we were God to lead us the way back... Check the early issues and it will confirm it. (JK) "Technoccult" poster: According to Robin, they're financed by the conspiracy. See 2.06 (CG)
o (page 9) (panel 4) We can read Dane's complete name: Dane PAUL McGowan. Behind Dane's tomb there's a statue very similar to Superman. (PV) About Danes full name: on page 13 his gravestone is missing his middle name. This looks too big to be an error on the artist's part, but it's back on page 16. (L)
o (page 14) For those not familiar with Buddhism, this issue draws very heavily on the story of how the Buddha attained enlightenment. I believe the gods tried to distract him from this task, first sending gods of lust to hold him to earth with erotic visions. This page corrseponds to that. (RD)
o (pages 15-17) After lust failed to move the Buddha, the gods of death took over, taunting him with visions of his own doom. I think after that demonic armies were raised against him, to no avail. Also note that Dane is doing exactly what the Buddha did: sitting under a tree, saying nothing and doing nothing. (RD) (page 16) (panel 2) "I think it's V.SAD" What does this mean? (PV) Future-slang for 'very sad?' (BSI)
o (page 20) (panel 1) The perfect human soul is a RED GLOBE. The omnipresent red globe. (PV) (panel 3) For those of us like Dane, Webster's says that a Manichaean is a believer in a syncretistic religious dualism originating in Persia in the 3rd century A.D. and teaching the release of the spirit from matter through asceticism. (RD) (panel 5) And again like the story of the Buddha, the enemy gods admit defeat, and the Buddha ascends to a higher understanding. (RD)
o (page 21) (panel 1) More on Robin's bracelet in 2.01, page 7. (RL) panel 3: We learn Robin's Birthday: June 14, 1988. This is only a few months before Grant's first issue of Doom Patrol, with the first appearance of Crazy Jane, came out. We also learn they share the same name (Kay) in 2.2, pg 14. (BSI)
o (page 23) (panel 1) "The cat in the hat": a children's book written by the late Dr. Seuss. (JB) "I knew who killed Prof. Plum in the kitchen with the fucking revolver": This is a reference to the board game "Clue." To win you have to find out who was the killer, which room the murder was committed in, and what weapon was used. (JB) So, did Dane win, or the King? (L)
1-24
o (page 6) (panel 4) "Cthulhu": a reference to H.P. Lovecraft's character of the same name. (CG)
o (page 7) (panel 1) Onorthocrasi, Efememphi, Iocho, Nenetophi, and Blaomen are demons from "The Apocriphon of John". See "The Nag Hammadi Library" edited by Mames M. Robinson (HarperCollins). (PR) panel 3: Is the Imbecile Pope another Harelquin-type reference?(CG)
o (page 12) (panel 2) Another Outer Church reference. See 2.03 (PV)
o (page 13) (panel 1) Barbara Cartland is an English romance novelist. She was related (step-grandmother? Not sure, something like that) to the late Princess Diana - a significant figure in Invisibles lore. Everything is connected!!! (AJS)
o (page 14) (panel 5) At last we know why they call him the King-of-All-Tears. This goes a ways toward substantiating the cosmology postulated on pages 1 and 22 of next issue, but keep in mind the King has no reason to be telling the truth, either. (RD)
o (page 15) (panel 2) The King is evidently shifting himself to (page 16) (panel 3) of 2.06. Also, for more talk of time as a sphere, see 1.15 (RD) (panel 3) This bit about colored cubes sounds oddly familiar. Can anyone place it? (RD)
o (page 16) (panel 1) Robin's mysterious photograph, next seen in 2.01 and pivotal for the creation of a time machine. (CG)
o (page 17) (panel 1) This reminds me: Jim's bird has been a lot less talkative than in 1.10. Any reason? (RD) Jim's bird might be less talkative in the later portions of v. 1 than in issue 10 because Jim isn't alone. (KM) Jim's bird may be less talkative because it's a different bird- at some point he refers to this- he may have had to leave the "Ouija Bird" at home, possibly because of England's (6 month) pet quarantine. (HE) (panel 2) "Inferno" is the first part of "The Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri. It tells the story of Dante on a journey through the Hell, Purgatory and Heaven. The Italian writer describes the nature of this three worlds and the famous (dead) people he met. A masterpiece of the Italian literature. (PV)
o (page 20) (panel 4) According to her own words, Robin already assisted a dying King Mob (this could happen in the future where she comes from) (PV) Is this related to Robin's deja vu in 1.17, page 15? (BSI) Also refers to 2.04 when she tells Boy she knows she and King Mob don't have a future together. (L)
o (page 21) (panel 4) "ones and nothing": Jack's referring to computer language based on a succession of 1s and 0s ("1" and "0" correspond to open and closed circuits). (PV) "Ones and nothings" - Compare with the enemy's fixation on "yes/no" as seen earlier on the Harmony House card decks and later on the big sphere in the Outer Church images. (EB)
o (page 23) (panel 2) "Abominable plateau of Leng": The Plateau of Leng is in Asia. (KM) This is definitely a Lovecraft reference. (RM)
1-25
Note: The characters of Jack and George in Division X are pretty obviously based on the characters of Jack Regan and George Carter (played by John Thaw and Dennis Waterman) in the 1970s British cop show The Sweeney about the Flying Squad. Right down to the likenesses. The Mr. Six character in this issue is also pretty obviously based on the character Jason King from the 1970s British TV series Department S and Jason King, played by Peter Wyngarde. (D)
o (page 2) (panel 1) This is from the Channel 4 TV series Father Ted, also referred to in page 20, panel 3. Possibly not significant except that it's a very funny sitcom about three catholic priests on an island off the coast of Ireland. (D) Why "and later"? This scene's happened before, not after, the girl chat. (PV) "And Later" maybe because Page 1 starts with "In the beginning" and the girl is talking about the creation of the universe 9000 years ago. So our story happens "later" than that. (RM) (panel 3) For more Flann O'Brien info, go to http://indigo.ie/~ocaooai/flindex.html (CE)
o (page 4) (panel 1) The Sex Pistols said "fuck" on a british TV show, which led to the show's host (Bill? Grundy) being fired. (RL) panel 2: Didn't the Regan character leave the Sweeney under less-than-perfect conditions? (L)
o (page 6) (panel 1) Is it just me, or does the statue on the far left of the panel (presumably of Winston Churchill?) look a lot like Quimper with his straw in his mouth? (CE) (panel 3) "Mr. Crowley": Like the famous occultist. (PV)
o (page 7) (panel 3) "Captain Jodie reporting for duty, sir": Is this a quote? To me, this is a reference to Jodie the Pig from "The Amityville Horror." (JDA) The pig mask also appears on (page 16) (panel 3) and in (1.15) (page 5) (panel 4) (PV)
o (page 8) (panel 2) Is this the same stuff as 1.1, pg 32? (BSI)
o (page 9) How does the team get to Benny from the shop? Is it just that he's a Sweeney-type grass or do they have luck on their side? (L)
o (page 10) (panel 3) "I don't like that story mummy." Is this a Psycho reference? (L)
o (page 11) (panel 3) "Tekeli-li!" comes originally from Edgar Allen Poe's "The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym." It is the noise a bird in the polar land of the Tsalal makes, and more importantly, Lovecraft uses this as inspiration for his first and only true appearance of the shoggoths. They are created by the Elder Ones (extra-terrestrials who created the shoggoths as slaves (and incidentally created human beings as a failed attempt)). The shoggoths are mimics, and have a certain cunning in that way. They rose up and were responsible for the destruction of the Elder Things (due to their relative invulnerability and their parrot-like intelligence). The point is "Tekeli-li!" is the cry of the shoggoth (presumably mimicking the birds of Poe's story) as it pursues the protagonist of "In The Mountains of Madness" (generally regarded as HPL's best work). (JP)
o (page 12) (panel 4) "You were behind me." Did he mean just now, or when he was sailing the Viking ship? Does Mister Six have a less-than-savoury past? (L)
o (page 13) (panel 1) "Hele, Conceal, and Never Reveal": This is part of the Masons' initiation oath according to "The Brotherhood" by Stephen Knight. Looks like Eddie's a Mason. (check out http://www.ronniet.demon.co.uk/mason-intro.html for the ritual) (CE)
o (page 14) (panel 1) This is presumably the mirror from 1.11 (BSI) (panel 2) Eddie's reasoning about the Invisibles sounds very similar to most racist cant. (L)
o (page 15) (panel 1) Is it just me, or does George look an awful lot like Shaggy from Scooby-Doo here? Would make his lines in this panel a lot funnier if this is intentional, which it may be, considering the 70-rejects nature of Division X. (RD) (panel 2) "Armageddon": Biblical event that will put an end to the human world. (PV) "Return of the Great Old Ones": Another reference to Chtulhu myths. (PV) "Hopi Fifth World": If I recall correctly, the Hopi Fifth World is the successor to the present Fourth world, which will be destroyed in a nuclear-like Armageddon or possibly a psychic shift of some sort. There are several worlds to come after the Fifth world as well. (DS) "Ragnarok": The clash of Gods that will destroy the world, according to the Norse mythology. (PV)
o (page 16) (panel 3) Note the constant juxtaposing of the pig-mask with depravity (see Sheman). Does this mean anything in particular? (RD)
o (page 20) (panel 2) Quimper seems to be sucking on the stuff the team were shown on page 8. (L) (panels 5 & 7) This reminds me of ideas in P.K. Dick's "VALIS" again, which in turn was derived from Gnostic Christianity. I'd really appreciate it if someone conversant with Gnosticism would make comment...(RD) panel 6: "Queen of Hearts" Nickname given to Princess Diana by the press. (RM)
o (page 21) (panel 3) It is Princess Di, of course (see the discussion in 1.11). Interesting to go back to this after the death and virtual sanctification of Diana. (RM)
o (page 22) (panel 4) So, the Royal Beast from 1.11 is more than just a one-off bit. See also the bit in "Entropy in the UK" (1.17-1.19) where one of the Gideon Stargraves nukes the Royal Beast of his dimension on coronation day...(RD)
o (page 23) (panel 2) Note the vacant look, note the plastic sheen on her chin like the reflection on her boots. Is this girl also one of Quimper's little dolls? Is this the sort of thing he tried to do with Jolly Roger in 2.0? Also note the blank look on Robin's face on the last page of 2.10 in this light...(RD) What's the globe Quimper's sucking from? (PV) (panel 6) The number 23 shows up again. (BSI)
volume 2
2-1
The titles of the "Black Science" story arc (Bangin', Kickin' Sorted, and Safe) are all English dance music (or am I supposed to say "electronica"?) slang phrases. (JBU) 'Bangin' refers to the drumbeats of tunes. Also it's a euphemism for sex, a la Robin and KM on page 8.(L)
o (page 1) "It's the end of the word as we know it": A reference to "It's the End of the World as We Know It" by REM? "The word" as in "The Word" of the Bible? The "word" of Key 17 from 1.24? (JB)
o (page 4) King Mob's shirt has a picture of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevera on it. (CE)
o (page 6) (panel 1) Robin's "Nice and Smooth" echoes the first words spoken by King Mob on page 1, panel 4 in 1.01. (CE) Is this indicative of something? The first volume to a large extent revolved around KM. In addition, he was the leader of the cell during this time. Perhaps Robin's saying this first thing in this volume means that Volume 2 is primarily about her (which holds true for most of the run so far) and that she is the leader. We'll see when Vol. 3 starts up how well this theory holds up. (CG)
o (page 7) (panel 3) "The horror, the horror": A reference to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness as well, of course, to Coppola's film Apocalypse Now. (CG)
o (page 9) (panel 3) Mason is very similar to Bruce Wayne (a.k.a.Batman). Like Batman, when he was very young something happened to him that really changed his life. (PV)
o (page 11) (panel 2) Those look more like Quimper-faces than aliens to me... (RD) (panel 3) This whole "liquid information" bit reminds me of Philip K. Dick's VALIS, which talks a lot about unusual transmission media for information and postulates a god who is in fact made of liquid information (see 2.04) (RD) (panel 5) "Did they try to teach you a language?": This seems to refernce the common experiences of DMT users, who often report that, after injesting the drug, enter a realm in which bouncing globes or dwarves (I forget what Terence McKenna calls them) try to gift you with a new kind of language. (JB) "They use emotional aggregates...": This ties in with Columbine's "They talk in emotional aggregates" in 2.07 p18 panel 3, spoken apparently with regards to Jack and Fanny. (CE)
o (page 12) (panel 2) There's a face reflected in the liquid that is in the glass. Who is she/he?It's certainly not Mason's reflection, because of the position of his head. It could be KM, but the next panel shows that he's sitting down. Could it be an "anticipation" of Jolly Roger's arrival: she is nearly bald, too. I think it could be an association to the liquid information Mason's talking about. (CI)
o (page 13) (panel 3) "Little Fluffy Clouds" is a song by The Orb. The opening dialogue/lyrics to the song go like this, which works nicely with the photo Robin is holding: MALE VOICE: What were the skies like when you were young? FEMALE VOICE: The ran on forever when I was... we lived in Arizona, and the skies always had little fluffy clouds in them. They were long and clear and there were lots of stars at night... Dunno if this is significant or not, but it is mostly appropriate for the storyline, with 1) Robin appearing as a child in the southwest US (NM not AZ, I realize) and Takashi's "time-as-cartoon-background" theory, and if you want to read way too far into it, the shots of a starry starry sky during the LSD scenes. (CE) (panel 5) I believe this is the first time King Mob is shown with an eyebrow ring. (CE)
o (page 14) (panel 7) Notice that the shooting target has a "Mod"/target symbol on its chest. King Mob wears a t-shirt with identical target symbol placement on it, tying into what seems to be a recurring theme of King Mob's imminent demise throughout v2. (CE)
o (page 15) (panel 1) "listen to the voice of Buddha": opening and oft-reoccuring line from the Human League song "Being Boiled." (RL) (panel 2) Jeeves was Bertie Wooster's butler in P.G. Wodehouse's stories. (JBU)
o (page 17) From The New Scientist, 14/11/92: "Galvanized into action by the discovery that the US Congress had voted to give the US Army millions of dollars to test a controversial new AIDS vaccine, the country's most senior health officials and AIDS researchers met last week to consider whether to put the breaks on the trial." $20 million was put aside for the Department of Defense to conduct a trial of gp160, a protein from the coat of HIV. Early reports suggested a reduction in the amount of virus from the injection of this protein. The director of the NIH found none of the (family of) vaccines had any 'consistent effect' on the amount of virus. (JBU) (panel 2): popular conspiracy theory: the CIA invented AIDS. (RL) AIDS as covert biological warfare? See http://www.netspace.net.au/~newdawn/46a.htm for a doctor's point-of-view. (While you're there, check out the whole site - paranoid conspiracy theory with a mystical twist. Great stuff.) (Z) (panel 3) Ebola: a virus causing severe hemorrhagic fevers. Ebola virus first emerged in two major disease outbreaks which occurred almost simultaneously in Zaire and Sudan in 1976. Over 500 cases were reported, with mortality rates of 88% in Zaire and 53% in Sudan. Following incubation periods of 4-16 days, onset is sudden, marked by fever, chills, headache, anorexia and myalgia. These signs are soon followed by nausea, vomiting, sore throat, abdominal pain and diarrhea. When first examined, patients are usually overtly ill, dehydrated, apathetic and disoriented. Pharyngeal and conjunctival injections are usual. Most of the patients develop severe hemorrhagic manifestations, usually between days 5 and 7. Bleeding is often from multiple sites, with the gastrointestinal tract, lungs and gingiva the most commonly involved. Bleeding and oropharyngeal lesions usually herald a fatal outcome. Death occurs between days 7 and 16, usually from shock with or without severe blood loss. (From the website "MARBURG AND EBOLA VIRUSES, Hans-Dieter Klenk, Werner Slenczka and Heinz Feldmann, Institut Fur Virologie Philipps Universitaet, Marburg Germany"). In 1995 in Zaire the virus killed 245 people. (RL)
o (page 18) (panel 1): The entity in the beam is explained in 2.02, page 8. (RL)
o (page 19) (panel 4) Yet another Robert Anton Wilson association, as the number 23 ties heavily into RAW and Robert Shea's "Illuminatus" trilogy. (CE) "23" is the number of ruin according to the I Ching. See 1.9 (PV)
o (page 20) Mason's theory about Pulp Fiction has been widely circulated on the Net since the movie came out in 1994. (Quentin Tarantino denies the story, but of course he would even if it were true, wouldn't he?) Had anyone heard Mason's Speed theory before, or can we assume that it's Morrison's creation? (RM)
o (page 22) (panel 2) "Well is that you, John Wayne? Is this me?" Can anyone ID the movie this is from? It's a line that people often use to make it clear they're doing a John Wayne impression--just as you might say "I am not a crook" to do a Nixon impression or "a rilly big shew" to do Ed Sullivan. (RM) This quote comes from Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, wherein someone mutters it to mock the badass drill sergeant Hartman... (CE)
2-2
o (page 2) Oppenheimer actually said "I am become death, destroyer of worlds" after the first detonation. The quotation is from the Bhagavad-Gita, a Hindu holy book, and I've seen translations of "shatterer" and "destroyer." (CE) To summarize from James Gleick's Genius (pp154-6), his biography of Richard Feynman: "The atom bomb test was carried out at Jornada del Muerto (trans. Journey of death) on 16/7/45. As far as Oppenheimer's comment goes: "The jubilation, the shouting, the dancing, the triumph of that day have been duly recorded. On the road back another physicist thought Feynman was going to float through the roof of the bus. The bomb makers rejoiced and got drunk... Later they remembered having doubts. Oppenheimer, urbane and self-torturing aficionado of Eastern mysticism, said... (while Feynman was thinking "Clouds")... he had thought of a passage from the Bhagavad Gita, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds". The test director... supposedly told him "We are all sons of bitches now"... In the actuality of the event, relief and excitement drowned out most such thoughts. Feynman remembered only one man 'moping'-his own recruiter to the Manhattan project, Robert Wilson (!). Wilson surprised Feynman by saying 'It's a terrible thing that we made.' For most the second thoughts did not come until later." (JBU)
o (pages 2,3,6-9) According to an interview, Morrison culled the dialogue for these pages from actual conversations he and friends taped while using LSD on a mesa. (CE)
o (page 3) Ganesha is the Hindu god, destroyer of obstacles. He has an elephant head. (CE)
o (page 5) (panel 4) I recall hearing that Austin and Emilio are actual friends of Grant he just put in for the hell of it. (RD)
o (page 6) (panel 1) "If it wasn't for bats (=Batman), insects (=criminals) would take over the world." More evidence of Mason-Bruce Wayne similarity. (PV)
o (page 7) (panel 1) "The first atomic bomb..." If you consider the 4th of July to be the "birthday" of the United States, you can also say that America is a cancer. (RM) panel 5-6: "That's called Barbelith, that is. Don't you remember?" Dane assumes that he and Mason share this knowledge because they've both been abducted by aliens (or whatever they are). (RM)
o (page 8) (panel 5) KM flashes forward to page 20, panel 1. Easy to miss with all the babbling going on. (RD) "Driving the porcelain bus" is a British euphemism for throwing up after a night on the piss. (JBU) But in this case it probably refers to the Porcelaine train carrying the pure-information alien. (L) The background could be the Nazca lines made by ancient shamen floating around by remote viewing. (In Mexico?) This issue has the invisibles doing some astral peeping themselves. (DN)
o (page 9) (panel 3) "It is always the day of nine dogs", eh? See 1.13-15 for Fanny's take on this. (RD) (panel 6) Is that a bat symbol I see reflected in KM's shades? (DN)
o (page 10) (panel 2) All the activist cells of the Invisibles are organized according to elemental symbolism. Every member represents an element that defines his role inside the group. Roles changed at the beginning of volume II. (Character) (Volume I) (Volume II) King Mob: Air : Earth Ragged Robin: Fire : Air Boy: Earth : Spirit (???) Fanny: Water : Fire (???) Jack: Spirit : Water (PV) According to Edith in volume 1, Spirit has a mind of its own, so probably Boy is Spirit (see 2.10). (RL) Boy's holding a white slip of paper, which would definitely imply spirit more than fire. (CG) Note that the weight of leadership has already settled on Robin: her hair no longer floats around from this point on. (RD)
o (page 22) (panel 5) "The implants were in our polio immunizations": A reference to The X-Files. (PV)
o (page 23) (panel 3) The White Flame technique, which will be explained in 2.03, pages 12-13. (RD)
2-3
o (page 1) (panels 3-4) What's it trying to write here? If "You fuck I" is indeed all it's writing, this combined with the I/You globe on page 15 leads me to think that this is a reference to certain Buddhist (and perhaps Hindu) beliefs that duality is an illusion, and that all people are in fact one person, and one with the Buddha. The trick is realizing this, and treating all people as you would yourself, since you are them. The forces of Control only profit by spreading divisive illusions (divide and conquer, yes?). (RD) Could this be a riff on the Horta from Star Trek, who etched "No Kill I" in a tunnel as a message to Kirk and Spock? (HE)
o (page 9) bottom: A reference to 1.12? (CG)
o (page 12-13) A possible reference in this sequence is to the system of E-prime, produced by D. David Bourland Jr., which is English without the word "is," designed to "remove the 'essentialist or Aristotelian game-rules from our neuro-linguistic programming.' A source for this is Robert Anton Wilson's Quantum Psychology, which is written in E-Prime. There's also a great story in Wilson's Schrodinger's Cat trilogy where someone is asked the value of a dollar bill that echoes part of this sequence. And, of course, the lesson is given by El Fayed and Mr. Six (who isn't Big Malcolm here). (JBU)
o (page 14) On the cube you can read "this sculpture means total control only." In the circle with the window you can read: "how wr..." = "how wrong" ??? "the man" (PV) Also see 2.12, pages 2-3 for another look at the Outer Church. These two sequences share at least one image. Also, is that Justice League of America villain Prometheus' house in the upper lefthand corner of page 14? Grant says these two series are growing closer... (JB) Three bubbles down from "the crooked house": it looks like Jack with his brains blown out (FF) Or possibly it's King Mob. In 2.12, it's said that the Church and those in it exist out of time so they know all that was and is to happen. (L) Also, in one of the very small bubble son page 14 is an unoccupied toilet; reminds me of the Harlequin from 2.07 (JB) The sled-like thing in the bubble next to the spiked wheel chair appears again in 2.10, page 3. (L)
o (page 15) (panel 1) Are these backwards thoughts Quimper's? Some people claim that Quimper may be some kind of corrupted spirit that originally helped children; perhaps this is where this comes from. See also 2.04, page 14, panels 3 and 4. (RD) Could that be Bobby from 1.12 ("Best Man Fall") and 2.10? It looks like he has short blond hair and a teddy bear that might be the mysterious 'Boody.' (FF/JB) Also, recall that the aliens told Dane, "As a child, we spoke through your /(toys)/" in 1.16, page 12. (JB)
o (page 17) (panel 4) Doom is a popular and violent video game. (PV/JB)
o (page 18) (panels 1-2) Gideon Stargrave bought and flew a stealth bomber in 1.17, page 20. (RD/JB) panel 4: "Fly brother, fly" is a line from the Kula Shaker album, which KM was listening to in 2.02 (RD)
o (page 22) (panel 2) Fanny charges a sigil as described by Morrison in the letter column of 1.16. (RL) For those of you who are less observant - she is masturbating. (TEC)
o (page 25) "Forget Baden-Powell": The founder of the Boy Scouts is Lord Baden-Powell. (Daisy) Baden-Powell also wrote the unfortunately titled book, "Scouting for Boys." (JBU)
2-4
o (page 4) Among the panels you can see: Jesus on the cross, two cyphermen and a girl (image very similar to 1.06, page 13, panel 5), a lot of bottles (image very similar to 1.01, page 32, panel 1). (PV) We can also see an old man (next to the panel w/ Roger in it) who looks like something in the Nightmare Hall, as well as a bunch of tentacles (bottom left) which could be from there as well. (CG) Something that resembles the "Ragged Quimper" eyes from 2.08 is near the upper left. (RD)
o (page 7) (panel 3) The hitchhiker back from 1.14 knew what he was talking about. (CG)
o (page 10) (panel 1) "If I could talk I'd tell you": The dying soldier quotes the title of a Lemmonheads song that was released round about when Grant would have been writing this issue, "If I could talk I'd tell you." (Incidentaly the next line would have been 'If I could SMILE I'd let you know" but were I to think that was more than a coincidence it would probably just mean I'd been reading this comic too long.) (RJ) (panel 2) More esoterica that may or may not be relevant: Terence McKenna (Mr.Timewave/mushroom shaman) likes to talk about how octopi communicate: they change color and shape, all the time (he further speculates that an ink cloud may be an octopus's only way to have a private thought). Beyond telepathy: you are your words, no barrier between thought and communication. He hopes that after the Big Whatever in 2012, we may all speak like that. Grant may or may not be thinking about this here. (RD)
o (page 14) Quimper could be a spirit of bad dreams. See 2.03, page 15. (PV)
o (page 16) (panel 3) More resonance with Dick's VALIS re: infogod. (RD)
o (page 17) bottom: "4-dimensional liquid armor. I saw it before in London.": KM is referring to Miss Dwyer, clearly. (RD)
o (page 21) (panel 1) "Azathoth": from Lovecraft: "a bubbling idiot mass of nuclear chaos" at the center of the galaxy. (RM) panels 2-4: From P.K. Dick's VALIS, p.70: "The universe consists of one vast irrational entity into which has broken a high-order life form which camouflages itself by a sophsiticated mimicry." (JB) panel 4: Would these be the Seals of the apocalypse? Nice imagery... (RD) panel 5: Grant used bad guys in the Pentagon in Doom Patrol, as well. (BSI) The Pentagon was also referred to as a major occult symbol/holding pen for Evil in R.A. Wilson's "Illuminatus!" books (see, when you extend a little triangle from each side of a pentagon, you get a pentagram). (RD)
o (page 22) top: See 2.06, page 21 for an explanation of the Reverse Universe. Again, read P.K. Dick's "VALIS" as well. (RD) PAGE 23 panels 2-3: "Every time I say "Fanny" I crack up, man.": Another Britishism. See, in the US, a fanny is a butt, while in the UK it refers to a vagina. Fanny has one but not the other... (RD) (panel 6) "This is what you get when you gaze into the abyss." Isn't there a Nietzsche quote about "when you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also"? (RM)
o (page 24) (panels 1-2) Just had to add that this is not all that far off: there is a healthy genre of "virtual dating" games in Japan, Tokimeki Memorial and Sakura Wars being the most popular. They play like computer RPGs, but with different goals. I'm not sure about "Virtua Rapist," but I must say it's not totally out of the question... (RD) (panel 5) "Grandfather, Grandfather" was something of a catchphrase for the Doctor's granddaughter Susan in early Doctor Who. (RJ)
2-5
o (page 2) (panel one) "It's about Time" was one of the advertising slogans for the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie. I'm certain this is a reference since Grant also pinched its other slogan in JLA: Secret Files and Origins. (RJ)
o (page 5) (panels 1-2) The Aum cult really did do this. (RD)
o (page 6) (panel 3) Note that Grant (in 2.07's lettercol) says he found out about this practice from an actual con. (RD)
o (page 9) (panel 2) First appearance of Pierrot and Columbine. (RD)
o (page 11) top left background: What the hell's that? (RD)
o (page 12) (panel 3) "To fight the empire is to be infected by its derangements...": From P.K. Dick's VALIS, p. 134; see other possible references to VALIS in 1.18 and 2.08 (JB) panel 4: "Philip K. Dick is DEAD...": This is the title of a book. (RD)
o (page 14) (panel 1) Crossreference "Devil's Daughter" with "Ragged Quimper"... (RD)
o (page 15) (panel 1) More "magic mirror." (RD) Almost all of the fringe elements regarding time, language, the 'elves' or 'DMT machine elves' (see 1.16), the magic matter, and even the 'LUV LUV LUV' spot in Gideon's recollections are all borrowed from one text by Terence McKenna: TRUE HALLUCINATIONS. This book should be heavily touted for those wishing to understand some of what Grant's rabbiting on about. (JOB) (panels 3 & 4) The Undertones were an Irish punk band from the late '70s, made famous by songs like "Teenage Kicks", "Family Entertainment", "Jimmy Jimmy", and "Here Comes The Summer". Two-minute rock at its absolute finest. (CGU) (panel 5) Bottom caption of course from the chorus of the Undertones' "Teenage Kicks." (RL)
o (page 16) (panel 4) The basic space-time theory of THE INVISIBLES, rendered this time in science jargon instead of Aztec mythology ("The day of the nine dogs"). (JB)
2-6
Title: "The girl most likely to" reminds me of a Morrissey's b-side song :"the girl least likely to". (CI)
o (pages 2-3) The celestial traffic signal. First seen in 1.02, page 18. (RD/JB)
o (pages 3) (panel 5) "Salomon's House": According to my Wordsworth Dictionary of the Occult, Sir Francis Bacon wrote The New Atlantis which has, as its central theme the house of Solomon, a multidisciplinary laboratory. (L) Benet's describes The New Atlantis as "a Utopian fable published (in 1627) in an unfinished state after his death. It is an account of a voyage to the island 'Bensalem' and of the government and manners of its people. Of particular interest is the Bensalem institution for scientific study, 'Solomon's House,' which provided inspiration for the founding of the Royal Society. (JB)
o (pages 4) Note the zeppelin in the background. Similar to those in 1.01, page 19. (JB) "The Invisible College" is a non-fiction book by Jacques Vallee, in which he proposes the theory (novel for its time) that UFOs are a manifestation of a phenomenon that has accompanied humanity throughout its history; that UFOs are not physical alien starships, but non-physical entities that have taken on the "mask" of alien ships beacuse it is appropriate to this day and age. The "Invisible College" is also one of the ways in which Rosicrucian-influenced mystical/magical groups refer to the "Secret Masters" of their traditions... (HE) Frances Huxley wrote a book entitled "The Invisibles." It's a study of life amongst voodoo practitioners in Haiti. It sounds very influential, if not inspirational, to say the least. (ANC)
o (pages 5) (panel 1) Is KM's dialogue some kind of Clockwork Orange ref? "O my brothers"? (RD) (panel 4) Is that young KM and Jacqui? (RD) I think it's actually Sex Pistols "bassist" Sid Vicious and his girlfriend Nancy. (JB) bottom: That Saturn-thing is Barbelith, at least according to Dane in 2.02, page 7. (RD)
o (pages 6) (panel 1) Notice the blind chessman from "Arcadia" in the righthand side of this panel. (GG)
o (pages 8-9) Look carefully at Toby's t-shirt... (CI)
o (pages 12) (panel 2) Is Takashi supposed to look like Hadji from Johnny Quest? Sure does.. (RD)
o (pages 13) (panel 1) Look closely at what Fanny's painting on hir fingernails. "TV in a bottle." It looks like a newscast. Behind the newswoman's head it looks like a giant eye shooting out energy at earth. This is very similar to a story from Grant's run on Doom Patrol, Issue 33, second page. While battling the Cult of the Unwritten Book the 'Patrol encounters what Willougby Kipling calls "the Antigod. The Unmaker. Decreator" and, "The Egyptians called it the Eye Of Horus, Lord of Force and Fire. For thousands of years, the Hindus have known it as the annihilating Eye of Shiva." By the end of the issue the Cult has been beaten but they couldn't stop the Decreator. They merely slowed it down, to quote, "Objects and people will continue to vanish mysteriously. But it'll all happen so slowly that no one need ever know the old place is coming undone." The image on Fanny's fingernails could be the Invisibles' universe "Decreator", come to destroy earth. Robin went back in time at 7:45 a.m. on Dec. 22, 2012 and Jack's cradling someone in his arms fifteen minutes later (see Vol. 1, 23) where he says, "That's it starting." Since it appears this is the day 'it' happens (the Eschaton, the leap into hyperspace, the apocalypse, the end of time and history???) it could also mean that the "Eye of Horus" is descending upon the planet to destroy it. Like with the Ragged Robin/Crazy Jane theory, or Prometheus' house appearing in the Invisibles or the Worlogog (Philosopher's stone) being linked to the Hand of Glory, Grant can't come out and say it's the Decreator because of copyright and work-for-hire laws, but it's basically the same theme. (FF) panel 2: Let me finish Dane's sentence. When you meet the Buddha on the road, you're supposed to kill him (in case you're wondering why, this is from Zen Buddhism, which regards the enlightenment experience as being superior to any religious literature or imagery, which can only distract at best. If the very Buddha himself distracts you from enlightenment by limiting you to his image, ignore him). But, Dane's the Buddha, right? So what's he going to do... (RD) Jack's mention of "meeting the Buddha on the road" could refer to the appearance of the future Jack in 1.23. It's the only apparition that isn't established to be one of the King of All Tears' tricks, so I'm inclined to believe that it isn't one. (CM)
o (pages 15) (panel 1) Whoever the new person is in the cell, she seems to have access to some sort of 4-D armor like Miss Dwyer's or Col. Friday. (CG) Both Fanny and the Unknown Member of the future Invisibles cell is manifesting something similar to the opposition's armor: I'd be given to believe she, Fanny and others have learned how to utilize the 'magic matter' in the same manner as the enemy, as a defensive weapon (as most body armor initially is). (JBA)
o (pages 16) (panel 3) The King-of-all-Tears first appeared in 1.17, page 13. (RD/JB)
o (pages 17) This is evocative of the cover of Flex Mentallo #4, as well as page 6 of the same issue. It was used for Flex's trip through a "teleport tube," though given the nature of the series he might have been travelling through time and/or dimensions at the same time. (CE)
o (pages 21) This dimensional theory crops up, almost exactly the same, in Philip K. Dick's VALIS. I strongly recommend reading it to get the full impact of this and the god-as-liquid-information ideas; Dick can spend a lot more time explicating it in a novel than Grant can in 24 pages a month... (RD) (panel 2) Bootsy Collins (a famous, and famously bizarre funk bassist, often spotted in the company of George Clinton)! He always did say he was from another planet... (RD) panel 5: Note the visual similarity here to 2.02, page 2, panel 2. Here King Mob reaches into the "large-scale universe" between the sick and healthy universes -- there, Mason imitates Oppenheimer casting a spell. (JWB)
o (pages 22) (panel 1) Grant did some similar weird stuff with the borders of comics and reality back in Animal Man. (BSI) The numbers on the bottom of the page are mirror images of each other. (SW)
o (pages 23) (panel 2) Gideon mentions wanting to be Jerry Cornelius. (BSI)
2-7
The title, "the sound of the atom splitting", is a phrase often used in English/American literature/art? It is the title of a Pet Shop Boys song (B-side of "Left to my own devices", also on the album "Alternative"). (RL)
Does anyone know anything about the book the Harlequin is holding on the cover of the issue? ("In Out In" by Arthur Highe)? Is it a real book? I couldn't find anything about it at amazon.com (JB)
o (pages 5-6) Anyone have any idea what Shizuka's trying to say? Then again, he may be trying Japanese, which would be even worse to decipher... (RD) page 6, panel 5: Cross-reference with 1.12 and Lieutenant Lincoln in 2.03. Of course, Shizuka wasn't as nice as either of them, but then neither is KM. (RD)
o (pages 7) Robin says: "Must read more about Voudoun (get Maya Deren Book)" Maya Deren was an experimental filmmaker, ethnologist, AND convert of Voudoun (AKA. Hatian Voodoo) during the 1940's. (when such things were simply unheard of!!) The book Robin is refering to is probably "The Divine Horsemen." also the name of the doccumentary she filmed in 1951. (TW)
o (pages 9) (panel 6) "unlock him." And "Key-17" is used to open the mind, yes? Interesting reference. (RD)
o (pages 14) (panel 5) Again, Fanny is the first to detect Quimper on someone... (RD)
o (pages 15) (panels 4-6) Pierrot (?) refers Fanny to Columbine as her sister, and then "our" sister. What's the connection? Also, Jerry Cornelius (Pierrot) and Catherine (Columbine) were brother and sister. Another Cornelius tie-in? (BSI) The genders of the Harlequinade are switched; the woman should be Columbine, yet she refers to the man as "Columbine, our sister". Also, our female Pierrot speaks like Barbelith ("Replace logic gap strike sentiment feedback"). (SD)
o (pages 21) (panel 2) Another "magic metal" sighting, as long as we're keeping track. We're seeing much more of it in v2, as we approach the Eschaton... (RD)
o (pages 24) "If you see the Buddha, kill the Buddha." Is this 2.03's sculpture that means "total control only"? (RD)
2-8
o (page 1) (panel 1) This panel's design of Skat's face dissolving into a nightclub scene is reminiscent of jazz album covers of this period. (RD)
o (page 3) (panel 2) Singer Josephine Baker was notorious for her lesbian affairs. (JB) panels 3-4: See the essay on the Dogon. Also see the note for 1.18, page 19 re: P.K. Dick's use of the Dogon in his book "VALIS." (JB)
o (page 5) Important to note that a) this is in flashback and b) the use of quotes implies that, to Robin, it's as if someone else is speaking her and KM's lines. Spooky... (RD)
o (page 7) (panel 2) "That was a bit weird... in bed last night..." I take it that KM and RR are employing the Tantric methods Mr. Reddy talks about, perhaps unconsciously. Later, King Mob does "alter the topography of time and space itself" in a way. High sex magick at work? (AP) (panel 8) The Tower card's meaning is that of destruction of what has been established. The picture shows God's lightning (according to some the Flaming Sword of the Qabala), knocking the 'crown' of achievments from the established tower, while two figures of heirarchy, male and female are blasted out. On one hand, the Tower is an excellent symbol of the Invisibles, since its basically what they do. On the other hand, it could mean that the cell is going to fall apart soon. The tensions and betrayals within the cell would support this. (R)
o (page 9) (panel 1) Notice the photo of Josephine Baker, in back, second from left. (JB)
o (page 11) (last panel) That burning thing is apparently a funeral barge of some kind. (RD)
o (page 13) I am not familiar with the tantra that Mr. Reddy and Edith are performing, but I surmise that it includes having sex with a menstruating woman and then both of them imbibing the fluids. (R)
o (page 15-16) We get to see the pun in Mr. Skat's name: he does his mojo through scatting, the glossolalial gibberish popular in black music of that time. You can see Cab Calloway scat a little in the Minnie the Moocher number in the "Blues Brothers" movie. (RD) More recently scat was revived by Scatman John, with his singles "Mr. Scatman", and "Scatman's World." (JBU)
o (page 17) (panel 4) Note the stressing of the word "accident". It's been suggested that Takashi and those around him may be (supernaturally) accident-prone, considering this dialogue and Robin's accident later on page 20, panel 3. (RD)
o (page 19) (panel 1) The woman in the portrait is Florence Farr, a famous theatre actress in England who joined the Golden Dawn. (R)
o (page 21) (panels 3-4) Fanny is having a flash of intuition on the state of affairs as reflected in the card. It is also synchronous that another meaning of the card is that a 'flash' of genius, like a flash of lightning, can destroy years of established rational structure. (R?) (panel 4) Does the guy on the left of the card look like Dane? (RD)
2-9
o (page 5) Freddy is recovering from the memory that Papa Skat inflicted upon him in 2.08, page 19 (R).
o (page 7) The thugs' talking to themselves brings to mind the soldiers in "Dead Man Fall." (1.12) (R)
o (page 8) (panel 4) Freddie refers to the real-life group KM is named after. (RD) I dunno, I think Freddie's just saying that KM is being absurd--like a Paris dadaist. (JB) I'm with JB. Specifically, Freddie is responding to Edith: "Tell me when you've ever seen clothes and a gun like that." If KM was a dadaist that might explain his bizarre getup. (RM)
o (page 10) (panel 6) If mindless carnage will appease Zaraquin, why is Zaraquin still owed by KM. Even in Issue 1 he was into mindless violence? (I haven't read "Season of Ghouls" in an age, and don't have it to hand, so if that's already explained, mail me.) (JBU)
o (page 11) (panel 2) Who the hell are those two talking about? Freddie doesn't even have long hair. Maybe he lisps... (RD) I think they are looking past Freddie, at either King Mob, Pierrot or Columbine. (JB)
o (page 13) bottom: Edith's initiation. We have magic metal and the celestial traffic signal both present. (RD)
o (page 18) (panels 4-5) All the initiations we've seen before Edith's were different from each other; this one duplicates Dane's experience. Does this imply something about Edith's relative importance? They were also both the ones selected to receive the Hand. Hmm... (RD) There do seem to be a number of resonances between the different ages: two King Mobs, two black guys associated with voodoo and Baron Zaraguin and (possibly) Takashi and Billy Chang. (L)
o (page 21) (panel 4) "Queen Mab": "Queen Mab" is one of Shelley's early poems, written in 1812-13. Benet's characterizes it as "a long work inveighing against orthodox Christianity and secular tyranny." (JB) "Queen Mab" is also another name for the queen of the fairies who brings dreams of love (see Mercutio's speech in "Romeo & Juliet"). (CG)
o (page 22) (panels 3-4) "The great spirit shoals sent out as bait...to draw THEM to us...Girl with red hair...who is...who is the little man inside?": Definitely refers to Robin. (RD)
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ENCYCLOPAEDIA V. 51-0 (11/04/2016, 10h24m.), com 2567 verbetes e 2173 imagens.
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