Annotations to the Black Dossier

by Jess Nevins

Updated 2 February 12:11 p.m. CST.
Updates in blue.


The text here, except where otherwise quoted, is copyright © Jess Nevins 2008. It may not be reproduced in part or in full without credit being given to me.

The book version of these annotations will be Impossible Territories and will be published by MonkeyBrain Books in July, 2008. The book will have greatly expanded annotations (I'll give context to things that I mention in passing here), interviews with Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, and whatever other goodies and extras I can manage to put in to it.

Warning: There are some Bad Words used in these annotations. If you’re under 18 or have a delicate disposition, look away.

In order to avoid spoiling some reveals and surprises, some things will not be explained on their first appearance.

References are explained the first time they appear, and not thereafter.

Moving clockwise unless otherwise noted.

If you have any additions, corrections, or suggestions, please send them to me at jjnevins@ix.netcom.com. But, as a favor to me, please phrase your e-mails politely.

Also: remember W.H. Auden's words:
Judging a work of art is virtually the same mental operation as judging human beings, and requires the same aptitudes: first, a real love of works of art, an inclination to praise rather than blame, and regret when a complete rejection is required; second, a vast experience of all artistic activities; and last, an awareness, openly and happily accepted, of one’s own prejudices. Some critics fail because they are pedants whose ideal of perfection is always offended by a concrete realization. Others fail because they are insular and hostile to what is alien to them; these critics, yielding to their prejudices without knowing they have them and sincerely offering judgments they believe to be objective, are more excusable than those who, aware of their prejudices, lack the courage to enter the lists to defend their personal tastes.
Front Cover. If the sword is a reference to anything, I’m unaware of it. Philip & Emily Graves write, "Looks like some Martian on the sword's blade, so could it be Gullivar's or Carter's.....?" Stu Shiffman writes, "I had wondered whether the sword was supposed to be Orlando’s Durendal, but John Carter’s might be as possible (tho as a Virginian gentleman, Carter would be more likely to leave it to the Smithsonian or perhaps the Jeffersonian Institution of TV’s “Bones” series)." But see Page 119.

I believe the quartet of men wearing owl masks and Elizabethan clothing are from a penny dreadful, but I’ve been unable to place it. Stu Shiffman believes they are from the Blazing World.

I don’t know what the rocket refers to, if anything. It’s similar to the one seen on Page 142. Kevin O'Neill says that it's from the movie Flight to Mars.

I’m not sure what that thing to the right of the rocket is. Possibly one of the Martians wearing gasmasks from the first issue of League v2?

The blonde woman is Mina Murray, from Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897). The man running with her is Allan Quatermain, from H. Rider Haggard’s series of books. He is young because he was rejuvenated in the Fires of Life as described in the text pages of League v2.

I'm not sure what the spiral-tipped stone statue is. Shawn Garrett notes that it appears on Page 30, Panel 2.

The painting is of the 1898 League, featuring H. Rider Haggard’s Allan Quatermain, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Edward Hyde, Jules Verne’s Captain Nemo, and H.G. Wells’ Invisible Man.

Page 1. Kevin O'Neill identifies this logo as a riff on the Festival of Britain logo:

Festival of Britain Logo

Page 2. “Keep Calm and Carry On” was one of the phrases used by British government during World War Two to encourage the British people to keep a stiff upper lip, especially during the Battle of the Blitz, when London was being pounded by nightly bombings. However, the original poster with “Keep Calm and Carry On” looked like this:

Keep Calm and Carry On

The gate, chains, and jagged lightning bolts replacing the crown gives another indication about what England has become in the alternate history of Black Dossier.

Pádraig Ó Méalóid writes, "This poster was apparently never actually issued, but was held in reserve in case Britain got invaded. You can read all about it here where, amongst other things, it says But the 'Keep Calm' posters were held in reserve, intended for use only in times of crisis or invasion. Although some may have found there way onto Government office walls, the poster was never officially issued and so remained virtually unseen by the public - unseen, that is, until a copy turned up more than fifty years later in a box of dusty old books bought in auction. You can buy a copy of the poster here, if you want, and there's all sorts of other stuff with it on, like t-shirts, to be found here."

Page 4. The Daily Brute is a reference to Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop (1938). Scoop, routinely voted one of the best novels of the 20th century, is a scathing savaging of the English sensationalist press. In Scoop the newspaper for which the protagonist works is the Daily Beast. Its main rival, even more base and yellow, is the Daily Brute. (For modern British readers, think Daily Mail, only even worse).

Page 5. Philip & Emily Graves write, "Can't place the letters "AIHD" (an acronym?), but '84' is obvious enough, while July 1948 is when Orwell returned to Jura and re-commenced work on his novel, after having been delayed through illness."
    Guy Lawley writes, "The ID card carries the initials AIHD which when rendered into numbers (as per position in the alphabet) = 1984"
    Tristan Sargent writes,
I'm surprised no British readers have commented that this doubles as a very contemporary reference, like the surveillance cameras/telescreens referred to later.  Currently there is an ongoing campaign by the Labour government to bring in Identity Cards, supposedly as a counter-terrorism measure - though this argument has essentially bitten the dust and the government are pressing on with the argument that it's all to save the people from the scourge of Identity Theft.  Either way, ID Cards are enormously controversial in Britain right now, especially as, once introduced, it would in theory be a legal requirement to carry them at all times (a measure popularly cited as part of the progress toward a 'Big Brother state').  Britain previously had ID cards during the Second World War, and afterwards, but they were finally withdrawn in the 1950s, somewhat consistent with the fall of the IngSoc regime depicted in this comic.  An additional irony worth considering is that 'George Orwell', the famous British socialist who envisioned the tyranny of 1984, of course was a pseudonym for a man named 'Blair'...

Anyway, the ID card is in keeping with Orwell, but I'd say it's also a contemporary reference, without question.

Ian Gould writes, "I'm reasonably sure the identity card is based on the cards initially issued for the British Nation Health Service – which commenced in July 1948. Calling a government bureaucracy responsible for treating illness the National Health Service is in the finest traditions of Newspeak."

Andrew Hickey wrote, "The identity Card here is obviously a reference to the current British controversy over the planned introduction of ID cards, but is also a reference to the 'this book belongs to' pages that used to appear in children's annuals in the UK (whose format the Black Dossier is aping). Also, it's probably a coincidence, but the look of this page reminds me of "The Goodies' Book Of (Criminal) Records", one of three books put out by the British comedy team The Goodies (contemporaries of the Monty Python team) in the 1970s. The three books ( "The Goodies File", "The Goodies' Book Of Criminal Records" and "The Making Of The Goodies' Disaster Movie") were all done in the same style as the Black Dossier, comprising lots of different bits meant to be clippings from magazines, notes etc, and the first two were even meant to be secret dossiers on the Goodies..."

“If found return to MiniLuv.”
“MiniLuv” is an example of newspeak, which appears in George Orwell’s 1984 (1949). 1984, a classic of dystopian fiction, describes life under the rule of the totalitarian government of “Oceania.” One of Oceania’s malign innovations is to impose newspeak on its citizens. Newspeak is an artificially constructed language designed to remove as many words and meanings as possible from conversation, with the intention being to leave speakers capable of describing, and conceiving of, concepts in only simplistic dichotomies: black and white, good and evil, and so on. Toward this end words are merged together and shortened, so that “English Socialism” becomes “IngSoc.” “MiniLuv” stands for the “Ministry of Love,” the government department which uses fear, brainwashing, and torture to enforce loyalty to and love of Big Brother, the leader of Oceania.

Pages 6-7. This is a parody of that classic of graphic design, the map of the London Tube. David A. Simpson writes, "This may also reference The Great Bear, an artwork by Simon Patterson in which he replaced the station names on the London Underground diagram with the names of philosophers, actors, politicians and other celebrated figures."

Philip & Emily Graves write, "Many puns here: Maida Jump, Court Short, Turnham Blue, Colouring Inn, Tooting Bottom, Eating Broadly, Rothernot, Pen Stroke Newington, Upper Etching, H.B. Row, Ink Staines, Whiteout City, etc. Also no wonder than Mr Moore's line would include "Chin Topiary" "Barking" and "Very Cross"...
Many of these are clearly riffs on actual underground stations (while Pen Stroke Newington and Ink Staines allude to the areas of London named Stoke Newington and Staines respectively). Some of these include:
Maida Jump (Maida Vale),
(Earl's) Court Short,
Dunbiers Wood (Colliers Wood),
Tooting Bottom (Tooting Bec)
Parsons Nose (Parsons Green)
Eating Broadly (Fulham Broadway)
Rothernot (Rotherhithe),
Finner (Pinner),
Faxbridge (Uxbridge),
East Team (East Ham),
Arson Elbow (Arsenal),
Barking (Barking),
Whiteout City (White City),
Very Cross (Charing/New Cross).
More subtlely, 'Umber' could play on "Burnt Oak" and 'Chin Topiary' allude to the "Barbican". (Interesting that "Moorgate", "Moor Park" and "Bond Street" didn't make it onto the map.)

"(John Nee) - Extension delayed subject to mood" and "(ABC) - Closed for the duration" are both legends the like of which appear in Underground stations from time to time, and whose associated double meanings are obvious here.

"Monument" Station also serves as one for Bill Oakley (1964-2004), to whom this volume is dedicated."
Steve Daldry writes to correct one part of the preceding: "Eating Broadly is more than likely a reference to Ealing Broadway rather than Fulham." James Parry pointed that out as well.

"teamy teamy" writes, "
Arson Elbow is obviously 'Arse and Elbow' two pieces of anatomy which are only ever used together in Britain in the phrase "Doesn't know his/her arse from his elbow." meaning someone who doesn't know what they are doing. Also Parson's Nose is the part of a roast chicken that is what's left of what would have been the anus. Is this a reference to someone being an arsehole?"

“If experiencing nausea while in the nether regions, keep hat firmly on, lay back, and think of England.”
“Lie back and think of England” is the advice supposedly given to daughters, by mothers, during the Victorian era about how to survive the wedding night and the loss of virginity, since (supposedly) Victorian women couldn’t conceive of a proper woman enjoying sex. This is ahistorical nonsense, of course, and “lie back and think of England” was not standard advice, or even widely said. The quote attributed to "Lady Hillingdon" is spurious, and Gathorne-Hardy, the source of the Lady Hillingdon quote, himself says that the quote is "somewhat suspect." I repeat: "lie back and think of England" was not standard advice or even widely said, if at all.

“The Blazing World” is a reference to Observations upon Experimental Philosophy. To which is added the Description of a New Blazing World. Written by the Thrice Noble, Illustrious and Excellent Princess, The Duchess of Newcastle (1666), by Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle. The Blazing World is a classic of the Imaginary Voyage genre and was referred to in League v2.

“Ray Zone” is a reference to Ray Zone, who did the 3D art for Black Dossier.

Pádraig Ó Méalóid writes:
Various things can be seen or inferred here, although no doubt some of this is entirely in my imagination.

There are two real stations mentioned, Barking and Monument.

Alan Moore: Black line (Northern)
Black is probably appropriate for Moore, as he's usually photographed dressed in black.

Moore's line has junctions with O'Neill, Dimagmaliw, Oakley and Klein, but, perhaps signigficantly, not with Dunbier or Quinn. (There is some sort of unidentified link from Dunbier's line to Moore's, which may indicate some link between them personally.)

East Buttock & West Buttock: This may indicate Moore having to figuratively 'bend over and spread 'em' for DC.

In general Moore's stations seem to be him poking fun at his own public image, like Rumour mill, Barking and Very Cross. Pi is also interesting, as the irrational number Pi(3.1415 etc) is the number he ascribes to the 'imaginary' sphere, Daath, in issue #20 of Promethea. E=mc2 is *almost* MCC, the home of English Cricket.

Kevin O'Neill: Red line(Central)
The fact that O'Neill has the red line might be a play on the banking meaning of being 'in the red,' that is being 'overdrawn.' O'Neill is also 'Subject to delay at all times.' I'm fairly sure there was some reference to his slow progress with the art in the early pages of one of the other LoEG volumes.

Staines is where Sacha Baron Cohen's Ali G comes from.

Conté make crayons.

Crazy Town was a 1932 Betty Boop movie.

Various interesting people come from Stoke Newington, including Daniel Defoe, and more particularly Stewart Lee, stand-up comedian and good friend of Alan Moore.

Benjamin Wood writes, "The stop 'Spent' at the end of the pink line is a reference to the BBC radio series 'The League of Gentlemen' which was set in the fictional town of Spent, when it moved to TV the towns name was changed to Royston Vasey."

Page 8. The two ads on the right side of this page are legitimate.

The cartoon on the lower left is done in the style of New Yorker cartoons from the 1950s and 1960s. The cartoon’s artist, “Arnie Packer,” is a reference to the “Winged Avenger” episode of the British tv series The Avengers. In “The Winged Avenger” an evil cartoonist named “Arnie Packer” is responsible for a series of murders.
    Pádraig Ó Méalóid says, "the artwork for the comic strip was actually done by UK comics artist Frank Bellamy," and points us to this site, which has samples of the comic art.

Page 9. Panel 1. If the Malibu Hotel is a reference to something, I’m unaware of it.

The headline in lower center, “Melchester Rovers Scandal,” is a reference to the British comic Roy of the Rovers (1954-1993), in which the hero Roy Race plays football for the Melchester Rovers.

The headline on the right, “Knightsbridge Ape-Men,” is a reference to “Quatermass and the Pit” (1958), the third Professor Quatermass BBC serial. In it, the bones of ape-men, unearthed in Knightsbridge, lead to the revelation of the Martian influence on the evolution of humanity.

Pádraig Ó Méalóid writes,
There is a large head on a flat-bed truck in the top left-hand corner, possibly from a statue of Big Brother?

Is it possible that the blond-haired man in the lower left-hand corner is a young John Constantine? Well, now that I look him up, obviously not, as he's meant to have been born in 1953. Some searching around leads me to guess that this might be a character from Colin McInnes's Absolute Beginners, which is set in 1958. Not sure who exactly, but someone will probably know more about this. It's possibly the nameless narrator.

Presumably the man with the briefcase in the front middle is someone, but I've no idea who. Likewise the two men speaking at the very front middle.

Tristan Sargent writes, regarding the truck with the statue, "This is a reference to the photograph used as the cover to Misha Glenny's The Rebirth of History...it's a picture from the late 80s after the fall of Communism in Europe - the head being Stalin's, and the vehicle clearly being the same as the one in the comic.  I'm sure your other contributer is correct, therefore, about the head being Big Brother's.  It makes a nice partner to the fallen statue later on that echoes the statue of Saddam Hussein pulled down in 2003."

Panel 3. “Will Wilson return for Olympics?” reference is to Wilson, the mysterious, superhuman teenaged athlete from the British comics Wizard, Hotspur, and Hornet (1943-1963). Wilson, born in 1806, achieved longevity and athletic prowess from special breathing exercises and a diet of gruel, nuts, berries, and wild roots. In one episode he breaks the world long jump record while running a three-minute mile.
    Damian Gordon notes that Wilson was brought back as “the Man in Black” in the British comic Spike in 1983.

Panels 4-6. Jack & Annie Walker were characters on the long-running British soap Coronation Street. The Walkers were landlords of the Rovers Return Inn. (Hence the comment in Panel 6 that “our rovin’ days are over”).

Panel 4. Pádraig Ó Méalóid writes "You can see a pen in JB's top pocket..."

Panel 5. “Straight after election she ‘ad all cameras took out, the lot.”
The England of 1984 was of course under constant observation from the government of Oceania, but I think this is also an allusion by Moore to England as it is now, with over four million cameras watching the British at all times.

Panel 6. “Victory Gin is Doubleplus Good For You.”
“Victory Gin” is the only authorized alcohol in Orwell’s 1984. “Doubleplus” is another use of newspeak (see Page 5). I will refrain from noting the use of newspeak from this point on—suffice it to say that there’s a lot of it in here.
    Ken Shinn adds, "This is also a parody of a long-standing advertising slogan for the famous Guinness stout (which ran throughout the 50s and 60s - maybe later) which ran, "Guinness Is Good For You". It's been memorably parodied by Gilbert Shelton in his Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers saga "The Idiots Abroad", where a London advertising hoarding boldly proclaims that "HEDGEHOG STOUT WON'T KILL YOU"."
    Pádraig Ó Méalóid adds, "Victory Gin: It's Doubleplus Good For You. This echoes the famous advertising slogan 'Guinness is Good For You,' said to have been written by Britrish crime novelist Dorothy L Sayers when she worked as a copywriter for Benson's Advertising."

The “V” cigarettes that the blonde woman is smoking here are likely “Victory cigarettes,” also from 1984.
    Richardthinks notes that Victory Cigarettes were a real brand, as seen here. Damian Gordon adds, "Victory Cigarettes are featured as a central plot point in  "Columbo: Caution - Murder Can Be Hazardous to Your Health" with George Hamilton (fake orange tan and all) injecting posion into the cigarettes." Pádraig Ó Méalóid adds, "If I remember rightly, victory Cigarettes were so badly made that they needed to be held in a horizontal position to prevent the tobacco from falling out."

Panel 7. “I’ll have a vodka martini over ice…and stir that, if you would. Otherwise it bruises the alcohol.”
“Shaken, not stirred” is the cliched quote from Ian Fleming’s James Bond (who as will be seen is the speaker here). However, Bond never said, “shaken, not stirred.” His stated preference for martinis appears in the first Bond novel, Casino Royale:
"A dry martini," he said. "One. In a deep champagne goblet."
"Oui, monsieur."
"Just a moment. Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it's ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon-peel. Got it?"
The bruising of the alcohol comes when a martini is shaken. Shaking a martini during its preparation adds air into the drink and “bruises” the alcohol, making the drink taste too bitter. Greg Terry writes, "The thing is from everything I have ever read about alcohol, bruising only happens with a gin martini, with vodka it is not a concern. Although with shaking you melt more of the ice and you end up with a more watered down drink. Though you might be interested in this bit of information. I found this link about martinis if you want more info."

Philip & Emily Graves write, "I'm fairly sure I read somewhere that the iconic phrase was "Stirred, not shaken" in early film drafts, but that (Cubby Broccoli?) had it switched more for aesthetic reasons than anything els
e." And "Note the similarity between Bond's appearance here and the drawing commissioned to help the Daily Express artists for his newspaper strip, from 1957 onwards." Tim Chapman adds that Bond particularly remembers Hoagy Carmichael here. (See Page 155).
   
Eduard Habsburg writes, "the black comma of hair over the eye is standard in every description of Bond, e. g.: Opening lines of Casino Royale:
It was a dark, clean-cut face, with a three-inch scar showing whitely down the sunburned skin of the right cheek. The eyes were wide and level under straight, rather long black brows. The hair was black, parted on the left, and carelessly brushed so that a thick black comma fell down over the right eyebrow. The longish straight nose ran down to a short upper lip below which was a wide and finely drawn but cruel mouth. The line of jaw was straight and firm. A section of dark suit, white shirt and black knitted tie completed the picture.
"ASDF FDSA" writes, "James Bond does say "shaken, not stirred" in the Ian Fleming novels. The phrase is used variously in them, sometimes not said by him, but from Doctor No:
And I would like a medium Vodka dry Martini - with a slice of lemon peel. Shaken and not stirred, please. I would prefer Russian or Polish vodka.
The general consensus is that gin martinis be stirred, but the same is not true for Vodka martinis which need to be colder, and are shaken. Though cocktail experts tend to agree that the vodka martini is a horrible abominable drink not fit for consumption, only enjoyed by the uncultured. Also, only an idiot would ask for his martini to be served in a "deep champagne goblet," like Bond requests in Casino Royale."

Patrick Gillen writes, "In Kevin O'Neil's illustrations of James Bond, you can see the scar on his right cheek as described in Casino Royale. It's subtle, but it's definitely there."


Page 10. Panel 1. Apparently in the world of League Britain went to a U.K./U.S. monetary system, with 10 shillings equaling 1 dollar rather than (or in addition to) 20 shillings equalling 1 pound. Also, the face on the shilling note is Britannia, the personification of the British Empire. Modern pound notes have the Queen’s face on them, but the 1948 pound note had Britannia on it. Nevin Zehr corrects the preceding: "The British use of the dollar is not an invention of Alan Moore, but is in fact in accordance with how things are portrayed in "Nineteen Eighty-Four", in which dollars are the currency used in Airstrip One, and presumably all of Oceana."

Panel 4. "I'm Jimmy, by the way."
Philip & Emily Graves note that ""Jimmy Bond" was also the name used in the 1954 'Climax!' TVM version of Casino Royale, for its Americanised main character."
Peter Sanderson writes, "Moore makes his version of James Bond look even more foolish by giving him the same name as Jimmy Bond, James's nephew in the 1967 "Casino Royale" film, played by Woody Allen.  Note that in the 1967 movie, Jimmy turns out to be the villain, albeit an incompetent one."
    John Andrews writes, "Fleming was a member of the British Secret Service himself and wrote fictionalised accounts of his and other agents adventures to cope with his depression. However in James Bond: The Authorised Biography by John Pearson, Fleming writes the Bond stories as an ellaborate way of conving Soviet agents that he doesn't really exist. Therefore everyone has heard of James Bond in the real world. Perhaps in the world of the League something similar happened which is why Bond uses the name "Jimmy" rather than James?"
    Myles Lobdell writes, "
James Bond was actually referred to as Jimmy Bond on the back cover of the first American paperback edition of Casino Royale, retitled You Asked For It, and released in 1955."

“Bash Street,” “Rampaging Yobs,” and the picture are a reference to the British comic strip “Bash Street Kids,” created by British comics great Leo Baxendale (originally as “When the Bell Rings”) and appearing in Beano from 1954 to the present. The Bash Street Kids are a bunch of mischievous and ill-behaved children at the Bash Street School.
Pádraig Ó Méalóid adds, The two Bash Street Kids pictured are Danny and Wilfrid. I have a drawing of Wilfrid, done by Leo Baxendale, you know! 'Yob' is back-slang for 'Boy.'"

The “Asian Flu” may be a specific literary/cultural reference or just an allusion to the Asian flu epidemic in Britain during late 1950s. (And which, appropriately enough, killed Sax Rohmer, the creator of Fu Manchu).

Panel 8. Captain Morgan is a reference to Jet Morgan, who starred in the British radio serial Journey Into Space (1953-1958). Set in the distant future of 1965 (and in later series the early 1970s), Journey Into Space is about Captain Jet Morgan, “Doc” Matthews, “Mitch” Mitchell, and Lemmy Barnett, and their trip to the Moon and then to Mars.

Captain Dare is a reference to Dan Dare, the archetypal British comic science fiction hero. Created by Frank Hampson, Dan Dare has been appearing in various media since his debut in the comic Eagle in 1950. In the 1990s Dan Dare, chief pilot of the Interplanet Space Fleet, has adventures across the solar system, repeatedly coming into conflict with the Mekon, the evil ruler of the Treens of northern Venus.
    Damian Gordon notes that Dan Dare is a Colonel, not a Captain, in his original appearances.

Captain Logan is a reference to Jet-Ace Logan, who appeared in the British comics Comet (1956-1959) and Tiger (1959-1968). Royal Air Force Space Cadet Jim “Jet-Ace” Logan is a part of the R.A.F. Space Patrol and cruises about the solar system, fighting iniquitous aliens and finding adventure. David A. Simpson adds, "Jet-Ace Logan also appeared in Thriller Picture Library in the early sixties, with several of these being reprinted in the mid-seventies in Space Library Holiday Special."

Ed Berridge and Guy Lawley undo my ignorance about the man Bond pushes aside here and who rubs his head in panel 9: "the chap Jimmy pushes aside would appear to be L. Miller Watt's Pop, a newspaper strip that ran in the Daily Sketch from 1921-1960 (though Gordon Hogg took over as writer/artist from 1949)."

Panel 9. “Fighter ace dies” is presumably a reference to something, but the accompanying picture could refer to a number of characters. But see Page 16, Panel 8.

Page 11. Panel 4. Philip & Emily Graves write, "Jimmy has acquired the Harlequin-emblazoned cigarette case from his Grandfather, seen way back at the beginning, in V1I1P1.2."

Panel 5
. Peter Sanderson writes, "Actually, I'm a secret agent":  the way that Bond lights his cigarette with an eerie glow  reminds me of the Cigarette-Smoking Man in The X-Files."

Panel 6
. Meccania is a reference to Gregory Owen's Meccania, the Super-State (1918). Meccania is the ultimate in totalitarian dystopias, a state completely regimented and controlled by the government. For a Big Brother-ruled England, Meccania would be a natural enemy.

Panel 7. Kian Ross, Rich Weaver, and Jeff Patterson, among others, point out what I should have gotten: that the statue is of Mr. Hyde, as mentioned at the end of League v2. Adam J.B. Lane writes, "the semi-abstract quality of the hyde memorial statue makes me wonder if k.o. isn't referencing the work of british sculptor henry moore (1898-1986)." Damian Gordon writes, "In LoEG V2 it states that the artist who created the Hyde sculpture is Sir Jacob Epstein, and the Hyde statue definitely looks like his work."

Page 12. Panel 3. “O’Dette ‘Oodles’ O’Quim” is a riff on the salacious, single-entendre names Bond women and Bond’s female enemies usually have.
    I'd assumed that "quim" was commonly-known, but obviously note. Peter Sanderson, among others, writes: ""Oodles O'Quim":  until I looked it up, I didn't
know that "quim" is British slang for female genitalia.  I suspect I'm not the only American reader who didn't know that.  So "Oodles O'Quim" is the equivalent of "Pussy Galore." Mario di Giacomo writes "Oodles O'Quim is a better match to Plenty O'Toole, from Diamonds Are Forever." Peter Sanderson responds, "No,  I don't think so. "Quim" and "Pussy" both refer to female genitalia.  But when Plenty O'Toole introduces herself to Bond in the "Diamonds Are Forever" movie, he comments, "Named after your father, perhaps?""

Panel 7. There is a reference to a statue of Big Brother in 1984: “in Victory Square...near the statue of Big Brother on the tall fluted column with the lions at the foot.” The statue here doesn’t appear to be it, though.
    Peter Sanderson writes, "This indicates that in "1984" Trafalgar Square was renamed Victory Square, and Nelson's statue was replaced by a statue of Big Brother."
    Philip & Emily Graves write, "perhaps that *is* the statue of BB, which could indeed have replaced the statue of Hornblower in Trafalgar Square (as per Prospectus of London, 1901, p106), but it's now being torn down, and so may not fit the description from 1984 exactly."
    Cliff Schexnayder writes, "The removal of the statue seems particularly reminiscent of the efforts by the US forces to take down the statue of Saddam Hussein after taking Baghdad in 2003. I don't think this is an accident since the way the statue leans is in direct opposition to the way the ropes are draped upon it for removal." Pádraig Ó Méalóid noted this as well. Peter Gilham further compared it to Soviet-era statues being pulled down in former Soviet bloc countries.
    Giles Cresswell writes, "I believe this is meant to be Piccadilly Square with the statue of Eros replaced with the one in the panel. Piccadilly Square is where all of the big billboards are and the road layout seems more fitting. Please see these images. The statue to Eros is barely visible off to the left of the image. Compare this with Trafalgar Square - a statue on a tall column surrounded by large fountains."
    Drake writes, Confirmed that the statue is Big Brother.  In the novel 1984, Orwell says that the statue's hand is raised to 'point to where BB won the Battle of Airstrip One.' Note here, the statue indeed gestures to the sky."

Wow! was a British comic which appeared in 1982 and 1983, but I don’t believe the bus advert is a reference to that.

Maplins is a holiday camp in the British tv sitcom Hi-de-Hi! (1980-1988). Maplins is in the coastal town of Crimpton-on-Sea in Essex. As far as I know there’s no “Bluepool” in Hi-de-Hi!. Damian Gordon points out that Maplins is based on a real series of camps called Butlin’s Holiday Camps. James Parry writes, "About the 'Bluepool' reference on page 12, panel 7 of the Black Dossier. I'm sure someone has already suggested this but, similar to the pun underground station names earlier on, it could simply be a play on the traditional British seaside resort of Blackpool. While it's seen better days, its heyday as a tourist destination did just about stretch to the timeframe of the events in the 'Dossier."

“--is watching you” is the second half of the classic phrase “Big Brother is Watching You” from 1984.

John Dorrian writes,
Anyway, in a wide shot of a street scene in this section, we see an old lady, dressed in a black coat, wearing glasses and a hat with flowers on it, looking pissed off at a passing car. This woman is the Grandmother from the weekly Giles cartoons that ran in the Daily Express. Giles mostly did political cartoons, but he alternated between politics and domestic cartoons about an unnamed Family cast of characters he'd created. His work was extremely popular. Grandma was a fairly bad tempered old thing & was the basis for an even more violent character in Cerebus the Aardvark. (Dave Sim was a Giles fan, and his version of the character wasn't so much a 'homage' as it was Sim simply lifting the character wholesale from Giles and plopping her down in Cerebus.)
Philip & Emily Graves write, "That's Grandma, head of the Giles family berating a rather rude flat-capped individual." Michael Norwitz says the same thing.

Tim Chapman writes, "is that Tony Hancock in bottom left with arm raised? Eyebrows and jowels certainly look like him."

"teamy teamy" writes, "In between grandma Giles and the possible Tony Handcock there's a bald man with a moustache shouting at a black man and white girl. It's definitely Alf Garnett, Warren Clarke's bigoted alter ego from 'Til Death Us Do Part." It seems rather obvious why he'd be shouting at a white girl linking arms with a black man."

Page 13. Panel 1. “Airstrip One” is is what the British Isles are called in 1984. Airstrip One is part of Oceania (the Americas, Southern Africa, and Australia).

The “Anti-Sex League” is a reference to the government-backed organization, in 1984, which is devoted to eliminating the pleasurable aspect of sex. Members of the League are encouraged to have sex, but only once a week, and “for the good of the party.”

Panel 2.  In 1984 O’Brien is a member of the Inner Party, the ruling class of Oceania. In the novel O’Brien is responsible for torturing Winston Smith, the protagonist, into accepting Big Brother.

Panel 4. Jeff Wilson, among others, corrects me: “Freedom is Slavery” is not newspeak, but is one of the slogans of Oceania's ruling class. As Jeff says, "It cannot be newspeak, as Sime explains about 50 pages in, because newspeak will eliminate the concept of freedom." Tony Whitt adds that it is "an example of "doublethink", the ability to hold two contrary notions in one's head and to believe both of them.  "Newspeak" would refer only to words like "doubleplusgood", "crimethink", and, for that matter, "doublethink"." Pádraig Ó Méalóid noted this as well.

The shell marks on the Ministry of Love may seem unusual, but much of London was not fully rebuilt, following World War Two, until the mid- to late-1950s.

Page 14. Panel 1. The poster in the upper left is a combination of the “Big Brother Is Watching You” poster from 1956 British film version of 1984, and the mustached Big Brother from the 1984 American film version of 1984. Devin Cambridge notes, "The big brother poster makes reference to another British TV series: The Prisoner. “Be Watching You” is a variation of “Be Seeing You”, the common “goodby” given on the Prisoner Island. The full caption is truncated (with “brother” prominently removed yet we see the 1984 slogan in full in a future panel), thus giving us the prisoner reference."

The bust in the lower left is of Professor Moriarty (I think), replacing the bust of Napoleon which Moriarty kept when he was in charge of British Intelligence in League volume 1.

The symbol above the doors is the Masonic compass and right angle which was a recurring symbol in earlier League volumes. In Masonic lore the compass and right angle symbolize the instruments of both the Masons and God. Pádraig Ó Méalóid adds, "The Masonic symbol over the door in Panel 1 also echoes the letters M and W, which are made much play of throughout the book. And of course Mina's initials would be WM."

If the pith helmet and the sheathed sword are references to anything, I’m unaware of it. Damian Gordon suggests that they may be Quatermain’s. But I think Myles Lobdell has the truth of it:
if you are willing to give yourself eyestrain you can barely make out on the dark-blue tag attached to the bat, the words "Clicky-Ba".  The letters 'Cl-' on the first row and 'Ba' on the second row of the tag are the most legible, the other letters seem a scrawl. Thus, this apparent cricket bat, is none other than the 'club' of Chung, servant to the Wolf of Kabul, Bill Samson.  To explain the pith helmet, Samson was often described thus: "He walked with his hands thrust deep into his pockets, and a battered sun-helmet stuck on the back of his head". A sun-helmet is a common synonym for pith helmet.
For some reason, however, we all missed what Guy Lawley got, which is that both the pith hemet and cricket bat belong to William Samson of the 1940s League--see the notes to Page 148.

The bust with the question mark may be the bust of Baron von Münchhausen seen in the first League series. Jason Adams disagrees: "I don't think the bust is Baron Munnchausen, but rather it is the same bust of Britannia with the question mark helmet, as seen on the Cover and the stylized compass rose/union jack emblem from the inside cover flap and first few pages of the book. Along with the masonic compass and capital M (both seen, incidentally, on the door to the building on Page 13. Panel 4 and Panel 6), this depiction of Britannia is one of the main symbols of the League."

I’m unsure what the glass ball might be. Philip & Emily Graves write, "The glass ball (helmet) and 's' shirt are definitely connected, and look very similar indeed to this cover to Tom Swift and his Space Solartron." Terry Jones clears this one up: "the helmet and square tank and the red shirt with the 's' are definitely linked.  They come from Swift Morgan and the Flying Saucers' worn by the hero. This strip was illustrated (please get this right matey!) by the great Denis McLoughlin.  It's from the New Spaceways Comic Annual 1954, pub by The Popular Press. McLoughlin with whom I corresponded for a time, was also the creator of Roy Carson who is also referenced later in the BD in the first panel of the page when Allan and Mina are boarding the bus to Birmingham (in the poster for The Daily Post 'Roy Carson Horror'.) Clearly Mr Moore has jolly good taste! The 's' is is so small because the publisher feared litigation from DC comcis by the way!"

The giant skull is the Brobdingnagian skull, from Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726), seen in League v1.

I’m not sure what the shirt with the “s” emblem is referring to. Andrew Kunka writes, "I think that the glass ball and the "s" shirt go together, as an underwater breating suit.  Not sure what it references, though.  Perhaps Tom Swift?"

I’m not sure who the portrait of the man in the bow-tie is a reference to.
Michael Norwitz wonders if it might the Dorian Gray. Adam J.B. Lane writes, "I suspect the portrait is that of dorian grey, returned to normal now that its subject is deceased." Peter Sanderson writes, "The Picture of Dorian Gray was a full-length portrait, whereas the picture in this panel only shows its subject's head and upper chest." John Andrews writes, "I believe the portrait on page 14 panel 1 is in fact Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, rather than Dorian Gray. Fleming often wore a bow tie and an expressition of of distain, just like the portrait here."  Pádraig Ó Méalóid concurs and provides a link to prove it.

On the bulletin board, the painting/picture, “Pacific Ocean July 1949,” and “Iron Fish?” are references to “Iron Fish,” from the British comic Beano from 1949-1968. The Iron Fish’s creator, Jimmy Grey, appeared in League v2. “The Iron Fish” is about two twins, Danny and Penny Gray, who pilot two “Iron Fish” submarines, both of which are built by their father, Professor Gray, who is the subject of the “Professor Gray Feared Lost” headline on the lower left of the board.
    Stu Shiffman sends this news article along.

“Bla- Sapp-“ is a reference to the titular character of the comic strip “The Black Sapper,” who appeared in the British comcs Rover and Hotspur for decades, beginning with The Rover #384 (Aug. 24, 1929). The Black Sapper is a costumed inventor/thief who uses The Earthworm, an enormous burrowing machine, to commit crimes. He reforms in the face of a Yellow Peril invasion of England. (Thanks to David A. Simpson for correcting me here).

Panel 2. The painting in the upper left is based on this:

Francis Walsingham

This is Sir Francis Walsingham (c. 1532-1590), the spymaster for Queen Elizabeth I in our world. However, as can be seen on Page 53, Walsingham has been replaced by someone else in the world of League. For who, see the notes to Page 53.

Panel 4. In 1984 Room 101 is “the worst thing in the world,” a torture chamber in the Ministry of Love where prisoners are subjected to their worst nightmares.

Panel 5. Ed Berridge writes, "the wicker chair here might well be supposed to suggest the similar object used as part of an (inadvertantly) homoerotic, testicular-oriented method or torture in Ian Fleming's Casino Royale."

Pádraig Ó Méalóid writes, "there is a cane behind the door. This is the kind of cane that is regularly used, largely by school teachers, to punish children - mainly male children, it must be said - in British comics, and was that common that I seem to recall that it would have made an appearance in pretty much every comic I read in my youth. Certainly deserving of a room that contains what people fear most."

Charles Cunyus notes, "You can also make out the rat torture mask used on Winston Smith by O'Brein in room 101." Joyce Cunyus adds, "The 'Ratmask'  here isn't identical to what you see used on Winston in 'Pornsec SexJane' Page 8, I believe what you see here is taken directly from the '1984' film with John Hurt and Richard Burton."

Panel 6. “Special village in Wales” a reference to the British tv series The Prisoner (1967), in which retired spies who too dangerous to their former employers are confined in a village. The location of the village was never specified, but the series was filmed in Portmeirion, which is in Wales.

Page 15. Panels 1-4. Bond is this hatefully misogynistic in the Ian Fleming books, if not in the films. And for them what don't believe me, or haven't read the Fleming books in a while, or at all, read Scott Lynch's take on the subject.
    Regarding this, Pádraig Ó Méalóid usefully points out "AM's 1986 introduction to Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns, where he says "As our political and social consciousness continues to evolve, Alan Quartermain stands revealed as just another white imperialist out to exploit the natives and we begin to see that the overriding factor in James Bond's psychological makeup is his utter hatred and contempt for women.""

Panel 8. Pádraig Ó Méalóid writes, "Considering that Jimmy is beaten by a woman in Room 101, could this be what he is most afraid of? Would fear of women be what's behind him appalling misogyny? Moore doesn't do things by accident, so I think this happening to Bond in Room 101 is deliberate on Moore's part."

Panel 9. I believe that James Bond was once described as a “nasty little thug” but I’ve been unable to find the reference. David Alexander McDonald notes that in the most recent film version of Casino Royale M uses the word "thug" in describing Bond. Patrick Reumann gets it: "John Steed of the Avenger Show fight and beats Bond  in a fight at school and then call him a A "Nasty little Thug" in John Steed- An Authorized Biography: Vol 1, Jealous in Honour by Tim Heald 1977."

Page 16. Panel 3. Keith Kole writes, "Here's a meeting of two characters - James Bond and Allan Quatermain - both played by Sean Connery in the movies.

I have to wonder about Allan and Mina's clothing choices: Allan in the trench coat reminds me of the hard boiled detectives of film noir and Mina is dressed like one of that genres femme fatales."

Panel 4
. “Just like your grandfather.”
This is confirmation that Campion Bond, seen in the previous volumes of League, is James Bond’s grandfather.

Panel 5. “Is this what it’s come to? The British adventure hero? Pathetic.”
While it is logical that a 19th century British adventure hero (Mina) would find the 20th century British adventure hero (Bond) unsavory and pathetic, the statement might also be seen as a metatextual comment by Moore on the way in which 20th century British adventure fiction, certainly of the first half of the century, overtly displayed biases (see Page 79, Panel 2, for example) which were mostly hidden during the 19th century.
    Jason Powell corrects me: "You say that this dialogue belongs to Mina, but it looked to me that the word balloon was attached to Allan. This struck me as more resonant, since Allan Quatermain is much more the quintessential British adventure hero, and as such more likely to pass judgment on what the archetype has "come to.""
    Tristan Sargent writes, "I'm not sure if it's intentional, but this line actually struck me as alluding back to the first League series.  Allan was, after all, a largely wretched figure in that series, drawing similar comments from Mina - but in particular Moriarty gives a withering condemnation of Allan in issue 6, which I felt Allan's comments here directly recalled, perhaps ironically."

Panel 7. “If he’d been German, he’d have been loyal to Hynkel.”
See Page 47.

Panel 8. “Eurasia” is a reference to 1984. Eurasia, which is Europe, Russia, northern Africa, and the Middle East, is the enemy of Oceania. (Sometimes the enemy of Oceania, as Pádraig Ó Méalóid correctly notes).

“Social– Nuclea– by Gust–“ is a reference to to H.G. Wells’ The Shape of Things to Come (1933), a future history of the world in which a benevolent dictatorship emerges following a deadly plague. In The Shape of Things to Come a Wellsian stand-in, Gustave de Windt, writes a book, Social Nucleation, which
was the first exhaustive study of the psychological laws underlying team play and esprit de corps, disciplines of criminal gangs, spirit of factory groups, crews, regiments, political parties, churches, professionalisms, aristocracies, patriotisms, class consciousness, organized research and constructive cooperation generally. It did for the first time correlate effectively the increasing understanding of individual psychology, with new educational methods and new concepts of political life. In spite of its unattractive title and a certain wearisomeness in the exposition, his book became a definite backbone for the constructive effort of the new time.
Titus Cobbet is a reference to Wells’ The Shape of Things to Come. In The Shape of Things to Come a bicyclist, Titus Cobbett, travels through a ruined Europe and England observing the desolation. He also reports on the death of a “European Aviator,” which could be what the headline on Page 10, Panel 9 is referring to.

I don’t know what “–ipley” might be a reference to. Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley, possibly?

“The Th– Oligarchial Emm–“ is a reference to The Theory and Practice of Oligarchial Collectivism, which in 1984 is “a terrible book, a compendium of all the heresies” and is written by the dissident Emmanuel Goldstein. Pádraig Ó Méalóid adds, "I noticed this description of The Book, as Winston Smith refers to Emmanuel Goldstein's book: "A heavy black volume, amatuerishly bound, with no name or title on the cover." If you leave aside the "amatuerishly bound" bit, this is probably a good description of the book I'm looking at with the dustjacket off, and probably is a good description of the book that Mina and Alan are reading, too."

Panel 9.  “–stasia” is a reference to Eastasia in 1984. Eastasia, which consists of China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, India, the Philippines, Indonesia, and the Middle East, is the smallest and newest of the three superstates.

“Atrocity Pamphlet” may be a reference to the J.G. Ballard novel The Atrocity Exhibition (1970). Chris Nichols, among others, wonders if this is a reference to Charlie Stross' Atrocity Archives: "The Atrocity Archives" deals with British Intelligence's use of and battles against the occult. During the novel, the protaganists visit the Atrocity Archives, a secret museum in the Hague housing the relics of the Nazis' gruesome occult rituals."
     Pádraig Ó Méalóid corrects us: "According to page 121 of my black Penguin Classic edition of Ninteen Eighty-Four, "Julia's unit in the Fiction Department had been taken off the production of novels and was rushing out a series of atrocity pamphlets." This was all in preparation for the forthcoming Hate Week."

“Manor Farm” is a reference to George Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945), in which the revolution of the talking animals takes place at Manor Farm.

I’m not sure what “Harry Blake” might be a reference to. Jonathan Carter wonders if it might be a reference to Sexton Blake's ne'er-do-well brother Harry, who was introduced in a story in either 1905 or 1907. Philip & Emily Graves agree: "It must be Sexton Blake's elder brother Henry. From the Blake Bibliography, which says for 1907: "By far the most important event reported this year is Blake's encounter with his long-lost elder brother, Henry."

I’m not sure what the folder with the stylized letter is a reference to.
Philip & Emily Graves write, "We think that the 'stylised letter' could be Martian, and that this is a Martian/English reference work."

I think the book below that reads “Moreau,” which is a reference to H.G. Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896). Dr. Moreau appeared in League v2.

“Gustave de Windt” is a reference to H.G. Wells’ The Shape of Things to Come. (See the note to Panel 8 above).

I’m not sure what “-oy Cars” might be a reference to.
Philip & Emily Graves write, "We suspect that "-oy Cars-" is Roy Carson, a 1940s-50s "square-jawed hardboiled quasi-private eye" created by prolific detective-fiction cover-artist Denis McLoughlin." Andrew Kunka adds a link to Carson's entry on the indispensible Thrilling Detective site.

“St. Merri-- Hospital” is a reference to John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids (1953). The Day of the Triffids is a science fiction, horror, post-apocalyptic novel in which a race of carnivorous plants, the triffids, cause the downfall of human civilization. The opening of the novel occurs in St. Merryn’s Hospital.

Page 17. Panel 1. “...how much vipers like Lime actually know...”
See Page 78, Panel 9 for more on “Lime.”

“Drake” is a reference to John Drake, the protagonist of the ITC tv (not BBC--thanks to Zoltán Déry for the correction) series Danger Man (1960-1962). John Drake is an Irish-American spy for a department of NA.T.O. who carries out missions for his superiors even though he often disagrees with them. The Prisoner, which starred Patrick McGoohan (who played John Drake), is unofficially the sequel to Danger Man. In David McDaniel’s Who is No. 2? (1968) it is confirmed that Drake is No. 6, The Prisoner.
    David Alexander McDonald writes:
David MacDaniel's novel is ephemeral, and it was repeatedly stated by McGoohan and various members of the production that The Prisoner is not, in fact, John Drake (despite the John Drake picture X'd out at the beginning of the show.)  These statements from the production end (most recently on the  40th Anniversary DVD release) are hobbled a tiny bit, however, by the appearance of an actor playing a character named Potter in both Danger Man and The Prisoner, albeit the character being quite different in each iteration, by the original reference in the story treatments to the Prisoner as "Drake" (he was referred to as P as pre-production and production went on) and by the repurposing of an unused Danger Man script, "The Girl Who Was Death," in the last four episodes of the series -- and there's that passing reference there to "Drake."  But the official line is that the Prisoner wasn't Drake.  More entertainingly, the producers have been known to  speculate that, given the final episode, the series actually took place with in a virtual reality, or entirely in the Prisoner's mind while he was drugged to the gills.
    Philp & Emily Graves write:
On the 'Drake as Prisoner' suggestion, it should be noted that, although McGoohan and others denied that they were the same character, George Markstein, co-creator of (and script editor on) The Prisoner stated on several occasions that they WERE. One suggestion for the purported confusion is that the character (and name) of John Drake were created and owned by Ralph Smart, so overt identification of the two was either impossible for legal reasons, or undesirable as the rights were not McGoohan's.
Win Eckert writes, "in addition to David McDaniel's novel, the Drake-Prisoner identification was confirmed in the third PRISONER novel, A DAY IN THE LIFE by Hank Stine."

“Meres” is a reference to Toby Meres, who appeared in the British tv series Callan (1967-1972). David Callan, the protagonist, is a bitter, aging assassin for the British S.I.S. Meres is Callan's partner. Lee Barnett corrects my original description of Toby Meres and writes that Meres is "not so much less-skilled, as he is a cold blooded psychopath who enjoys the more violent aspects of the work, whereas Callan hated it, even though the latter was so bloody good at it." David Alexander McDonald writes:
 I adored Callan -- bitterly cynical, wonderful work from Edward Woodward.  Meres wasn't Callan's superior, though -- he was his peer (as
was Cross, after Anthony Valentine left for a while.)  Meres was an arrogant, impulsive, and thoroughly sociopathic twat, a former public schoolboy and Oxford graduate who certainly had ambitions beyond his station; he was, however, unlikely to assume the position of Hunter, which Callan did for a while.  In the initial story, "A Magnum For Schneider" (based on James Mitchell' stage play, and done as an Armchair Theater episode) Meres (played by Peter Bowles rather than Valentine) is asigned to keep an eye on Callan, and then set him up for the police to arrest once he's completed his  mission -- Callan promptly turns the tables and leaves Meres for the cops instead.  As a result Callan ends up with his dossier assigned to a Red File (hence the novel version being called A Red File For Callan; the movie adaptation, with Peter Egan as Meres, is just called Callan.)  The series generally partners Callan and Meres, with Callan as often as not managing to screw Meres over.  All the same, I wouldn't call Meres less skilled or less adept than Callan -- Callan's conscience often gets in the way, although he can summon a vicious coldness when he needs to.  If anything, Meres is sometimes a little exciteable because he enjoys his work.  Cross, on the other hand, was less adept and more vulnerable, which eventually causes his death.  Oh, and after Callan, brainwashed, kills a Hunter at the end of series two, it's Meres that shoots Callan -- and then proceeds to show concern and care, which is really rather freaky.
Damian Gordon writes, ""Drake and Meres" long shot really but the two names together remind me that a game not as often played as "was Number 6 really John Drake?" is "was The Equalizer Robert McCALL really David CALLan?"

Panel 4.  Gadgets and weapons contained in and concealed by James Bond’s pens are a recurring part of the Bond canon.

“The Me– Police C– George— Died on t– August 1898"
Philp & Emily Graves write, "The deceased Police Constable George D[   ] may very well be the one killed by Hawley Griffen back in LoEG V1I5. Furthermore (or alternatively) George D[   ] may be a reference to George Dixon of Dock Green, played by Jack Warner from 1955-76." Jonathan Carter and Christopher Reynolds wonder if this is a dedication to the policeman killed by the Invisible Man in League v2. But I think David A. Simpson has it right: "Jack Warner’s first appearance as PC George Dixon was in the film The Blue Lamp; since Dixon was killed in that film, that may be what the plaque refers to."

Panel 7. Philip & Emily Graves write, "In the 1967 (Actually around 9 years later) film "You Only Live Twice", Bond has a cigarette with shoots a jet-powered projectile."

Page 18. Panel 2. The obelisk is Cleopatra’s Needle, the celebratory obelisk originally constructed for Pharaoh Tuthmosis III, ruler of Egypt’s 18th Dynasty from 1504-1450 B.C.E.

Martin Campbell writes, "The car is a Vauxhall Victor (F-Type). This would have new in 1958, as the model was introduced the previous year. It was exported to North America  as a Pontiac. The Glamcabs from Carry on Cabby were actually Ford Cortina Mark 1."

Panels 2-4. “Glamcabs” is a reference to the film Carry On Cabby (1963). Glamcabs is a taxi company in competition with Speedee Taxis, the service operating by Charlie Hawkins, Carry On Cabby’s protagonist.

It is possible that the driver here is Anthea, from Carry On Cabby, played in the film by Amanda Barrie.

Panel 5. Pádraig Ó Méalóid writes, "The Gentlemen's Lavatory is possibly a reference to Carry On Screaming, in which Charles Hawtrey plays Dan Dan, a toilet attendant in an underground toilet like the one in the picture."

Panel 7. “He must meet women with names like that all the time.” As indeed Bond does.

Page 19. Panel 1. “Birnley Fabrics” is a reference to the film The Man in the White Suit (1951). In the film Sidney Stratton invents a fabric, later called Birnley Fabrics after the mill owner who produces them, that never gets dirty or wears out.

I’m assuming that the characters in this panel, as in many others in Black Dossier, are references to British comics, but I’m unable to place the references.

Panels 3-5.  “Mr. Kiss” is a Michael Moorcock’s Mother London (1988), a novel about post-WW2 London. One of the main characters is fading theater performer and professional mind-reader Josef Kiss.
    Huw Morgan writes, "Is it just me, or does 'Mr Kiss', the gentleman that Allan and Mina meet briefly outside their lodgings, look a very great deal like the actor Robert Morley?"

Page 20. Panels 2-8.  The landlady stumped me, but not you lot. Chris Roberson, usedcarsrus, and Ian Warren, among others, point out that "The landlady is clearly Mrs. Cornelius, from Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius stories and elsewhere, and her children the younger versions of Jerry, Frank, and Catherine Cornelius, who had the same sort of complicated, incestuous relationship hinted at here."

Panel 2. Pádraig Ó Méalóid writes, "In 1984 the landlord of the room that Winston Smith and Julia are renting is Mr Charrington, so there's the possibility that this Mrs C is an echo of that, possibly meant to be his wife, nd that by implication Mina and Alan are possibly renting the same room that Winston and Julia are in, or at least there are in a parallel to it. Certainly they seem to be using it for much the same purpose, which is reading the Forbidden Book." Later, Pádraig added, "In the book, there's a woman hanging out the washing just below the window of Winston and Julia's room. This could possibly be Mr Charrington's wife. She is described thus: '... a monstrous woman, solid as a Norman pillar, with brawny red forearms and a sacking apron strapped around her middle...' This is also a reasonable description of Mrs C here."

Panel 3. “Anyroad” is a northern British variant of “anyway.”

Page 21. Panel 1. The “Holborn Empire,” a.k.a the Royal Holborn, a.k.a. Weston’s Music Hall, was a major music hall in Holborn, in central London.

Peter Sanderson notes that "Lewis and Clark" are a reference to "Al Lewis and Willie Clark, the fictional vaudeville team in Neil Simon's 1972 play "The Sunshine Boys," which was made into an MGM film released in 1975. "Lewis and Clark" were based on the real life vaudeville team of Smith and Dale (Joe Smith and Charles Dale)."

I’m unable to place the “Professor Donnol” reference.

“Archie Rice” is a reference to the John Osborne play The Entertainer (1957), later made into the 1960 film The Entertainer. In the play and film Archie Rice is an aging, hard-luck vaudevillian entertainer.

If “lifting you on wings of song” is a reference rather than just an entertainment catchphrase, I’m unaware of it.

“Fevvers” may be a reference to the protagonist of Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus (1984). Fevvers is a Cockney circus aeralist and showgirl who has wings.

Damian Gordon clears up my confusion: “Mr. J. Stark The Incredible India Rubber Man” is a reference to Janus Stark, a Victorian superhero who appeared in the British comics Smash and Valiant (1969-1973). Stark has very rubbery bones, which gives him superheroic abilities which he uses to fight crime." Pádraig Ó Méalóid adds, "Much as it grieves me to disagree with Damian Gordon, JS actually ran in Valiant until March 1975, and of course gets a walk-on part in Wildstorm’s Albion, which was plotted by Alan Moore, and written by Leah Moore & John Reppion. Lots of useful information about Stark here."

“Comedy of –rthur  -e Washboard -tkins with -er Drawers” is a reference to Paul Whitehouse’s character Arthur Atkinson, played by Whitehouse on the BBC tv show The Fast Show (1994-2000). Arthur Atkinson, a parody of real-life radio comedian Arthur Askey, is a nonsensical comedian, one of whose catchphrases is “Where’s me washboard?” and one of whose characters is “Chester Drawers.” Pól Rua corrects my mistake: "Chester Drawers wasn't a character portrayed by Arthur Atkinson, but rather his less successful and put-upon second banana."
    Tim Anselm adds, "'The Fast Show' book revealed that Arthur Atkinson was a Nazi sympathiser (The 'Arthur Atkinson' story included an archive photo of Arthur with "the founding father of National Socialism himself". So presumably Mina got herself a bargain: the League-verse's Hynkel-worshipping 'Atkins' was surely unpersoned. Thank Goldstein for proles and their flea markets."

Pádraig Ó Méalóid writes that the pink rabbit in the center of the panel, to the right of the iron, is "Pink Rabbit from the book When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (1971) by Judith Kerr. This was a semi-autobiographical novel about her childhood, when they had to leave Germany as her father was a wanted man. They had to go suddenly, so many things got left behind, including their toys. Anna, the protagonist of the book, imagines Hitler playing with their games compendium and with Pink Rabbit."

Panel 4. “Or perhaps his tie-clip’s really a radio.”
I’m unaware of Bond ever having a radio transmitter in his tie-clip. However, such a device appeared in the American tv series Search (1972-1973). John Soanes and Dennis Walker note that, in "America," Simon and Garfunkel sang, "I said be careful his bowtie is really a camera."

Page 22. Panel 1. Damian Gordon corrects my confusion here: “Baz” is a riff on the British laundry detergent Daz. Philip & Emily Graves and Guy Lawley, think that it is just Daz, and I'm reading it wrong. (Quite possible. Me old eyes just ain't what they used to be. And the rheumatiz is killin' me....) Mark Irons writes, "On pg. 22 p. 1, the laundry soap is definitely "Daz"; the box is seen in full panel 5 of the preceding page."

Panel 2. In 1984 an “unperson” is someone who has been killed by the government and had his existence officially deleted and erased from all records. Pádraig Ó Méalóid writes, "I'm going to slightly disagree with you on this, only on the basis that an Unperson does not necessarily have to be dead to have their existence officially deleted. A bit like now, really..."
    KS writes,
Not only a reference to 1984, this also reminds me of the modern term of nonperson. "A non-person is a person or a member of a group who lacks, loses, or is forcibly denied social or legal status, especially basic human rights, or who effectively from a point of view of traceability, documentation or existence, ceases to have a record of their existence within a society."

Unfortunately, this is one of several similarities with the Big Brother-era England of fiction and today's actual Europe (and the Western World in general), a protagonist on the so called "War on Terrorism" and a "Fortress" guarding its shores and cities against undesirable elements (immigrants) that the aforementioned war causes. It's common that such undesirable people may be abducted, tortured, illegally interrogated or disappear completely; or European countries may cooperate and abet to such actions taking place (by some other western power) in their territories.

Panel 5. In 1984 “pornosec” is a section of the Ministry of Truth that produces pornography. Pádraig Ó Méalóid writes, "Julia worked for Pornosec at one point, which was a sub-section of the Fiction Department: "She [Julia] had even (an infallible mark of good reputation) been picked out to work in Pornosec, the sub-section of the Fiction Department which turned out cheap pornography for distribution among the proles. It was nicknamed Muck House by the people who worked there, she remarked. There she remained for a year, helping to produce booklets in sealed packets with titles like Spanking Stories or One Night in a Girls' School, to be bought furtively by proletarian youths who were under the impression that they were were buying something illegal."

Panel 6. The “Adventures of Jane” was the movie version of Norman Pett’s comic strip “Jane,” which appeared in the British Daily Mirror (1932-1959). Jane is an ingenue who is often inadvertently disrobed. Also see the Tijuana Bible at the back of the Black Dossier. Guy Lawley writes, "The whole sequence of Mina undressing and bathing is a definite nod to the comic strip Jane, a very close echo of at least one (and probably several) sequence(s) in the strip; very close to the style of the strip too."

Pádraig Ó Méalóid schools us Colonials on Jane:
Norman Pett's "Jane's Journal: The Diary of a Bright Young Thing" first appeared in the Daily Mirror on December 5th 1932, with his wife as the model. In 1938 Don Freeman came on board as writer, and in 1939, when his wife decided golf was more interesting than posing for him, Pett found the model who was to become Jane in most people's eyes, Christabel Leighton-Porter. C L-P also played the role of Jane in the 1949 film version of the strip, The Adventures of Jane. In 1948 Pett's assistant Michael Hubbard took over as artist, and the last strip, when Jane finally married her long-standing boyfriend Georgie, was on October 10th 1959.J

Jane was revived in a BBC television series, simply called "Jane," starring Glynis Barber, which ran from August 1982 to September 1984.  

As Leighton-Porter's obituary in The Telegraph put it, "Jane was forever shutting her skirt in doors, reaching for her towel in the bath, or romping unclad in tropical ponds. Even the slightest breeze could reduce her to a bra and frilly cami-knickers."

Jane's popularity with the troops during the Second World War is such that it is said that in 1943, on the first occasion that she lost all her clothes, the British 36th Division immediately gained six miles.

An anecdote from this site is worth repeating:

Christabel's favorite moment from the fame of being Jane occurred when the sexy showgirl, for once demurely dressed, met the then Lord Chamberlain. "Tell me my dear," asked the head of the royal household, "what do you do in your act?" "Well," explained Christabel, "at one stage I turn my back to the audience, take off my bra, and then cover my breasts with my hands as I turn 'round." There was a momentary silence, before the King's sidekick replied, "You must have very large hands."

This action is to some extent mirrored by Mina in Page 23, panels 1 & 2.

However, in the world of LoEG, perhaps the Daily Mirror did not actually run the cartoons, and rather the original appearance was the 1949 film, which would fit in with the chronology of the story rather well. Presumably when AQ refers to "that 'Adventures of Jane' series" he is referring to possibly a collection of Tijuana Bibles (TB) similar to the one bound into this, based on the film, which would have been produced by Pornsec.

Panel 7. "You don't seriously imagine Jane's real? Some chap at Pornsec wrote the lot, I bet."
Danny Sichel writes, "notice that, during Mina's one full-frontal-totally-exposed pose, she's scornfully doubting the premise of the Jane series. "You don't seriously think Jane's real?""
 Pádraig Ó Méalóid writes, "The fact that Mina's pose is very similar to some of Jane's poses in the cartoons, while Mina's is simultaneously denying the likelihood of Jane's existence is well done. There is also a huge difference between Mina's casualness about her nudity in 1958 and her extremely prim and proper attitude in 1898."

Panel 8. I realize that that is probably a tiger on the mug, but it might also be a reference to Korky the Cat, star of a comic strip in the British comic The Dandy from 1937 to 2005. Jonathan Carter and Myles Lobdell think that it's Tony the Tiger. Greg Baldino says, "yes, that is a box of Frosted Flakes with Tony the Tiger on it. It's based on the original version of the character drawn by Martin Provensen, who did the original Kelloggs' character designs." Philip & Emily Graves agree: "After a closer look, the 'mug' looks more like a box, further implying that this is less a concealed reference as simply a box of (Tony the Tiger emblazoned) Frosties, which first appeared in 1952 - although the design was different."

Pádraig Ó Méalóid writes, "In 1984, it turns out that a picture on the wall - of St Clement Danes Church on the Strand - was actually a disguised viewing apparatus, leading me to wonder if the picture here is a reflection of that? Probably not, as it would have a church on it, rather than a man and a boy... Besides the box of Frosties behind AQ, the box with SA... SA... on it is probably Saxa Salt, and the sauce bottle beside that look a bit like it might be YR Sauce."


Page 23. Panel 1. The “B.B. Years” is a reference to “the Big Brother Years.”

“Cavor” is a reference to "Professor Selwyn Cavor," from H.G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon (1901). Cavor appeared in League v1.

Panels 3-4. “...he’d been to Jamaica earlier this year...apparently he was there sparring with some mad scientist. Distant relative of our old Limehouse adversary, I’m told.”
This is a reference to Ian Fleming’s Dr. No (1958). In the novel Bond is sent to Jamaica to recover from having been poisoned by Rosa Klebb in From Russia With Love. In Jamaica Bond comes into conflict with Dr. Julius No, a Chinese-German scientist and Russian agent.
    The implication that Dr. No is related to Fu Manchu is a new one, although, as Myles Lobdell points out, "Ian Fleming publicly admitted that Dr. No was directly inspired by his reading Sax Rohmer at Eton. See John Pearson's 1966 biography The Life of Ian Fleming." Neil Chester adds, " I was just wondering if the line about Dr No being related to Fu Manchu isn't, in part, sparked by the fact that Fleming wanted his cousin Christopher Lee to play Dr No and, of course Lee also played Fu Manchu."

Panel 5. “I wonder if he’s still alive? The Devil Doctor?”
    “Not in England. The party purged Limehouse in ’48.”
In The Shadow of Fu Manchu (1948) Fu Manchu has relocated to New York. He would not be active in Limehouse for a number of years.

Panels 6-7. "Something's tucked inside have fallen out."
"Never mind. Probably nothing important."
Steve Higgins writes, "I figured these lines were references to the fact that Moore originally intended there to be additional supplements included in the HC, including the vinyl single, which DC nixed."


Panel 7. "God, look at this dust! This hasn't been opened for ages."
Keith Kole writes, "Call me crazy, but I have to wonder if the Black Dossier didn't fall backwards through time. The last entries are dated 1957, one year before the story starts. How much dust can accumulate in a year?"

Panel 9. “Are you sitting comfortably? Then we’ll begin.”
“Are you sitting comforably? Then I’ll begin” was the opening phrase of Listen with Mother (1950-1982), a BBC radio program for children. Joseph Nevin points out that Moore used this line in V for Vendetta.

Jonathan Carter writes, "Mina and Allan reading the Black Dossier in bed might be a deliberate parallel to 1984's Winston and Julia reading Goldstein's book in bed."

Page 24.  This is all written in newspeak, with newspeak logic.

Gunnar Harboe writes, "While clearly a joke on Newspeak, the text here is also poking fun at the legalese found in copyright notices, legal disclaimers, end-user license agreements (EULAs) and all the other small print we supposedly agree to whenever we pick up a book, play a DVD, install software, or take the plastic wrapping off pretty much anything.

There's also a reference here to T.H. White's The Once and Future King, with the famous dictum "Everything not forbidden is compulsory."


Page 25. For more on “H.W.” see Page 83.

“Greyfriars” is a reference to Greyfriars School, from the hundreds (well over a thousand) of British story paper stories set there and written by “Frank Richards,” a.k.a. Charles Hamilton. Greyfriars is a British public school whose students, including Billy Bunter and the Famous Five, have a wide variety of adventures, from student revolts to attacks by Yellow Perils.
    Myles Lobdell notes, "Greyfriars School is most famously and originally from Thackeray's novels (the Newcomes among others).  It was not original to Charles Hamilton, although Hamilton did move the school from Surrey to Kent."
     Pádraig Ó Méalóid writes, "It's probably truer to say that Frank Richards simply borrowed the name, rather than suggesting it was the same school."

“R.K.C.” See Page 83.

The “Holmes brothers” are a reference to Sherlock Holmes and Mycroft Holmes. Sherlock appeared in League v1 in flashback. Mycroft has appeared in both League volumes.

“Bessy.” See the notes to Page 86.  

“Gerry O’Brien.” See the notes to Page 13, Panel 2.

“Oliver Haddo” is a reference to W. Somerset Maugham’s novel The Magician (1907). Haddo was based on Aleister Crowley, and Crowley later used “Oliver Haddo” as a pseudonym. In The Magician Haddo (a version of Dr. Moreau) attempts to use magic to create life.
     Pádraig Ó Méalóid writes, "W Somerset Maugham met Aleister Crowley in Paris in 1897, and they disliked one another on sight, apparently. Maugham recollects meeting Crowley in this extract from A Fragment of Autobiography, written nearly fifty years later, which was included with later editions of The Magician."

“Trump” See Page 29.

“Prospero” is a reference to William Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1611). In the play Prospero, a wizard and the deposed Duke of Milan, gets up to hijinks on an island.

“Fanny Hill” is a reference to John Cleland’s Fanny Hill, Or, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1749). Fanny Hill, one of the most notable early works of English pornography, tells of Mistress Hill’s erotic exploits.

I’ve been unable to determine whether “Humphreys” is a reference to a real-life person or a fictional one, and to who. Myles Lobdell believes that it is a reference to "Mrs. Humphrey's, a print shop owner in late Georgian, Regency England.  Made famous in cartoons by Theodore Lane and James Gillray."

“Les Hommes Mysterieux” means “The Mysterious Men” in French. “Der Zwielichthelden” means “The Twilight Heroes” in German.
    Eduard Hapsburg writes, "does it make sense to point out to Alan Moore that the TWILIGHT HEROES are written wrong in German several times in the BLACK DOSSIER? It is DIE ZWIELICHT-HELDEN (with a dash, I'm afraid), definitely NOT "DER Zwielicht..." and much more definitely not "Zweilicht". Except, of course, if Alan Moore is poking fun at wrong spelling of german in old war comics ("Donner und Blitzen!!")."

“Rt. Hon. Bertram Wooster” is a reference to the immortal Jeeves & Wooster stories of P.G. Wodehouse. See Page 116 for more.

“Joan Warralson” is a reference to W.E. Johns’ Worrals, who appeared in a number of stories in Girl’s Own Paper and eleven novels from 1940 to 1950. She is a smart, independent, patriotic, and fearless pilot for the Woman’s Auxiliary Air Force during World War Two. She is a member of the 1946-1947 League. (See Page 148 below).

“Sal Paradyse” is a reference to Sal Paradise, the narrator of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road (1957). On the Road, the major novel of the Beat movement, is a stream-of-consciousness account of Kerouac and his friends traveling across America.

“Dr. Sachs” is a reference the titular character of Jack Kerouac’s Dr. Sax (1959). Dr. Sax is a scientist who travels to Lowell, Massachusetts, to destroy the Great World Snake, a Jörmungandr-like monster.

Page 26/On the Descent of Gods 1. "Haddo is what you'd call a 'black magician' who worked for us during WWII."
Robert Scott Martin writes, "the specifics of Crowley's wartime activities are controversial, but a good account is here. (As trivia, the Ian Fleming connection apparently resulted in Le Chiffre from Casino Royale being based on this particular "shady character.")"


Myles Lobdell notes that "On the Descent of Gods' is taken from Charles Darwin's paeon to human evolution, the Descent of Man."

The “fire at his Staffordshire estate in 1908” is a reference to the finale of The Magician, in which Skene, Haddo’s mansion, burns to the ground.

"...finally died destitute in Hastings a few years ago in 1947."
Robert Scott Martin notes that Haddo shares a death year with Crowley.


I believe “The Solstice” is a reference to Aleister Crowley’s magazine The Equinox (1909-1913, then intermittently). The Equinox is the official magazine of A:A:, the magic order Crowley established in 1907.

“...my own Liber Logos, dictated by an unseen presence in Cairo during 1904.” This is a further reference to things Aleister Crowley-an. “Liber Logos” means “Book of the Word” and is an analogue for Crowley’s own Liber Al vel Legis, the “Book of the Law,” which was supposedly dictated to Crowley by the Egyptian god Horus in Cairo in 1904.
    Jamaal White writes, "Liber legis was supposedly dictated by Aiwass (Crowley's holy guardian angel who in this case served as a middleman for 3 different gods nuit, hadit and ra hoor khuit (horus) although it did anounce the aeon of horus."

The “Elohim” are, in Genesis 6:2, a kind of angel who take the “daughters of men” for wives. Jason Adams writes, "In several cases in the Hebrew Bible, Elohim seems to refer to the God of Israel. (It is the third word in the Hebrew text of Genesis, for example.) In other instances, as you noted, it seems to refer to a class of angelic beings that came to Earth to mate with human women. I've read some theories that the use of Elohim, a word that can be a plural noun, in the early biblical texts is a remnant from even sacred texts of ancient polytheistic religious traditions of the Middle East. Additionally, the Raelian Movement (a UFO/sex cult) interprets Elohim to mean "those who came from the sky"--extraterrestrials that created life on Earth."

The “Great Old Ones” are a reference to the works of H.P. Lovecraft. In Lovecraft’s “Cthulhu Mythos” stories the Great Old Ones are a group of alien god-like beings of enormous size and power who transcend our understanding of time and space. They are currently imprisoned or sleeping but can be awakened by cultist worshipers.

“Johannes Suttle” is a reference to “Subtle,” from in Ben Jonson’s play The Alchemist (1610). Subtle is a rogue who poses as an alchemist.

In the fictional literary history of the Necronomicon (see below) as described by Lovecraft, the only reference to a 16th century translation is this, in Lovecraft’s “The History and Chronology of the Necronomicon": “A still vaguer rumor credits the preservation of a 16th century Greek text in the Salem family of Pickman; but if it was so preserved, it vanished with the artist R. U. Pickman , who disappeared early in 1926.”

In the works of Lovecraft “Abdul Alhazred” is the unfortunate 8th century Arab writer of the Al-Azif, which later became known as the Necronomicon (see below). Alhazred is known as the “Mad Arab” in the Lovecraft stories, and for good reason.

“Necronomicon” is a reference to the Necronomicon, which in the works of Lovecraft is a tome of forbidden knowledge so horrifying that it drives those who read it mad.

“Yuggoth” is, in the works of Lovecraft, another planet. In “The Whisperer in Darkness” Lovecraft describes Yuggoth in this way:
Yuggoth... is a strange dark orb at the very rim of our solar system... There are mighty cities on Yuggoth—great tiers of terraced towers built of black stone... The sun shines there no brighter than a star, but the beings need no light. They have other subtler senses, and put no windows in their great houses and temples... The black rivers of pitch that flow under those mysterious cyclopean bridges—things built by some elder race extinct and forgotten before the beings came to Yuggoth from the ultimate voids—ought to be enough to make any man a Dante or Poe if he can keep sane long enough to tell what he has seen...
Michael Prior writes, "I always understood that by "Yuggoth" the then newly discovered planet Pluto was meant, 'appropriately' named after the  Greek god of Hell/the Underworld. (Pluto was discovered in  February 1930, by which time Lovecraft started to write on  "The Whisperer in Darkness".)"

“Kutulu” is a reference to Cthulhu, one of the Lovecraftian Great Old Ones and a being trapped beneath the Pacific Ocean. “Kutulu” is one of the variant spellings of Cthulhu.

“A-Tza-Thoth” is a reference to Azathoth, one of the Lovecraftian Outer Gods (more powerful versions of the Great Old Ones). Azathoth, the “Blind Idiot God,” is described in “The Whisperer in Darkness” in this way: “the monstrous nuclear chaos beyond angled space which the Necronomicon had mercifully cloaked under the name of Azathoth.”

“Shub-Niggurath,” in the works of Lovecraft, is an alien being similar to the Great Old Ones. Shug-Niggurath is the “Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young,” a fecund being who gives birth to monstrosities.

“N’Yala-Thoth-Ep” is a reference to Nyarlathotep, one of the Outer Gods in the Lovecraftian mythos. Nyarlathotep, a.k.a. “The Crawling Chaos” and “The Three-Lobed Burning Eye,” is an ill-defined and amorphous being who “had risen up out of the blackness of twenty-seven centuries.”

“The Haunter of the Dark” is a reference to the Lovecraft story “The Haunter of the Dark” (Weird Tales, Dec. 1936). In the story a younger writer, Robert Blake, has an unfortunate encounter with “the Haunter of the Dark,” an avatar of Nyarlathotep. Micah Harris expands on this: " I didn't notice anyone pointing out that Robert Blake in the "The Haunter of the Dark" is supposed to be based on a young Robert Bloch. According to the "Encyclopedia Cthulhiana," Lovecraft chose "Blake" as Robert's surname as a play on "Bloch." Robert Bloch had killed a character who was supposed to be Lovecraft in his story "The Shambler from the Stars" as a tribute of sorts (I believe he got Lovecraft's permission to do so), so Lovecraft playfully did the same to Bloch/Blake in "The Haunter of the Dark.""

“Elder Gods” is a reference to a class of beings in Cthulhu Mythos stories written after Lovecraft’s death. In Lovecraft’s fiction the Outer Gods and the Great Old Gods are not deliberately inimical to humanity–rather, they are simply uncaring, as we are beneath their notice. After Lovecraft’s death August Derleth, in his story “The Return of Hastur,” proposed that the Great Old Gods were evil and were opposed by “the Elder Gods, of cosmic good.”

“R’Lyeh” is a reference to the city of R’lyeh, submerged beneath the Pacific Ocean and home to Cthulhu, who is not dead, only sleeping.

“Qlippothic” is a reference to the qlippoth, the cause of evil and suffering in Jewish mystical traditions, especially the Kabbalah.

In the Cthulhu Mythos the “‘Tcho-Tcho’ people” are an “abominable” race of short, hairless Burmese.

“Zara’s Kingdom” appears in Gilbert & Sullivan's Utopia Limited; or, The Flowers of Progress (1893).

Page 27/On the Descent of Gods 2. “The Arctic kingdom of Hyperborea” is a reference to Hyperborea, which in Greek mythology was the land “beyond the north wind,” far to the North. Myles Lobdell adds, "I think it would be useful to also touch on the fact that Hyperborea played an important role as a lost continent in theosophy (starting with Madame Blatavsky, as touched on by De Camp in his book Lost Continents), but, more importantly in this context that it was used by Clark Ashton Smith as a setting for his "Hyperborean cycle" of short fantasy stories that have become part of the Cthulu mythos; indeed, H.P. Lovecraft incorporated some of the fantasy elements first introduced here into his later stories." Peter Gilham noted that Hyperborea also appears in Robert E. Howard's work.

“Crom” appears in the fantasies of Robert E. Howard. Crom is the grim, brooding god worshiped by the barbarian Cimmerians, of whom Conan is one.

The “Melnibonean Empire” is the decadent empire from which came Elric in the “Elric of Melnibone” books of Michael Moorcock.

“Lords of Order warring endlessly with Lords of Chaos” is a reference to the Eternal Champion book cycle of Michael Moorcock, in which Law and Chaos, represented by the Lords of both, are in perpetual metaphysical struggle.

Arioch is one of the Lords of Chaos in the Moorcock books. He is the “Knight of Swords” and is the patron god of Elric.

Pyaray is another of the Lords of Chaos. He is an enormous red octopus and is the “Tentacled Whisperer of Impossible Secrets.”

"...devastation unimagined until last year's development and demonstration by our allies in America of the Atomic bomb."
Greg Daly writes, "Oliver Haddo's 'On the Descent of Gods' is dated 1941 (Page 25), yet in the article (Page 27) he refers to 'last year's development and demonstration by our allies in America of the Atomic bomb.' This implies a nuclear attack and an alliance in 1940. However, considering that we will later be told that - like in our timeline - the Second World War begins in 1939 (Page 47, Panel 1)and the British PM is still trying in 1941 to persuade the Americans to join them in the war (Pages 146-147), this suggests that there was a typo in the Dossier contents page, and that the date should instead read as 1946, the year before Haddo's death."


"...just as surely as the Trojan War in the tenth century B.C...."
Greg Daly writes, "Haddo's dating is far from reliable, though, as he places the Trojan War in the Tenth Century, whereas Orlando, a participant in the conflict, puts it in the Twelfth Century (Page 33, Panel 1).


Oberon the First is, in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, the consort to Titania, Queen of Faerie.

Page 28/On the Descent of Gods 3. “...the distinctly Faery-blooded Anne Boleyn, with her protruberant eyes and a sixth finger on each hand...”
In real life Anne Boleyn (c. 1501-1536) was rumored to have six fingers on her left hand. As Damain Gordon points out, Boleyn had very large, very dark, very noticeable eyes. I’m unaware of faeries having “protuberant eyes,” however.

“...reportedly unearthly monarch, Queen Gloriana the First...”
The world of League is an alternate history, in which certain elements of our history changed. One of these elements is the identity of the queen of England in the 16th century. In our world, that person was Elizabeth I (1533-1603), who ruled from 1558 until her death. In the world of the League, that person was Gloriana. She is “unearthly” because she is a true Faerie Queen. (See Page 43).
    Eric Henry astutely notes, "I wonder if Haddo's reference to Queen Gloriana the First implies that the England of the League has had more than one Queen Gloriana.  Traditionally a monarch is not referred to as 'the First' until there has been a second of that name crowned.  King Stephen and King John are referred to without number as they are the only English monarchs of those names."
    Myles Lobdell writes, "
Clearly, after the fall of the Big Brother government, things were put the rights, and the Wyndham family was restored to royal power.  The LOEG equivalent to the monarch of 1958 and present, Elizabeth II, would of course be Gloriana the Second.  Presumably, she continued reigning until that horrible disaster which replaced the Wyndhams with King Ralph."
    Gabriel Roth writes, "This is confirmed on p. 88, panel 1: Bunter says "Ever since the first Gloriana was queen," with a clear stress on the word first."

“...his wife Doll” is a reference to the prostitute Doll Common in Ben Jonson’s play The Alchemist.

“Edward Face” is a reference to Face, a crafty butler in The Alchemist. Subtle, Doll Common, and Face team up in The Alchemist to swindle various Londoners.
    Robert Scott Martin writes, "There's a double joke going on with Face, since John Dee ("Subtil") was also associated with the "notorious" fellow alchemist Edward KELLEY.  Arguably, Subtil is to Dee as "John Faust" would be to Cornelius Agrippa."

“John Faust” is a reference to the Faust myth. There was a real Faust, Georgius Faust, a wandering German mystic of the early 16th century who claimed to be, variously, an astrologer, an academic, an expert on magic, and an alchemist. His legend grew after his death because of his claims to mastery of magic, which the Lutherans took seriously, leading to stories that he had sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for advanced knowledge. Anecdotes began to be told about a “Johannes Faustus,” and eventually he became a figure of folklore, a man who wandered around Europe with two familiars, a horse and a dog, and was strangled by the Devil when his time was up.

The Book of Enoch is not, I believe, a reference to the various books which are falsely-attributed to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah, but rather to the book in which Dr. John Dee and his assistant Edward Kelley took dictation of the angelical language from a set of angels.
    Philp & Emily Graves write, "I think the reference to the Book of Enoch is possibly a double-allusion. Certainly the apocryphal Enoch talks of various Angelic beings (and is the reference for the Nephilim and Lilim, which are the offspring referenced on p26). Likely, therefore that Suttle (Dee) and Face (Kelley) communicate with the creatures from Apocryphal Enoch, and would then use such contact to write a LoEG version of Dee's Enoch."
    Greg Strohecker writes,
I think Moore is referencing the actual book "1 Enoch" from the pseudepigrapha, as well as the writings of John Dee and Edward Kelly. In 1 Enoch, there is a section where it describes how some of the "Watchers", who were fallen angels, took human wives and had children with them. Their descendents were a race of giants called the Nephillim (not unlike the Titans of Greek Mythology). Here's the link and quote from Wikipedia: "The first section of the book depicts the interaction of the fallen angels with mankind; Sêmîazâz compels the other 199 fallen angels to take human wives to have children." In the magical Enochian tradition “aethyrs” are various planes or worlds which surround and mingle with our own.
Robert Scott Martin writes, "Philip & Emily Graves are correct. The pseudoepigraphic Enoch is the story of the watchers and their relations with human women; "Enochian" is the system of ceremonial language pioneered by Dee & Kelley. Both apply."

Pádraig Ó Méalóid writes, "When Haddo writes "We may only speculate with regard to the offspring that may result from such couplings, but it is sufficient to remark upon the implication of a thriving, viable celestial stock, a divine lineage with the potential for both evolution or degradation over the successive aeons, as with earthly and material bloodlines" this is effectively implying that there is hidden in humans the ability to become more than human, as many of the members of the League have, in different ways."

The “Thessalian witch-goddess Smarra” is a reference to Charles Nodier’s “Smarra, ou Les Demons de la Nuit” (1821). In the story Lorenzo, an Italian, has a series of nightmares within nightmares, which culminate with Smarra, a Thessalian demoness, feeding on the lover of one of Lorenzo’s dream selves.
    Robert Scott Martin writes, "Smarra seems to be standing in from the BABALON familiar to Promethea readers and others and the closing motto subverts Crowley's "Love is the Law / Love Under Will."

“...or according to some accounts to have gone into self-imposed exile on a distant island, with his life prolonged by sorcerous means.” The implication here is that Johannes Suttle is Prospero.
    Robert Scott Martin writes, "I'm surprised you don't mention the triple identification of Dee to Subtil to Prospero here, the island exile and daughter Miranda."

“Don Alvaro” and “Biondetta” are references to Jacques Cazotte’s Le Diable Amoureux (1772). In Le Diable Amoureux a young Spanish nobleman, Alvaro, falls in love with the fetching Biondetta. Biondetta takes Alvaro to bed, where after his declaration of love for her she reveals herself to be the Devil. Only Alvaro’s faith and confession save him from damnation.

“Count von Ost” and “the Sicilian” are a references to Friedrich von Schiller’s “Der Geisterseher: Eine Gesichte aus den Memoires des Graf en von O” (1787-1789). In “Der Geisterseher” Graf von O falls under the spell of the Sicilian, a swindler.

The “Order of the Golden Twilight” is a reference to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, an English magical organization formed in 1888.

The “Ordo Templi Terra (O.T.T.)” is a reference to the Ordo Templi Orientis, or “O.T.O.,” a magical organization formed by Aleister Crowley in 1904. Philip & Emily Graves write, "We think it quite deliberate that the abbreviation is "O.T.T.", which is a common (UK?) shorthand for "Over The Top", and we believe that the name of the 'Ordo Templi Terra' is designed for precisely this effect, since OTT refers to things that are, well, outrageously exaggerated, ostentatious and for show!"

Page 29/Trump 1. Panel 1. The Trump is a riff on the various British story papers and comics of the 1940s and 1950s, which were visually similar to this. Pádraig Ó Méalóid writes, "In the film Hue and Cry (Ealing Studios, 1947), generally regarded as being the first of the Ealing comedies, the comic the boys in the film are reading is actually called The Trump. In the film, the comic is being used to send coded messages to criminals about jobs they're about to undertake.

Also note that Hue and Cry is one of the London Underground stations on pages 6 & 7.

Trump is also British slang for a fart, of course..."


Panel 2. “Selwyn Pike and Smiler” is a reference to the 1947 British crime comedy film Hue and Cry, in which a group of street boys read, in a story paper, about the exploits of English detective Selwyn Pike and his young sidekick Smiler. Pike and Smiler are spoofs on on the English detective character Sexton Blake. Blake was created in 1893, and his exploits appeared on a more or less continuous basis until 1968 (which, you’ll note, gives him longevity over that gauche arriviste Superman). Although the Sherlock Holmes stories were generally better written than the Sexton Blake stories, it was Blake, not Holmes, who was more commonly copied in the British story papers and comics. (Blake was more action-oriented and had a much superior Rogues Gallery). Dozens of Sexton Blake knockoffs appeared in the story papers in comics, nearly all following the name format of two syllables/one syllable. So: “Sexton Blake,” “Selwyn Pike.” “Smiler,” Pike’s young assistant, is a version of Tinker, Blake’s sidekick and informal ward.
    Stu Shiffman adds, "Even P. G. Wodehouse, in his novel Something Fresh/Something New (those UK and US titles), has the character of Ashe Marston writing “The Adventures of Gridley Quayle, Investigator” for the British Pluck Library of the vast newspaper, magazine and comic paper monolith Mammoth Publishing Company of George Alexander Pyke, Lord Tilbury (rather obviously based on the Harmsworth empire and Lord Northcliffe)."

Panel 3. “Those Hudson Girls” is a reference to the film Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962), about Blanche and Jane Hudson, two aging sisters and actresses. In this panel Jane is drawn to resemble Bette Davis, who played Jane in the film, and Blanch is drawn to resemble Joan Crawford, who played Blanch in the film.

Panel 4. Philip & Emily Graves note that one of the men in this panel resembles Charlie Chaplin, and "maybe Erich von Stroheim directing with riding crop?"
    John Dorrian writes, "I kind of liked this new theme Moore is playing with, where fictional counterparts stand in for real-life figures, i.e. Gloriana for Elisabeth 1, Prospero for Dr. Dee, Herr Hynkel for Hitler. But as we see in the Baby Jane sequence, Charlie Chaplin apparently existed in the League's world, which means both Chaplin and his fictitious creation (who look exactly alike, mind you, Chaplin having played Hynkel in the Great Dictator)) were "real"."
    Mark Coale wonders if that's not von Stroheim, but DeMille.
    Peter Sanderson writes,
I think that the person people think is Chaplin is really the cross-eyed silent screen comedian Ben Turpin.  Take a look at his eyes, and that's definitely not Chaplin's "Tramp" hat.   Nor is theman with the riding crop Erich von Stroheim, who was heavier, had less hair, anda less prominent nose, and whose stern screen personality as "the man you loveto hate" makes it unlikely he would be depicted grinning and going "wow."

But that is an interesting hypothesis about Chaplin and Hynkel co-existing in the world of "League."  Or is it Chaplin's famous character the Tramp  that exists in the world of "League," rather than Chaplin himself?  In "The Great Dictator," a barber (who is essentially the Tramp with clothes in better condition) switches places with his lookalike, Adenoid Hynkel.  The real Hynkel is imprisoned in a concentration camp, while the benevolent barber takes  his place as ruler of Tomania.  Should we assume that this is how World War II ended in Europe in the world of "League"?
    James Morrison writes, " I think this is Erich von Stroheim, not as himself, but as the director Max von Mayerling, later to become dogsbody to Gloria Swanson's Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard."
    Chris Cooper writes, "They might indeed by Chaplin and De Mille (Stroheim was bald, had a monocle, and wore Jodpurs). This makes sense that they'd be making porn since in the LOEG1 the Parisian tenement in which Dupin, Murray, and Quartermain catch Hyde listed the writers of the characters living in squalor (perhaps as tabloid muckrakers)."
    Otter writes, "Could the director be William Desmond Taylor? He had a lurid history with homemade pornography with his young starlets? The cartoon does resemble him, or even D.W. Griffiths."

“I’ll be jiggered if she hasn’t made a blue movie.” This is a reference to the pornographic films Joan Crawford is supposed to have made when she was in her twenties. Greg Strohecker writes, "There is a picture of Joan Crawford in Kenneth Anger's book Hollywood Babylon that is in the exact pose of the picture and with the exact expression on her face (Kevin O'Neill did a great job of copying it). The only difference is that the picture is of Joan Crawford with another nude woman."

Panel 5. “Blanch is up to her coat-hanger japes” is a reference to Crawford’s alleged thrashing of her daughter, Christina, with wire-hangers.
    Myles Lobdell notes the presence of a Golliwog doll in bed with the children. See Page 166, Panel 1 for why this is relevant.

Panel 6. Richard Dill writes, "Interestingly, in the panel where Jane runs over Blanche with the Hollywood hills in the distance and an American style mail-box in the foreground, there stand a quite obviously out of place British post box. I think this is a deliberate reference by O'Neill to the inclusion of familiar British high street items in British comics to make them supposedly more acceptable to British children. O'Neill himself had a loathsome job at the British reprint division of Disney comics where he laboriously replaced American fire hydrants and post boxes with British red pillar boxes and red telephone boxes."

Panel 7. Peter Sanderson and Jeff Patterson note that "little brother Rock" is a reference to Rock Hudson, and that his "Ladies scare me" comment is a reference to Hudson's homosexuality and to the homophobia of the British comics and story papers of the 1950s. Peter also wonders, as I do, if "Daddy" is a reference to anyone in particular.
    Andy Kunka writes, "The "Daddy" poster on the wall may be referring to the fact that Baby Jane has her big hit with the song "I'm Writing a Letter to Daddy."  I'm not sure if the picture references anyone in particular, but it looks a bit like Buster Keaton." Richard Dill writes, "In the movie, Baby Jane Hudson keeps a huge shrine-like pictue of her father and at on point sings to it her most successful song as a child star, 'My Daddy'."

Panel 8. The two figures in the lower right of the panel are Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.

Philip & Emily Graves write, "The words "Comic Cuts" are likely another piece of clever wordplay - Comic Cuts being the first weekly comic paper (1890), and this clearly being a 'cut' (censored) comic page."  Pádraig Ó Méalóid writes, "As well as being the first real weekly comic, Comic Cuts was also a term used to describe comics in general, now largely defunct, but is still to be heard used as such by elderly people."

"Some suppressed 'comic cuts' for you, regardling Orlando charlatan. Some dates contradict Almanac. R.K.C. says Orlando 'queer, and a pathological liar.'"
Keith Kole writes, "Cherry refers to Orlando as a "liar" or "charlatan" and a "transvestite" several times. I have to wonder why, out of all the outlandish tales the Black Dossier contains, only Orlando is singled out so vehemently as a fraud.  I wonder if it's the transvestite part that Cherry is actually objecting to and if he is merely protesting too much."
    Greg Daly writes, "The notes attached to 'Trump' by O'Brien are particularly interesting, not so much for O'Brien's observations that some dates in Orlando's tale contradict the Almanac, as for the fact that the notes are attached to a comic dated 22 August 1953, but are addressed to a man who supposedly died in 1952 (Page 83, Panel 6, Page 145, Panel 3). Is Big Brother in fact still alive?"

Page 30/Trump 2. “The Life of Orlando” is done in the style of the historical stories which appeared in British comics in the 1950s, down to the summary in the text of the first panel.  Pádraig Ó Méalóid writes, "The layout and particularly the colouring of The Life of Orlando here is very reminiscent of the historical strips that used to appear in Look and Learn, it seems to me, although that didn't start until 1962. There were also lots of strips of this kind in Eagle, which started in 1950. In a way the only problem with this strip being similar to the strips of the time is the fact that it's in colour, which a lot of them weren't at the time."

The Orlando of the strip is Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, the central character in the Black Dossier. Orlando appeared in Woolf's Orlando (1928) and is portrayed there as an immortal who changes sex over the centuries. The text piece in League v2 included her as a latter  member of the League. The Dossier greatly expands her personal history.
    Robert Scott Martin writes, "this section is reminiscent (to me at least) of Phra the Phoenician, a once-popular "occult adventure story" of an immortal antique. Chapter titles are similar reminiscent of the intertitles in the film ORLANDO, although this may be coincidental."
    Faithful readers of my work will know what I think of Phra.


Panel 1. The robot in this panel frustrated me, but I think Jack Kessler has it: "The 1937 plate might be a link to Murray Roberts' "The Raiders of Robot City" (The Latest Amazing Captain Justice Adventure) in THE BOYS' FRIEND LIBRARY .  London: The Amalgamated Press, May 6, 1937 (number 573)."

Panel 3. The “Seven Against Thebes” is a Greek myth, most classically described by Aeschylus in the play Seven Against Thebes (circa. 467 B.C.E.), about the conflict between Oedipus’ son Polynices and his supporters (the seven of the title) and Polynices’ brother Eteocles. Herms98 adds, "The sons of the Seven against Thebes who Orlando mentions have not yet avenged their fathers are the Epigoni, who in Greek mythology do eventually conquer Thebes."

Panel 4. In Greek myth Tiresias was the blind prophet of Thebes and was cursed by Hera to become a woman for seven years.

In Greek myth Manto is the daughter of Tiresias (later, of Hercules) and became a seer at Delphi.

Panel 5. Keith Kole writes, "Call me nitpicky, but the blind prophet Tiresias clearly "sees" Bio's male genitalia."

Page 31/Trump 3.  Panel 2. “...the Pharaoh Usermattra, called by some Ozymandias.” “Ozymandias” was one of the names of Pharaoh Ramesses II (c. 1303-1213 B.C.E.). “Ozymandias” is a transliteration of Ramesses’ formal, ruling name, “User-maat-re Setep-en-re.”
    Peter Sanderson points out that for most readers of the Dossier the name "Ozymandias" is likely to remind them of Ozymandias in Moore's Watchmen.

Panel 3. This panel is a reference to the Percy Shelley poem, “Ozymandias:”
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said -- "two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert ... near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lips, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings,
Look on my Works ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Panel 4. “Punt” was a land in eastern Africa which the ancient Egyptians conducted trade with. It is not known where exactly Punt was.

Page 32/Trump 4.  Panel 3. In the Allan Quatermain and Ayesha novels of H. Rider Haggard Kôr is the capital of a long-dead civilization.

Panel 4.  In the Allan Quatermain and Ayesha novels the Flame of Immortality burns in the caves beneath Kôr. Those who bathe in them are made immortal.

Panel 5. The “community of others who had bathed within the pool” is a reference to the City of the Immortals, which appears in Jorge Luis Borges’ “El Inmortal” (El Aleph, 1949). I’m unsure if the “oldest [who] had a sullen, troglodyte demeanor” is a reference to anyone in particular. Peter Svensson writes, "I think that Moore's implying that the "oldest" refers to a group, not an individual, and that those are a group of Neandertals or other such proto-humans." Michael Norwitz writes, "There are numerous immortal Neanderthals ... from King Kull to Philip Jose Farmer's Old Man Paley to L. Sprague de Camp's "The Gnarly Man" ... although I may be proven wrong I suspect this line about the troglodytes was a catchall to include anyone missing." Marcus Ewert writes, "I didn't think the 'sullen, troglodyte demeanor' meant that the oldest of the old were literally Neanderthals; in the original Borges story it quite  clearly shows that even the brilliant Homer becomes a gape-mouthed fool after living all those damn years - he can barely recognize the lines he once composed-  all that immortality just makes you gross and sluggish. Ursula LeGuin has a very similar depiction of immortality in her recentish book Changing Planes ("Island of the Immortals)"

Panel 6. In Greek mythology Memnon was an Ethopian king who fought on the side of Troy during the Trojan War.

“Ilium” is one of the alternate names for Troy.

Page 33/Trump 5. Panel 1. The date of 1184 BC given here for the Trojan War is the one assigned to it by the Greek scholar Eratosthenes of Cyrene.

The characters described here appeared in the Greek myths and the Television Without Pity-style recap of the Trojan War that is Homer’s Iliad.

"In Ilium, as Troy was then called..."
Keith Kole writes, "I would say the most famous line from Christopher Marlowe's Faust is "Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships, And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?" Faust is speaking of Helen of Troy.  Faust's assignation with Helen seals his fate."

Greg Daly writes, "The scene showing the Trojan War is intriguing in that it raises the notion of hero types. Aeneas and Orlando are easily identifiable, with Orlando armed in classic Mycenean fashion, wearing a boar's tusk helmet and carrying a figure-of-eight shield. The idea that Ajax is a 'confused brute' foreshadows the likes of Hyde, Caliban, Lancelot, and Beowulf - see below. I think Ajax is the huge crazed warrior without a helmet another warrior's neck. As for Odysseus as a 'shifty little swine', that would be a perfect description of any of the Bonds we see in the series. I'm inclined to think that the warrior with the crestless helmet in the foreground is Odysseus, not least because his profile rather resembles that of Campion Bond."

"Ajax a confused brute; Achilles a smug, invulnerable maniac; Odysseus a shifty little swine."
 Pádraig Ó Méalóid writes, "The characters listed here and their descriptions almost qualify them to be a very early prototype League."


Panel 3. “...loyal, ageless Bion.”
I’m not sure whether there is a specific mythological character (Greek or otherwise) named Bion who I’ve been unable to find, or if this is a backformation from “Albion,” one of the traditional names for Britain.
    Myles Lobdell corrects me and notes that Bion was the brother of Melampus, a ruler of Argos in Greek mythology.
    Jason Helms adds,
Bios is one of those original puns in Greek Philosophy. Depending upon where one puts the accent mark, it means variously bow or life. Heraclitus (frag. 48) says, the name of the bow is life, but it's task is death. Elsewhere (frag. 51) Heraclitus points to the unity of opposites and inherent tensions of life, seeing the bow as emblematic of the backturning (palintropos) characteristic of the unity of opposites which is life. Taken together, Bion can point to Orlando's own negotiation of the extreme's of "Fighting and Fucking" as s/he later puts it. It is also notable that Bion is the neuter form of Bios (which is masculine).
“Aeneas’ great-grandson Brutus banished for accidentally killing his father”
In the Historia Brittonium (circa 833 C.E.), the “history” of Britain from its founding to the 9th century, Brutus, the grandson (or great-grandson) of Aeneas, is credited with discovering Britain and being its first king. As a boy Brutus accidentally shot his father in the eye with an arrow and was banished for it.

Panel 4. This panel is an accurate recap of the events described in the Historia Brittonium.

Page 34/Trump 6.  Panel 2. In Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britannia (c. 1136 C.E.) Corin (or Corineus), the founder of Cornwall, was a companion to Brutus during the founding of Britain. Corin wrestled with the ogre Gogmagog and threw him off a cliff.
    I’m unsure what “Gogmageot” is a reference to. I see, per the redoubtable Ken Hite, that in at least one translation of the Historia Regum Britannia the name of the ogre is "Goëmagot," and I can't help but wonder of the "-geot" is a reference to Beowulf's Geats.

Panel 3. Geoffrey of Monmouth claims that London’s original name was “Trinovantum.”

Panel 5. King Mu (1001-947 B.C.E.) is reputed to have dined with Hsi Wang Mu, Queen of the Immortals, on Mount K’un Lun, the home of the Taoist paradise.

Damian Gordon corrects my initial confusion here: the “human-headed tiger named Lu Wo” is a reference to Lu Wu, the god who administers Mount K’un Lun. Lu Wu has a tiger’s body with nine tails, a human face, and tiger’s claws.

Page 35/Trump 7.  Panel 1. “She’d gained immortality by copulating three thousand men to death”
According to the myths, Hsi Wang Mu gained immortality by nurturing her “yin essence” through the absorption of energy from her sex partners. “Every time she had had intercourse with a man, he would immediately fall ill, but her own face would remain smooth and transparent.” And as she had no husband, she preferred sex with young boys.

Shawn Garrett writes, "This panel is a direct reference by O’Neill to the decadent painter Félicien Rops’ picture La Pieuvre (Octopus or Beach Polyp):"

Rops' La Pieuvre

"So, Hsi Wang Mu can then be seen, by inference, as a Lovecraftian Old One masquerading in humanoid diety form."

Panel 2. I’m not sure what “Vita” is a reference to. (Argh, I should have gotten this). Jason Fliegel writes, "Virginia Woolf based the novel Orlando on Vita Sackville-West, Woolf's close friend and lover. As Woolf wrote in her diary: "And instantly the usual exciting devices enter my mind: a biography beginning in the year 1500 and continuing to the present day, called Orlando: Vita; only with a change about from one sex to the other."" Jason adds, "I should have also mentioned that the name Vita, in addition to being a reference to Vita Sackville-West, is Latin for "life," just as Bio is Greek for "life."  (I don't remember -- Moore may mention this specifically when Orlando discusses changing his/her name from Bio/Bion to Vito/Vita).  So in addition to whatever references Moore may be making, it's a straightforward pun -- the character who is alive throughout the entire history of mankind is named "life."

Panel 3. In H. Rider Haggard’s She books--She: A History of Adventure (1886), Ayesha: The Return of She (1904), She and Allan (1919), and Wisdom's Daughter: The Life and Love Story of She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed (1922)–Ayesha, a.k.a. “She Who Must Be Obeyed,” is a 2000-year-old goddess worshiped in the African city of Kôr. In Ayesha: The Return of She Ayesha reappears in the Asian country of Kaloon

Hes, a.k.a. Fire Mountain, appears in Ayesha: The Return of She.

Panel 4. According to Roman myths Romulus and Remus, the twin sons of the priestess Rhea Silvia and the god Ares, were reared by a wolf and founded Rome. Legend further states that Romulus slew Remus over a dispute over which brother was supported by the gods and would give the city his name.

Panel 5. Semiramis is a legendary queen of Assyria and the wife of Ninus, the founder of Assyria. According Persica (c. 401 B.C.E.), the history of Persia written by the Greek historian Ctesias of Cnidus, Semiramis succeeded Ninus and led an invasion of India.

Page 36/Trump 8. Panel 1. “...since she tended to execute these the following morning.”
According to some myths Semiramis was particularly lustful. In Inferno Dante has her on the second level of Hell, among the lustful.

Panel 2. The Battle of Marathon (490 B.C.E.) was a major victory for the Smurfs over the forces of Gargamel, and prevented him from conquering Oz and Wonderland.

Panel 4. The Egyptian city of Alexandria was founded by Alexander of Macedon in 331 B.C.E., but the “sea-monster-plagued” and iron leviathans are reference to Monsters’ Park, mentioned in Maria Savi-Lopez's Leggende del mare (1920), a collection of myths and legends about the sea.

The “bathysphere” mentioned here is a reference to the Problemata of Aristotle, in which Alexander is lowered into the sea in a “very fine barrel made entirely of white glass.”

Page 37/Trump 9. Panel 2. Spartacus (c. 120-c.70 B.C.E.) was a gladiator/slave who led an unsuccessful slave uprising in 73 B.C.E.

“...everyone else apparently being named ‘Spartacus’.”
This is a reference to the 1960 film version of Spartacus. In the film (Myles Lobdell notes that this scene does not appear in the Howard Fast novel the film is based on), when the centurions come to punish Spartacus, who is a prisoner along with his men, all of Spartacus’ men stand up and claim they are Spartacus. (I’m summarizing: go here and you can see the scene for yourself).

Panel 3. Caesar’s invasion of Britain was done both as punishment for the Britons supporting the Gauls against the Romans and as the conquest of a economically valuable land.

Panels 4-6. The history here is accurate.

Page 38/Trump 10. Panel 1. The Roman historian Suetonius (c. 69-c.130 C.E.) records, in his De Vita Caesarum, that Tiberius indulged in a wide range of sexually cruel behavior, but Suetonius’ credibility as a historian is not great. (As a writer, though, he’s great fun to read).

The question of Caligula’s sanity is a debated one. He was ruthless, certainly, but also popular with the Roman people. The stories circulated about him, during his lifetime and afterward, vary in their depiction, from simple harshness and brutality to insanity (trying to make his horse Incitatus a consul, for example).

Panel 2. The history here is as given.

Panel 3. Pliny the Elder’s expedition to Pompeii was to observe the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius first-hand. Pliny’s nephew, Pliny the Younger, claims that Pliny was overcome by the poisonous fumes, but of the several people with Elder, only Elder died, so it is more likely that Elder, who was fat, had a heart attack.

Appolonius of Tyana (16-97 C.E.) was a wandering philosopher and teacher in Cappadocia.

Alexander of Abonoteichus claimed to be a student of Appolonius of Tyana. Alexander, later called “Alexander the False Prophet” by the Roman satirist Lucian of Samosata, spread the worship of the snake-god Glycon, which Alan Moore also worships.

Mark Elstob writes,
In the front left of the frame is Lurcio, a slave (and leading character) in the fondly remembered Seventies British sitcom "Up Pompei" (with one "i").  Drawn here to look like the popular comedian Frankie Howerd, who played the role.  In the same vein, the old man with the red toga is drawn to look like Max Adrian, who played Lurcio's owner, the wonderfully named Ludicrus Sextus and the young man to the right holding the slate is Ludicrus' insipid son, Nausius, who was forever writing odes of unrequited love, hence the slate.  The show was a bawdy, pun-ridden farce, theoretically based on the plays of Plautus, but clearly more indebted to "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum" and more specifically to the dozens of "Carry On" films that were churned out from the Fifties to the Seventies.
Gunnar Harboe writes, "The panel shows Pliny being attacked by zombies. The mention of "poison gas" having destroyed the city (in our world, Pompeii was destroyed primarily by eruptions of ash and rock from Vesuvius) probably means that this is a reference to Return of the Living Dead, where the poison gas "Trioxin" can raise the dead."

Panel 4. “...the sage Lucian, with whom I journeyd accidentally to the Moon, our ship transported by a monstrous waterspout.”
This is a reference to Lucian of Samosata’s True Story, in which Lucian and his companions are blown off course by a heavy wind, past the Pillars of Hercules, and have a series of adventures, one of which involves being propelled by a water spout to the moon.

The history of the emperors Heliogabalus and Julian given here is accurate.

Shawn Garrett writes, "I know this may seem like reaching but I’d like to point out that strangely perfect upright rectangle in the lunar distance on the far right… 2001?"

Page 39/Trump 11. Panel 1. In Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Prophetiae Merlini (c. 1130? C.E.) and Historia Regum Britannia the wizard Merlin is called “Ambrosius Merlinus,” a combination of the legendary Welsh mad prophet Myrddin ap Morfryn/Myrddin Wilt and the Roman war leader Ambrosius Aurelianus.

Panel 2. According to British myth Uther Pendragon, father of King Arthur, was a king of Britain, although I’m not aware that he was ever specifically associated with Cornwall except in his liaison with Igraine, the wife of Gorlois, the Duke of Cornwall. From their liaison came King Arthur.

In the early, Latin versions of the Arthurian mythology King Arthur is referred to as “Arthurus.”

Panel 3. The events described here are accurate in Arthurian myth. Herms 98 adds, "Lancelot is described as ‘monstrously ugly’.  I think this is specifically a reference to The Ill-Made Knight, the second book in T.H. White’s The Once and Future King, where Lancelot is ugly.  I believe the idea of Lancelot being ugly is one of the unique things White added for his book, like the idea of Merlin living backwards through time." Keith Kole writes, "Both Lancelot and Caliban closely resemble Hyde."

Greg Daly writes,
"1958, the year in which Black Dossier is set, was also the year in which the Candle in the Wind, the fourth part of T.H. White's Arthurian epic The Once and Future King, saw print, detailing the destruction of the dream that was Camelot. It can hardly be a coincidence then that in describing Arthurian Britain, Orlando refers to 'awesome, monstrously ugly Lancelot', who you can see here, hacking his way across the battlefield.

White's Lancelot, introduced in 1940's The Ill-Made Knight, is as brave and mighty as any other take on the character, but unique among Lancelots in being spectacularly ugly -- White describes him as ape-like. There's no doubt then that this is meant to be White's take on the hero, not least because, as Keith Kole rightly observes, there is a marked similarity between Kevin O'Neill's depictions of Lancelot, Caliban, and Edward Hyde.

On top of that, White's Lancelot is a sadist. It's not just that he's merely good at beating people up and killing them; he actively enjoys doing so and takes pleasure in inflicting pain on others. He's not just monstrously ugly, as Orlando opines, he is -- in effect -- himself a monster, slaughtering in the service of his queen. But that shouldn't surprise you, really, considering yesterday's observations on another rather more contemporary sadist .

I think it's fair to say that Lancelot's a far more attractive character than Bond, though. He may be a sadist, but he knows it, and is horrified by it. Deeply good, rather than ruthlessly amoral, his whole life is dedicated to controlling the beast that he is, to harnessing his monstrous tendencies so that his extraordinary abilities can be used for good, rather than evil.

It's rather tempting to consider Lancelot as a sort of proto-Hyde figure, considering not just his appearance but how Edward Hyde's character developed over the first two volumes of League.

It's also worth noting in this respect that O'Neill depicts Lancelot as looking suspiciously reminiscent of Sláine, the Celtic hero of 2000AD. Look at his armlet, and at that wide and ornate metal belt, and then note that that's pretty much all he's wearing: everyone else is wearing generic Celtic armour. Why? Well, the implication must be that that like Sláine and Cúchulainn, the Irish hero upon whom Sláine is largely based, Moore and O'Neill's Lancelot is warped , prone to berserker furies that transform him into a creature more like a beast than a man, and utterly invincible in battle. Echoes of Hyde again, methinks...
 
It's also striking that on the following page Beowulf (40.1) appears looking more than a little like Mike McMahon's depiction of Sláine, again complete with armlet and broad ornate metal belt. Orlando admits to not really having understood what Beowulf was, which raises that whole hero/monster question again. It's natural to see Beowulf as being in the same berserker model as Sláine and Hyde, considering his behaviour in the poem, and I can't help but think of the line in the new film where Grendel's mother notes that Beowulf is just as much a monster as her son."

Panel 4. According to French myth and the Song of Roland, the unbreakable, magic sword of Roland is Durendal (alternatively Durandal).

Panel 5. King Hrothgar is a figure in Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Danish myths and sagas. “Hierot” is a reference to Hrothgar’s hall Heorot in the epic Beowulf.

Page 40/Trump 12. Panel 1. The events here are as described in Beowulf, including Beowulf ripping the arm from Grendel’s body.

"I'm still not entirely sure what Beowulf was, actually."
Jorge Serna writes, "I think it refers to the debate concerning the translation of the poem. The same adjective (aglæca/æglæca) is applied to Beowulf, Grendel and Grendel's mother, is translated as "hero" for Beowulf but when applied to Grendel is translated as "monster, demon, fiend". From Wikipedia: 'Doreen M.E. Gillam's 1961 essay, "The Use of the Term 'Æglæca' in Beowulf at Lines 893 and 2592" [...] suggests: "Beowulf, the champion of men against monsters is almost inhuman himself. [Aglæca/æglæca] epitomises, in one word, the altogether exceptional nature of the dragon fight. Beowulf, the champion of good, the 'monster' amongst men, challenges the traditional incarnation of evil, the Dragon: æglæca meets æglæcan."' That's why in 'Black Dossier' Orlando isn't sure what Beowulf is."


Panel 2. Siegfried is a hero of various Scandinavian myths. In the German peom Niebelungelied (c. 1200?) and in the later operas of Wagner based on the Germanic myths Siegfried is a dragon-slayer.
    Gunnar Harboe corrects me: "Siegfried is not properly a hero of "various Scandinavian myths". He is a hero of a legend, believed to have originated in Germany (the action is set by the Rhine in most versions), which was known throughout the Germanic world, and is known to us in a number of Scandinavian versions, as well as later German manuscripts and an Anglo-Saxon one (a short story-within-the-story in Beowulf)."

Panel 3. In the Norse myth of Ragnarok the world ends after a final conflict between the giants and the gods. One of those gods, Thor, can be seen in this panel, striking his hammer against the head of the serpent Jormungandr. (And for those of you who’ve always wished that Alan Moore would write Thor for Marvel Comics, this panel is likely as close as you’ll get).

Panels 3-4. “...a cataclysm mirrored in the Earthly realm by a collision with a weighty meteoric rock, its dust veiling the heavens for three years. During this endless Fimbul-Winter, when it seemed the moon had been devoured....”
In Norse myth the Fimbul-Wiinter was the three years in which there is no summer, just endless winter and snow. Historically, there were very cold summers during the years 536-540 C.E., causing widespread crop failures and starvation. The prevailing theory for the cause of this was that the impact of a comet hitting the earth spread debris across the atmosphere and created a version of “nuclear winter.”

Panel 5. There may have been a historical person named Roland who died at the Battle of Roncevaux (August 15, 778 C.E.), but the reference here is to the fictional battle as described in the Song of Roland, in which the Saracens slaughter Roland and all of his men.

Page 41/Trump 13. Panel 1. “Orlando” is the Italian version of “Roland.”

Hārūn al-Rashīd (763-809 C.E.) was the greatest of the Caliphs of the Abbasid dynasty, and his rule is generally seen as the height of the Persian Golden Age.

Scheharezade (alternatively Scheherazade and Shahrazad) is the heroine of the One Thousand and One Nights (c. 850 C.E.) better known as The Arabian Nights.

Sindbad the Sailor appears in The Arabian Nights.

Jason Adams writes, "The flying carpet seen in the skies over Baghdad is probably the magic carpet of Tangu (aka "Prince Housain's carpet") from One Thousand and One Nights."

Panel 2.  “...’til he left on that eighth voyage from which he never would return.”
In The Arabian Nights Sindbad sails on seven voyages. Various sequels have been written ever since describing Sindbad’s eighth voyage. Chad Underkoffler, Man Among Men, notes "Edgar Allan Poe wrote a tale called "The Thousand and Second Tale of Scheherazade". It depicts the 8th and final voyage of Sinbad the Sailor, along with the various mysteries Sinbad and his crew encounter; the anomalies are then described as footnotes to the story."

“...Haroun’s grandson Al Wathik Be’llah...”
Al-Wathiq ibn Mutasim, the Abbasid Caliph from 842-847 C.E., was the grandson of Hārūn al-Rashīd.

Panel 3. The contents of this panel are a reference to William Beckford’s novel Vathek (1786). Vathek, an Arabesque Gothic novel, is about the downfall and damnation of Vathek, the grandson of Hārūn al-Rashīd.  The events of the novel are as described here.

Panel 4. “Prester John” was a legendary figure in Europe from the 12th to the 17th century. He was supposedly the Christian ruler of a nation somewhere in the East.
Panel 5. “...I helped Blondel and his minstrel underground free Richard, called the Lionheart, from prison.”
Blondel de Nesle was a 13th century French troubadour who, according to the Récits d'un Ménestrel de Reims (c. 1250?), helped rescue Richard the Lionheart, who had been captured and imprisoned in 1192 by King Leopold V of Austria.

Page 42/Trump 14. Panel 3. The history of Constantinople is as described here.

Panel 4. “I posed for Leonardo, even though I was becoming a man at the time. I remember he kept asking me why I was smirking.”
This is a reference to the mysterious smile of the Mona Lisa in Leonardo da Vinci’s portrait of her.
    Myles Lobdell writes, "the mixed gender and sexual ambiguity/androgyny of the Mona Lisa is sometimes seen as one of the most compelling attributes of the portrait, hence the importance of Orlando's changing genders at this time."

Panel 5. "I was apprenticed to the sorcerer Johannes Faust, whereby I renewed my acquaintanceship with Helen, whom I had not seen since Troy."
Shawn Garrett writes, "this linking of Faust and Helen of Troy is specifically from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s FAUST (Part One) (1808)." Jason Helms demurs: "As for the connection between Faust and Helen, I believe Marlowe was the first to make this connection, and maybe even the most notable since we still use his "Face that launched a thousand ships" line in reference to her." Tim Toner also pointed this out: "Actually, Christopher Marlowe did it first--Scene XIII, which gives us the line of perfect iambic pentameter: Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?" Janez Grm writes, "the names Faust and Helen of Troy have been connected many centuries before Marlowe. I first read this in one of the volumes of "History of Religious Ideas" by Mircea Eliade. Simon Magus, presumably the first christian heretic, called himself Faustus ("the favoured one") and he travelled around with a Phoenician prostitute Helene, who said that she was a reincarnation of Helen of Troy. There's no really good link on the web for this information, at least there's no site that includes all of this together so I just suggest everyone to go look this up in some book."

Page 43/Trump 15. Panel 2. “...Gloriana, England’s Queen, daughter of Henry VIII and faerie half-breed Nan Bullen.”
Queen Gloriana is a literal faery queen. She has six fingers on her hand, as Queen Elizabeth was rumored to have and as Elizabeth’s mother Anne Boleyn was rumored to have. One explanation bruited about for Boleyn’s six fingers was that she was half-faerie. “Nan Bullen” is a reference to Anne Boleyn, with “Nan” being a traditional nickname for “Anne” and “Bullen” being the original version of “Boleyn.”
    Jarett Kobek calls bs on the Boleyn-as-half-faerie statement:
Has anyone sourced the supposed rumor that Anne Boleyn was a fairy? By no means am I an expert in the field, but I have banged around a bit with the Tudors, and I've got to say this is a new one on me. From what I gather, the primary source for the six-fingers of Anne Boleyn is Nicholas Sander's "On the Origin and Progress of the English Schism", a Catholic work in Latin which has a pretty salacious description of Boleyn. The text infers that Boleyn was somehow the daughter of Henry VIII (don't ask me), but no where does it claim her to be a fairy, or an Elf, or whatever the actual period phrasing would have been.

I tend to the read the idea of Gloriana's mother being an elf as Moore making a literal connection between the allegory of Spenser's Fairie Queene and Elizabeth I rather than being sourced in an old time rumor.
Panel 3. See Page 53. Marcus Ewert further notes that a passage about this appears in the Virginia Woolf novel. It does, at the beginning of Chapter One:
He--for there could be no doubt of his sex, though the fashion of the time did something to disguise it--was in the act of slicing at the head of a Moor which swung from the rafters. It was the colour of an old football, and more or less the shape of one, save for the sunken cheeks and a strand or two of coarse, dry hair, like the hair on a cocoanut. Orlando's father, or perhaps his grandfather, had struck it from the shoulders of a vast Pagan who had started up under the moon in the barbarian fields of Africa; and now it swung, gently, perpetually, in the breeze which never ceased blowing through the attic rooms of the gigantic house of the lord who had slain him.
Panel 5.  The group seen here is the first known League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, referred to in League v2 as “Prospero’s Men.” They are:
So, from left to right, we see: Quixote, Owemuch, Sprite, Prospero, Caliban, Christian, St. Clair, and Orlando.

Page 44/Trump 16. Panel 1. “...the spectral Arctic ‘Blazing World’”
The Blazing World is from Observations upon Experimental Philosophy. To which is added the Description of a New Blazing World. Written by the Thrice Noble, Illustrious and Excellent Princess, The Duchess of Newcastle (1666), by Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle. The Blazing World is an archipelago of island which extends from the North Pole through the Greenland and Norwegian Seas almost to the British Islands.

Panel 3. Paul Nestadt writes,
Orlando returns to his immortalizing pool for no reason other than to carve his new name on the map beside it. Kevin draws this scene out, along with an image of the map itself, an elongated map of Africa with 2 x's and the word ORLANDO written next to the lower x. What could this be a reference to?

It was a common myth of the 14th to 18th century that somewhere there existed a Fountain of Youth, that could bestow youth and immortality. Most famously, Ponce De Leone, then governor of Puerto Rico, was convinced by local native myth that the Fountain of Youth existed somewhere north of Puerto Rico and somehow got the idea that this meant midland florida along the eastern coast. The fountain he ended up deciding on is located in St Augustine, FL where there is now a themepark type "historical site". If we see Kevin's map as florida, the peninsula stretching out towards the then known world of the carribean (not such a stretch), then the 2 x's are perfectly lined up to be Orlando, FL and St. Augustine, FL respect vely. St. Augustine is located due north and very slightly east of Orlando in about the same ratio to on a map of Florida as drawn in Kevin's map. This map alongside an african fountain of youth could have given someone the idea that the fountain or a similar one was located in St. Augustine, if that someone was a Carribean explorer like Ponce de Leon.

Of course, this presupposes that Orlando, FL was known as Orlando at the time.. but it was actually not named that until 1837... but how nitpicky can we be? There is no other explanation for this panel being awkwardly thrust into the narrative.

That is to say: 'Orlando's name inscribed on the map by the fountain of youth may be a reference to Ponce de Leon's search for a fountain of youth just north of Orlando, Florida'

Panel 4. This group here is the 18th century League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, first glimpsed in League v1 and described in more depth in League v2. They are:
For more on “Brobdignag’s giant wars,” see Page 66.

Page 45/Trump 17. Panel 1. For more on “the trio’s annual sojourns through erotic Europe,” see the text section of League v2 and the Fanny Hill section (Pages 57-72) of the Dossier.

“Twilit Horselberg” is a reference to Horselberg, a.k.a. Venusberg, is from Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser (1845). The more erotic/pornographic elements of Horselberg were added by Aubrey Beardsley in his Under the Hill (1897).

Panel 2. “...superhuman aesthete Fortunio...”
This is a reference to Theophile Gautier’s Fortunio (1837), in which the gorgeous, aloof aesthete Fortunio is fruitlessly pursued by the beautiful courtesan Musidora, who fails to win his love because Fortunio’s tastes are too refined for drab Europe.
    Shawn Garrett writes,
I just wanted to point out that Fortunio is a strange figure, much more complex and resonant with the upcoming world of LOEG than may be made apparent by your summation. It’s been a few years since I’ve read the story but Fortunio’s origins strangely mirror some of Doc Savage’s,at least in the idea of a child deliberately raised in a controlled environment by an experimenting parent. Fortunio is denied nothing he desires as a child and this makes him a “superhuman aesthete” as the book says but also underlays his horrifying secret – beneath his house lies a charnel pit filled with the bodies of men who crossed or vexed him and whom he killed without remorse.
“...or ambiguous Mademoiselle de Maupin...”
This is a reference to Theophile Gautier’s Mademoiselle de Maupin, double amour (1835), in which Madeleine de Maupin, always in search of the perfect love, is always disappointed.
    Shawn Garrett writes, "de Maupin mirrors Orlando in being a women who dresses as a man and so becomes romantically involved with both men and women, so we see “normal” humans mirroring the “fantastic” through invention and creativity."

Panel 3. “...at the monastery So Sa Ling, I was captured by Bon sorcerers....”
This is a reference to A Tibetan Tale of Love and Magic (1938) by Alexandra David-Neel. In the book, a travelogue, a Tibetan bandit tells Neel the story of the monastery of the Bon sorcerers.
    Tim Anselm writes:
Bon Po (literally "men of Bon"... or "men of Tibet"... the only people who don't call Tibet something that sounds like "Tibet" are the Chinese and Tibetans... "Tibet" is from an Arabic cartographer's map saying 'Tubbat' or "the highlands" or "the high lands of Bon" by way of Turkish and Persian transliterations.

Bon is :meant: to be the animist religion that was in Tibet before Padmasambhava tamed all the pagan deities, but from what little contact I have had with it, it seems to me that the Buddhists had done a good job of eradicating almost the whole of it, and the Bon Po were forced to make stuff up subsequently based on what they could remember.

David-Neel picks up on the boogie-man image of Bon that the Buddhist clerical authorities put about. (Not that you'd think it now, but prior to the Chinese invasion the Buddhist schools were very blood-and-thunder, and scapegoated Tibet's small Muslim and Bon communities endlessly.)

All the Tibetan Buddhist schools have practices involving meditating on the impermanence of the body using human skin and bones (some times dressing up in it). There's no top soil in Tibet, hence sky burial and exhumation burial, and a greater familiarity with human remains generally. Not heard of people being turned into ointment though.

Orlando being in Tibet in 1906 leaves open the possibility that he/she was part of Sir Francis Younghusband's British invasion in 1904.

Depending on the correspondence between our own timeline and theirs, Quatermaine and Murray's presence in Tibet in 1906 suggests they may have been monitoring events in Lhasa, given that a power vacuum had opened up following the Ninth Dalai Lama's escape to Urga, facilitated by the Tsarist agent Agvan Dorjiev.

It is widely believed that in the previous decade Dorjiev had received many secret lessons from the Panchen and other lamas on the Shambala myth. The Shambala myth has now been endlessly analysed due to its popularisation by the Theosphists and then twentieth century lamas, especially Chogyam Trungpa, who famously was Allen Ginsberg's teacher.

(I used to live at Samye Ling which Trungpa cofounded. Its library is a treasure trove of batty Theosphical and counter culture tomes, including some of the Arthurian and other mythos that Trungpa read before making his move to the USA. His mission was to try to translate the concepts of tantra into Western terms, especially that of devotion to a teacher, which later on involved him getting his female students to dress up as French maids).

However, at the turn of the twentieth century, teachings of - and knowledge about - Tibetan Buddhism that are commonplace now took a lifetime of obedience and prayer for its students to acquire.

Though often interpreted as being a literal, but fragmented, historical recollection of a real culture - possibly in Siberia, possibly to the North of the Chang Tang desert, the Ghandaran culture or Sutlej valley of present-day Pakistan, or the Silk Road cities of East Turkestan, though some speculate it may even be a fractured memory of the Srivijayan kingdom of modern-day Sumatra (giant rats anyone?) - the esoteric aspects of Shambala myth have obvious correspondences with the ideas of the 'Blazing World'.

Specifically, the Kalachakra teaching predicts that - when the world declines into war and greed - the twenty-fifth Kalki king will emerge from Shambhala, a literal 'Pure Land' of enlightened beings to the North of Tibet, with a huge army to vanquish "Dark Forces" and usher in a worldwide Golden Age.

We can speculate whether Murray, Quatermain and Orlando were brought together by intelligence pertaining to the balance of temporal power in Central Asia at the time. Or if in piecing together their own intelligence from numerous lifetimes of travel, and scraps of information that may have corresponded with secret Tibetan knowledge - then travelling back to England by circuitous way of the North Pole - they were by then pursuing their own lines of inquiry.
Panel 4. “...the azure Mount Karakal and dragon-blazoned Shangri-La....”
Mount Karakal and Shangri-La appear in James Hilton's Lost Horizon (1933). Marcus Ewert writes, "Orlando and the 'willing lama' are humping in a very traditional posture (sitting cross-legged on each other's laps) for Tibetan/Tantric Buddhist  iconography: it's called a yab-yum image. It represents the unification of esoteric energies that are gendered male and female, so it's very right-on for Orlando. Plus it's an image of ritual copulation, which of course Orlando would be  intrigued by/conversant in. Furthermore, Tibetan Buddhism has a lot of  Bon-influence, though thankfully not the "young man ointment" of the preceding panel..."

Panel 5. If the whale in the iceberg is a reference to anything in particular, I’m unaware of it. (Moby Dick, maybe?)
    Daniel Marks writes, "do you think it might be one of the 'blazing world' whales that went astray? If you compare the two, they seem to be of the same genus, sperm whales. Moby Dick was a Sperm whale (or 'Folio Whale' in Melville's text), but if the one in the iceberg was Moby, there might have been some reference to the harpoons that struck him but didn't kill him, as whales who survive carry them around with them... A whale frozen in ice is perhaps also a fitting metaphor in Orlando's segment of the text, as s/he isn't going to grow old either."
    Paul Rush writes, "
I believe the whale in the iceberg is a reference to the 1974 film "The Island at the Top of the World", where explorers go to the north pole in search of the place where whales go to die, but instead find a paradise inhabited by vikings."

    Brad Ricca writes, "the whale in the iceberg probably is Moby-Dick because of the variety of spears stuck in his hide (which Melville describes again and again).  But in true League fashion, the whale may also be Mocha-Dick, Moby's supposed real-life counterpart and inspiration who may have sunk the Essex in 1820.  Mocha is described in Knickerbocker Magazine in 1939 as 'thou famed leviathan, scarred like an iceberg, who so long did'st lurk in the Oriental straits of that name.'"

Page 46/Trump 18. Panel 1. “I strived alongside her, Allan, the thief Raffles, and occultist Carnacki to avert disaster at King George’s coronation.”
This is a reference to the events of League v3.

“Raffles” is a reference to A.J. Raffles, the creation of E. W. Hornung. Raffles, who first appeared in Cassell’s Magazine in 1898, is one of the best known of the gentleman thieves.

“occultist Carnacki” is a reference to William Hope Hodgson’s occult detective Thomas Carnacki, who appeared in six stories in The Idler and The New Magazine between 1910 and 1912. John Sherman corrects me: "Six stories were originally collected and published, but when August Derleth’s Arkham House re-published the stories, he found three others, making a total of nine stories."

Panel 2. “In 1913, assisting the team against French counterparts Les Hommes Mysterieux, I nearly died battling the albino, Zenith, in pounding rain atop the Paris Opera.”
See Pages 114-115.

“...the albino, Zenith” is a reference to Monsieur Zenith, the Albino, one of the arch-enemies of British storypaper detective Sexton Blake. Created by George Norman Philips, a.k.a. Anthony Skene, Monsieur Zenith is a world-weary, opium-addicted, danger-loving Gentleman Thief.
    Mario di Giacomo writes, "Note that Zenith appears to be using a black sword. More fuel for the Zenith=Elric flames."

Panel 3. “...penitent bandit A.J. Raffles, who’d lose his life during the conflict.”
In the original Hornung stories Raffles did eventually become exposed as a thief and regret his crimes. He volunteered for action in the Boer War and lost his life in combat. Naturally, every sequelist has refused to accept that end for Raffles.

“At the Battle of Mons, I was lucky enough to see Agincourt’s phantom bowmen aiding the English.”
This is a reference to the Angels of Mons. At the Battle of Mons (Aug. 22-23, 1914) a group of British troops, though grossly outnumbered, temporarily defeated the attacking Germans. On Sept. 29, 1914, Arthur Machen published the story “The Bowmen” in the London Evening News. “The Bowmen” purports to be the first-hand account of a soldier at Mons who witnessed English archers, from the Battle of Agincourt, driving off the Germans. This story was taken to be true, and thanks to the foibles of human psychology many have claimed that it is and that they saw the bowmen.

John Dorrian writes,
Amidst the group of soldiers in the left of the panel watching the phantom archers stands 2 very familiar faces to fans of British comedy: the WW1 versions of Edmund Blackadder and his cretinous sidekick, Baldrick. There are a few other soldiers with them who are (possibly) supposed to be the other characters from Blackadder Goes Forth, but they don't really resemble the actors Hugh Laurie or Tim McInnerry, whereas O'Neill got perfect likenesses for Rowan Atkinson and Tony Robinson. (One of the other soldiers has a moustache, and it's possible he's supposed to be Kevin Darling, but he doesn't particularly look like IcInnerry.)
Peter Sanderson writes, "The presence of Blackadder and Baldrick is particularly appropriate, since the "Blackadder" TV series resembles the "League" books in spanning centuries of British history and working in references to many historical figures and even a literary character:  the Scarlet Pimpernel turns up in "Blackadder the Third."

Stu Shiffman demurs: "I dunno, I don’t think that the figure next to Captain Blackadder is Baldrick. I think that it’s the classic British World Wat I cartoon character Old Bill of “A Better ‘Ole” fame, created by Captain Bruce Bairnsfather. Bruce Bairnsfather's cartoons were to the British public during World War I what Bill Mauldin's cartoons were to be in World War II. His "If you know of a better 'ole - get to it" may be the most famous cartoon of all time. See the Bruce Bairnsfather site."

Ken Shinn writes, "Stu is right about Old Bill - however, all three of these characters are present at the left of the panel. At extreme left, with his trademark round spectacles and beaky, reddened nose (almost all that can be seen of him) is Private Baldrick: beside him is Captain Edmund Blackadder; and at the right of the trio, sure enough, is Old Bill."

Panel 4. “Poor Agatha Runcible’s set” is a reference to Evelyn Waugh’s Vile Bodies (1930), about the smart London set and Agatha Runcible, who nearly burns herself alive.

For more on the Woosters, see Page 116.

I know I should get “The Claytons” as a reference, but I’m drawing a blank. Damian Gordon and Eric Schaefges wonder if it’s a reference to Jane Clayton, partner to Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan, a.k.a. John Clayton. Vandy Beth writes, "The first Tarzan book was published in 1914, and was set in the present day. By the end of the book Tarzan had returned to England, claimed his birthright as John Clayton, Earl of Greystoke, and married Jane Porter. In subsequent books it was made clear that the Claytons divided their time between the Greystoke estate in England and their plantation in Africa (that had been his parents' ambition in the first place, before the tragic shipwreck that led to John Jr. being raised by apes). So, Tarzan and Jane would have been young rich marrieds in the 1920s, in England some of the time, and so they're almost certainly the "Claytons" referred to by Orlando In Chapter 9, Panel 4 of his life story."

“Jay and Daisy” is a reference to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925) and Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan.

Chris writes, "the person getting hit by the car may be Myrtle Wilson, the wife of George Wilson, who was killed in a hit and run with Daisy (but in that pic it may be Orlando who was the driver)."

Panel 5. Mark Coale points out the "N" logo on the captain's sleeve. That's Nemo's logo, but as this is the 1930s this can't be the original Captain Nemo, but rather his...son? Damian Gordon correctly adds, "...or daughter?"

Page 47/Trump 19. Panel 1. “...the dictator Adenoid Hynkel” is a reference to Charlie Chaplin’s film The Great Dictator (1940), in which Hitler-analogue Adenoid Hynkel becomes dictator of Tomania. Peter Sanderson writes, "So does this mean that in the world of "League" Adenoid Hynkel was the Fuhrer--or as "The Great Dictator" puts it, "Der Fooey"--of Germany?  Or was Germany conquered by Tomania, Hynkel's country in "The Great Dictator"?"

“...aces such as Bigglesworth” is a reference to W.E. Johns’ aviator James "Biggles" Bigglesworth, who appeared in 102 novels and story collections from 1932 to 1970. Biggles is Britain’s greatest air ace and a most successful spy, and begins fighting Britain’s enemies at age seventeen during World War One.

“Hebblethwaite” is a reference to Ginger Hebblethwaite, Biggles’ wingman.

“Visiting yank G-8 (who seemed, frankly, bonkers)"
This is a reference to Robert J. Hogan’s G-8, who appeared in 111 stories in G-8 and His Battle Aces and Dare-Devil Aces from 1933 to 1944. G-8 was the greatest of the pulp air aces, although in his pulp appearances he was only ever active during World War One.
    Shawn Garrett writes, "I’m sure you’re quite familiar with Philip Jose Farmer’s Wold Newton stuff and his controversial theory that G-8 was The Shadow was The Spider (because he was nuts). I just thought this might be Moore’s sly “tip of the hat” to that."
    Patrick Reumann writes, "You quote from Shawn Garrett  about PJF theory that G-8 was latter the Shadow and also the Spider. Farmer suggested that in his Tarzan Biography, but he latter Change his mind in his Doc Savage bio. In his Sherlock Holmes book "The adventure of the Peerless Peer"  He has both the Shadow and G-8 as two different people. In the case of G-8, Farmer has someone say that G-8 is a great pilot, but that every so often, he starts reviving about giant Vampire bats or Giant Cockroachs. I suspect that that what Moore is refering to."

Myles Lobdell writes, "If you look at the aircraft designs on Page 47/Trump 19. Panel 1, you can see that many of the craft shown are clearly jet or rocket powered, not recognizable historic designs of the time, even though the scene seems to be taking place in 1939, and jet fighters would not become common until late in the war.  This is a clear demonstration of the futuristic tech of the LOEG universe, and a bit of foreshadowing on the commonplaceness of rockets shown in the scenes ahead."
    Drake writes,
Not to be contrary but - the German jet to the left, with the teardrop hull, is the real life Messerschmitt Me 163 - a rocket powered fighter used for bomber intercept. Introduced in 1944 and from what I understand, not very effective.

The German fighter in the rear - the one resembling a V1 flying bomb - resembles a proposed piloted version that I've heard of but, to best of my knowledge was never used. I think the Japanese built one as a kamakaze, that they called the Oka.

In real life both aircraft were desperate measures against an ever growing Allied air force.  Here they seem to be front line, production aircraft and are both used earlier in the war than in the real world - which I think takes us right back to this being a display of how the League's world is more advanced.

Page 48/Trump 20. Panel 1. "Trump Traveler's Club."
There was a children’s comic strip called “Simon and Sally” in the British comic Robin, beginning in 1953, and this may be a reference specifically to that, or to the strips like it that appeared in British comics of the 1950s. Ed Berridge writes, "the 'Trump Traveller's Club' could be a possible reference to the 1960's Doctor Who  strip that appeared in TV Comic, in which siblings John and Jillian travelled with their grandfather Dr. Who - probably though it's just supposed to evoke that period of children's comics."
    Argh. Matthew Maxwell points out something I should have gotten: "Uncle Bernard is Bernard Quatermass, professor of physics and subjugator of the uncanny in the trio of Quatermass films, the third of which is QUATERMASS AND THE  PIT (released as FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH in the US.) "

Panel 2. “Blackgang Chine” is an actual park on the Isle of Wight. Chris Mirner writes, "you mention that Blackgang Chine is an actual park on the Isle of Wight (panel 2), which it is, but the reference to an Interplanetary Zoo is, I believe, a tip of the hat to Dan Dare.  Such a Zoo on the Isle of Wight appear in 'Operation Triceratops' which would appear to be from the fourth Eagle annual (1954), and is included in the second volume of Operation Saturn." Peter Gilham writes, "I thought it worth mentioning that at the real-life amusement park at Blackgang Chine, one of the attractions is a series of life-sized model dinosaurs -  which I well remember from my childhood holidays there (and I understand that these now include animatronic ones)."

Panel 3. The “Tralfamadorian” is a reference to the novels of Kurt Vonnegut, in which an alien race, the Tralfamadorians, experiences life in four dimensions and can see all points across time. I’m not sure what the Tralfamadorian waving means, if anything, or why he “smells of something bad.” (Myles Lobdell writes that he smells of something bad because "he is an upright toilet plunger (or at least looks like one)." Chad Underkoffler corrects us: the Tralfamadorians communciate by farting.
    Herms98 writes, "I’m wondering if the Tralfamadorian in the zoo is a purposeful inversion of Slaughter-House-Five, where the Tralfamadorians put Billy Pilgrim in their zoo."
    Philip Carson II writes, "You say you don't know if the Tralfamadorian is waving for any reason.  It's physical description describes it as looking like a plunger, with a hand at the top of the shaft.  So it's not really waving, that's just it's head.  One thing though, there is suppose to be an eye in the middle of the palm that isn't featured in the illustration.  But I suppose the eye could just be closed, or the creature is standing with it's "back" to us. Another thing is that you say someone told you that Tralfamadorians communicate by farting.  I don't think that is correct, although it seems to be a common misconception.  I've read Slaughter House Five several times, and I can't recall any reference to that little detail.  In that book, they communicate through telepathy.  But a random alien from the planet Zog, mentioned in another of Vonnegut's novels, Breakfast of Champions, does communicate through farting and tap dancing, and I think that is where that particular idea comes from."
    Carla DiFonzo writes,
In Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five," the protagonist Billy Pilgrim (a time traveler), describes the race of aliens and their unique perspective of time, noting that they experience the past, present and future simultaneously. So when they meet someone for the first time, they say, "Hello, goodbye." In the 1972 film adaptation of "Slaughterhouse-Five," Billy repeats the greeting at least three times in front of an audience, waving each time as he does so. At the moment, I can't remember if Billy, in the novel, actually waves during his public speech.

However, in both the novel and film, Billy tells the audience that he knows he will killed after his speaking engagement (since he's unstuck in time, he knows his own future). He tells everyone that unlike most humans, he has personally experienced the true nature of time, and therefore knows the Tralfamadorian's perspective is true; the past, present and future occur all at once...time is not linear as the rest of us experience it. That can only mean that everyone is always alive and death is not a tragic event.

After that, a sniper shoots Billy, killing him instantly.

The alien to the left of the Tralfamadorian is one of the Martians from the “Mars Attacks” series of trading cards. Gabriel Neeb and Jonathan Carter disagree and claim that they are Metaluna mutants from the film This Island Earth. Jack Kessler adds, "the time is about right, if you go with the literary source: a 1952 science fiction story by Raymond F. Jones in Thrilling Wonder Stories magazine.  The movie came in 1955."

Jack Kessler says, "I see what looks like a flying brain with tentacles of some sort.  That made me flash to "Invaders from Mars", the 1953 movie that had the Martian leader as a disembodied head with tentacles - but it was just that, a head, not a brain, though it might have been a bit more brain-like in the 1986 remake."
    Edward Rogers writes, "The flying brain could be the creature from 1957 movie “The Brain from Planet Arous""

Panel 4. The “friendly Lazunes” is a reference to the Lazoons, from the British tv series Fireball XL5 (1962-1963). The Lazoons are an alien race, one of whose members, Zoony, becomes a part of the XL5 crew.

“The Green Man” is a Green Martian from the John Carter novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Panel 5. “Gorgo’s mother” is a reference to the film Gorgo (1961), in which the capture of Gorgo, a Godzilla-type creature, by British sailors leads Gorgo’s much larger mother to attack London in an attempt to rescue him.

I’m unable to recognize the big-eared alien or the two humping aliens. Of the big-eared alien, Richard Dill can't identify them, but "I know he was some human kids alien friend on Earth and he was a shape-shifter. I think he belonged to the younger age-range of comics, such as Playhour or Teddy Bear." Of the humping aliens, Philip & Emily Graves write, "The striped, elephant-like aliens must be related to Stripey, the animal encountered on Cryptos during Dan Dare's "Rogue Planet" storyline." Richard Dill wrote again: "I have finally found that little black and white alien watching the humping elephant-like creatures on panel 5. This character is Moony who appeared in two British comics for over twenty years; 'Harold Hare's Own' (1959-64) and 'Playhour' (1964-82). On November the 14th, 1959, Moony the Moon Man fell off the Moon, slid down a moonbeam and landed safely on page 10 of issue number 1 of Harold Hare's Own Paper. By issue 2, he was feeling hungry and seeing a little girl posting a letter into a pillar-box, thought she was feeding it. So, being a martian, he promptly turned himself into a pillar box, all be it a black with white spots pillar-box. Every week, Moony enjoyed shape-changing adventures. The artist was John Donnelly."

The Metaluna mutants are gesturing at the alien from the British sf horror film Fiend Without a Face (1958).

Panel 5. The Triffid is one of the carnivorous plants in Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids.
    Marcus Ewert writes, "At the end of the novel  The Day of Triffids, after much hard work, the surviving Brits manage to clear the Isle of Wight of all Triffids...it's where the last words of the book are penned...the only British colony that really has a chance...bad luck, then, that a Triffid there has grabbed Simon!"

Shawn Garrett writes, "Upper right corner of Panel 5 – that looks like a Krynoid from the Dr. Who story “The Seeds Of Doom” (1976)." Keith Kole writes, "Another connection; it's said that Seeds of Doom is the most Lovecraftian of the Doctor Who stories." Peter Gilham demurs: "Although the creature in the upper right corner does indeed look very much like a Krynoid from Doctor Who, it’s worth noting that the Krynoid was similar to the fungus creature from The Quatermass Experiment, both in life-cycle and appearance (the Doctor Who story, The Seeds of Doom was clearly inspired by Nigel Kneale’s serial). Given that the good Doctor’s encounter with the Krynoid didn’t take place until the 1970’s, could the creature in this frame actually be the fungus monster that Professor Quatermass tracked to Westminster Abbey?"

Page 49/Færie’s Fortunes Founded 1.  “Gloriana” is the titular character of Edmund Spenser’s epic poem “The Faerie Queen” (1590-1596), which is an allegory written to celebrate Queen Elizabeth I. “The Faerie Queen” is about Faerieland and its ruler, the Faerie Queen, called “Gloriana” because she represents Glory.
    Guest_Informant, among others, notes that Michael Moorcock wrote Gloriana (1978), about Queen Elizabeth. I'm not sure I see any connection between Moorcock's Gloriana and Moore's beyond the name, however.
    Jason Powell writes, "Although people have noted the connections in the content between other Shakespeare plays, I don't think anyone's noted that the title recalls specifically "Love's Labours Lost.""

"Printed by I.R. for B. Bond"
Andres Caicedo writes, "I suspect B. Bond to be Sir Basildon Bond, which seems to prove that incompetence is a sort of family treat, since it means that Bond had access to the actual intentions of Queen Gloriana's league, and not much was done about it. What intrigued me was the identity of I.R. It is possible that Moore is referencing something else here, but I suspect I.R. is James Roberts, who printed several works of Shakespeare at the end of the XVI century and the beginning of the XVII ("A midsummer's night dream", "Love's labours lost" and "The Merchant of Venice" in 1600, "Hamlet" in 1604, for example). The only problem with this theory is that I cannot find any works printed by Roberts as late as 1620, but that may simply mean I haven't checked hard enough."


Page 50/Færie’s Fortunes Founded 2. “Master Shytte” and “Master Pysse” are very Shakespearean names. (Casual readers forget that Shakespeare, like his contemporaries, didn't hestitate to indulge in scatalogical and sexual humor).

“Dogrose,” “Gorse,” and “Love-Lies-Bleeding” are all common names for flowers. Faeries, in Shakespeare, have flowers’ names. Pádraig Ó Méalóid writes, "And a list of the meanings of the three Flower Fairies from Faerie's Fortune Founded. I presume that's meant to be them on the frontispiece to this on page 49: Dog Rose: Pleasure & Pain; Gorse: Enduring affection; Love-lies-bleeding: Hopelessness / Desertion.

Page 51/Færie’s Fortunes Founded 3. "The gates of Nonsuch Palace."
Patrick Gillen writes, "When I read the name "Nonsuch Palace," later referred to as "none-such," I instantly though of "The Royal Nonesuch," the play used by the King and the Duke as part of a con in "Huck Finn". Not only that, but the characters of Shytte and Pysse remind me very much of the King and the Duke themselves, especially since the given illustration fits Mark Twain's description. I'm not sure what to make of this, since "The Royal Nonesuch" was not a real play, even within the context of Huck Finn."
    John Andrews writes, "Nonesuch Palace was a real Tudor Palace built by Henry VIII so that's probably what the reference is to."

Lee Wang writes, "Pysse and Shytte, being vulgar non-royal commoners, should be speaking in prose and not verse, as per Shakespearean convention."

“Our right Queen Mary sickened to her crypt”
Queen Mary I (1516-1558) died of what was likely ovarian cancer.

“Speak not/Her cog, lest like her kin she come when hailed.”
English folklore had it that it was unwise to name elves, lest you summon them, so alternative names, like “The Fair Folk,” were used.

“A will-gill or a child of Herm–“
A “will-gill” is, per the Oxford English Dictionary, “a hermaphrodite; an effeminate man.” In the Greek myths the god Hermaphroditus was the son of Hermes.

“They jest with me.”
Which is, of course, what Shakespearean doormen do.

Page 52/Færie’s Fortunes Founded 4. “Enter Sir John Wilton and Sir Basildon Bond, right.”
“Sir John Wilton” is a reference to Thomas Nashe’s The Unfortunate Traveller or the life of Jack Wilton (1594), a picaresque novel about a wandering English rogue, Jack Wilton. “Basildon Bond” is a brand of British stationery--but more importantly, as Paul Cornell notes, "Basildon Bond" is a character, created by British musician and comedian Russ Abbot, as a spoof of James Bond.

Although James Bond’s ancestry has been described in, among others, John Pearson’s James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007, Bond's Elizabethan forebears have never been mentioned.

Greg Daly writes, "The character of Basildon Bond reminds us of how Broad Arrow Jack had advised Nemo in LOEG Vol. I to watch out for Campion, as his family had a bad reputation which Jack had heard about in his travels."

"Sheathe thy stilletos and restrain thy boot."
Philip & Emily Graves see this line as being inspired by Romeo & Juliet's "Deny thy family, renounce thy Name."

"Curtain"
Peter Svensson writes, "Given that public theatres did not have curtains, the stage direction implies a private performance, and hence commission."

Lee Wang writes, "On the subject of Gloriana in FFF, her lines are uniformly un-Shakespearean as the rhyme schemes are usually not his simple couplets (aa bb cc etc.). I can't quite place hers as distinctly Spenserian (e.g. ababbcbcc), but most often her lines are in the form of abba cddc effe (which I can no longer identify), with some minor variations in different soliloquies." Danny Sichel writes, "note that all the mortals speak in blank verse, and the faeries speak in an ABBA rhyme scheme."

Page 53/Færie’s Fortunes Founded 5. “Thus should it please me that you now remain/By London here, at Mortlake to the West.”
Mortlake is a borough of London on the southern half of the Thames. Its most famous resident is Dr. John Dee (1527-1609), the occultist, alchemist, and advisor to Queen Elizabeth. As he did with Elizabeth and Gloriana, Moore seems to be replacing Dee with Prospero. Jason Powell adds, "There is lots of good discussion on Moore's drawing a connection between Prospero and Dee, but I thought it might be worth noting that he's made that connection before in interviews. Unfortunately I can't find which one, but I THINK it might be in the interview Moore did with Eddie Campbell in Campbell's short-lived magazine. Wherever it is, Moore suggests that Shakespeare specifically based the character of Prospero on the real-life personage of John Dee. So Moore drawing that connection in "Faerie's Fortunes Founded" is not at all without precedent."

“As one John Suttle...”
See the note to Page 26.

“...its master my Lord Wilton here: Its ‘M,’ for em’s but double-U disguised.”
In the James Bond books and films “M” is the code name for the head of MI6, the British Intelligence Service. The tradition of the heads of the British Secret Service calling themselves by a single initial dates back at least a century. Although there are persistent stories within the intelligence community that Sir Francis Walsingham, a member of Queen Elizabeth’s Privy Council and the head of her intelligence agency, referred to himself as “M,” the first documented example of a head of the British Secret Service being known by a single initial was Captain Sir Mansfield Cumming, who was appointed director of the British Secret Intelligence Service, then known as MI1c, in 1909. Captain Sir Cumming’s name was never officially made public, and he was generally known by the initial “C.”
    Gloriana replaces Elizabeth. Prospero replaces John Dee. And Jack Wilton replaces Sir Francis Walsingham.

“It seems like bosoms, or a brace of noughts. Two ‘0's, within a seven bracketed.”
And so we see the origin of the double-zero designation for those agents licensed to kill in the James Bond novels. (More prosaically, Fleming reportedly got the idea of the double-zero designation from Rudyard Kipling’s “.007" (1897)).
    Chris Roberson notes that "And supposedly the historical John Dee used the code "007" as his signature in secret communications to Queen Elizabeth, as well. (Incidentally, just as Prospero/Suttle is a fictional stand in for Dee, Edward Face is a stand-in for the historical Edward Kelley, who assisted Dee in his angelic scrying.)"
    Jonathan Carter writes that this line "might refer to the fact that the Masonic square and compass symbol looks like a W over an M."

“Hang I as in a saddle-wire, a dee.”
Again quoting the Oxford English Dictionary, a saddle-wire is “Bookbinding: a wire staple passed through the back fold of a single gathering.” A dee is “applied to a D-shaped iron or steel loop used for connecting parts of harness, or for fastening articles to the saddle.” The connection between Prospero and John Dee is made more solid here.

"When not employed you may, for all I care, Hack at a dangled Tartar's head for sport."
As Philip & Emily Graves point out, Orlando was doing exactly that on Page 43, Panel 3.

Page 54/Færie’s Fortunes Founded 6. “Why, should I like a cunny-hare to pet,
They are both soft and warm, and likewise quick.
How might I set its velvet ear a-prick
Or make its nose to twitch, so pink and wet?
Then should I have about me, by my troth,
That which is cunny and a-prick the both.”
No, I’m not going to explain this.

Page 56/Færie’s Fortunes Founded 8. "...a previously undiscovered limited first folio edition from 1620...
Nick Moon writes,
I believe that the section is incorrect in stating that it is a "limited first folio edition from 1620". Hopefully I've managed to include a link to the page on Wikipedia which listed differences in sizes may make what I'm saying clearer. Simply, I think this is meant to be what would have actually been a 'quarto', as that is the format in which individual plays would have been printed. As you may know, the first *folio* of 36 of Shakespeare's plays wasn't actually published until 1623. Prior to that, 18 had been published in quarto volumes. This probably seems like nitpicking, but if you're familiar with the period and know how things were published, then it really leaps out as error. Folios were big expensive volumes, and a single play was never published in that format, only collections, of which Shakespeare's work was one of the first (it's hard to overestimate just how significant the first folio is in creating his subsequent reputation).
Peter Svensson writes, "That Shakespeare's final play (by himself) in our world was the Tempest, which the ending of Black Dossier harkens back to, makes FFF as the final play in League quite appropriate. In the world of League, the Tempest and Midsummer's Night Dream would have been historical plays." Nick Moon disagrees:
I'd like to quibble with what Peter Svensson has written. I love the idea that The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream would be historical plays in the world of the league (of course, they would!), but he says that The Tempest is "traditionally considered Shakespeare's final work". Well, yes and no. That's actually a product of Romantic criticism, which obscures the actual conditions Shakespeare's plays were produced under. Leaving aside the problem of dating plays in this period, Shakespeare definitely had a hand in two further plays, Two Noble Kinsmen and Henry VIII. Just because he was only a collaborator doesn't make them any less *his* works. Pericles and Macbeth were both almost certainly collaborative works, possibly others were too. Shakespeare was something of an exception given that he didn't collaborate very much in a theatre culture where collaboration seems to have been the norm. And of course, he did still collaborate with the actors of his company, tailoring roles to fit their particular skills (this may be stretching the comparison a bit, but you could possibly compare that with the collaboration between writer and artist in a comic if you wanted?).

Rather than considering Prospero's final epilogue as Shakespeare's farewell to the Theatre, it's probably more accurate to see it as a traditional request by the actor for applause. Twelfth Night has a similar epilogue if you want a comparison. In the spirit of trying to offer a positive alternative to what someone else has said, this might actually tie in very nicely with the idea you note at the end that here the author (Alan Moore) is stepping out from behind the mask of the character and speaking directly to us readers, just as Ariel's hand is breaking the panel border.

“...Gloriana’s deeply Christian and deeply resentful nephew and successor, King Jacob the First.”
In our world, Queen Elizabeth was succeeded by King James I (1566-1625), who was careful to maintain a good relationship with Elizabeth, despite her involvement in the death of Mary, James’ mother. James was deeply Christian and would have hated faeries as much as his analogue, King Jacob, does here.
    Jason Adams writes, "I just wanted to point out (probably unnecessarily) that Jacobus is the Latin form of James. The supporters of that later reigning King James II were known as the Jacobites."

“...as Jacob himself put it at the time in his book Dæmonologie, ‘That kinde of devils conversing in the earth may be devided in four different kinds...The fourth is these kinde of spirites that are called vulgarlie the Fayrie.’ (III,i)”
King James wrote a book, Dæmonologie (1597), in which he described the various kinds of demons, in which he writes, in Chapter 5, “The description of the fourth kinde of Spirites called the Phairie.”

Page 58/Fanny Hill 2. At the end of Fanny Hill Fanny does give up her pleasure-loving ways to marry Charles, but it’s entirely in keeping with the tone of Fanny Hill for Charles to stray.

Marc Singer writes, "The infamous Madame St. Clair appears to be the same courtesan who was a member of Prospero's Men--she has the same jawline and beauty mark.  She would have to be elderly indeed if she is the former mistress of Charles II; possibly her travels with the League have extended her life just as they will Fanny's."

Page 59/Fanny Hill 3. “Mistress Flanders” is Moll Flanders, from Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders (1772). Moll rises from poverty to become an American plantation-owner, having various adventures, romances, and becoming an “Artist” among thieves.

Page 60/Fanny Hill 4. Although there are a variety of English taverns and inns called “Admiral Benbow,” undoubtedly the reference here is to the Admiral Benbow of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island (1883). The Admiral Benbow is the inn in Briston in which Jim Hawkins lives.  

“...the miniature-made garden of the Zipangese kind...”
“Zipang” was one of the early English names for Japan, after Marco Polo recorded the Chinese word for Japan as “Cipangu.”

“Laputa” appears in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726). Laputa is a flying island whose culture is preoccupied with music, mathematics, and astronomy.
    Paul Cornell notes, and I really should have gotten this one, that "Laputa," Spanish for "The Whore," is fittingly mentioned in the Fanny Hill section.

"He also demonstrated a device from science-crazed Laputa, to invigorate tired skin, that I found endlessly delightful."
I trust most of my readers understand the eternal tension between the annotator's desire to make note of everything and the commenter/critic's desire to leave some things for the reader to discover for themselves, or to pass over commenting on that which seems obvious. This is one of those cases where the latter desire won out over the former. Marcus Ewert writes,
'Invigorate tired skin' was the kind of promise made on the packaging of ye olde-fashionede vibrators- Since obviously the manufacturers couldn't straight out say what they were  really for. So a lot of cute circumlocutions were used.  Check out the Antique Vibrator & Quack Medical Museum for lots of rad info like the  following: "Electromechanical vibrators were first used in medicine in 1878 and were  available as a consumer product by 1900. The vibrator was the 5th home appliance to be electrified. It was preceded by the  sewing machine, fan, teakettle, and the toaster. It would be another ten years before the electric vacuum, iron, and frying pan became available as consumer products."
Page 61/Fanny Hill 5. “...pirates, captained by one Clegg...”
In Russell Thorndike's Doctor Syn one of the alternate identities of Dr. Syn is the infamous pirate and smuggler Captain Clegg.

“Imogene” is indeed the name of Syn’s/Clegg’s ship, after his faithless Spanish wife.

Martin Allen writes:
"He even offered me a tour of the Malaccan Straits, suggesting that he take me up the southeast passage..."

While the Straits of Malacca are genuine, this has to be a play on words.  In Greek slang, "malacca" is a curseword, meaning "wanker" or "masturbator", but considered much harsher in tone.  There is also the rhyming "malaka", meaning "asshole", and invoked in contexts of buggery, which is what I think is actually being punned on here, given the second part of the cited text.

That page also contains the reference to "solitary ardour in the rigging," clearly a sideways reference to "frigging in the rigging," a line from the chorus to the classic sea shanty, "The Good Ship Venus";  one version of the lyrics (v. bawdy) are given here.

Page 62/Fanny Hill 6. "I came at last to Micromona..."
Micromona was created by Karl Immerman and appears in the verse satire Tulifäntchen, Ein Heldengedicht in drei Gesängen (1830).

Page 62/Fanny Hill 7. Ray Sablack writes, "Venus and her butterflies could be a reference to the Venus Butterfly."

Page 64/Fanny Hill 8. “...an illustrator, a Marquis named Dorat...”
Martin Allen corrects my ignorance on this one:
The reference to "Dorat" of Page 64/Fanny Hill 8 is a reference to the fictional Jean Baptiste Dorat of Beardsley's "Under the   Hill" (previously ref'd in the Orlando Section of Page 45/Trump 17. Panel 1).  Beardsley describes Venus' dressing-room as being  "panelled with the gallant paintings of Jean Baptiste Dorat."  Later  on, Tannhäuser peruses the paintings, and notes one "showing how an  old marquis practised the five-finger exercise, while in front of him  is mistress offered her warm fesses to a panting poodle…,"  explaining Fanny's references to the Marquis Dorat and his poodle.

If you would like to see for yourself, a version of the Beardsley text can be downloaded for free as a searchable PDF here.

Why the poodle is named "Franz", I'm not sure, unless this is all some obscured reference to Faust, in which Mephistopheles appears as  a poodle (Franz Liszt has a Faust Symphony, as well as his Mephisto  Waltzes).  As well, Faust's love is known as "Marguerite" in the  French versions, another name mentioned by Fanny here.  This is a stretch, admittedly.

George C. Clark writes, "Kevin O'Neill's art on this page references the erotic illustrations of Austrian artist Marquis Franz von Bayros (1866-1924)."

Page 65/Fanny Hill 9. "...where we were suffering the quite delicious ministrations of the 'minnows' Venus kept there for this very purpose..."
John Burt writes, "The minnows are a reference to the emperor Tiberius. Suetonius: "He had little boys trained as minnows to chase him when he went swimming and to get between his legs and nibble him.""


Page 66/Fanny Hill 10. Brobdignag is from Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. Pantagruel is from the anonymously written Le Voyage de navigation que fist Panurge, disciple de Pantagruel (1538), and François Rabelais’ Le cinquiesme et dernier livre des faicts et dicts du bon Pantagruel (1564). Utopia is from Sir Thomas More's Utopia (1516), with Pantagruel’s time in Utopia portrayed in François Rabelais' Pantagruel roi des Dipsodes (1532).

I’m not going to explain the joke in this panel. Paul Rush writes, "I couldn't help but be struck by how strikingly similar the art is to panels of Dave Sim's comic Cerebus where the Cockroach (Sim's stand-in for whatever comic hero was in fashion at the time he was writing the latest issue) underwent a very similar experience (albeit in a dream).  The way the liquid is rendered is really very Sim-ian in style.  I would give you a page reference, but the unwieldy and un-page-numbered tome that is Cerebus is a little daunting.  It takes place somewhere in the Mothers & Daughters books."

Page 67/Fanny Hill 11. “...the legionnaires of Roman State ‘neath northern England...”
The Roman State is from Joseph O'Neill's Land Under England (1935). The Roman State is a fascistic subterranean nation underneath England, reachable via a trapdoor at the base of Hadrian's Wall.

“...the strange, stygian civilization of the Vril people or ‘Vril-ya’ as they called themselves...”
The Vril-ya are from Edward Bulwer-Lytton's The Coming Race (1871). The Vril-ya are a race which has constructed a utopia in a ravine deep beneath Newcastle. Michael Norwitz adds, "The 'coming race' in this context is a truly atrocious pun; however the Vril-ya were neither so sexually free nor naturally winged as the  illustration suggests."

Page 69/Fanny Hill 13. “...the delightful kingdom of Trypheme...”
Tryphême appears in Pierre Louÿs's Les Aventures du Roi Pausole (1900).

Page 70/Fanny Hill 14. “Cockaigne, often called Cocaigne or Cuccagna...”
Cockaigne/Cocaigne/Cuccagna is from the Le Dit de cocagne (13th century C.E.) and then Marc-Antoine Le Grand's Le Roi de Cocagne (1719). Cocagne, or Cockaigne, is the French equivalent of Utopia. In the Middle Ages numerous Cocagne myths were told about "a land of fabled abundance, with food and drink for the asking."

“...such classic writings as The Thirty-Two Gratifications.”
The Thirty-Two Gratifications is mentioned as one of the manuals of love in James Branch Cabell’s Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice (1919).

Page 71/Fanny Hill 15. Martin Allen writes, "the travelogue, and Beardsley, point out that the unicorn on vol. 3, pp. 71-72/Fanny Hill 14-15, is Venus' steed, Adolphe,  whose complicated relationship with his mistress is mentioned in a  euphemistic manner by Marguerite Blakeney in vol. 2, p. 173.   Incidentally, that same page in vol. 2 also gives Marguerite's  version of Fanny's anecdote about seeing the painting together, from  vol. 3, p. 64/Fanny Hill 8."

Page 73. This panel is drawn in the crude and vigorous style of 18th century political cartoons. Ed Berridge writes, "though the image is clearly referencing 18th century political cartooning, it seems most obviously attempting to ape the style of James Gillray, even down to the subject matter (Gillray famously lampooned both George III and his son) and the appearance of the colouring and lettering." Ed also provided this example of Gillray's work:

John Bull Taking a Luncheon

If “Billy the Bursar” is a reference, I’m unaware of it. Philip & Emily Graves write, "I imagine Billy the Bursar is simply referring to Willam Pitt's role of providing funds."

“...mentally-weak King George III...”
Later in life George III suffered from mental illness which may have been porphyria and/or arsenic poisoning.

The history mentioned in this panel is accurate as given. Peter Sanderson notes that the historical George was given to saying "what what."

Philip & Emily Graves write, "That is quite probably Mrs Miggins (played by Helen Atkinson-Wood) serving drinks. She ran the coffee shop in Blackadder the Third, which was set during the reign of George III."

Myles Lobdell writes, "The old lady of Threadneedle Street most famously appears in 18th century caricature in this cartoon by Gillray in 1797.  As you can see, the name Humphrey (for Hannah Humphrey, again Gillray's patron and publisher). Also, Billy Bursar, from O'Neill's cartoon, is a clear reproduction of the figure herein seen 'wooing' the Old Lady."


Page 76. Panel 6. Cliff Schexnayder writes, "Could the dentist be Dr. Christian Szell from William Goldman’s “Marathon Man” or, more precisely, Lawrence Olivier’s depiction of the character in the 1976 movie?"

Panel 7
. “They’ve made you look a bit of a cunt, haven’t they, old man?”
To quote Warren Ellis, in Crécy: “Cunt. This is a word that many people do not like. But you have to understand the English. In England, the word cunt is punctuation.”
    Karl Steimel adds, "The phrase 'Old Man' is one commonly used by Harry Lime in the Carol Reed film The Third Man and as well as in the The Lives of Harry Lime radio series."

Page 77. Panel 2. I’m guessing that “Dr. Bre–“ is a reference to Dr. Geoffrey Brent, star of the British tv series Police Surgeon (1960). Dr. Brent is a medical doctor working with the police in Bayswater in London.

“Dr. D. Keel” is a reference to Dr. David Keel, who appeared in the first season of the British tv series The Avengers in 1961. Keel was originally the protagonist of The Avengers, but John Steed, originally a secondary character, stole the show. Actor Ian Hendry played both Dr. Geoffrey Brent and Dr. David Keel, although there was no textual link between Police Surgeon and The Avengers.

I believe “One Ten” is a reference to “One Ten,” Steed’s superior in the second season of The Avengers.

Panel 3. I believe “George” is George Smiley, from the John Le Carré novels. In the novels Smiley is a melancholy spy master. The “George” seen here has the eyeglasses of which Sir Alec Guinness wore when he portrayed Smiley, and Smiley drinks a great deal of tea (hence the “cuppa” reference).

Panel 4. Presumably the woman carrying the file is Moneypenny, the long-suffering secretary to M in the James Bond novels and books. Russ Bynum disagrees (and I think he's right):
You assume that M's secretary must be Moneypenny, but I suspect she's actually Lady Ann Sercomb - George Smiley's beautiful and notoriously unfaithful wife.
 
Three reasons for this: George's line, ``A cup of tea for M, please, dear,'' hints at a closer relationship between the two than just intelligence officer and secretary. Also, the first chapter of Le Carre's ``Call For the Dead,'' which introduces Smiley, notes that he met Ann when she was secretary to Smiley's MI5 superior, Steed-Asprey.
 
Finally, the Lady Ann was an aristocrat whose marriage to ``breathtakingly ordinary'' Smiley stunned the London upper class. Note how O'Neill depicts M's secretary with white gloves, what appears to be a ruby necklace, and prominent earrings. Not your typicaly secretary's trappings.
“Drake” is a reference to John Drake–the Page 17 above. Philip and Emily Graves write, "Moreover, this will be (assuming the link between the two characters) Drake's file that will be cancelled after The Prisoner resigns."

Panel 7. Kevin O'Neill identifies the squat man on the left holding a cigar as Masterspy, from Supercar.

The man on the right in the lab coat is Q, head of the Q Branch (research and development) of the British Secret Service in the James Bond novels. Philip and Emily Graves write, "This will be Quentin Quelch." (See Page 89, Panel 7). David Avallone adds, "Q has his arm around another old geezer.  Perhaps this is just me, but that old geezer greatly resembles British character actor Lionel Jeffries. In "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang", Lionel Jeffries played Grandpa Potts, father of Chitty's inventor but no scientist himself.  Perhaps Q is comforting him as he's being let go from the division, for failing to develop a working prototype.  If that's not enough layers for you, Lionel Jeffries also played Professor Cavor in the film version of "First Men In The Moon".  This stuff just circles in on itself after a while..." Peter Hardy writes, "my understanding was that Q stood for Quartermaster, the military officer responsible fro such things as supplies, barracks and armaments."

Philip & Emily Graves write, "That is the afore-mentioned Danger Man John Drake in the distance, behind 'Moneypenny'."

Page 78. Panel 6. “Hugo Drummond” is a reference to Captain Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond, from the seventeen novels of “Sapper,” a.k.a. Herman Cyril McNeile, and Gerard Fairlie. Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond is a massive World War One veteran who killed any number of Germans in one-man commando raids into the enemy trenches. After the war he finds peace tedious and begins fighting against those who would do England dirty. This list includes Jews, Germans, Russians, non-whites, anarchists, and Communists.

For more on “John Night’s daughter,” see Page 80 below.

Philip & Emily Graves write, "Note "CB" on the lighter, and "7" on the cufflinks. "CB" for Commander Bond, his rank upon leaving the army after WWII." Jason Adams writes, "Perhaps 'CB' on Bond's lighter stands for his grandfather "Campion Bond" and was handed down along with the cigarette case?" Anthony Padilla writes, "Wasn't Bond a commander in the Royal Navy?" Actually, he was a Commander in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve.

Panel 8. In the final season of The Avengers Steed & Tara King receive their orders from “Mother,” a man in a wheelchair.

Panel 9. “But Harry...Harry died a long time ago, in the sewers under Vienna.”
Harry, in this case, is Harry Lime, from the film The Third Man (1949). At the end of the film Lime is shot in the sewers of Vienna. Ed Berridge notes that "the line, "Harry died a long time ago in the sewers under Vienna" could be seen as being similar to the opening narration spoken by Orson Welles in the radio series The Lives of Harry Lime from 1952, which began, "That was the shot that killed Harry Lime. He died in a sewer beneath Vienna, as those of you know who saw the movie The Third Man..."

I believe that Kevin O’Neill drew “Harry Lime” to look like Orson Welles, who played Lime in The Third Man. John Andrews disagrees: "I know the annotations say that the character of Harry Lime is drawn to match Orson Welles portrayal, but personally I think he looks more like a post-Avengers Patrick McNee."

David Avallone writes, "As you note, Moore has identified M as Harry Lime.  What you didn't mention: "in the sewers under Vienna" Harry Lime kills his last victim before he himself is shot.  His victim is a British soldier named Sergeant Paine, who was portrayed in the movie by...  Bernard Lee.  Bernard Lee who, of course, played "M" in every Bond movie from Dr. No to Moonraker.  So if Harry Lime didn't die in the sewers, did he somehow take the place of poor Sergeant Paine?  Of course, rising from Sergeant to Head of MI6 in about a decade would seem impossible, but not for Harry Lime...."

Hussamuddin Alromayedh writes, "Harry Lime in this case is probably based upon the Harry Lime of Graham Greene's novella, where Harry Lime and Rollo "Holly in the movie" Martins are British rather than American as they are in the Carol Reed film."

Page 79. Panel 2. Bulldog Drummond was a reactionary who would glory in strike-breaking.

Panel 4. “Jimmy, you did very well against our Yellow Peril friend.”
This is another reference to Dr. No.

Panel 5. “Sidney Reilly” is a reference to Lt. Sidney Reilly (c. 1873-1925), a spy-for-hire used by the British government, among others, and known as the “Ace of Spies.” He was one of the models Fleming used for James Bond.
    David Parr drops some knowledge: "it goes a bit deeper than what is noted: M's dismissive words to J.B. are a near-verbatim quote from Ian Fleming about his famous creation, of whom he said "He's no Reilly, you know." John Andrews pointed this out as well: "James Bond is just a piece of nonsense I dreamed up. He's not a Sidney Reilly, you know!"

Jason Adams writes, "The "XX" graffiti on the wall is the symbol of the Adenoid Hynkel "Nazi" Party--the LoEGverse's equivalent of the swastika." John Sherman writes, "The two Xs may stand for Hynkle’s Double Cross sign, but they are also a crude form of the Masonic square and compass, which, considering where they are, makes more sense."
    Chris Cooper disagrees: "I'd say the symbol is a simplified Masonic Compass & T-Square symbol perhaps scribed on the wall of the room to mark to M which is his temporary office. Alternatively it could be a very stylised version to point out official party buildings maybe quasi-legally active during the dangerous 'BB' years."


Panel 6. The illustration in the background is of one of H.G. Wells’ Martians, from War of the Worlds, as imagined by Kevin O’Neill.

Page 80.  Panel 1. “Miss Night” is better known as Emma Peel, the best of John Steed’s partners on The Avengers. Although in The Avengers she is Mrs. Peel, her birth name is Emma Knight, as her father is Sir John Knight, which explains the “John Night’s daughter” reference on Page 78. Peter Sanderson adds "Mrs. Emma Peel's maiden name and the name of her father were established in the 1966 "Avengers" episode "The House That Jack Built" (The fake newspaper  from the episode should interest you). If we presume that Mrs. Peel is the same age as Diana Rigg, who played her, she would have been 20 years old in 1958." Philip & Emily Graves write, "Ms Knight was 21 when her father died, so we can reasonably assume that she is about a year older than Dame Diana Rigg."

Panel 3. "Scared the life out of Little Em here, first time she met me."
Keith Kole writes, "this puts the thought in my head that the current M in the Bond movies must be Dame Emma Knight.  By the way, in one of the Target line of new Doctor Who novels, I can't remember which one but I bet Paul Cornell knows, (he may have even written it) there is a very brief reference to Dame Emma Knight." Patrick Reumann writes,
On the notes about page 20 panel 3, Keith Kole ask about the Doctor Who novel that refers to to Dame Emma Knight. He thinks it one by Paul Cornel.  It was instead by Lance Parkin, "The Dying Days" the last Docter Who novel published by Virgin Publishing.  He has Dame Emma Knight at a party for the return to Mars in the Doctor who Universe in the 1990's.  In the TV show Britian has a space program ( no doubt because of Quatermass, who is refered to in the show during the episode Remenbrance of the Daleks, and also in Parkin's Dying Days) which is sending mission to Mars in the early  70"s or 80's.(This is reveled in the episode of Ambassidors from Space. It is one of the Unit episode whch are almost impossible to date. See Lance Parkins' A-History, which explains the dating conflicts for the Unit episodes of Doctor Who far better than I could) It a shame that a sceen with Muder and Scully talking to President of the US, about the arivaul of the Ice Warriors in London was removed by the editor at Virgin.
The bronze bust, with the letters “-os” visible, may be a reference to Talbot Munday’s Tros of Samothrace (various stories and novels, 1925-1935). Tros is the son of Perseus and a native of Samothrace during the reign of Julius Caesar, who is portrayed as a villain and who Tros fights against.

Panel 7. The car under construction here is Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the flying car from Ian Fleming’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car (1964).
    Andrew Teheran writes, "Might be out on a limb here but... John Night is continuously referred to as an industrialist. What keeps popping into my head is Knight Industries as in "Knight Industries Two Thousand", our favorite American Trans Am. Is Chitty Chitty Bang Bang a KITT prototype? There is a British connection with the Devon Miles character." Andrew Bonia echoes this: "The Night Foundation - mentioned throughout as designing hi-tech equipment for both the UK and US could be a double reference to the Knight Foundation, the organization responsible for building the supercar K.I.T.T . in the television series Knight Rider."
    Mark Elstob writes, "I think O'Neill has deliberately drawn Chitty Chitty Bang Bang being tended to by six technicians, as a sly nod to a sequence in the  film, in which Baron Bomburst has six decrepit old codgers working flat out  in the bowels of his castle to create a flying car he can call his own."
    Cliff Schexnayder writes, "The inclusion of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang seems more than just a casual joke on the part of the authors. Its plate of “Gen 1” suggests it was the prototype of all the spy cars that are a staple of the Bond genre – in film at least."
    Tristan Sargent writes, "
The Bond relationship extends beyond just Ian Fleming though.  The film was made by Cubby Broccoli, the script was worked on by Roald Dahl (who also wrote the screenplay for You Only Live Twice), it featured a heroine with a name that would fit in a Bond story (Truly Scrumptious) and of course the villain was played by Gert Frobe - i.e. Goldfinger!"

Page 81.  Panel 3. I believe that “Brookgate” is a reference to Michael Moorcock’s King of the City (2000). In the novel Brookgate is a section of London which “under the power of the Hugenot Leases” is fully autonomous and controlled by its citizens until a vile Rupert Murdoch-like figure buys up Brookgate and ruins it.

Panel 4. Jason Adams writes, "The XX symbol can be seen on the wall."

Panel 5. If the statue is a reference to anything in particular I’m unaware of it.

Page 82.  Panel 1. “Num Yum” candies appear in the British film I’m All Right Jack (1959).

Henry Blanco notes that Mina hiking her skirt up to get a ride is likely a reference to It Happened One Night, in which Claudette Colbert does this for herself and Clark Gable.

Philip & Emily Graves write, "The runaways - can't place them yet - and (a/the) raspberry-blowing girl also appear to make it in Birmingham, p123.3 and 123.4.

Panel 2. For more on “our coloured chum and his Dutch girls” see Page 166, Panel 1.

For more on “a public school that I know in Kent,” see the note on Greyfriars on Page 25.

Panel 5. I’ve drawn a blank on “Whiter Frisko,” “d’etto,” “Dreem,” and “Frim.” Anyone? (They may be Jack Trevor Story references–see Panel 7 below).
    Harrison writes, "I just saw "I'm All Right Jack" on Turner Classic Movies (Saturday night) and I recognize Frisko and Detto from that film.  In the film, they are identical products but one is sold at a higher price than the other simply because the packaging is different."
    Keith Kole writes, "An easter egg on the DVD of Monty Python and the Holy Grail starts the film with the first reel of an altogether different movie: Dentist on the Job (1961). This movie starts with workmen loading boxes of Dreem onto a truck.  Dreem is a brand of toothpaste made by Proudfoot Industries." L.D. Page and Dave Amiott also got this one.

Panel 7.  “Mr. Callendar” is a reference to Jack Trevor Story’s Live Now, Pay Later (1962).

Page 83. Panel 1. “Albert” is Albert Argyle, from Jack Trevor Story’s Live Now, Pay Later, Something For Nothing (1963), and The Urban District Lover (1964). Argyle is a traveling salesman and ho.
    Rory Christie writes, " the looks car, although 4-wheeled looks suspiciously like the robin reliant from 'Only Fool & Horses', and the character of Uncle Albert. This may be just coincidence."

I don’t believe the “Frampton Overcoat” is a reference to anything in particular. Ah, but "teamy teamy" correctly disagrees: "The Frampton Overcoat is a reference to something, possibly something from Viz comic's Profanasaurus swearing dictionary, but I can't remember for sure. (A quick look on their website proves me wrong.)" However, it does give "frampton" as "frampton 1. n. prop. An overrated seventies singer with a voice like Steven Hawking. 2. n. A fanny fart" and we can extrapolate "frampton overcoat" from there.

Cian Gill writes, "I'm wondering if the black car in the middle of the frame of panel 1 on page 83 of the Black Dossier could possibly be a reference to Jonathan Pryce's Messerschmidt-car from the film Brazil. Brazil being heavily influenced by 1984 (which is also one of the main inspirations behind the Black Dossier), the 1950s feel of the movie would also be appropriate aesthetically. The car looks quite similar, except its missing the large fan at the back."

Panel 2. Philip & Emily Graves write, "The sign is listing Bradgate and Fircombe, which is the seaside resort setting for the film Carry on Girls."

Panel 4. “...if you like tally-boys, getting people into debt for a living.”
A “tally-boy” was a wandering salesman who sold things to people on installment and then picked up the weekly payments. Mina doesn’t think much of them, and Jack Trevor Story didn’t either, as can be seen in Live Now, Pay Later.

Panel 6. “General Sir Harold Wharton” is a reference Harry Wharton, from the hundreds of short stories, novels, radio and television programs written by “Frank Richards,” the pseudonym of Charles Hamilton. Harry Wharton is a spirited schoolboy at the English public (private) school of Greyfriars. Wharton is the leader of the “Famous Five,” Frank Nugent, Bob Cherry, Johnny Bull, and Hurree Jamset Ram Singh, the Nabob of Bhanipur. (Billy Bunter attends Greyfriars but is not a member of the Five). Together they get into a wide range of adventures.

The “R.K.C.” mentioned here and on Page 25 is “Bob Cherry.”

Page 84. Panel 1. This is the Tradesman’s Entrance of Greyfriars, as seen on a map here.

Panel 2. Richard Hannay was created by John Buchan and appeared in six novels from 1915 to 1936. He is a wealthy Scottish mining engineer who gets involved in a series of espionage adventures.

Panel 3. “Decent sort of chap, I always thought.” “Absolutely.”
Although Hannay and Buchan are usually grouped together with Bulldog Drummond and Sapper, and Richard Chandos/Berry Pleydell/Jonah Mansel and Dornford Yates in the Clubmen Heroes category, Hannay and Buchan are much different. Buchan was a far better writer than Sapper or Yates (I particularly recommend Buchan’s supernatural fiction), and Hannay was much less bigoted and jingoistic than Drummond et al. Too, there’s a humanistic and even compassionate streak running through the Hannay novels which is quite missing from the work of Sapper and Yates. In one of the Hannay novels there is a conscientious objector to the war, and where Sapper would have mocked the character or humiliated him, or shown him to be a spy, Buchan treats the objector fairly.

“...that ‘Thirty-Nine Steps’ Business he investigated.”
Buchan’s first Richard Hannay novel, The Thirty -Nine Steps, involves a German spy ring, the Black Stone, which is active in England. The “Thirty-Nine Steps” lead to a spot on a beach from which a spy with crucial information is going to leave England.
    Peter Sanderson writes, "Nowadays "The 39 Steps" is probably best known from Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 film adaptation  In Hitchcock's film "the 39 Steps" refers to a covert organization, whereas in the book it refers to a physical series of steps, as in "Black Dossier.""

Panel 4. “What are the thirty-nine steps?” is a cryptic message given to Hannay by an American who is killed not long afterward.

Panel 6. Zoltán Déry writes, "The sign on the ground reading "Trafalgar Lodge Priv(ate) Pr(operty) refers to "The 39 Steps" page 122: "The house was called Trafalgar Lodge, and belonged to an old gentleman called Appleton ..." This is the name of the house to which the 39 steps belong in the novel. The house is located near Bradgate."

Page 85. Panel 2. As it happens, “Spick” magazine is not a hint by Moore about the kind of pornography which would develop in the world of League, but rather a real pin-up magazine which lasted from 1953-1976.

Panel 7. The “-ocke” statue is of Dr. Locke, the Headmaster of Greyfriars.

Philip & Emily Graves write, "This visually refers back to Volume 2, where Rupert interrupts a similar display of affection in a semi-public place." They add: "Specifically, it seems to be a combination of two panels: V2I4P15.6 and V2I5P7.6. The scene occurs directly before the couple first meet Rupert/Billy. Both of whom, entirely coincidentally, wear similar-looking checked trousers."

Page 86. Panel 1. This sad, grotesque figure is Billy Bunter, the portly Greyfriars schoolboy. Created by “Frank Richards,” Bunter appeared in over a thousand short stories, 105 novels, and various radio and television programs from 1908 to 1982. Bunter is not one of the “Famous Five,” but he is greedy, cowardly, cunning, foolish, and gluttonous enough to get into a large number of adventures on his own.

“Six on the bags,” also known as “six of the best,” is six strokes on the butt with a cane.

Panel 2. “...you chaps wouldn’t have any buns on you, by any chance?”
Billy Bunter is a glutton and loves sweet buns above all things.

Panel 4. "I-I was a pupil here, than a beak."
Julian Wan writes, "Beak is British slang for a schoolmaster."


Panel 6. “In fact, I’m expecting a postal order from my mother...”
In the Greyfriars stories Bunter is forever poor and forever borrowing money from the other students. He always promises to pay them back soon, as he is always expecting, imminently, a postal order from his mother. The postal order never comes. (It’s the English schoolboy version of Waiting for Godot, really). But see the notes to Page 121.

Panel 7. “Do you know, the bounder married my sister?”
Billy Bunter’s sister is Bessie Bunter, who after being mentioned a few times in the Billy Bunter stories appeared in a long series of her own stories, set at Cliff House School, the girls’ school equivalent of Greyfriars.

The relationship between Bessie Bunter and Harry Wharton is Moore’s invention, and explains the mention of “Bessy” on Page 25.

Page 87.  Panel 1. “Always a bit of a black sheep, Wharton.”
In the Greyfriars stories Wharton is a hothead who is forever getting into trouble with “light-hearted” pranks. (Wharton was beloved by readers in his era. Modern readers are likely to see Wharton as more deserving of a lobotomy, or perhaps transportation to the gulag archipelago).
    Myles Lobdell writes,
What seems especially interesting to me about the Black Dossier is the way in which Moore has turned that school-story hothead Harry Wharton, who was always playing 'pranks', being mischievous, and getting into trouble (probably at least partly inspired by that other famous schoolyard Harry; Thomas Hughes' Harry Flashman from Tom Brown's Schooldays, considered by most readers to be the most interesting character in the book, also famous for his mischievous pranks, albeit of a more cautionary nature) into an agent of political intrigue.

This is an uncanny parallel to the way in which Fraser turned Harry Flashman into an agent of political and international intrigue, albeit of a somewhat different nature.  Perhaps this parallel was unintended by Moore, but it is there nonetheless.
“Orphan, you know. Brought up by some beastly Colonel.”
Wharton’s parents died, forcing Colonel Wharton, newly returned from India, to raise Wharton.

“Born leader, though.”
Wharton is the leader of the Famous Five.

Panel 2. “He got mixed up with communists, an oik named Skinpole from St. Jim’s.”
St. James College, called “St. Jim’s” by the residents, was another of Charles Hamilton’s creations, a school much like Greyfriars. It appeared in The Gem from 1907-1939.

Herbert Skimpole is one of the students at St. Jim’s students. He is a socialist, and of course a bad guy in the stories.

Panel 3. I’m not sure what the “Kra–“ on the bulletin board might be a reference to.

Panel 4. Presumably the portraits in this panel are of various Famous Five characters. The picture in the lower right is of Bessie Bunter.

Page 88. Panel 2. Henry Quelch is one of the masters at Greyfriars. As Bunter says, he is a “gimlet-eyed old devil.”

Panel 3. “He was watching Wharton from the start, along with Knight and Cherry and Waverly and the rest.”
This was one of the traditional methods by which British Intelligence recruited spies–watch them from when they are young, and then recruit them before or during college.

“Knight” is presumably a reference to Sir John Knight, Emma Peel’s father. (See Page 80 above). “Cherry” is a reference to Bob Cherry.

“Waverly” is a reference to Alexander Waverly, the head of U.N.C.L.E. in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (Thanks to Win Eckert for correcting my mistake here, and to Peter Sanderson, Brian Joines, and Ian Warren for the Waverly/U.N.C.L.E. link). Waverly is described thusly: "He runs some spy ring for the United Nations these days." This is a reference to U.N.C.L.E., which although standing for "United Network Command for Law Enforcement" was created under the auspices of the United Nations.
    Damian Gordon writes, "just a thought, Waverly's first name is Francis here because he is also Francis/Frank Nugent from Greyfriars, and this means that John Knight is really Johnny Bull."

Panel 4. Adam Cummins solves the mystery of the carrot creature: "I think it's more than likely a reference to "Doctor Carrot", a character who appeared on propaganda posters during the Second World War.  It's one of those "Dig For Victory" type posters, encouraging people to grow and eat their own vegetables to supplement rationing:"

Dr. Carrot

Ken Shinn adds, "The Doctor Carrot suggestion seems to be correct, although it might also be the puppet character Mr Turnip, from the 1950s BBC children's programme Whirligig."

I don’t know what the animal skull in the background is, or the...mouse? head. Philip & Emily Graves write, "The creature behind Bill and Ben *could* be Sooty or Sweep, British TV glove-puppet characters. However, while the figure looks like Sooty, it is the colour of Sweep. And while it could be holding a wand (a Sooty trademark), it's not the correct type of magic wand... " I think they're right--it looks like Sooty. Ken Shinn says, "The skull might be that of the Beano comic character, Biffo The Bear, who had a similar set to his profile. The "mouse" is definitely Sooty, although I think that, rather than his magic wand, what he's brandishing is one of the "sticks" that he frequently used to play his xylophone." About the skull, Steve Kydd disagrees: "I wonder if this might instead be Spotty Dog - "the biggest spotty dog you ever did see" - from The Woodentops (BBC TV, 1955). This programme is from the same 'Watch with Mother' children's series as Bill and Ben and Muffin the Mule which would tie it in nicely with the surrounding characters in this and other panels." Terry Jones writes, "the big skull behind Bill and Ben is definitely not Biffo the Bear! It's the Pobble (of course you'll say!) or more properly Willie Willikins Pobble from Brit comic the Dandy 1952.  Look carefully and you'll see it's not just the skull but the whole body. The four footed pose is consistent with the Pobble which moved sometimes like a large dog or horse and -squint carefully-was black with white splodges. Possibly inspired by Edward Lear's Pobble who had no toes poem (tho' this Pobble did!). Why the Pobble?  Because when he emerged from his spacecraft he greeted young Willie with the word 'Pobble!' and that was the only word he ever uttered!"

Paul Cornell and David Alexander McDonald rescue me from a swamp of ignorance and note that the straw-stuffed skeletons in flower pots are a reference to the British tv puppet show Flower Pot Men (1952-1954). The "flob" on the plaque is a reference to the Flower Pot Men's inability to say "flower pot," which they pronounced as "flobalob."

Steve Kydd adds, "I don't think it has been noted, but beside Bill and Ben in the lower right of the panel, there is a yellow blob - this is presumably the side of Little Weed's head, Little Weed being the dandelion character from every episode of Bill and Ben."

“The rum-looking fellow behind her, that’s Sir Jack Wilton. He was Gloriana’s big chief I-Spy, so I’m told.”
Sir Jack Wilton was mentioned in Faerie’s Fortunes Founded–see Page 52 above. “Big chief I-Spy” is a reference to the British “I-Spy” books, a series of books written for children in the 1950s and 1960s. The idea behind the books was for children to make note of the planes, trains, fire engines, and so on, and send their lists into “Big Chief I-Spy” in London.

Panel 5. I’m not sure what the horse in the upper right is. But the horse on the left is Steve, created by Roland Davies and appearing in the comic strip “Come on Steve” (1932-1949) and six cartoons in 1936 and 1937. Steve is a young horse who is exuberant, cheerful, and full of energy (if not always particularly bright) and is always eager to investigate (and often imitate) what humans are doing and to help them out. Jonathan Carter & Philip and Emily Graves disagree and believes that it's Eeyore. (He may be right. I just like Steve a lot).

Philip & Emily Graves write, "Top right looks like a rocking horse, which could then be one of any number from children's books. Perhaps Enid Blyton's "Good Old Rocking Horse"..."
    Richard Powell writes, "I believe the horse in the right hand corner to be Muffin the mule." Richard Dill writes, "The encased horse in the top right corner is actually a mule. 'Muffin the Mule' is a childrens television puppet character from the B.B.C. The programmes were broadcast live from their Alexandra Palace studios from 1946 and were presented by Annette Mills,( sister to the actor, Sir John Mills) until 1955, ending mere days before her untimely death at 61. There is no doubt in my mind that this is Muffin; even the bit around his head is the same colour." Tim Chapman also identified him as Muffin. James Morrison writes, "Though the argument about the rocking-horse being Muffin the mule does seem convincing, it also looks VERY like the magical rocking-horse from the movie The Rocking-Horse Winner (from the DH Lawrence story of the same name) - there's a good summary of the story here."

Richard Dill relieves my ignorance:
The monkey in the bowler hat is from the PG TIPS advertising campaign. Since 1956, in the longest running advertising campaign for any brand, PG TIPS often advertised using chimpanzee's dressed as humans and drinking tea.(This was obviously inspired by the regular 'Monkey's Tea Party' that British Zoo's used to run everyday for visitors.) In fact, one of these adverts, called 'MR. SHIFTER' holds the world record for the advert shown most time on British Television. In it, the removal man, Mr. Shifter, wears a bowler hat. The adverts have been voiced by an impressive British comedy cast list over the decades, consisting of Peter Sellers, Bruce Forsyth, Kenneth Connor, Arthur Lowe, Irene Handel, Stanley Baxter, Willie Rushton, John Junkin, Kenneth Williams, Pat Coombes, Miriam Margoles, Andrew Sachs and David Jason. 
Panel 6. Oh, for heaven's sake. I should have gotten this one. Jonathan Carter and Kelly Doran notes that this is the Psammead, from E. Nesbit's short stories and novels.

Panel 7. “...designing kit for some Welsh set-up. D-dream inducers. Killer balloons.”
This is a reference to The Prisoner, which had both dream inducers and killer balloons.

“Yarooh” was one of Bunter’s most typical exclamations.

Page 89.  Panel 7. “Quelchy’s son, Quentin, worked there before he joined MI5's technical chappies. Like everybody there, he’s known by an initial.”
This is all Moore’s invention, of course–there was no “Quentin Quelch” in the Greyfriars stories. Peter Sanderson adds, "The "Q" character in the James Bond movies is based on a character in Ian Fleming's Bond novels called Major Boothroyd.  Fleming does refer to a "Q Branch" in British intelligence.  The character played by Desmond Llewelyn in the Bond movies is originally called Major Boothroyd but later gets dubbed "Q."" Peter Sanderson adds, "The closing credits for the movie "From Russia with Love" list Desmond Llewelyn as playing Boothroyd, but his character is renamed Q in the next Bond movie,  "Goldfinger."  Wikipedia states that Q is called "Boothroyd" in dialogue in the movie "The Spy Who Loved Me.""
    Philip & Emily Graves not that Quentin Quelch can be seen on Page 77, Panel 7.

Page 90.  Panel 1. I’m not sure exactly why there’d be a statue of Judah Ben-Hur at Greyfriars. Judah Ben-Hur appears in Lewis Wallace’s Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1880) and is about Judah Ben-Hur, a Jew alive at the time of Christ who is enslaved, freed, wins a chariot race against his Roman childhood friend Messala, and eventually converts to Christianity. Keith Kole writes, "My guess is that Judah Ben-Hur might be the fictional stand-in for Christ."

I’m not sure what the motorcycle with the 0211731 plate is a reference to, if anything.

Panel 3. “His father named him Kim after the famous spy who worked in Afghanistan.”
This is a reference to Rudyard Kipling’s Kim (1901), with its orphaned Indian child and his work spywork for the British. Peter Sanderson adds that ""Kim" may also be an allusion to British agent H. A. R. "Kim" Philby, who was likewise nicknamed after Kipling's character. So Moore may be linking the amoral Lime with the traitorous Philby." Peter Sanderson adds, "I found a "Comic Book wire" interview with Alan Moore (reprinted here) in which he confirms my speculations about Kim Philby and Harry Lime:
"There are little undercover threads throughout our story with connections like that," continued Moore. "The film 'The Third Man' was written by Graham Greene, who based the character of Harry Lime on his lifelong friend Kim Philby, a very famous British spy who turned out to be a double agent for the Russians. And weirdly enough, there had previously been two Russian agents exposed, Guy Burgess and Anthony MacLean, and there was a rumour there was a third double agent in MI5. I remember there was a headline back in the Sixties that said, 'KIM PHILBY IS THE THIRD MAN,' which were written completely unaware that he was the third  man. So he was the basis for 'The Third Man.' All of these obscure facts are woven into the fabric of 'The Black Dossier.' It's been very interesting, with some surprising inclusions."
Robert Scott Martin writes,
"Kim" must be an allusion to Philby. The pathos of making this kind of connection between the beloved childhood heroes of "the Famous" five and the older and infinitely more tarnished "Cambridge" five --  especially given their shared dormitory context -- would be too tempting  for Moore to pass up much less ignore.

At the risk of pushing it, a third dimension emerges in the adult relationship between poor old Billy and Harry -- John Le Carre's George Smiley was also related by marriage to Bill Haydon (a Philby analog), although over there it's Smiley/Bunton who's married Haydon/Wharton's cousin. Poor old Billy does seem to have grown up into a sort of Smiley  parody, Haydon was indeed quite the golden boy (and his/Philby's "labour"affiliations are equally unexpected and disastrous) and the relationships with the "cousins" were always anguished.

Tristan Sargent writes, "The BBC TV series 'Cambridge Spies' features a scene in which Philby's Austrian lover talks about riding the big wheel in Vienna, and looking down on the people below... rather like the scene in The Third Man, in fact.  And she's saying all this to Philby, the Third Man...
 
Second, in that series, Philby was played by Toby Stephenson.  Stephenson also played the villain, Gustave Graves, in the Bond film 'Die Another Day', in which he did his level best to kill Bond, as played by Pearce Brosnan.  Years earlier, Pearce Brosnan had played a Russian agent in 'The Fourth Protocol', in which his first on-screen action is... to liquidate Kim Philby!"


Page 91
. Panel 3
. “Conamur Tenues Grandia” is from the Odes (23-13 B.C.E.) of Horace.

Page 92. Panel 4. If “Mum’s Plaice” is a reference to anything in particular, I’m unaware of it. James Coates writes, "The pun 'Plaice' (as in the fish) to replace the word 'place' is very commonly used in British Fish and Chip shops."

Panel 5. The “William Brown Captured...Outlaws” headline is a reference to Richmal Crompton’s “Just William” stories, novels, radio shows, television shows, and films about an eleven-year-old English mischief-maker. His gang of friends is the “Outlaws.”

Page 93. Panel 1. A number of these magazines are made up. (I think). The references that aren’t:
"Views 5/- each. Adults Only."
Tim Chapman writes, "The 'Views' notice may be a reference to Michael Powell's 'Peeping Tom' - the protagonist takes mucky photos to be sold through a newsagent, and one customer is seen inquiring about 'views for sale'."

Panel 2. Mildly dirty postcards like this were common in the 1950s, though never sold in respectable establishments. Damian Gordon points out that in the U.K. they are known as “French postcards.”
    Vanja Miskovic writes, "the cartoon pictured on the postcard seems reminiscent of Kalo's New Yorker cartoons, that Seth searches for in "Palookaville"'s It's a good life if you don't weaken (serialized as Palookaville #4-9). You can make out the artist's signature even on the small thumbnail I am sending you the link too, which is very similar to the "Kano" one in Black dossier (drawn in very similar style)."

Panel 3. Philip & Emily Graves write, ""Bove-" is Bovex from Orwell's Keep the Aspidistra Flying, and is probably ultimately inspired by 'Bovril'. This poster is described precisely in Chapter One - "A spectacled rat-faced clerk, with patent-leather hair, sitting at a cafe table grinning over a white mug of Bovex. 'Corner Table enjoys his meal with Bovex', the legend ran."

Panel 4. If the “Seaview” is a reference to anything in particular, I’m unaware of it. Paul Cornell and David Alexander McDonald note that the Seaview was the name of the submarine in the American tv show Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Richard Dill writes, "'SEAVIEW' was a light-hearted B.B.C. childrens drama starring Yvette Fielding as Sally Shelton and Aaron Brown as her brother, George. They lived in Blackpool in their parents seaside guesthouse by the name of 'Seaview'. It ran from 1983 to 1985, whereby Ms Fielding went on to be a prominent T.V. presenter on childrens programme, Blue Peter." Andrew Bonia writes, "Seaview is in fact the name of Alan Moore's house in Northampton. In his case this is a joke, since there is no sea that I'm aware of anywhere near Northampton, but in the context of the comic it makes sense."

Page 94. Panel 2. Andrew Bonia writes, "Note the blank section of wall behind Lime in this scene, as he ponders over a bust of Moriarty. This was probably an office similar to (or the very same as) O'Brien's in Nineteen Eighty Four, as the extra large "party leader" style telescreen has obviously been removed after the fall of Ingsoc."

Panel 3
. Philip & Emily Graves write, "Although probably simply one of the Greyfriars Famous Five, the picture third from the left looks a lot like JCT Jennings from the series by Anthony Buckeridge. [See here for example.]".

Page 95. Panel 1. Robtmsnow points out that the condom wrapper in the bottom right corner reads "Heros the Spartan," which is the name of another strip by Frank Bellamy. ("Spartan" rather than "Trojan"). Philip & Emily Graves point out that the condoms were bought at the vendor's stand on Page 93, Panel 1, advertised to the proprietor's right.

Page 96. The “Iron Mountains” around the North Pole are a reference to the Iron Mountains in the anonymously-written Voyage au Centre de la Terre (1821).

If those animals in the upper right are a reference to anything, I’m unaware of it. Loren Collins writes, "Those are Blazing World natives like the ones in the 3-D section.  Specifically, they appear to be a Parrot-woman, a Bear-man, a Fox-man, and a Louse-man.  These animal-men are referred to in the bottom-right prose: "...And here the Blazing Worlde, both ruled by beasts That have the tongue and semblance yet of men."

The eye-in-the-pyramid, which also appears on the American dollar bill, represents the All-Seeing Eye of God and of the Freemasons.

I should know the box-with-parachute below the eye-in-the-pyramid, but I don’t. (Cyrano's vehicle to the moon?) Robert McCord writes, "It is from " Histoire des Etats et Empires du Solel" and is used to reach the Sun, a blazing world indeed!"

The blinking police box is the TARDIS time machine from the BBC tv series Doctor Who.

“...is found the Streaming Kingdoms, wherein transformed spirits of drowned mariners are ruled by an intelligence called only ‘His Imperial Wetness.’”
The Streaming Kingdom is from Jules Supervielle’s L'Enfant de la Haute Mer (1931). The Streaming Kingdom is an aquatic kingdom under the English Channel, near the mouth of the Seine. It is inhabited by water-breathing humans who must drown before they can enter the Kingdom. The Kingdom is ruled by a creature called His Royal Wetness.

“...the much talked of ‘water-babies.’”
The “water-babies” appeared in Charles Kingsley’s The Water-Babies (1863). The Water-Babies is about Tom, a chimney sweep, who accidentally falls in a river. His body dies, but his soul goes is changed into a “water baby” by a group of faeries.

I believe the man in the glass ball is a reference to H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine (1895).

“The Radiance in these climes is of two partes,
One Red like Mars, the other Venus-green,
With variously glass’d pince-nez required
comprised of ruby and of em’rald both.
Thus furnished, we may fill our eyes and ears
With lights and musics come from higher spheres.”
In other words, these extradimensional places are only visible through the use of 3D glasses. Ian Gould adds, "Hence the red and green eyes of the skeleton."

I don’t know what the symbols in the lower left mean. “1666" is the date when Margaret Cavendish’s The Blazing World was published, but I don’t know what 1695 might be an allusion to. Damian Gordon speculates that it might be a reference to the 1695 Treason Act, which specified the rules for British treason trials. Loren Collins writes, "The '1695' in the lower-left corner of the map is no allusion.  It's the date of the map, as indicated on the Dossier's table of contents." Keith Kole writes, "The third symbol is the Masonic compass and right angle broken or dissolved indicating ordinary geometry does not function in the Blazing World."
    Ian Gould writes, "1666 is the Annus Mirabilis (which Betty Windsor referenced when she talked about her Annus Horribilis). England survived the plague, the Great Fire and war with the Dutch. It's also the year in which Newton laid the basis for calculus and modern physics. (Newton is, of course, claimed by the masons as one of their own.)"

Page 97/Shadows in the Steam 1.  “Meesons and Co. Limited” is a reference to H. Rider Haggard’s Mr. Meeson’s Will (1888), a crime novel about Mr. Meeson, an unscrupulous publisher.

Page 98/Shadows in the Steam 2. “...universally acclaimed professor of mathematics, the esteemed James Moriarty, since deceased.”
Professor Moriarty is the arch-enemy of Sherlock Holmes.

“...the Hunnish ‘Luftpiraten,’ Captain Mors...”
"Captain Mors" is the lead character of Der Luftpirat und Sein Lenkbares Luftschiff, a German dime novel published from 1908-1911. Captain Mors, the "Man with the Mask," is a Captain Nemo-like character, fleeing from mankind with a crew of Indians and involved in a prolonged fight against tyranny and evil, both on Earth and on Venus, Mars, and the rest of the solar system.

“...his French rival, the repulsive Monsieur Robur.”
"Robur" is the creation of Jules Verne and appeared in two books: Robur le Conquerant (1886) and Maître du Monde (1904). In Robur the Conqueror Robur, a brilliant engineer and vehement proponent of heavier-than-air travel, invents a technologically advanced "flying machine," the Albatross, and uses it to kidnap several partisans of lighter-than-air travel and take them around the world. In Master of the World Robur returns, now a dangerous megalomaniac intent on conquering the world.
    Jean-Marc Lofficier notes that Verne is ambiguous about Robur's nationality, and that he might well be British or even American.

“...the purchase of heliotropes, imported from the remote nation of Bengodi...”
Bengodi appears in Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron (1353), a very influential collection of Italian stories, some of which were later used by Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales. The notion of heliotropes as a source for the Invisible Man’s invisibility was raised by Moore in League v2.

“...the probably-invented ‘horla’ creature that the French claimed to have captured in the later 1880s.”
The Horla, an invisible monster, was created by Guy de Maupassant and appeared in “The Horla” (1885).
   
Chad Underkoffler writes, "Interesting connection: Vincent Price played Robur in Master of the World (1961) and Simon Cordier in Diary of a M
adman (1963), the latter film based on "The Horla."

"...unpleasant graveyard desecrations up in the vicinity of Highgate Cemetery, with decapitated corpses and the like in evidence."
Tristan Sargent writes, "This is interesting as all of the Cemetery scenes in Dracula take place in 'Kingstead Cemetery'.  Kingstead is widely taken to be just a fictionalised version of Highgate, but it's very unusual for Alan Moore to opt for the real rather than the fictional in this series. Further, the reference to desecrations and a decapitated corpse is, I suspect, a rather clever double-edged reference.  Of course, Van Helsing and Co. leave Lucy's decapitated corpse in the cemetery, but this is the extent of their desecrations.  However, in the 1970s there was an infamous spate of vandalism in Highgate Cemetery, which included various desecrations, most notably the decapitation of a corpse which was then left in the driving seat of a parked car.  This vandalism coincided with the 'Highgate Vampire' scare.  Admittedly, there's a lot of apocraphal accounts surrounding the Highgate Vampire, making the facts difficult to verify - but I think Moore is happily referencing the popular mythology here, so it hardly matters."


Page 99/Shadows in the Steam 3. Greg Daly astutely notes, "Campion Bond's first meeting with Mina plays out one of the cliches of cold war fiction: he meets her while feeding the ducks at Saint James's Park (99). You'll find this memorably commented on in Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's Good Omens:
The ducks in St James's Park are so used to being fed bread by secret agents meeting clandestinely that they have developed their own Pavlovian reaction. Put a St James's Park duck in a laboratory cage and show it a picture of two men -- one usually wearing a coat with a fur collar, the other something sombre with a scarf -- and it'll look up expectantly.
“...the group of islands called the Riallaro Archipelago...
The Riallaro Archipelago appears in John Macmillan Brown's Riallaro, the Archipelago of Exiles (1901) and Limanora, the Island of Progress (1903), both about island utopias near the Antarctic.

Page 100/Shadows in the Steam 4.  “One, I think, was a Malay, another being a tall Negro with the elegant bone-structure and near-indigo complexion that I most associate with Africa’s Ivory Coast.”
Shame on me for not getting these. I mean, honestly, how did I miss this? Robert Todd Bruce writes,
I wondered if these might not be two of the three harpooners from the Pequod.

Queequeg was Ishmael's close companion and a prince from the South Seas. Tashtego was an Gay Head Indian from Martha's Vineyard, and Daggoo is an extremely tall, imposing African.  All three are supposed to have died when Moby Dick destroys the Pequod at the end of the novel (after all, Ishmael says that he was the only survivor and was picked up by another whaler, the Rachel, which was cruising the area searching for one her whaleboats.  The lost whaleboat had the youngest son of the Rachel's captain on board), but who knows, right?
“There was an older man that I assumed to be an American whose voice had a New England twang about it...”
As seen in League v1 & v2, Ishmael, from Herman Melville's Moby Dick (1851), is one of Captain Nemo’s crewmen.

“...and a fellow similarly aged, dressed up in what appeared to be an ancient, threadbare uniform such as were common during the Sepoy Rebellion.”
Perhaps this is Nemo himself?

“...a young and rather well-built Englishman whose name, I later learned, was Jack.”
As seen in League v1 & v2, Broad Arrow Jack, from the E. Harcourt Burrage 1886 serial of the same name, is a member of Nemo’s crew.

“...a lovely Indian woman in a kind of turquoise skirt or wrapping...”
Presumably this is Nemo’s wife.

Page 101/Shadows in the Steam 5.  Panel 1. The writing on the paper is Hindi. If you want to translate it, feel free. Evan Ryder contradicts me: "The writing on Moriarty's sheet of paper isn't Hindi, exactly; it's just written in the Devanagari alphabet. It transliterates as "kaptān nīmo / prins ḍakār," that is, "Captain Nemo, Prince Dakkar."

"a lovely Indian woman. . .and the small child she held swaddled in her arms. . .who had the biggest, brownest and most knowing eyes that I have  ever seen.  I later learned  that these two were the estranged wife and daughterof the man I had been sent to find." 
Peter Sanderson writes, "This description of Nemo's daughter with the emphasis on her "knowing eyes" suggests that she will grow up to be somebody important.   Accordin g to your annotations for Chapter 6 of "The New Traveller's Almanac," Nemo's daughter is named "Janni," who may be Jenny Diver from Brecht and Weill's "Threepenny Opera."

Panel 2. “Captain Kettle” is a reference to the short, cigar-smoking, red-bearded, pugnacious, brutal seaman Captain Kettle, created by C.J. Cutcliffe Hyne and appearin in stories, a novel, and several films from 1895 to the 1920s.

Page 102/Shadows in the Steam 6. “...a disastrous circumnavigation of Antarctica attempted three years previously...”
This was described at some length in League v2.

Page 103/Shadows in the Steam 7. “It seems to me the British Empire has always encountered difficulty in distinguishing between its heroes and monsters"
Jason Powell notes, "The back cover of the very first issue of the first volume of "League" has a quote on the back cover from Campion Bond about how the British Empire has always encountered difficulties in distinguishing its heroes from its monsters. I thought it was cool that this line does appear in the chapter of Bond's memoirs reproduced in "Black Dossier," finally giving fans the context of that inaugural back-cover quote."


Page 104. The “Golden Rivet” is a bit of naval folklore. Supposedly every ship has one rivet made of gold, and old sailors like to send young sailors on snipe hunts to find the golden rivet. Sometimes the search for the golden rivet is meant to get a young and attractive sailor alone so as to have sex with him. (British naval tradition being, per Churchill, nothing but rum, sodomy, and the lash).

Pages 106-107. (I’m combining panels and the text from the Key here)
Panel 1. “...the late eccentric visionary Selwyn Cavor, driving force behind 1901's lunar expection and the subsequent annexation of the moon as part of the British Empire.”
In H.G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon (1901) Professor Selwyn Cavor is the inventor of “cavorite,” a gravity-canceling alloy (“this possible substance opaque to gravitation”) which Cavor and his friend Mr. Bedford, the narrator of the novel, use to travel to the moon. In the novel the moon is inhabited by malign Selenties. The novel ends with the Cavor trapped on the moon and the revelation that the Selenites’ ruler, the Grand Lunar, is malign. The “subsequent annexation” answers the question about what Great Britain’s response to this revelation would be.

Panel 2. “...Napoleonic naval hero Horatio Hornblower...”
Horatio Hornblower is the hero of eleven novels, from 1937-1967, by C.S. Forester. Hornblower is an officer in the Royal Navy and performs various heroics in the Napoleonic Wars.
    Peter Sanderson points out that this is another of Moore's substitutions, with the statue of Hornblower taking the place of the statue of Lord Nelson in Trafalgar Square, "possibly implying that in "League's" world it was Hornblower who won the Battle of Trafalgar."
    Christopher Reynolds adds, "It wasn't just in "League's" world that Hornblower won the battle of Trafalgar. In the Hornblower books, Hornblower genuinely was the man most responsible for the triumph at Trafalgar, by leading Napoleon's fleet into an ambush by Nelson (this occurs in the partly unfinished novel "Hornblower During the Crisis")."

Panel 3. “The Diogenes Club”
The Diogenes Club is a gentleman’s club in the Sherlock Holmes stories. Quoting Sherlock Holmes, in “The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter:”
There are many men in London, you know, who, some from shyness, some from misanthropy, have no wish for the company of their fellows. Yet they are not averse to comfortable chairs and the latest periodicals. It is for the convenience of these that the Diogenes Club was started, and it now contains the most unsociable and unclubable men in town. No member is permitted to take the least notice of any other one. Save in the Stranger's Room, no talking is, under any circumstances, allowed, and three offences, if brought to the notice of the committee, render the talker liable to expulsion. My brother was one of the founders, and I have myself found it a very soothing atmosphere.
Greg Daly notes that "The description of the Diogenes Club as a place into which one might pop for a chat (106-7.3) is at odds with the club's nature: it is a place for solitude and silence, above all!"

Panel 5
. Jonathan Miller writes, "The text in the same panel refers to a "blackface actor impersonating the Captain".  There was a 1916 adaptation of 20,000 Leagues, with Allen Holubar as Nemo.  Holubar was a white actor, but in the film he's made up to appear dark skinned.  "Blackface" is the theatre tradition where white actors do what Holubar does in the movie. I don't know how many (if any) other portrayals of Nemo there have been with white actors with dark make up, but I suspect this may be a reference to at least this one."


Panel 7
. Anyone want to have a go at translating the writing? Herms98 writes, "the writing in the Limehouse panel on p.107 is unfortunately just gibberish.  Some of it kind of looks like it might be a particular Chinese character or another, but it mostly just appears to be random squiggles."

“...neighborhood’s good fortune to a local philanthropist, a doctor who protects the area.”
This is a reference to Fu Manchu, from Sax Rohmer’s novels. In the novels Limehouse is under his rule.

“Here be South Londoners” is a reference to medieval maps which would write “Here be Dragons” on unknown areas of the map. Its use in reference to Londoners south of the Thames is a jibe at the way those north of the Thames have always regarded those south of the Thames.

Page 108.  “...unsettling reports concerning the New England town of Arkham, Massachusetts.”
In H.P. Lovecraft’s stories Arkham is a city, located on the North Shore of Massachusetts, which is the home to Miskatonic University. Arkham is a fictional city based on Salem, Mass.

“Returning during the September of that same year after some unpleasant exploits...”
Those exploits were described in League v2.

“...the communitarian Phalanstery movement, then but recently established in the western English county Avondale.”
A “phalanstery” is a self-sustaining commune. Avondale is from Grant Allen’s “The Child of the Phalanstery” (1884) and is a well-managed phalanstery with the unfortunate habit of killing all crippled or deformed children.

“...in the lost land of Zuvendis..."
Zuvendis appears in H. Rider Haggard's Allan Quatermain.

“...the incarcerated lunatic Dr. Eric Bellman...”
Dr. Eric Bellman appears in Lewis Carroll’s poem The Hunting of the Snark (1876). In the poem Bellman and the Bellman Expedition goes hunting for a snark, only to find that the gentle snark is in fact the dreaded boojum.
    Eduard Habsburg writes, "this is not quite correct. Bellmann and the Bellman Expedition do not appear in the the poem - it is a purely nonsensical ballad with several characters beginning with a "b" (bellman, butcher, Beaver, Baker etc) which is probably inspired by some famous expedition). I do realise that Alan Moore associated them somehow in his travelogues (League v2???), but in literary reality that connection does not exist."

“...the recently-resurfaced brother of Mycroft Holmes at his home in Fulworth.”
The brother of Mycroft Holmes is of course Sherlock Holmes and the recent resurfacing is Holmes’ return from apparent death, chronicled in “The Adventure of the Empty House.”
    Les Klinger, author of the really very good New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, writes,
I'm a little puzzled by the reference to the "recently-resurfaced brother of Mycroft Holmes." Sherlock's "resurfacing" from the Reichenbach Falls took place in 1894, not 1901. The story of this event, "The Empty House," was not published, however, until 1903, and it wasn't until that date that the British public learned that Holmes had not perished at the hands of Professor Moriarty. Perhaps this confused the author of the Dossier. Another alternative, although I can't fix the dates exactly: In Kim Newman's Anno Dracula (in which Mycroft and the Diogenes Club attempt to overthrow Dracula, who has become the Prince Consort of Victoria), Sherlock has been incarcerated in a concentration camp, and he may have been released in 1904-1905 after Dracula left England.

Fulworth is near Holmes's retirement cottage (mentioned in "The Adventure of the Lion's Mane"), and it may be that the "resurfacing" spoken of here is meant simply that someone unknown ran into Holmes at his cottage. The events recounted in that story took place in July 1907, and it was not published (and therefore Holmes's precise place of retirement was unknown to the public at large) until 1926.

“...the Anglo-Russian Convention...”
The Anglo-Russian Convention took place from October 1905 to August 1907, at which time an entente was reached essentially ending the Great Game of espionage, addressing Afghanistan and Tibet, and and dividing Persia, the cause of much Russian-British antagonism,  into three spheres of influence.

“...a dockside hotel worker and sometime prostitute named Diver...”
This is a reference to Jenny Diver, from John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera (1728), Polly (1728), and Bertolt Brecht’s Three Penny Opera (1928). In Three Penny Opera Jenny Diver sings “Pirate Jenny,” about “the Black Freighter” which is coming to punish the guilty and rescue her. Rich Drees adds, "Moore has stated that this song was the influence for the "Tales Of The Black Frigate" section in WATCHMEN."

Page 109. “Zebed Marsh & Sons, of Innsmouth.”
In H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” Captain Marsh was the man who in the 1830s brought the worship of the Deep Ones back to the Massachusetts town of Innsmouth. His family remained a power in Innsmouth until the 1930s.
    The fish-like appearance on the faces of the fish-mongers is the “Innsmouth Look,” a facial malformation indicative of their genetic descent from the Deep Ones.

“Curwen Street, Market Square”
Curwen Street was introduced in August Derleth’s “The House on Curwen Street,” a Cthulhu Mythos story.  Pete von Sholly writes, "CURWEN STREET may have been taken from an August Derleth story, but Curwen came from JOSEPH CURWEN, the evil reincarnated sorceror in THE CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD, by Lovecraft of course."

“Celebrate Wicker Rapist Day in Coradine”
In Julius Caesar’s Commentary on the Gallic Wars he says that the Druids made a wicker statue, put human beings inside it, and set it on fire as human sacrifice. The modern world is more familiar with the burning of the Wicker Man from the 1973 British and 2006 American films of that name. Coradine is in W.H. Hudson's A Crystal Age (1887) and is a kind of utopia set in northern Scotland.
    Marc Dolan, among others, says that "I'm fairly certain that the Coradine postcard is a reference to the Neil LaBute 2006 version of Wicker Man rather than the earlier, better one, because the later film is the one with the almost all-female cast."

“Milosis Cemetery, Zuvendis”
This is the supposed grave of Allan Quatermain.

“The Fantippo Daily Mail. Hut Prices Plummet. Us Foreigners to Blame”
“Fantippo” appears in Hugh Lofting's Doctor Dolittle's Post Office (1924) and Doctor Dolittle and the Secret Lake (1949). Fantippo is a kingdom in West Africa which adopted the English postal system after Fantippo’s ruler, King Koko, heard about the system and was impressed by it. The “Daily Mail” is a jibe at the reactionary British tabloid Daily Mail, which is racist in its treatment of immigration issues. Philip & Emily Graves note that the Daily Mail has also spent a great deal of time recently talking about soaring house prices.

Page 110. Lorimer E. Brackett was a publisher of picture postcards of Monhegan, Maine. The stylized font of “Post Card, Lorimer E. Brackett, Arkham Mass.” is in the style of Brackett.

“Met one R. Carter who took us to a ruin near Dunwich - beastly business. Mina almost abducted by something ghastly...”
“R. Carter” is Randolph Carter, who appeared in five of Lovecraft’s stories. Carter, who Lovecraft partially based on himself, is a morose man who has adventures in various dreamlands. The near-abduction is described in League v1.

"Please excuse the jerky handwriting as I am currently racked with grief."
Tom Whiteley writes that this is "a very old joke, possibly from one of the seaside postcards referenced elsewhere in the book. The old joke, paraphrased, was a letter from a mother to a son and read: "Your poor father is suffering from a bout of erotomania and cannot be restrained from making love to me at inoppurtune moments whatever I am doing at any time of day or night. Please excuse shaky handwriting." Given the enviable state of Allan and Mina's love life, post-immortality, I think we can assume the explanation for her "jerky handwriting" may have more to do with the younger Allan than the excuse she gives."

Page 111.  “Octavia”
Octavia appears in Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities (1972), in which Marco Polo tells Kublai Khan about several fabulous cities in the Khan’s empire.

“Greetings from Sussex”
See the notes to Page 112.

“L’Opera de Paris”
This is a reference to Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera (1911), with the unmasked, grotesque Phantom appearing in the upper right corner of the photo. If anyone else in this painting is a reference I’m unaware of it.

“A Royal Occasion”
This is a reference, I’m sure of it--it was homaged recently in Nicholas Gurewitch’s very good web comic “Perry Bible Fellowship” on the cover of his collection The Trial of Colonel Sweeto, which you should all buy right now--but I don’t know what the original is.
    Philip & Emily Graves note "The two main (in shadow) characters at the front of "A Royal Occasion" are clearly Big Ears and Noddy from Enid Blyton's Noddy books."

Page 112.  “Sussex is dreadful, but I’ve met the gentleman I came here to visit. Yes, it’s really him.”
In Doyle’s “The Second Stain” Sherlock Holmes has retired to the Sussex Downs to raise bees.

“Dear Tom, well, it’s over, though in truth they very nearly finished us. Fantomas was a horror, and the albino almost as bad.”
See Page 113.

Greg Daly writes, "It seems that Mina and Allan were in Toyland in March 1907; they must have passed through on the way back to Britain from Asia via the Arctic (see Page 45, Panels 4-5), as they arrived home in April 1907 (Page 108). This suggests that Toyland was on the fringes of the Blazing World, since Orlando will later point out to Mina that although they saw the Blazing World in 1907, they didn't actually set foot there until a few years later (Page 182, Panel 3)."

Page 113. The characters in the image are Dr. Mabuse, Dr. Caligari?, Dr. Rotwang, and Maria.

Dr. Mabuse was created by Norbert Jacques and appeared in three novels and eight films from 1921 to 1964. Mabuse is a German criminal mastermind intent on world domination; worse still, he is a psychiatrist who uses his psychiatric knowledge and abilities at hypnotism for his own nefarious ends.

I'm unsure who the figure in top hat and white gloves is, but Rick Lai notes, "I suspect that he is meant to be Caligari even though he doesn’t resemble the silent film version (or far that matter the later remake from 1962). However, the white-gloved character has prominent eyes of a hypnotic nature." Dr. Caligari was created by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer and appeared in the film Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1920). Dr. Caligari is the head of an insane asylum in a rural village in the mountains of Germany.
    Peter Sanderson adds, "It should also be noted that in "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," the Caligari who is an evil hypnotist only appears in the mad narrator's imagination.  The real "Caligari" is a benevolent doctor at the asylum in which the narrator is confined. In "League's" world the narrator's imaginary Caligari actially exists."
    A.J. Ramirez adds, "The second character is clearly intended to be Dr. Caligari, albeit without his trademark hair.  Note the German Expressionist background and what appears to be Caesar on the staircase."

Dr. Rotwang was created by Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou and appeared in the film Metropolis (1927). Dr. Rotwang is a mad scientist in the city of Metropolis.
    Peter Sanderson adds, "It should be pointed out that "Metropolis" and the various "Mabuse" movies (from 1922 to 1960!) were directed by the same man, Fritz Lang.  Mabuse and Rotwang were played by the same actor, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, although O'Neill's illustration makes them look quite different."

Maria was created by Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou and appeared in Metropolis. She is an android created by Rotwang to foment rebellion among the workers of Metropolis.

David Malet writes, "On p. 105 in the picture of the Zwielichthelden. In between Mabuse and Rotwang, both the subjects of films directed by Fritz Lang, is a piece of paper with a red letter M written on it, an unmistakeable reference to Lang's masterpiece 1931 film "M."  This can be interpreted as the group investigating the child murderer (either as police or criminals - both sides tried to capture him in the film) - or else suggests that the madman Beckert was a creation of the group." Keith Kole also noted the connection. Neale Barnholden adds, "the character of Karl Lohmann, played by Otto Wernicke, appears in both M and Testament of Dr. Mabuse. He investigates Mabuse and Beckert, so the connection between the reality of the two films is rock-solid even without the visual reference here."

“...it is indeed possible that this Teutonic group played some part in the sinister activities that plagued the corontation of King George VI in 1910.”
For more on this, see League v3, due out next year.
    Roy Johnson writes, "I think the overall thrust of the French and German leagues section was a nod to the comic book cliche of super-teams fighting the first time they meet, assuming each are villains."

“...including a mesmerised assassin...”
In Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari the good doctor uses his hypnosis to manipulate one of his patients, Cesare, into carrying out murders while sleepwalking.

“...the ingenious criminal mastermind Arsene Lupin...”
Arsène Lupin was created by Maurice Leblanc and appeared in a number of stories and twenty novels and short story collections from 1905 to 1939. Lupin is the "Prince of Thieves," the archetypal Gentleman Thief of popular culture.

“The international arch-villain Monsieur Zenith, for example, was a pure albino who used drugs that overcame the weaknesses of his condition and indeed allowed him physical abilities beyond the ordinary.”
In the Sexton Blake stories Zenith uses opium to relieve himself of the boredom of life. Michael Moorcock, who early in his career wrote some Sexton Blake stories and edited the Sexton Blake Library, has always stated that his character Elric of Melnibone (who takes drugs to fortify himself) was based on Monsieur Zenith. In recent stories, such as those in his Metatemporal Detective (with gorgeous cover art by the brilliant John Picacio), Monsieur Zenith is shown to be a dream that Elric once had.

“...the unnerving Nyctalope. This creature, more some new, sophisticated breed of animal than man, had beating his his breast a manmade heart superior to the human model. He could breathe with equal ease in both our normal atmosphere and also underwater, and his eyes were such that the most stygian, impenetrable darkness seemed to him as brightly lit as if in the full glare of noon.”
The Nyctalope was created by Jean de La Hire and appeared in sixteen novels from 1908 to 1954. He is the adventurer Léo Sainte-Claire (Jean de Sainclair in some novels), who fights a wide variety of exotic evils with the help of a stalwart band of assistants. (In some ways the Nyctalope is Doc Savage avant la lettre). As stated in the narration above, the Nyctalope has an artificial heart and can see in the dark.
    Damian Gordon wonders if the phrase “new, sophisticated breed of animal” might be a Moorean reference to the superhero, of which the Nyctalope is, arguably, the first.
    Jean-Marc Lofficier (who knows whereof he writes) writes that the Nyctalope can't breathe underwather. "The underwater breathing comes from an understandable confusion between the water-breather character from the first volume and the Nyctalope, hence the mistake."

“...the horror Fantomas.”
Fantômas was created by Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain and appeared in forty-three novels from 1911 to 1963. He is “the Lord of Terror” and “the Genius of Evil,” a French crime boss with who murders with abandon and aplomb.

“It also seems he was precocious in the guarding of his true identity, in that those few early acquaintances of Fantomas who lived to tell the tale could not between them give an accurate description of the man.”
Fantomas is a master of disguise and no one ever knows what he looks like.

Page 114. “...something in the voice and movements of this quite demonic being seemed to indicate that Fantomas might be a woman.”
Fantomas is on occasion impersonated by his daughter Hélène.

“...the tomb of Launcelot up in Northumberland...”
Bamburgh Castle, in Northumberland, stands on the site of an earlier fort, built in the middle of the fifth century. The original fort’s name was “Din Guayrdi.” This name was taken by the Arthurian romancers, including Malory, and given to Lancelot as his home. Launcelot’s tomb being there is referred to in League v2.

“...the kingdom of Evarchia.”
Evarchia appears in Brigid Brophy's Palace Without Chairs (1978), a modern day fairy tale set in an imaginary Eastern European socialist monarchy.

"Jean Robur, however, was no first-time aeronaut as the Professor had been, nor was his craft powered by Cavorite, which Robur had dismissed as 'unscientific.'"
Christopher Reynolds, "Wells' writing was criticized by contemporary Jules Verne for the creation of the "mythical" substance Cavorite, and Robur apparently espouses the views of his creator. The quote from verne is: "I get my voyagers to the Moon with gun cotten - something you can buy in any store and Mr Wells uses a totally mythical substance! Pah! Where is this Cavorite! Let him produce it!""


“...the monstrously disfigured madman Erik had resided while he carried out his terror campaign as the Opera’s so-called ‘Phantom.’”
Erik is the Phantom of the Opera.

Page 115. "...at which juncture A.J. Raffles, who had by then fortunately happened on the scene, shot the amphibious abomination in the chest."
John Andrews writes, " the AJ that saves Mina from The Nyctalope is Raffles, not Alan Jnr as we all presumed when we read the Almanac in Volume II."


“...a subterranean Graveyard of Unwritten Books...”
The Graveyard of Unwritten Books was created by Nedim Gürsel and appeared in Son Tramway (1900). The Graveyard, also known as the "Well of Locks," is the home of all books forbidden by authorities across the world.

“...or an underground land lit up by luminous balloons...”
I believe this is a reference to Coal City and New Aberfoyle, in Jules Verne's Les Indes Noires (1877). Coal City, a subterranean city located beneath central Scotland, is a very productive mine and tourist attraction. Pete Wilson corrects me: "“...an underground land lit up by luminous balloons...” strikes me as more likely to reference the land of "Fattypuffs & Thinifers" by André Maurois which is situated in a giant underground cavern illuminated by luminious balloons and is located (according to LoEG Vol. II at least) not far from Paris."

“Jean Robur’s airshop shot down at the battle of the Somme...”
At the end of Maître du Monde Robur’s ship crashes into the sea, but his body is never found, although he is presumed dead.

The figures in the image are: the Nyctalope, Arsene Lupin, Robur, Zenith the Albino, and Fantomas.

Page 116.  “What Ho, Gods of the Abyss” is written in the inimitable style of P.G. Wodehouse, and is a loving pastiche of Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster stories. The idea of combining Wodehouse and Lovecraft has been done before, by Yr. Humble Annotator in “Cthulhu Fhtagn, Eh Wot, Ha Ha!” and by Peter Cannon in “Scream for Jeeves,” among others.
“...that same Augustus, he of the Fink-Nottles...”
Augustus “Gussie” Fink-Nottle is a friend and schoolmate of Bertie Wooster. Gussie is described as a “teetotal bachelor with a face like a fish” which may be the Innsmouth Look (see Page 109) and would explain why he was chosen by the Old Ones in this sotry.

“...my Aunt Dahlia...”
Bertie’s Aunt Dahlia Travers is rough but affectionate toward Bertie.

“...cross-country runs at dear old Malvern House, when I was younger.”
Bertie and Gussie attended Malvern House Preparatory School.

“...my regrettable Aunt Agatha who uses battery-acid as a gargle and shaves with a lathe...”
Bertie’s Aunt Agatha Gregson is quite fearsome: “When Aunt Agatha wants you to do a thing you do it, or else you find yourself wondering why those fellows in the olden days made such a fuss when they had trouble with the Spanish Inquisition.”

“...I may write a piece on for Milady’s Boudoir”
Milady’s Boudoir is a weekly woman’s newspaper which Aunt Dahlia runs.

Page 117. “...its blossoms shall certainly attract the Shambler in Darkness.”
This very Lovecraftian-sounding creature is Moore’s invention. "Him Name Eddie" writes, "One other thing...the "Shambler in Darkness" from page 117 could be a reference to the "Shambler in the Stars" creature from the Cthulhu Mythos, although I don't think it was invented by Lovecraft himself. It is described as living in "cosmic space" which would certainly be darkness." Christopher Reynolds writes, "the name of the creature should be "Shambler from the stars" rather the "in the stars", and it appeared in a short story by Robert Bloch in Weird Tales in 1935. It drinks blood."

“Cool Lulu”
Cthulhu.

“...sleepying and dreaming at a place called Riley...”
R’Lyeh

“...some old goat who had misspent his youth so badly that he had a thousand young...”
Shug-Niggurath is the “Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young.”

“...the three-lobed burning eye...”
The three-lobed burning eye is one of the avatars of Nyarlathotep.

“...the town of Goatswood, close to Brichester, for the occasion.”
Goatswood and Brichester are in the Severn Valley, which in the stories of Ramsey Campbell are a location for many Lovecraftian activities.

“...three or four feet long and roughly barrel shaped, its head resembling an elaborately ugly starfish and some ghastly tattered things that jutted from what we assumed to be its torso, these resembling fins or wings...”
This is a Lovecraftian Elder Thing.

Philip & Emily Graves write, "Jeeves' cousin 'on the Silversmith side of his family, who worked as deputy curator for the British Museum' must presumably be the child of his uncle Charlie Silversmith, who is the butler at Deverill Hall (from The Mating Season)."

Pete von Sholly writes, "One small note - the body found while cleaning up the garden (page 115), the barrel- shaped starfish-headed thing with tattered wings would be one of the Old Ones, a very specific variety of alien featured in HPL's At the Mountains of Madness."

Herms98 adds,
I think you’re missing some more specific Lovecraft references in “What Ho, Gods of the Abyss”.  The mention of brains removed and stored in cylinders, and of Peabody’s illness giving him a raspy voice and making him sensitive to light is a reference to Lovecraft’s “The Whisper in Darkness”.  In the story, a race of aliens with great surgical abilities called the Mi-go can remove the brains of human, usually their allies, and store them in cylinders to be transported through space.  The character Akeley, who fights against the Mi-go, is captured by them and has his brain placed in a cylinder.  Meanwhile, a Mi-go impersonates Akeley, wearing Akeley’s skin as a disguise.  In order to make this more convincing, it keeps the lights low and talks in a low voice, claiming to be sick (the Mi-go can impersonate human speech, but their voices have a distinct buzzing sound; hence Peabody’s rasp).  Apparently the same thing is going on here.  The creature the League is shown fighting against might therefore be the Mi-go that was impersonating Peabody, which would explain the reference to “the torn and paper like visage of Mr. Peabody” during the battle.
Page 119. "The foursome from the Museum were in combat with the brute, the girlish-looking chap Orlando hacking gamely at it with a large and terribly impressive sword..."
Edward Rogers speculates that the sword on the cover may be the one Orlando uses here: "The discolored and jagged edge may be due to the blades contact with the unworldly flesh."

Myles Lobdell writes, “the elderly man to the direct right of Orlando is almost certainly David Low's Colonel Blimp or else it's Roderick Spode made up to look like Colonel Blimp, they had roughly the same politics and personality.”
Greg Daly agrees: "I'm inclined to agree that the portly gentleman with the whiskers at Brinkley Court is almost certainly Colonel Blimp (119), showing that he survived the surely almost total annihilation of his unit by the Martian heatray in LOEG Vol II. "

Page 121. Panel 2. Shawn Garrett writes,
Possibly a comic-book allusion - Something about the look of Billy here and the lighting remind me very strongly of Abel, DC Comic's HOUSE OF SECRETS horror comic host. A cowardly (socially inept, almost child-like), stuttering overweight man with two points of upswept hair, illuminated from below (Abel often walked the creepy halls with a candle) who presides over his own windswept "House Of Secrets". There's no specific panel I can refer to (although I do have an image downloaded from the web of a Berni Wrightson ink sketch for a cover of HOUSE OF SECRETS that captures the similarity.) but I do mention it also because Moore, long before Neil Gaiman used them in SANDMAN, was the one to really re-invigorate the characters of Abel (and his HOUSE OF MYSTERY host-brother Cain) in his genre-defining run of SWAMP THING - taking characters who had previously been seen as nothing more than standard comic book hosts and redefining them as supernatural psychopomps who actually "exist" in the DC Universe.
Panel 3. If “Courtfield 106" means anything, I’m unaware of it. Zoltán Déry writes that Courtfield is the town nearest to Greyfriars.

Panel 6. And so we finally have the explanation of the “Mother” Bunter got his postal orders from.

Page 122.  Panel 1. “Roy Carson Horror”
Roy Carson is a British hardboiled detective created by Denis McLoughln and appearing in Roy Carson #1-44 (1948-1954).

“‘Splash Kirby’ Exclusive”
Arthur “Splash” Kirby is a reporter for the Daily Post in various Sexton Blake stories. Michael Moorcock corrects my earlier misidentification of Kirby's creator and says, "I think Splash was the creation (or modification) of W. Howard Baker."

“Friardale Gazette”
Greyfriars School is just to the north of the village of Friardale.

If the mother and children seen here are a reference to anyone I’m unaware of it. Myles Lobdell wonders if the two children are Andy Capp and his future wife.

Panel 2. Richard Dill writes, "Is the woman eating rock at the left of the panel Vera from the Giles family, drawn by the late great Ronald Giles? Her hair, clothes and hat are identical. Although this isn't as definitive the sighting of Gran on PAGE 12 - PANEL 3, I think this is too detailed to be coincidence."

Page 123. Panel 2. Peter Hardy and Londonkds note, "I'm pretty certain that the bus driver is Stan Butler as played by Reg Varney in the British sit-com On The Buses. Although that series was made in the early seventies it is conceivable that Stan was doing the job back in 1958."

Panel 3
. “Norma Desmond” is a reference to the aging actress in Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard (1950).

Philip & Emily Graves write, "Tempting to suggest that the red-head is Violet Elizabeth Bott from the Just William books by Richmal Crompton."

Panel 4. Borchester is a town in the BBC radio soap The Archers (1951-present).

Richard Powell adds, "Ambridge is also from "The Archers", it's the village where the titular family are based."

Pages 124-125. Any help any of you can give me on identifying these rockets would be most helpful. Likely they’re all references.

Damian Gordon speculates that the ship on the left-hand side of the page, above the man with the pipe, is from Things to Come (1936), the film version of Wells’ The Shape of Things to Come.

Paul Cornell identifies the blue ship on the long track in upper center of Page 124 as the Fireball XL5, from the British tv series Fireball XL5 (1962-1963), a Gerry and Sylvia Anderson flying-marionettes-in-the-future show.

Paul Cornell and Damian Gordon note that the red ship in the lower right hand corner of Page 124 is the titular vehicle from Gerry Anderson’s tv show Supercar (1961-1962). Paul Cornell further notes that the thing in front of the ship, raising its two arms, is Mitch, the pet monkey of Jimmy Gibson, a ten-year-old member of the Supercar team. Mike Curtis adds, "Standing in front of Supercar is its test pilot Mike Mercury, recognizable by his distinctive coveralls and hair."

Paul Cornell further writes, “the space technology looks to be a combination of Frank Hampson Dan Dare design (the glass nose cones and bubbles) and Gerry Anderson design (the little vehicle leading the spacecraft along the ground has design features from a Captain Scarlet SPV, but definitely isn't one. Some of these designs may be, dare I say it...generic?”

Kevin O'Neill identifies the bald, trenchcoat-wearing man in the lower right as Masterspy, from Supercar.

The “Kingfisher-8" is a reference to Dan Dare. The Kingfisher was the first manned rocket sent to Venus, but it was mysteriously destroyed, leading to Dan Dare’s trip to Venus and encounter with the Mekon.

Kevin O'Neill identifies the green, vertical rocket is from Space Ace. (I failed to ask him which Space Ace, unfortunately). Jeremy Briggs writes, "That would be Space Ace from the 1950's UK Lone Star comic and annuals with art by Ron Turner."

Kevin O'Neill identified the red, horizontal rocket with "Alpha 7" written on the side as appearing in an issue of....and I can't read my writing. something Adventure Annual. Anyone? Jeremy Briggs responds: "
That would be one of the Adventure Annuals published by TV Boardman in the UK in the 1950's. Check TV Boardman artist Dennis McLaughlin's Wikipedia entry for a full list. Unfortunately I don't know which one this spaceship is from but most of the covers are here."

Zoltán Déry writes, "The small grey craft on the right hand side, just above the large red "Alpha 7" seems to be Dan Dare's ship "Anastasia". The two domes and the grey colour certainly match." Jeremy Briggs also noted this.

Kevin O'Neill identifies the ship in the upper right as the Skylon from the Festival of Britain.

Kevin O'Neill identifies the squat, vertical craft in the upper left as the ship from Things to Come. Keith Martin and Jeremy Briggs note, "
Properly speaking, that isn't a ship, it's a Space Gun. In "Things to Come", this gigantic gun is used to fire a manned capsule into space (much like the gun used in Jules Verne's "From the Earth to the Moon"). In the picture that you link to, you can see the capsule being lifted up by a crane, ready to be lowered into the gun."

Kevin O'Neill identifies the white vertical rocket on the upper right of Page 124 as the rocket from Journey Into Space.

    Leo and Kevin Pezzano note its similarity to a Werner von Braun design: "The white finned rocket lifting off in the top center of the big spaceport image (pages 124-135), the one right at the nose of the big blue rocket, bears an extremely strong resemblance to the design proposed by Wernher von Braun and illustrated by Chesley Bonestell in his Collier's Magazine articles collectively called "Man Will Conquer Space Soon!""
    Jeremy Briggs writes, "It is from the 1956 Express Weekly comic strip of the BBC Radio series Journey Into Space and the original artist was Ferdinando Tacconi. It is being reprinted in Spaceship Away and there is a scan of it here."

Richard Dill writes, "The two figures standing on the observation deck with their backs to us at the bottom left of the picture are Dan Dare and his sidekick, Digby. Digby is the same fat, pudgy short height he always is to Dare, whilst Dan's obligatory pipe is seen protruding into view."

Martin Campbell writes, "The Sign in bottom right is also from Dan Dare – in fact Dan Dare episode 1 14th April 1950."

Page 125. Panel 4. “Ordinary airplane pilot Gary Haliday at your service.”
This is a reference to the BBC tv series Garry Halliday (1959), about two pilots, Garry Halliday and Bill Dodds, in pursuit of the criminal mastermind The Voice.

Paul Cornell corrects my mistake about the “I-Spy Rockets” pamphlet which Haliday is holding:
“Halliday is holding a fictitious entry in the 'I Spy Books' series.  I had several of these when I was a kid.  The idea was that the books listed a collection of things (birds, cars, etc) and the observant child ticked off where and when they'd seen each thing, then sent the book in to Big Chief I-Spy (who lived in a wigwam in London) and get some sort of certificate in return.  They've become comedy shorthand for a reference book only for the very young.”

Page 126. Panel 1. “Well, I’m only a rocket-spotter, really, but I know a bit.”
Damian Gordon notes that this is a riff on the U.K. tradition of trainspotting and planespotting: ordinary citizens keeping notes on the various types of trains and planes they have spotted.

Panels 1-2. “That’s the Pancake Extra-Large Series Four...there was the Mushroom Cloud X-L 2, the Shrapnel X-L 3...it’s a tradition.”
This is a reference to the Fireball XL5 (see Page 124). Paul Cornell writes that the back end of the ship with the “L4" visible is quite similar to the back end of the XL5. Patrick Reumann adds, " I wonder it the reference on page 126 about the Mushroom Cloud Xl spaceship may have be a reference to Sci Fi Artist Kelly Frees paintings from the 1960's with a Mushroom shape module on space ship in his art works. This became known to fans as the Kelly Frees Mushroom Drive. Could Moore be refers to Frees and his artwork? Frees started painting these during the same time period as Fireball XL5."

Panel 3. “We read about that when we were in the states. See-through robots made out of perspex or something, all with names like Ronald, or Roderick...”
In Fireball XL5 transparent robot Robert is the Fireball’s pilot.
    "Him Name Eddie" writes, "It seems to me that this could be a reference to Robby the Robot from the 1956 movie Forbidden Planet, who had a clear 'bubble head' (which I believe was indeed made from perspex) from which his inner workings could be observed."
    Guest_Informant points out that the "Roderick" reference is likely an allusion to John Sladek's Roderick the Robot.

Damian Gordon notes that the boys in the lower left are Danny and Plug of the Bash Street Boys. (See Page 10, Panel 4).

The hockey-stick-wielding girl is Petunia, from the comic strip “The Dolls of St. Dominic’s,” which appeared in the British comic Pow in 1967.  Philip & Emily Graves disagree: "I think that it's not Petunia from "Dolls of St Dominic's", but one of the girls from St Trinians - the character behind her is clearly Alastair Sim as Millicent Fritton from the films!"
    Richard Dill adds, "Although the feral schoolgirls seen here are most certainly from St. Trinians, I believe the bespectacled prep-schoolboy to be another classic, yet lesser known, Ronald Searle illustrative masterpiece. That of Nigel Molesworth. Illustrated by Searle and written by Geoffrey Willans (until his sudden untimely death in 1958 at 47) the books were enormously popular, initially surpassing the St.Trinians titles in sales. The hero of the books, Nigel Molesworth, went to St. Custards prep school. Interestingly, the rival school, known as Porridge Court, had a headmaster of the name of HOGGWART."

Panel 4. "That's right. The X-Ls are American made."
"Well, I suppose they'd have to be. Who else thinks 'extra' stars with an X?"
Mario di Giacomo writes, ""Who else thinks 'extra' starts with an X?" has a whole new meaning in a book who's first volume was adapted into a film abbreviated LXG...."
Rich Johnston adds, "Professor Xavier names his team the X-Men because each has an "extra" power."
    Chris Cooper writes, "I think in cheesy science fantasy parlance the X means 'Tres Kewl' but in aviation design and law the X denotes an experimetal prototype version of the craft numbered in series as remodelled varieties get built. Since UK aviation governing bodies will not allow experimental aircrraft (and subsequently spacecraft) to fly commercially, I'm going with the 'X means Tres Kewl' idea."

Panel 5. “...somebody famous, like Morgan or Hawke or someone.”
Morgan is Captain Morgan, mentioned on Page 10, Panel 8. Hawke is Jeff Hawke, from the comic strip “Jeff Hawke, Space Rider” (1954-1975). Jeff Hawke, in the XP5 rocket, goes 3000 miles beyond the Moon and meets the Lords of the Universe, and then embarks on even wider-ranging adventures.

Panel 6. Jeremy Briggs and Robert Dery note, "The elderly gentlemen below the "Let's go and look in the gift shop" balloon is Professor Popkiss from Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's Supercar TV series. He created the Supercar along with Doctor Beaker. Details on the TV Comic Supercar comic strip are here."

Page 127. Panel 2. Is the mask on the right a reference to anything? Philip & Emily Graves think that the mask is the Mekon's. Richard Dill and Tim Chapman, disagree: "The boy's alien mask could be of the Mekon, but lacking the enormous forehead, is more likely based upon his lowly alien masses, The Treens." James Coates adds, "I am pretty sure these masks were available to buy in Britain in the 1950's. (I'm sure there is a film in which a child is seen wearing one but I can't remember what it was.)"
    Chris Cooper writes, "Yes, it's a treen mask, let's say a Worker Treen. The Mekon was also a treen but was some sort of supercaste Queen Treen with amazing intellectual powers but a withered body. If I remember rightly, the Mekon controlled a facist Treen empire on the South of Venus. The Northern Venus Treens travelled between Earth and Venus regularly. I recall there were immigrant treen kids in earth schools." Jeremy Briggs adds, "The green mask is a Treen and Dan Dare creator Frank Hampson's son, Peter, can be seen wearing a fuller version in the Pathe News clip here."

Richard Dill writes, "The fat man with the monocle is Harris Tweed, a popular character from the old Eagle comic. Drawn by John Ryan (who also created and drew the B.B.C. childrens classic, 'Captain Pugwash') Tweed, usually known as 'Harris Tweed, Special Agent' and later as 'Harris Tweed - Super Sleuth', was a rotund and monocled bumbling secret agent who bungled successfuly through missions and adventures, assisted only by his cleverer (he often saved the day) boy sidekick, known simply as Boy."

Panel 3. The seated alien is the Mekon. Chris Cooper writes, "The Mekon sits in a hovering plate because he's too weak to carry himself. Hampson's Dan Dare treens were not racial symbolisms as much as 'blatentisms'."

Panel 4. “Interplan– Police Patrol” is a reference to the Interplanetary Police Patrol, which Captain Vic Valiant was the “Ace” of in Space Comics (1953-1955).

“Kemlo” is a reference to the fifteen Kemlo books by “E.C. Eliot,” a.k.a Reginald Alec Martin. Kemlo and his friends live on Satellite Belt K, orbiting around the Earth.

Paul Cornell clears up my confusion by noting that the alien brain-with-antenna is one of the creatures from the British sf horror film Fiend Without a Face (1958).

Panel 5. “...the Westminster Abbey Fungus-Astronaut...”
This is a reference to Nigel Kneale’s The Quatermass Experiment (1953), in which a British spaceship thought to be lost crashes in Wimbledon. One of the astronauts turns out to be infected with a dangerous fungus alien and is eventually cornered in Westminster Abbey.

Page 128. Panel 1.  Richard Dill writes, "I'm not sure, but this looks pretty similar to a shot of motorway traffic in Terry Gilliam's '1984' inspired British future movie, 'BRAZIL'. The cars and lorry remind me of a scene where the films protagonist, Sam, takes to the motorway."

Panel 7. John Sewell writes, "The white-haired chap looking worried as Drummond bears down on him looks very like Dan Dare's faithful batman Digby, but if that's the case he's lost his cap (and his Colonel!) since his previous appearance four pages previously!"

Page 129. Panel 1.  “He probably misses Goldstein and the Four-Minute Hate...”
In 1984 the “Two Minute Hate” is a daily ritual in which Party members must watch a film showing Emmanuel Goldstein (see Page 16, Panel 8) and other enemies of the Party, and express their hatred for them.

Panel 2. Philip & Emily Graves write, "For little reason other than the colour of her clothes, we wonder if that's Lady Penelope of Thunderbirds fame."

Panel 3 & 7. Jason Adams writes, "The stick-figure signs that denote the male and female restrooms each have a single antenna sticking out from the tops of their heads!"

Panel 5. Peter Sanderson writes, "I wonder if the sexual attraction between Bond and Miss Night was inspired by the film of  Ian Fleming's "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," in which Diana Rigg (who played Mrs. Peel) played Tracy, the woman who marries James Bond."

Page 130. Panel 1. Philip & Emily Graves and Jason Adams write, "The man in glasses' badge (button) features the same character seen earlier (Which we think to be Martian) on page 16, panel 9." Phil Smith disagrees: "I don't think it is that Martian character seen earlier. It looks to me like he's wearing a penny-farthing badge as worn by residents of The Village. Another reference to The Prisoner!"

Panel 8. “Don’t fancy a wager on Melchester hammering those Fulchester scoundrels, I suppose?”
The British tv series Crown Court (1972-1984) was set in Fulchester. Damian Gordon points out that most of the characters in the adult comic Viz live in Fulchester.
Phil Smith writes, "Fulchester Rovers is the football team used in Viz's great strip Billy the Fish, whose line-up included busty Native American Brown Fox, 81-year-old blind peanut seller Rex Findlayson and not-a-Nazi-Rocket-Scientist Professor Wölfgang Schnell BSc PhD, and fish-bodied goalkeeper Billy the Fish. It's hardly surprising that they'd face off against the team they spoofed!"

Page 131. Panel 1. Paul Cornell notes that these are the Lazoons, from Fireball XL5. (They are mentioned on Page 48, Panel 40). Presumably the one which “talked with a lisp” was Zoony, who apparently was very irritating to viewers. Jeremy Briggs adds, "Zoonie the Lazoon was iritating because, being an alien animal, he did not speak English and repeated his "Welcome Home" phrase parrot fashion and v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. To add a lisp to the slow drawl of "Welcome Home" would have been unbearable, as it appears to have been to the rest of the Lazoons in the cage in this panel."

Panel 3. The fat man is Harris Tweed--see the note to Page 127, Panel 2.

Page 133.  Panel 1. Peter Sanderson writes, ""S-so you know Indian wrestling, do you?"   This is an obvious reference to Mrs. Peel's renowned martial arts skills.  But why does Moore refer to them as Indian?  Assuming he is referring to India, and not  to Native American combat skills, Moore may possibly be alluding to the fact that Diana Rigg spent her early childhood (age 2 to 8) in India." Peter Gilham points to the Wikipedia entry on Pehlwani.

Panel 4
. “Anzia New Famine”
I’m unable to find this reference. It might be referring to the Azanian Empire, in Evelyn Waugh's Black Mischief (1932).

Page 134. Panel 3. “Dixie Coll– Lesbian Expose.”
I’m not sure what this is a reference to. Philip & Emily Graves write, "Looks like "Dixie Collins" to us, and could therefore refer to the 1959 film "Expresso Bongo", starring Cliff Richard."

Page 136. Panel 1. I’m pretty sure the spaceships seen here are more references, but I don’t know what they are.

Page 137. Panel 1. “...these oversized Dinky toys.”
Dinky Toys are a British brand of toy cars. John Sewell adds, "...these oversized Dinky toys.” - it's maybe worth pointing out that throughout the 1960s and 70s, Dinky produced many minature vehicles based on those seen in Gerry Anderson's various series (though not Fireball XL5!) which are fondly remembered toys by us ageing fortysomethings."

Panel 2. I don’t recognize the car, if it's a reference. Ken Shinn does: "Indeed it is - another Dan Dare reference, in fact. It's one of the gyro-cars (future vehicles moving on a large, centrally-mounted gyroscopic "tyre") frequently seen being driven by Dan and his Space Fleet comrades." John Sewell adds, "The car commandeered by Bond is a jeepeet from Dan Dare - Dare uses a similar model to travel to Space Fleet HQ early in the strip's first storyline."

Panel 7. Julian Wan writes, "Allan assembles what looks like a gilded handcrafted shotgun. He is a bit rusty for a big-game hunter and fumbles with the shells. The weapon was probably crafted in the Middle East. The region of northern India, Pakistan and Afghanistan are noted for their many skilled gunsmiths who create beautiful weapons with inlays of gold and ivory."

Panel 9. James Coates writes, "Look at the colour of Allan's shotgun. He wouldn't be a man with a golden gun by any chance?"

Page 138. Panel 1. I don’t recognize the spaceships, if they are references.

Panel 2. I don’t recognize the spaceships, if they are references.

Panel 3. Jonathan Roberts writes, "when Bond crashes the car (a Dan Dare car?) on page 138 the speed sign is Moore's dig at visual gags from Bond films, specifically post-boat chase in Live And Let Die."

"Him Name Eddie" writes, "In the panel where Bond's car is getting flipped over by Allan's gun blast, in the background there is a squat rocket with the letters 'UK 1' on it. I believe this is the moon lander from the 1964 movie version of First Men in the Moon, although there it was the 'UN 1'."

Page 139. Panel 4. “I read it in that dirty magazine you bought in America. Stagman, wasn’t it?”
Stagman appears in John Sladek’s The Müller-Fokker Effect (1973). In the novel Stagman is a Playboy analogue which is only successful because of its owner’s frustrated libido.
    Papa Joe Mambo notes that the original title for Playboy was Stag Party. Dave Henderson adds: "Hugh Hefner originally wanted to call his new magazine Stag Party, and the mascot, instead of the famous rabbit, was an antlered stag. However, there was already a men's magazine called Stag, and they threatened to sue. So at the last minute the name was changed to Playboy and the mascot to a suave rabbit."

Panel 5. “...stories by Kennaston...”
In James Branch Cabell’s The Cream of the Jest (1917) writer Felix Kennaston’s work begins to infect his reality.

“Trout”
In the novels of Kurt Vonnegut Kilgore Trout is a hack writer of science fiction. Joseph Allevato adds, "in the Vonnegut books, Mr. Trout's stories never get printed except in pornographic magazines and, even then, only to make the magazine thicker."

“You just ogled that ‘Montana Wildhack’ floozy in the fold-out bit.”
In Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five (1969) Montana Wildhack is a porn actress who is kidnaped by the Tralfamadoreans and forced to mate with Billy Pilgrim.

Panel 6. “...you weren’t much on the Stagman Club, all those girls with deer antlers...”
The Playboy Club makes its waitresses wear bunny ears, so it’s logical that in the Stagman Club the waitresses would wear deer antlers.

Page 140. Panel 1. “Roger the Robot”’s visual appearance may be a reference. Philip & Emily Graves write, " Both the robot and uniform are again derived from Fireball XL5. Their robot was Robert. See here."
    Jason Adams writes, "Although I cannot find a visual reference, there was a Roger the Robot in an episode of the American television series Captain Z-Ro (1951-1956)."
    Keith Kole demurs: "Roger the Robot is a suggestion."

Page 141. Panel 1. “I’ve seen brainier-looking Airfix kits.”
Airfix is a British manufacturer of scale model kits of planes.

Pages 142-143. Again, more spaceships I’m not recognizing. Damian Gordon wonders if the ship in the upper left with two domes is a version of Dan Dare’s Anastasia. Paul Cornell agrees but notes the fins, which the Anastasia is missing.

That may be Dan Dare himself in the bottom right corner. James Coates writes, "It's definitely Dan Dare or least a relative of. Dan Dare is almost always depicted with those very distinctive jaggedy eyebrows (If you have read Grant Morrison's 'DARE' this is even remarked upon by one of the characters). Presumably  the woman with him could be Jocelyn Peabody, a botanist who often accompanies Dan on his adventures although I can't remember seeing her in this uniform." Philip & Emily Graves write, "*IF* that's Dan Dare, then it's highly likely that the character to his right (our left) is Christopher Philip "Flamer" Spry."

Mario di Giacomo writes, "above the maybe Dan Dare, is a Hiller Flying Platform, developed (and abandoned) by the Office of Naval Research in 1955." Jason Adams adds this link. Philip & Emily Graves write, "Although the artwork here does indeed appear to be of a Hiller Flying Platform, it's worth noting that Tom Swift invented a similar-looking device - the 'repelatron donkey'. The picture here shows it with more of a guard rail, but the textual description does not appear to specify it needing one."


Jeremy Briggs writes, "Of the two helicopters above the tower, the yellow one is a helijet from Dan Dare in Eagle comic which were based on the Westland Dragonfly helicopter which (strangely enough) is what the orange one appears to be. The large tower block in the background is the Space City Control Tower from the Fireball XL5 TV series as can be seen in TV Comic here."

Page 144. Panel 1. “Jona- Curs- on Brit–“
Tim Chapman and Guy Lawley point out that this is a reference to the main character of a comic strip in The Beano, featuring a very unlucky sailor. (A "Jonah," in Naval parlance). Ed Berridge notes, "Jonah was a strip that ran in The Beano about a 'jinxed' sailor who caused every ship he ever set foot on to sink, usually in a ridiculously amusing manner. The character was written and drawn by Roger the Dodger-creator Ken Reid, of whom both Moore and O'Neil were fans (in fact, Alan bought an original page of Reid's Jonah artwork as a wedding present for his daughter Leah and son-in-law John Reppion)."

“Spider Man From Mars”
Not a reference to the Bowie song, surely? Michael Norwitz writes, "... actually it would be in character for Moore to make a Bowie reference; see the Captain Airstrip-One strip." Jason Adams writes, "Spiderman from Mars" may be a reference to the multi-limbed green martians from Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Barsoom Series", but it's likely that it is also a double-reference to David Bowie's 1972 classic The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars." Daniel Marks writes, "looks a lot like Bowie, and is even more fitting considering that Bowie considers the 1984 canon in his 'Diamond Dogs' Album, with songs like 'We are the Dead', '1984', and 'Big Brother' "

Page 145. Panel 2. Jonathan Carter notes that this is the uniform worn on Fireball XL5.

Page 146.  “...a self-styled ‘surrealist sportsman’ who suffered from chronic dwarfism and whose first or last name was apparently Engelbrecht.”
This is a reference to Maurice Richardson’s The Exploits of Engelbrecht (1950), in which the surrealist sportsman dwarf Engelbrecht boxes with a grandfather clock, goes on a witch hunt, and has various wonderful surrealist adventures.

“...a stocky, unkempt Negro with a very deep voice...”
See Page 166 below.

“...a Mr. Norton, an intelligence gatherer sometimes referred to as ‘the prisoner of London.’”
This is a reference to Iain Sinclair’s Slow Chocolate Autopsy (1997), about Norton, who can travel in time but is stuck within the physical confines of London.

“...the apparent dynasty of black-clad burrowing bandits...”
This is a reference to Terry Patrick’s The Black Sapper, who appeared in Rover and Hotspur for decades beginning in 1929. The Black Sapper is an inventor/thief, dressed all in black, who uses an enormous burrowing machine, the Earthworm, to commit crime. There being a dynasty of Sappers would explain the Sapper’s longevity.

“...or an early manifestation of elusive international criminal mastermind The Voice.”
I believe this is a reference to Garry Halliday, in which The Voice is Garry Halliday’s arch-enemy.

Damian Gordon corrects my mistake and notes that during World War Two there were a series of precautionary posters entitled “Be Like Dad and Keep Mum.”
    "Joey Dedcat" and Philip & Emily Graves wonder if the man in the cap and the prostitute are Andy Capp and Flo. John Dorrian says, "The American soldier that Flo and Andy Capp are talking to is Sad Sack, the old Harvey Comics character."

Page 147. The “Watch out–Adenoid’s about!” cartoon is typical of WW2 precautionary posters.
    Paul Cornell notes that this poster might also be a reference to Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, set during WW2 and featuring a giant adenoid. (Pynchon was likely referring back to The Great Dictator, but I'd bet that Moore intended this to be a double reference).
    Mark Bourne writes, "It's appropriate that the cartoon depicts Hynkel with a balloon for a head, because the most famous scene in Chaplin's "The Great Dictator" has Hynkel doing a little metaphorical ballet with a balloon representing the entire world.
    Dennis Walker and Londonkds point out the original source:
Careless Talk

“...the architect Nicholas Dyer’s creepy church...”
This is a reference to Peter Ackroyd’s Hawksmoor (1985), in which British architect Nicholas Hawksmoor is reimagined as Nicholas Dyer.

"He believed that in all probability the challenge would come from someone installed by Military Intelligence within the Labour Party, probably someone from a solid military background and intensely charismatic with a splendid chance of winning a post war election."
John Andrews writes, "The comments by Churchill on page 147 about being replaced by a Labour man with an impressive military record are interesting, beacuse in 1945 Clement Atlee, or "Major Atlee" as he was sometimes know, did indeed replace Churchill when the Labour Party won a landslide result in the general election. And Orwell did base IngSoc on the Labour Party under Atllee in the late 1940's so perhaps this is what Moore is alluding to?"

"He broke off with a haunted look there in his bloodshot gundog eyes, as if he'd said too much, and lit one of those caber-sized cigars..."
Peter Sanderson writes:
The prime minister is presumably Winston Churchill (1874-1965), who was indeed a heavy drinker, though not an alcoholic. Here Moore is building upon the historical fact that Churchill, though he was such a great war leader, was turned out of office in 1945, right after the war's  end.  You should find this quotation from Churchill's Wikipedia entry relevant: "During the opening broadcast of the election campaign, Churchill astonished many of his admirers by warning that a Labour government would introduce into Britain "some form of Gestapo, no doubt humanely administered in the first instance". Churchill had been genuinely worried during the war by the inroads of state bureaucracy into civil liberty, and was clearly influenced by Friedrich Hayek's anti-totalitarian tract, The Road to Serfdom (1944)."
Page 148. The four figures here are Worrals, William Samson Jr., the Iron Warrior, and the Invisible Man, with the Iron Fish in the background.

William Samson Jr is the son of William Samson, seen in League v2. William Samson Jr is the “Wolf of Kabul,” who appeared in over 100 stories in various story papers from 1922 to 1972. The Wolf of Kabul, whose real name was Bill Sampson (often shown as "Samson"), is an agent for the British Intelligence Corps operating on the Northwest frontier of India.

The Iron Warrior appeared in Thrill Comics (1940-1945) and New Funnies (1948). The Iron Warrior is a giant robot, controlled by Rodney Dearth and used to find treasure in Africa.

This Invisible Man is Peter Brady, from the American tv series The Invisible Man (1958-1960). In the show Peter Brady, a British scientist, is turned invisible in an accident.

The Iron Fish is mentioned on Page 14, Panel 1.
    Matt White, Julian Wan, and Dan Kurdilla correct me: "It's certainly Grey in the background on 148 instead of Rodney Dearth. He's identical in panel 3 on page 149."

"When in 1946 it was apparent that Miss Murray and her colleagues had deserted our employ by going missing in America, MI5 elected to replace the group with surrogates in an attempt to recreate the impact of the 1898 ensemble..."
Damian Gordon writes:
The Invisible Man (Peter Brady) = The Invisible Man (Hawley Griffin)
Prof James Gray = Nemo (both submarine builders, Nemo even inspired Gray in League V2)
Worrals = Mina (female leads experienced in death)
Wolf of Kabul = Quatermain (both in the great white hunter tradition, they even both wear pith helmets)
The Iron Warrior = Hyde (both really killers pressed into service).
“...Miss Warralson’s previously unsuspected tribadism...”
Although W.E. Johns never said that Worrals was a lesbian, she was pursued by handsome, accomplished fellow pilot Bill Ashton, who is in love with her. She never reciprocated his feelings and liked him only as a friend. Suspicions of being gay have been raised with less evidence than that....

“...a pairing of pirate-slave James Soames and Italian master-criminal Count Zero.”
Count Zero clashed with Harry Wharton and the Greyfriars crew in Magnet #1452-1455. Paul Cornell notes that James Soames was an adversary of Harry Wharton. In the Magnet Soames was indeed a pirate and a slaver.

Page 149.  “...her companion ‘Frecks’, apparently an old school chum.”
In the Worrals stories Worrals’ sidekick is her best friend and fellow pilot Betty “Frecks” Lovell.

“...his deadly cricket-bat wielding colleague Chung...”
In the Wolf of Kabul stories Samson’s sidekick is the Pathan Chung, whose weapon of choice is his “clicky-ba,” or cricket bat. After killing men Chung would remark, his eyes tearing, “Lord, I am full of humble sorrow – I did not mean to knock down these men – ‘Clicky-ba’ merely turned in my hand.”

Page 150. “The Crazy Wide Forever, by Sal Paradyse.”
In Jack Kerouac’s On the Road (1957) Sal Paradise (Kerouac’s fictional stand-in) and friend Dean Moriarty travel around America, having Beat adventures. The Crazy Wide Forever is written in a similar style to On the Road. Steve Mattson says, "The style of the Crazy Wide Forever owes as much to William S. Burroughs' Nova Trilogy as it does to Jack Kerouac's On the Road. Dean Moriarity is based on Kerouac's friend Neal Cassady. Cassady's antics also inspired Allen Ginsberg and Ken Kesey. Mr. Bradley/Mr. Martin is from Burroughs' "Nova Trilogy.""
    Steve Mattson adds, "In The Crazy Wide Forever Dean Moriarity, the grandson of James Moriarity is the enemy of Dr. Sachs, is the grandson of Fu Manchu. H.P. Lovecraft's Robert Blake is the equivalent of William S. Burroughs' the Subliminal Kid from the Nova Trilogy. Lovecraft's Hastur is equivalent to Mr. Bradley/Mr. Martin from the Nova Trilogy. Lovecraft's Great Old Ones are the Nova Mob from the Nova Trilogy. Mugwumps are from Burroughs' Naked Lunch, the prequel to the Nova Trilogy." Steve Mattson further adds that "The man with the hat in the mirror looks like William S. Burroughs and the other man looks like Jack Kerouac."
    Mattson further adds, "The title “The Crazy Wide Forever” refers to a line in the story when Kerouac, as Paradyse, looks into the immortal Mina’s “bottle green glass eyes” and sees “Forever wide crazy”. Then he looks into Quatermain’s eyes and sees they are “same as hers full o’ years what he shouldn’t of owned”."
    C. Jerry Kutner writes, ""The Nova Mob," "The Subliminal Kid," and "Mr. Bradley/Mr. Martin" are all creations of Kerouac's friend, William S. Burroughs."

I find this style of prose almost unreadable, and so I’m refusing to annotate it except for the crucial ones. You can send in the annotations if you like--I'll certainly list them here. I just can't bring myself to do it.

Page 151.  “O little did we know but Dr. Sachs was settin fer us...”
“Dr. Sachs” is a reference to the titular character of Jack Kerouac’s Dr. Sax (1959). Dr. Sax is a scientist who travels to Lowell, Massachusetts, to destroy the Great World Snake, a Jörmungandr-like monster. Jason Adams writes, "However, I feel the need to point out the almost poetic connection of the names Dr. Sachs (grandson of Fu Manchu) and Sax Rohmer (creator of Fu Manchu). Also, I don't think it's been said yet that Doctor Sax was based on both William S. Burroughs and The Shadow."
   
Steve Mattson notes, "Jack Kerouac’s novel Dr. Sax is set in his home town of Lowell, Massachusetts which is a short distance southwest of Salem, Massachusetts, speculated by some as the actual location for H.P. Lovecraft’s Arkham, Massachusetts."
   
Cuitlamiztli Carter writes,
Moore acknowledges Dr. Sax's once heroic status despite making him a villain here. Page Five of "The Crazy Wide Forever" notes: "Dr. Sachs that hero bold gon bad." I was disappointed at first to see Sax portrayed in such a villainous manner, but that line pleased me. It also seems Sachs' accidental death of sorts is a reference to the death of the seemingly unbeatable World Snake, on which Sax comments something akin to: "Ah, the universe disposes of its own evil." Very few of Moore's characters react to the eldritch oddness they encounter the way Lovecraft's characters do, but since Sachs relates his ties to the various things Outside, it may be he was driven mad. Given the original Dr. Sax playing around with potions to defeat long-slumbering creatures, it's not far-fetched that Moore recasts him in the mold of a Lovecraftian villain such as Whateley or Tillinghast. Also, the way Sal's Beat prose is occasionally unreadable and trails off with repetitions MAY (though probably isn't) a reference to the last w rds of the narrators of "The Rats in the Walls" who regresses from babbling in modern English to archaic English to Latin to grunts. Sal is a normal guy who just saw something insane, so it's likely that the booze and drugs save him from full madness. Still, "Rats" also dealt with genetic memory and traits, and Dean does take after his ancestor...
"...an comin through the night air soup of cotton candy..."
Myles Lobdell writes, "I noticed a reference on the first page to the air smelling like cotton candy at Dr. Sachs approach: "comin through the night air soup of cotton candy snatch" and then on the next page: "some say as his tailored suit's got pictures painted on all over like a carny hoarding men..." This reference to carnies, makes me wonder if Dr. Sachs isn't also supposed to be standing in for Mr. Dark of Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, where the air also is like cotton candy.


"...his olde grandad's foe no reglar Joe but the Napoleon o crime n craft this mad perfesser Moriarty his own grandson..."
Which is to say, Kerouac's Dean Moriarty is the grandson of Conan Doyle's Professor Moriarty.

Peter Sanderson braves The Crazy Wide Forever and comes up with more references:
Peter Mattson and Philip & Emily Graves add that "Ed Dunkel is a character from On the Road and is a stand-in for Kerouac's friend Al Hinkle."

Philip & Emily Graves write, "'Satori' and 'Tathagata' are both Buddhist terms. The former for individual enlightenment, the later a 'deliberately ambiguous' Buddhist term, 'reflecting the ineffable ontological status of a fully liberated human being transcending categories of being and non-being.'"


"…her second skin skirt feet apart in a capital A and her body commences…"
Julian Wan writes "Sal describes his initial impression of Mina which resembles the image on the back cover."


"...what a night what a sight what a sigh what a kick in the eye that's Satori..."
Martin Allen notes that this is "a play on the lyrics of the Dean Martin hit song, "That's Amore", particularly its first couple lines."

"...wide crazy and bottomless em'rald Pacific with conches an corals in columns of weed...  through the full fathom five of her stare..."
Martin Allen notes that this is "an allusion to the famous Shakespearean monologue, fittingly enough from "The Tempest", and spoken by Ariel, reading in part:

Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes;
Nothing of him that does fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.

Page 152.  Peter Sanderson writes, ""Thin Man" "William Powell n Myrna Loy":  Allan and Mina are being compared to Nick and Nora Charles, the witty, sophisticated couple whom Dashiell Hammett created in his 1934 detective novel "The Thin Man" and who were played by William powell and Myrna Loy in a series of MGM "Thin Man" films."
    And "son of a son o that inhuman Fu man Dr. Sachs by name a roamer": This seems to establish via puns that Dr. Sachs/Dr. Sax is the grandson of Fu Manchu, the creation of Sax Rohmer. "
    Peter Sanderson further writes, " Isn't it likely that Nick and Nora Charles are real people in the world of "League"?  If so, then in the world of "League,"  the "Thin Man" movies starring William Powell and Myrna Loy are biographical films!  It would be like the way that Powell and Loy  played Florenz Ziegfeld and his wife Billie Burke in the movie "The Great Ziegfeld" in the real world.  And in "League's" world Dashiell Hammett's "The Thin Man" is not a novel but a nonfiction work in which Hammett reports on Nick's most famous case.
          This leads me to wonder whether in the world of "League" anyone  writes fiction about imaginary characters.  But there is an answer to this (see my new note for page 169 panel 8).


"...th' monkey wrench flip..."
Martin Allen writes, "In Tom Wolfe's Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, he describes Neal Cassady, the model for Dean Moriarty, travelling with Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters later on in life;  one of his anecdotes describes the speed-freak Cassady compulsively flipping a monkey wrench over and over again in his hand, monologuing in manic fashion all the while."

"...jackalheads in Memphis alleyway..."
Martin Allen writes, "Anubis, the jackal-headed Egyptian god of death;  the necropolis at Memphis, the old capital of Egypt, was one of his main temples."

"...sweet sweet sweat o Dizzy's brow"
Martin Allen writes, "A reference to Dizzy Gillespie, famous jazz trumpeter and bandleader."

Page 153.  Peter Sanderson writes, "Plastic Man: classic superhero with stretching powers created by Jack Cole." And ""Macbeth merder":  the murderous title character of Shakespeare's tragedy (written between 1603 and 1606), based on the historical king of Scotland Mac Bethad mac Findlaich (1005-1057)."

Peter Mattson writes, "Bull Hubbard is one of the aliases Kerouac uses for William S. Burroughs in his work" and "The reference to “cennipedes” is from “Naked Lunch” where the flesh of giant aquatic black centipedes is ground up and used as a drug."

Marc Singer writes, "Spaghetti Factory:  a reference to the Old Spaghetti Factory Caffe, the legendary North Beach (San Francisco) restaurant, located in a former pasta factory, that was a center for the local beatnik scene; the owner later sold the name, which now graces a reportedly dismal chain of fake-aged-crap-on-the-wall Italian restaurants."

Philip & Emily Graves write,
Krupp is probably Gustav Krupp, an important German industrialist under Hitler. He's also mentioned in Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow.

The nonsense-free-association here conflates the four main names for the Devil with places in America. So Mephistopheles, Beelzebub, Lucifer and Satan + San Francisco Bay, California and San Andreas become Mephrisco Bayzeebub, Lucifornia, and Satandreas.

'the dried fried hide o Rin Tin Tin' Starring on radio, in over a dozen films and an ABC TV show (several generations of) Rin Tin Tin is one of the most famous canine stars.

Big Sur is a novel by Kerouac which takes place "during the summer of 1960", written late in his productive life, and dealing with his mental breakdown.

Bill, Bull or Will Hubbard is Kerouac's analogue for William Burroughs in his books Book of Dreams (1952-60), Desolation Angels (1956, 61) and Vanity of Duluoz (1968).

'sum ole Republic serial script' Republic Pictures produced more than 60 serials from the 30s to the 50s, featuring most notably The Lone Ranger, Dick Tracy, Zorro, Fu Manchu, Captain America and Captain Marvel. Not sure if the surrounding references here ('nightmare outhouse needle fulla calibrated serum' 'some Aztec virus junk [made from] cennipedes.. n jimson weed') point to a genuine serial, or just to the style in which Dr Sachs is "explaining" himself.

The Nova Mob (as noted, here conflated with the 'Great Old Uns') features in the Nova Trilogy by William Burroughs: The Soft Machine (1961), Nova Express (1964) and the Ticket that Exploded (1962). The trilogy is a semi-sequel to Naked Lunch (1959). The plot is difficult to follow or describe, but the goal of the Nova Mob is described as follows:
'The basic nova technique is very simple: Always create as many insoluble conflicts as possible and always aggravate existing conflicts-This is done by dumping on the same planet life forms with incompatible conditions of existence-There is of course nothing "wrong" about any given life form since "wrong" only has reference to conflicts with other life forms-The point is these life forms should not be on the same planet-Their conditions of life are basically incompatible in present time form and it is precisely the work of the nova mob to see that they remain in present time form, to create and aggravate the conflicts that lead to the explosion of a planet...'
The Nova Mob apparently constitutes a group comprised variously of Mr Bradley/Mr Martin (here linked to Hastur, who first appeared in "Haïta the Shepherd" (1893) by Ambrose Bierce, and was later referenced by Lovecraft and elevated in status by August Derleth), Johnny Yen, Sammy the Butcher, Green Tony and Izzy the Push and/or Iron Claws, The Brown Artist, Jacky Blue Note, Limestone John, Hamburger Mary, Paddy the Sting, The Blue Dinosaur and The Subliminal Kid (here linked to Lovecraft's Robert "Bobby" Harrison Blake from The Haunter of the Dark). Agent/Inspector Lee and the Nova Police (Hassan i Sabbah, Agent K9 and Technical Tilly) investigate and try to stop the virus/alien ollective/intergalactic criminal group 'The Nova Mob' from creating conflict through language.

The mention of "th' Sublim'nal Kid" jumping "in an out TV commercials" refers to subliminal advertising techniques, pioneered by James Vicary in the 1950s. The three examples here are probably not specific references, although 'Drink Coca-Cola' was supposedly used early on in cinemas, and 1960s clinical trials used the phrase 'Destroy Mother'. The McCarthy censorship plans of the 1950s were designed to thwart 'th' Red Chinese'.
Timothy Kreider writes, "the reference to Republic serials echoes Adrian Veidt's patronizing, "Dan, I'm not a Republic serial villain," in Chapter  11 of Watchmen. He's referring to the same hoary convention of the villain gleefully elucidating his master plan at some length to the bound and helpless hero."

Page 154.  Peter Sanderson writes, "Schopenhauer:  Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), German philosopher. Monet:  Claude Monet (1840-1926), the great Impressionist painter." And ""like Continental Op on rum run bloody pulp":  A  fictional detective who appeared in numerous short stories and two novels written by Dashiell Hammett. The Continental Op debuted in the pulp magazine "Black Mask"  in 1923."

Peter Mattson & Philip & Emily Graves write, "Hamburger Mary is one of the Nova Mob from the Nova Trilogy."

Marc Singer writes, "Moore has used the idea of language as memetic virus before in his prose story "The Courtyard" (steeped in Lovecraftian grammar) but he got the idea from Burroughs' Nova Trilogy.  Moore elaborates on his views of language, memes, and ideaspace in an extensive interview with Eddie Campbell conducted for Campbell's short-lived Egomania and later collected with two of their collaborations in the aptly-titled "A Disease of Language."  He literalizes that title here with Dr. Sachs' plan to infect Moriarty and then the Spaghetti Factory audience with the language of the Nova Mob/Great Old Ones.

Also, if you can't stand the narrative voice here you'll love the joke that Moriarty resists Dr. Sachs with a stream of nonstop beatnik bullshit."

W. Aaron Wilson writes,
Have you considered that the basic premise of Crazy Wide Forever (although difficult to discern) is similar to that of Neal Stephenson's novel Snowcrash (1992)?

1. Infection of viral language through drugs. In Snowcrash it causes speaking in tongues or "Babel" while in CWF it will apparently give vent to the words of ancient Mesoamerican deities that will infect all who hear them.
2. Mythic origin of said infection. In Snowcrash, Babel is traced back to the Mesopotamian story of Enki. CWF goes with "Aztecs" and "Mayan" unnamed deities.
3. Targetting of free thinkers. In Snowcrash, the drug is used as a virus to target hackers, while in CWF the beat poets are the targets.
4. Neal Stephenson is similar to Moore in his constant (and sometimes dense) referencing of history, mythology, popular culture, science, etc in his writings.
Martin Allen writes, "I agree with the other commentators that the memetic infection idea is heavily borrowed from Wm. S. Burroughs;  the references throughout to the Aztec gods (153) and the "Mayan mind mob" (155) are reflective of many parts from Burroughs' Soft Machine, where ancient Aztec codices figure in the search for the secret of the word virus through cut-ups.  Burroughs also suggests that the Aztec priesthood had power over the populace via their mastery of such intellectual diseases."

Philip & Emily Graves write, "Hector's Cafeteria and the Booneville Reformatory feature in On the Road (1951)."


Perhaps on this page is the line "sweet, sweet sweat o'Dizzy's brow." Gunnar Harboe writes, "I could have sworn that there's a line somewhere in the classics about "sweet Odysseus' brow," but nothing comes up on Google." There is a line in Book X of the Iliad about Odysseus' helm being "set to shield Odysseus' brow."

Page 155.  Peter Sanderson writes, "Willyum Blake" (William Blake, 1757-1827):  visionary poet and illustrator who devised his own personal mythology of gods. Hoagy Carmichael (1899-1991): songwriter and musician who wrote the music for the song "Stardust" and appeared in such films as "To Have and Have Not." Tom Mix (1880-1940), Bill Boyd (William Boyd, 1895-1972):  Stars of early film Westerns. Floyd Patterson (1935-2006):  American heavyweight boxing champion "

Marc Singer writes, "back in New York where Hyman Solomon fuck sea-heart sailors inna washroom: This extended clause is a reference to Allen Ginsberg's "Howl," dedicated to and drawn from the stories of Carl Solomon. 
    "holy holy holy:"  reference to Ginsberg's "Footnote to Howl," which repeats the word many times, especially in its first line."

"sing holy holy holy Willyum Blake almighty in th' beat up negro dawn"
Martin Allen writes, "I agree with the previous commentator that this is a reference to Ginsberg's "Howl".  Blake was very much a favorite of Ginsberg's, and is name-checked in "Howl";  further, the end of the quotation recalls the opening lines of the poem:
    Peter Gilham writes, "“holy holy holy Willyum Blake almighty”: as well as being a riff on Howl is also a rephrasing of the opening line of the hymn The Holy Trinity by Reginald Heber (1783-1826): “Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!”"

"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by
              madness, starving hysterical naked,
       dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn..."

Philip & Emily Graves write,
Unless someone knows otherwise, I would suggest that the song "Immortal Love", (from the 'Summer afore last') will feature on the semi-mythical vinyl single which should accompany the Absolute Edition of the Black Dossier.

Hyman Solomon is from On the Road, and his quote is almost as recanted there: 'The man was a ragged, bespectacled mad type, walking along reading a paperbacked muddy book he'd found in a culvert by the road. He got in the car and went right on reading; he was incredibly filthy and covered with scabs. He said his name was Hyman Solomon and that he walked all over the USA, knocking and sometimes kicking at Jewish doors and demanding money: "Give me money to eat, I am a Jew." He said it worked very well and that it was coming to him. We asked him what he was reading. He didn't know. He didn't bother to look at the title page. He was only looking at the words, as though he had found the real Torah where it belonged, in the wilderness.'

Interestingly, both Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale and Gala Brand in Moonraker think Bond is reminiscent of Hoagy Carmichael.

The mugwumps, from William Burroughs' Naked Lunch are the slaves of Cthulhu in Move Under Ground (2004) by Nick Mamatas.

"I Like Ike" was Eisenhower's slogan in the 1952 Presidential election campaign, against Truman's policies on 'Korea, Communism and Corruption'.

Bodhisattva is another Buddhist term, meaning enlightened existence and is the term used to refer to such individuals. In The Dharma Bums (1957) by Jack Kerouac, Kerouac's analogue Ray Smith is called a 'Bodhisattva, a great wise being or great wise angel'. In Move Under Ground (2004) by Nick Mamatas, combining the beat style with the Cthulhu mythos, the 'bodhisattva Kilaya accompanies [Kerouac] on his trek to defeat Cthulhu'.


Pornsec SexJane. This is Moore & O’Neill’s version of what a Tijuana Bible would be like in the England of 1984. Tijuana Bibles were crudely produced pornographic comic books about celebrities and comic strip characters produced from the 1920s through the 1960s.
    Oy. I really should have gotten this one. I didn't, though, and Michael Lloyd did: "I'm convinced that the 'Pornsec Sexjane' sequence is a reference to a scene from the Chaplin film 'Modern Times'. In this scene, Chaplin's tramp character is driven mad from working on an assembly line in which he is constantly tweaking the tips of unidentified items that come in pairs, and look much like the breast-shaped, unidentified aparati that our protagonist is supposed to be tweaking in this. Upon leaving the factory, the tramp continues to nervously 'tweak' things that come in pairs, which of course includes chasing after a woman in order to tweak her nipples. If his repressed sexuality had been rendered more literally within the film itself, we would have ended up with something a lot more like Moore and O'Neill's 'SexJane'."


The Jane who stars in “Workbelt Crimepoke” is the same mentioned on Page 22, Panel 6.

Pornsec SexJane Pages 1. Tony Whitt writes, "The character who has his way with Jane is indeed meant to be Winston Smith, even though he doesn't fit the description of Smith from the book.  (He's about the right age, though.)  Smith's number is given in the book for 6079, which is the number on this man's overalls on the first page."
    John Hall adds, "Also the man's dialogue is very much in accord with Smith's feelings about his affair with Julia, as expressed in "1984"."

Pornsec SexJane Pages 3-4. Bumstead, Syme, Withers and Jones are all characters in 1984. Tim Chapman notes the resemblance between Withers here and Googie Withers.

Pornsec SexJane Page 6. “We are the dead” is what Winston and Julia tell each other the morning after their tryst, right before they are caught by the Thought Police in 1984.

Tim Chapman writes, "'Pastry', the final worker on the conveyor belt, is Mr Pastry, another kids' TV character."

Pornsec SexJane Page 8. The cage is full of rats. The prospect of having a cage of rats placed on his face is what finally breaks Winston in 1984.

“Imagine a patent leather boot grinding on a human tongue, forever.”
This is a sadomasochistic riff on the famous line from 1984, “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face--for ever.”
    Michael Prior adds, "The imagery brings a scene from Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" to mind, in which the reformed Alex is forced to lick the shoe of his humiliator. He almost glues his tongue to the sole."

Page 156. "...your attempt to raise the party's flagging fortunes by re labelling it 'New Ingsoc'..."
Philip & Emily Graves write that this quote is "surely a reference to Tony Blair's rebranding and realigning of New Labour in 1990s Britain." Peter Gilham writes, "The reference to “government irregularities and illegalities” possibly reflects recent problems besetting the UK Government over the past few years, in particular the so-called “Cash for Honours” scandal."

“...small towns dotted about the country such as Maybury...”
Mayberry, North Carolina, is the site of the tv shows The Andy Griffith Show (1960-1968) and Mayberry R.F.D. (1968-1971), and also appeared in an episode of The Danny Thomas Show (1953-1964).

“...or Riverdale...”
There are various real Riverdales, but in all likelihood the Riverdale mentioned here is the Riverdale which is the setting for the numerous stories in Archie Comics.

“...metropolitan environments like Central City...”
In DC Comics Central City is the home city of the Flash.

“...Gotham...”
In DC Comics Gotham City is the home city of Batman, among others.

Perhaps coincidentally, each of these cities has been the site of various interdimensional/inter-fictional universe crossover. A resident of Mayberry appeared on the It’s Gary Shandling Show (and Mayberry is a part of the vast web of tv crossovers–to see how dozens of tv shows tie in to each other, go to the Crossovers Spin Offs Master List). Marvel’s The Punisher appeared in Riverdale. Central City was the site of the first crossover between DC’s Golden Age and Silver Age characters. And Gotham has seen, among others, characters from Wildstorm Comics visit it.
    Myles Lobdell, Peter Sanderson, and Neale Barnholden note that "Central City is also the name of the city in which the Fantastic Four debuted way back in 1961.  Thus, the three cities, Riverdale, Central City, and Gotham, may represent the three 'big' long running comic companies: Archie, Marvel, and DC." Peter Sanderson further notes that Central City was the home of Will Eisner's The Spirit. Michael Norwitz adds that Central City was the home of Prez Rickard.

“...that most startling and deplorable of post war U.S. trends, the ‘mystery man’ or costumed vigilante set.”
It’s tempting to read this and the following as Moorean commentary on the effect of superhero comics on...well, take your pick. Comic books in general? Popular fiction? Popular culture?  
    Peter Sanderson comments: "Since Moore puts this remark in the mouth of Robert Cherry/Harry Lime, that probably means that Moore does NOT agree with it. "

“...the supposed goddess of love called Venus...”
The Greek goddess Venus appeared as a superhero in the Atlas Comics Venus #1-19 (1948-1952) and Marvel Mystery Comics #91 (1949). (She has appeared in other Marvel comics in recent years). Michael Norwitz adds that the Atlas Venus adventured in New York, where Allan and Mina encountered her.

“...Gotham’s by then elderly Crimson Avenger.”
The Crimson Avenger was possibly created by Jim Chambers and appeared in a number of DC comics beginning with Detective Comics #20 (Oct. 1938). Newspaper reporter Lee Travis puts on the costume of “The Crimson” to fight crime, aided by his Asian valet Wing. The Crimson Avenger predated the Batman and was arguably the first costumed crimefighter in DC Comics.

Page 157. “...film star Linda Turner’s close associate the Black Cat...”
Linda Turner, a.k.a. the Black Cat, was created by Alfred Harvey and appeared in a number of comics beginning with Pocket Comics #1 (Aug. 1941). Linda Turner, the daughter of a movie star and a stunt man, became one of Hollywood's biggest stars but got bored with the make-believe life of Hollywood and decided to fight crime instead as the Black Cat.

“...mental marvel Brain Boy...”
Brain Boy was created by Herb Castle and appeared in six comics in 1962 and 1963, beginning with Four Color #1330 (Apr/June 1962). When Matt Price was still only a fetus in his mother’s womb she was struck by a electricity in a car accident. This gave Price various psychic powers, and when he turns eighteen he is recruited by the government to go to work for them, fighting evil.

“...and a thirteen-year-old orphan said to draw fantastic powers and abilites from an adjoining extra spatial region or dimension ruled by techologically advanced fly people.”
This is a reference to the Fly, created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby and appearing in a number of comics from 1959 to 1966 (and again in later iterations), beginning with The Double Life of Private Strong #1 (June 1959). Orphan Tommy Troy is hired to do odd jobs by Ben and Abigail March. Troy finds a ring in their attic, for the Marches are wizards, and the ring summons Turan, one of the Fly People, former rulers of the Earth. The Fly People were eventually reduced to common houseflies in a magical war, although a few, including Turan, escaped to another dimension. The ring can be used by Tommy to switch bodies with one of the Fly People, who has magical powers. Tommy uses the ring to fight crime.

“Seemingly, a Negro man from out of town had been held in the Maybury jail on morals charges, including an accusation of procuring, with his two white skinned female accomplices who were apparently twin sisters from the Netherlands.”
See the notes to Page 166.

“...one sheriff’s deputy’s account was ‘exactly like one of them there hot air balloons, ‘ceptin it weren’t.’”
It was, after all, only a matter of time before Moore quoted Barney Fife.

“...there was a frankly stupid rumour that for a brief period the self styled legendary adventurer evaded notice by the novel means of having been against his or her will transformed into an animal by sorcery.”
I’m guessing that this is a reference to Kathleen Hale’s 19 “Orlando the Marmalade Cat” novels (1938-1972), although I know nothing about them and don’t know if “transformed into an animal by sorcery” is a part of the Hale novels or Moore’s invention.

“...our projects at Port Merion...”
The Prisoner was filmed at the Welsh village of Portmeirion.

“One of their Central Intelligence lot, F. Gordon Leiter...”
Felix Leiter appears in various James Bond novels as a C.I.A. agent who works with Bond on various cases. Leiter’s real name is “Felix.” The “Gordon” may come from a conflation of Leiter with Watergate rogue G. Gordon Liddy.
    Greg Baldino writes, "The name "F. Gordon Leiter" for Felix Leiter's LoEG analogue might have been inspired by the early ninties cartoon show James Bond Jr., where Bond's nephew attended a private school with Felix Leiter's son Gordon." Well, drat. Another beautiful theory ruined by ugly facts.

“My best to you and Julia...”
The love interest of Orwell’s 1984 is Julia, a mechanic. At the end of the novel Julia, like Winston, has betrayed her lover and been brainwashed to love Big Brother. Presumably she took up with her torturer O’Brien.

"I remain, of course, yours most sincerely"
Per Nilsson writes, "This is undoubtedly a reference to Orson Welles's trademark sign-off phrase during his days on the radio with the Mercury Theatre (as well as on some other, later productions, including, I believe, at least some 'The Lives Of Harry Lime' episodes), where he would finish broadcasts with the phrase "I remain, as always, obediently yours". Perhaps the different phrasing is simply a stylistic choice, or perhaps Cherry realizes that he won't have to be "obediently yours" for much longer, as the disgraced prime minister is clearly on his way out!"


The first image is Mina and Allan with the Crimson Avenger’s costume.

I believe the second image is of Mina and Allan with Tommy Troy. But Chris Roberson and Michael Norwitz disagree: "I have to disagree. I think it's Billy Batson. He's certainly the right age, with the same hair and what is conceivably Batson's yellow-collared red sweater. But the telling bit is the way that everyone in the background is opening their umbrellas and looking up for rain, apparently not finding any. Obviously he's just said his magic word and transformed back from Captain Marvel, and on hearing the thunder everyone thinks it's about to rain." (I think Chris is right).

Perhaps the third image is of Mina and Allan with Linda Turner? Ray Sablack writes,
The picture in the lower right hand corner, I suspect, is a reference to the Bild Lili doll upon which the American Barbie doll was based. 

Lili started as an adult cartoon. The doll was first made as a premium for adults. Ruth Handler, an American, adapted the doll slightly and sold it to Mattel.

The original Barbie picture/drawing promoting her on all liscenced products was almost the exact same pose as the woman in the Dossier, down to the way the eye was drawn.

original Lili.

Barbie's original silhouette/profile on packaging (although in this image it is flipped)

here is a better picture of the barbie head logo and it is EXACTLY like the picture in the black dossier.
Page 160. Marc Singer writes, "If the X-L series rockets are named after their predecessors' fates, then we have just witnessed the christening of the Fireball X-L5."

Page 161. Panel 9. “Oh, for crying out loud. It just never bloody stops, does it?”
With Moore’s departure from mainstream comics now a reality, there is a great temptation to see even minor things as a commentary by him on superhero comics. I have to admit that I found this line to be possibly indicative of his feelings about the endless, serial nature of comics.

Page 162. Panel 1. “Gordon Bennett” is a British expression indicative of shock or surprise. It may be based on James Gordon Bennett Jr. (1841-1918), a playboy famous for his extravagant behavior and lifestyle. "teamy teamy" wrote, "the phrase "Gordon Bennett" is one of those British type exclamations to avoid swearing and comes from "God and Saint Bennett" much in the same way Bethlehem college became Bedlam."

Panel 5. Presumably the initials “SF” on a helicopter of that shape is a reference to something. But I’m not catching it. Philip & Emily Graves write, "Perhaps the SF is for Spectrum Force, referring to Captain Scarlet..?" Tim Chapman writes, "Charles Chilton's 'Space Force'?" John Sewell writes, "Yet another Dan Dare reference, I think - the helicoper's very close in design to Dare's 'helijets', so "SF" could be a reference to Space Fleet from that strip."

Page 164. Panel 1. See the note to Page 166.

Panel 2. “Wij zullen het dadelijk voor u doen, onze dappere held. Wij zijn verzot op u.”
“Waar gaat u heen, trotse kampioen der liefde?”
A rough translation from the Dutch: “We will do that immediately for you, our brave hero. We are moved by you.”
“Where are you going, champion of love?”
Michael Prior, who provided Todd Klein with the Dutch translations, writes in with better translations of these lines and the following ones: "We will do it for you at once, our brave hero. We adore you."

"Where are you going, proud champion of love?"  

Panel 3. “Hij heeft een slecht humeur. Laten wij ons maar aankleden.”
“He is in a bad mood. Let us get dressed.”
    Prior: "He is in a bad mood. We ought to get dressed."

Argh. I should have noticed this, and didn't. Steve Mattson writes, "This is where the reference to linseed oil from Page 170, Panel 4 comes from. It appears that the linseed oil is used to keep the dolls’ strap-on wooden phallus supple."

Marcus Ewert writes, "Could the hyper-sexualized nature of the Golliwog's dolls also be a reference to surrealist artist Hans Bellmer? His Die Puppe ("The Doll") pictures were very perverse- and similarly walked a line between childlike and uh...dissipated..."

Page 166. Panel 1. This is the Golliwog. He was created by Florence Kate Upton in The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwogg (1895), and appeared in a number of sequels by Upton and by Enid Blyton, among others. The Golliwog (as it later became spelled) was a beloved children’s character in Britain for several generations, although it is substantially less popular today. The Golliwog was originally a rag doll drawn like a blackface minstrel doll, and although the behavior of the Golliwog in the novels was not usually portrayed in a racist fashion, and although the Golliwog was usually portrayed as a doll rather than a black child, the term “Golliwog” became a racist epithet, and the Golliwog is currently seen by some or many as a racist character.
    Philip & Emily Graves write, "while many see the Golly as racist, still more see him as an integral part of their childhood literature, and were outraged when the character was recently expunged from Enid Blyton's books. It was widely seen as an over-the-top reaction under spurious 'Political Correctness' guidelines. As you rightly note, despite the obvious connotations of his design and look, he was rarely - if ever - meant to embody any kind of racist feelings. Golliwogs are still available for sale in some places, although there are still some complaints."
    Andrew Bonia writes, "The Golliwog's companions are somewhat sexualized for children's book characters, it makes sense when you consider Dutch Dolls, or "Dutch Wives" are slang for sex dolls."
    Pam Noles' commentary on the Golliwog in the Dossier is essential reading.

Panel 4. The fact that Drummond is still on his feet while Bond and Peel are knocked off theirs may be indicative of how Moore feels about the old-style action heroes versus the newer generation. (I.e., they made them tough back then).

Panels 5-6. “B-bread and tits to you, flashing Monsignor.”
“Bread and tits to you, gilded wasp of Elysium. Let the Thrup of us entender withdoors, what cheer?”
This dialogue, and the Golliwog’s dialogue on Page 164 and following, is a mystery to me. It’s understandable, of course, but I’m unaware of its origin. Did the Golliwog speak like this in the Blyton books, or in some other work? Is this Moore’s creation?
    Marcs Ewert writes, "The LExG Golliwog probably speaks in rhyming quatrains because the original Upton books were all written thus."
    Larry Hardesty writes, "when I Googled "gilded wasp", I found that the phrase occurs in H. Rider Haggard's She and Allan:
Disturb me no more, Allan, with the tremors and changes of your uncertain mind, lest you should work more evil than you think, and making mine uncertain also, spoil my skill. Nay, do not try to fly, for already the net has thrown itself about you and you cannot stir, who are bound like a little gilded wasp in the spider's web, or like birds beneath the eyes of basilisks.
Can it be coincidence that that's the epithet Golliwog uses for Allan's paramour?

Page 167. Panel 4. Peter Sanderson writes, "The sight of Bond bending over the injured, bleeding Emma Night may be a visual echo of the end of the "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" movie, in which Bond's new bride Tracy (played by Diana Rigg), is assassinated."

Page 168. Panel 1. The Golliwog as a balloonist is a reference to Florence Upton’s The Golliwog’s Air-Ship (1902), in which the Golliwog and the wooden dolls Sarah Jane, Peg, Meg, and Midget go on a balloon trip together. If the design of the balloon is a reference to anything in particular, I’m unaware of it, although the shark face on the front is a very Kevin O’Neill-like touch.

And now I can reveal that the “bold, fearless black balloonist” mentioned in League v2 is in fact the Golliwog.

Marcus Ewert writes, "The Golliwog's eyeball balloon is a very direct visual quote from Odilon Redon's picture 'L'Oeil, comme un ballon bizarre se dirige vers l'infini" (The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity) (1882)."

Jason Adams writes, "The Gollywog's airship seems to be powered by roses, which is appropriate for a vessel named "Rose of Nowhere" (Page 175. Panel 4)."

Panel 3. Marcus Ewert writes, "love the historical detail that Peg and Sarah-Jane's dresses are fashioned from a torn-up American flag!"

Page 169. Panel 2. It is typical of Bulldog Drummond that, though hateful and bigoted in many ways, his reaction to meeting two traditional English heroes is to believe them rather than what the government has told him.

Panel 4. Damian Gordon writes,
As a big fan of the James Bond books I was very surprised that Bond ended up as a traitor to his country. This is a big departure from the Fleming books and seems to be out of character for him. Bond didn’t even really enjoy killing in the books, but he seems fairly cold-hearted in the Dossier, e.g. his later disposal of Drummond. I think Bond’s betrayal is largely symbolic in nature, and can see three ways in which it symbolizes Alan Moore’s views of the world (but I’m sure others will see other ways);

1. Bond (created in the 1950s) is a more modern hero than Quatermain (created in the 1880s) and as such represents the decline of imagination which Alan Moore says will be one of the key subtexts of Vol. III:Century. Gone is the grandeur of the Victorian imagination on display and in its place a gun-wielding thug. Thus Bond is symbolic of this corruption and de-evolution of imagination

2. Bond is a professional spy and killer whereas almost all of the great Victorian adventurers were amateurs. Almost none of the previous generation of heroes worked directly for the government (ok, I know Sherlock Holmes did occasionally work for the government – through Mycroft, the Prime Minister, etc. but in the main he was a private consulting detective) whereas Bond in directly answerable to a government that allows him to kill in certain circumstances. Older British literature always celebrated the successfully amateur, who could always succeed seemly without any preparation or training (except what had been learned on the battlefield – or on the playing fields of Eton).

3. Bond is primarily known as a movie character, the James Bond movies are much more seen than the novels are read, and therefore, in a sense the Bond character has betrayed his literary roots by becoming a success in another medium. And the character of Bond in the books is certainly totally dissimilar to the quip-generating lothario that characterized the Moore era of Bond. Additionally I think we all know that Alan Moore may have somewhat of an issue with stories that are adopted into movies when they lose some of the qualities of the original source (e.g. LXG: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Movie, and Constantine).

Panel 8. Peter Sanderson writes, ""There was no Doctor, Mr. Drummond."  So Doctor No is a fictional character in our world who is also a fictional character in the world of  "League"!"

Page 170. Panel 1. This is clearly the ruins of a castle, and it’s been identified as in Dunbayne, which means this must be Dunbayne Castle, from Ann Radcliffe’s The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne (1789), one of Radcliffe’s first Gothic novels.

Panel 4. “Is that linseed oil?”
Paul Cornell notes that linseed oil is used to keep a cricket bat supple during the winter. Which means, obviously, that Sarah Jane and Peg were using linseed oil to keep the Golliwog's membrum virile supple.

Page 171.  Panel 6. “Sodium morphate in his fucking pie?”
Sodium morphate is a drug which slows the heart and smells like apples, and so putting it into an apple pie is an efficient method of assassination. Who it has been used on depends on which conspiracy theory you read.

Panel 7. “Trick cars, trick pens, trick cigarette lighters...why can’t you just fight?”
Drummond never was one for gadgets, preferring more straightforward brutality. It is typical of his mindset to look down on newer heroes like Bond who rely on gadgets rather than fists.

The gun Bond is reaching for is a Walther, which traditionally has been Bond's gun. Damian Gordon expands on this: "Jimmy's gun is clearly a Walther PPK which is consistent with the Jamas Bond novels, Bond used a Beretta in the first five novels and is given a Walther PPK at the start of Doctor No."

Page 173. Panel 2. “I’m going to need sturdier clothing if I stay in this business.”
Many men of a certain age fondly remember Emma Peel’s sturdy leather catsuit in The Avengers.

Page 174. Panel 1.  Pádraig Ó Méalóid notes the similarity between Golli's balloon and the one seen on the cover of The Science Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe:
Poe's Balloon

The balloon is for Poe's Balloon Hoax.


Panel 5
. “Heer Orlando is momenteel een dame.”
“Mr. Orlando is momentarily a woman.”
    Prior: "Mr. Orlando is a lady at the moment."

“And is that Peg or Sarah Jane?”
Peg and Sarah Jane were the names of the two dolls in The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwogg.

Page 175. Panel 1.  “So Queen Olympia presented you with the dolls?”
As we learned in League v2, Olympia, the doll from E.T.A. Hoffman’s “The Sand-Man” (1817), became queen of Toyland.

Panel 2. “Wij hebben ons vrijwillig aangeboden. Zijn geslacht is kolossaal.”
“We volunteered to go. His masculine organ of reproduction is enormous.”
    Prior: "We volunteered. His penis is enormous."

Panel 4. “Belted ‘Rose o’ Nowhere’ all on me jingle, did I.”
The “Rose of Nowhere” is a phrase found in the mystical writings of Golden Dawn followers.

Panel 5. “Ik denk dat die grote wolk daar de weg naar huis is.”
“I think that big cloud is the way to home.”
    Prior: "I think that big cloud ahead is the way home."

Page 176-177. And here begins the 3D section of the Dossier. There are obviously some visual tricks of the M.C. Escher variety, but I think there are some visual references as well–the clown, for example–but I’m not getting them.

One I did get is the the Little Prince, standing on his asteroid next to the Golliwog et al. The Little Prince was created by Antoine Saint-Exupéry and appeared in Le Petit Prince (1943). The image here is very similar to the original cover of Le Petit Prince.

Don Murphy points out that the clown is Max Fleischer's Koko the Clown.

Jeff Patterson writes,
"The clusters of cubes on the bottom half of each side, as well as the three-pronged fork KoKo is standing on, and the center circle on the left side are all examples of optical illusions. The prong is often refered to as The Devil's Fork.

The concentric arcs of the background evoke the famous woodcut of the man reaching the edge of existence. This is probably best known as the cover to Daniel Boorstin's The Discoverers.

I'll go out on a limb and guess that the sailing ship is the Flying Dutchman.

I'd also venture that there is some metaphor to be found in an, I dare say, ejaculation of (sperm?) whales sprouting from a particularly phallic mushroom cloud, something involving creation and destruction being linked. I say this because the entire 3D section seems to break form for the series and harkens back to the content-rich panel structure of Promethea. Several pages have panels that form a whole image, with lots of sequential background action and more metaphors than you can shake a stick at. Given the subject matter, this is not surprising. Moore's done similar "place where ideas come from" stuff in Supreme. The Jack Kirby tribute leaps to mind.

I was also reminded of Promethea in the Descent of the Gods portion. The layering of cosmologies, mythologies and lores reminded me of Sophie walking the Sephiroth.
Jon Balcerak writes that "it's appropriate that a fourth dimension is represented with "3-D" art.  The images in a graphic novel are, of course, two-dimensional, but are supposed to represent a three-dimensional world.  When the characters leap from their third-dimension to their fourth, it makes perfect sense that we see two-dimensional art become 3-D."

Daniel Marks writes, "the sphere to the top left with the dragons circling it has three eyes on it- is that something to do with the 'three lobed burning eye' mentioned by Nyarlahotep later in the section?"

Jaanus Kaasik writes, "Overall design of Blazing World has some similarities with dream sequence in Alfred Hitchcock's film Spellbound (1945). This dream sequence was designed by Salvador Dali. Dream sequence is second part of this little film."

Page 178. Panel 1.  If the characters at the bottom of this panel are a reference, I’m not getting them. Loren Collins did, though:
The animal-men are some of the native inhabitants of The Blazing World as described in Margaret Cavendish's original book.  In it she writes:
"The rest of the Inhabitants of that World, were men of several different sorts, shapes, figures, dispositions, and humors, as I have already made mention heretofore; some were Bear-men, some Worm-men, some Fish- or Mear-men, otherwise called Syrenes; some Bird-men, some Fly-men, some Ant-men, some Geese-men, some Spider-men, some Lice-men, some Fox-men, some Ape-men, some Jack-daw-men, some Magpie-men, some Parrot-men, some Satyrs, some Gyants, and many more, which I cannot all remember; and of these several sorts of men, each followed such a profession as was most proper for the nature of their species, which the Empress encouraged them in, especially those that had applied themselves to the study of several Arts and Sciences; for they were as ingenious and witty in the invention of profitable and useful Arts, as we are in our world, nay, more; and to that end she erected Schools, and founded several Societies."
In addition to the fish-man, fly-man, and bird-men that are on p. 178, this is also the source for Allan's observation in Panel 1 of p. 179 about "all the animal people," and Mina's reply in Panel 2, where she refers to "worm-men and louse-men."
Panel 2.  “Er is nog zo’n plek, in de buurt van de zuidpool van der aarde.”
“There is another place, in the South Pole.”
    Bram van Dijk offers a superior translation: "There is another place like this, near the South Pole of the Earth." "As the Dutch sentence says: "Er is nog zo'n plek", instead of "Er is nog een plek" it is implied that the other place is comparable to the one they were talking about. "in de buurt van" means that it is near the South Pole, not in the south Pole. And it explicitely says: "zuidpool van der aarde", so, only translating "South Pole" is an omission, as usually we (Dutch people) just refer to zuidpool. Another point is that "zuidpool van der aarde" is not correct. Contemporary Dutch would be "zuidpool van de aarde", though in that time it would probably have been "zuidpool der aarde". I am no expert on old Dutch, but I'm (almost) sure that "van der" is not correct."

If the characters at the bottom of this panel are a reference, I’m not getting them. Philip & Emily Graves write, "At the bottom right is Disney's Goofy, although it looks more like Howard the Duck with him than Donald. To the left of them is a small visual pun: Winnie the "Poo"h."

Page 179. Panel 1. “...this South Pole location, Metapatagonia, is actually the same place as the Blazing World?”
Megapatagonia was created of Nicolas Edme Restif de la Bretonne and appeared in La Découverte australe Par un Homme-volant (1781). It is an archipelago which is exactly opposite France and so its culture is an inverse of the French, down to its capital "Sirap." Megapatagonia being the same as the Blazing World explains certain reversals, as mentioned on Page 183.

If the characters in this panel are a reference, I’m not getting them. Philip & Emily Graves write, "Possibly Piglet at the bottom of the slope, there." Peter Svensson notes the presence of the Little Mermaid in the bottom left corner.

Panel 2. If the characters in this panel are a reference, I’m not getting them.

Michael Norwitz writes, "The pointing blue hand is the Dreadful Flying Glove from YELLOW SUBMARINE." That did occur to me, but I rejected it because the hand here lacks the eye and teeth of the Dreadful Glove.

Page 180. Panel 1. “Meteen, admiraal van genoegen.”
“At once, admiral of pleasure.”

Jaanus Kaasik writes, "Right side of the panel near rope is flying fish drawn by Echer. Original can be seen here."

Panel 2. “Zusters! Het is zo prachtig om jullie te zien!”
“Sisters! It is so lovely to see you.”

Panel 3. “Welkom, vurige piraat van het hart! We zullen sterven van geluk!”
“Welcome, fiery pirate of the heart! We will die from happiness!” (Thanks to Martin Wisse for correcting my bad translation here).

Page 181. Panels 1-4. Perhaps the giant walking by is Gulliver, as large in the Blazing World as he was on Lilliput?

Panel 2. "I was a bloody orange cat for simply ages."
Howard Price wondered if  "it was just a throwaway reference to Moore's own "Maxwell the Magic Cat."" Gabriel Roth writes, "According to my recollection, Kathleen Hale's "Orlando" novels didn't include anything about people being turned into animals. I think Moore, inspired by the coincidence of names, simply decided that Woolf's shapeshifting Orlando could become Hale's feline Orlando."

Page 182. Panel 1. The wrestling dwarf is Maurie Richardson’s Engelbrecht, mentioned on Page 146. As mentioned on Page 183, Engelbrecht’s opponent is Poetry. The words on his left arm are from Wordsworth’s “I wandered lonely as a cloud,” and the words on his right arm are from Felicia Dorothea Browne Hemans’ “Casabianca.”

Panel 2. The character at the top of the page is P.L. Travers’ Mary Poppins.

I can’t make out what the image in the portal is of–Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland? Philip & Emily Graves write, "The mention of the tree settles it. The four portals (red lens) are showing The Faraway Tree, from Enid Blyton's books of the same name. The tree abuts many strange lands, which rotate to and away from it, allowing Jo, Bessie and Fanny to visit all sorts of strange - and often wonderful worlds. The tree houses many odd individuals, some of them refugees from a couple of the worlds. It's quite possibly the Angry Pixie with the kerchief there, although it does indeed look like he's offering it to the White Rabbit of Wonderland."
    Chris Nichols writes that "the realm scene in the mirrors on page 182 (not the House on the Borderland's pig-thing realm, but the one with the tree and elves) reminds me of the hollow tree cookie workshop of Nabisco's Keebler elves."

“...the swine-things’ Borderland...”
This is a reference to W.H. Hodgson's The House on the Borderland (1908). The House on the Borderland, inhabited by an old man and his sister, is the gateway to a world of evil swine monsters.

“...the various realms of that peculiar tree in Buckinghamshire.”
The tree is mentioned in League v2.

The words on Poetry’s right and left arm are from Felicia Dorothea Browne Hemans’ “Casabianca.”

Panel 3. Is one of the images in the portal Hodgson’s Borderland? Gabe Soria agrees with me on this, saying "if you close one eye and look at the mirror, you can see the swine creature from the House on the Borderlands approaching the viewer (much like you can see Nyarlathotep's human avatar and his English words pages later)."

The words on Poetry are from Felicia Dorothea Browne Hemans’ “Casabianca.”

Philip & Emily Graves writes, "Could that be Piglet waving to the Wishing Chair, there, alongside one of the Pixies?"

Page 183. Panel 1. The words on Poetry are from John Keats’ “On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer.”

Philip & Emily Graves note that the children on the chair are Mollie and Peter from Enid Blyton's "Wishing Chair" books, and that "That's Dame Washalot in the portal there."

Panel 2. Philip and Emily Graves write, "It's possible that the man with pots and pans on him is Saucepan from The Magic Faraway Tree, also by Enid Blyton." And that "Definitely Saucepan, probably talking to Moonface." Mark Elstob adds that "The Saucepan Man featured in several other Blyton stories, notably "The Three Brownies".  Interestingly, Moore briefly quotes from one of the Faraway Tree stories in "V for Vendetta", when V mentions the Land of Do-As-You-Please."

Page 184. Panel 1.  The flying character is Ace Hart, who appeared in the British comic Super Thriller #6 (1948). “Ace Hart, a young scientist, has been able harness atomic energy to his own body, which gives him the strength of twenty men, and enables him to fly faster than a jet.”
    Eli Green adds, "Ace Hart's cameo in The Blazing World is actually the second such appearance of the character in a comic that involves both a massive cross section of fictional characters meeting in a proxy dimension and Lovecraftian Mythos, the first being Grant Morrison's Zenith Phase 3, published in 2000AD Progs 626-634, 650-662 & 667-670 from 1989 to 1990. Ace was one of many british superheroes possessed by Lloigor (e.g. the Great Old Ones), destroys his version of Earth, and is then killed in a fight with the remaining good guys near the end."

Either the character on the flying carpet in this panel, or the one in panel 2, is Baggy Pants, from the British comic Dandy (1956-1959). Baggy Pants is a genie-like magician.

Panel 2. Jonathan Carter notes that the flying man is Commander Cody from various 1950s film serials. Tim Chapman writes, "I thought 'King of the Rocket Men', but I suspect it was the same costume in both serials."

Jason Adams writes, " A school of mermaids and water-babies  (from The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley) can be seen swimming in the open water below."

Page 185. Panel 1. I don’t know who the figure at the bottom of the page is.

Ben Drexler says, of Orlando's words here, that "the monologue Orlando uses to describe the biological effects of traveling to the fourth dimension and back is taken almost verbatim from "The Boy Who Reversed Himself" by William Sleator, which likewise deals with people traveling into higher-dimensional worlds. A slightly comic subplot of the story involves people becoming reversed when they return from higher dimensions and suddenly everyday foods begin having wildly unpredictable effects, ie cookies causing nausea or ketchup becoming a narcotic."

Jason Adams writes, "The strange predatory "bird" which is seen swooping down toward the water on Page 184, has returned with a water-baby in its beak. That looks like Winnie-the-Pooh on the stairs at the top of the panel." Alex Fernie writes, "Jason Adams notes the bear that looks like Winnie the Pooh. It definitely is because, if you notice, he’s sitting halfway down the stairs, just like the A.A. Milne poem “Halfway Down.”

Panel 2. Jason Adams writes, "More of the giant cephalopod, including its head, can be seen on the other other side of the room. To me, it looks like an octopus, and, given its apparent size, it may be the legendary Kraken as depicted in the famous illustration by Pierre Denys de Montrot. Incidentally, stories of the Kraken are believed to have been inspired by early sightings of giant squids (Architeuthis dux), which are quite distinct from octopuses."

Page 186. Panel 1. Got me on any of these characters. Perhaps the toad is Mr. Toad, from The Wind in the Willows?

Gabriel Neeb writes that the fly-headed man is from the film The Fly (1958). Doug Nanney writes, "The character to the right of the frog/toad on page 186 is Turan(?) of the Fly People, the race that gave powers to Tommy Troy, the Fly (Archie Comics)." Philip & Emily Graves write, "If this is several Fly-like characters, then perhaps the one on the right is Simon & Kirby's superhero The Fly." Michael Norwitz writes, "Alongside the potential Mr. Toad is Turan, one of the Fly People, who empowers Tommy Troy to become the Fly/Fly Man.  The fellow in the tuxedo is possibly from the original film version of THE FLY, all dressed up for the occasion, but it may also be something more specific."

Panel 2. Jason Adams writes, "The topless cat-headed female is the Egyptian goddess Bast. Interestingly, it seems that none of the animals (humanoid or otherwise) in the Blazing World need to wear 3-D glasses, perhaps this is because most animals perceive colors differently than humans do."

Panel 3. “Do give the Duke Toyland’s regards. Truly, he is a philosopher of the heart’s sorrows.”
The “Duke” in this case is Prospero, and the “heart’s sorrows” phrase is from The Tempest. And as Jonathan Carter writes, "the character saying "Do give the Duke Toyland's regards" is Frankenstein's monster, who, according to the second mini-series, married the Queen of Toyland."

Richard Dill writes, "I believe the hound in the musketeers outfit to be a character called Dogtanian. 'Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds' was an anthropomorphic cartoon version of the Alexandre Dumas story 'D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers' It was created by BRB INTERNACIONAL, a Spanish studio, and was broadcast in the UK in 1985."

Page 187. Panel 1. “I pray thee, do not rise.”
This child, who is incapable of saying anything else, appears in from Marco Denevi's "La niña rosa" (1966).

Michael Norwitz writes, "At the bottom is Masterman."

Jason Adams writes, "That's Marsman (from the one-time Marsman Comics, 1948) staring out over the skyline at the top of the panel. That may be Count Orlok from the silent film Nosferatu (1922) behind Allan."

Sean Levin writes, "the child in the cloak and hat on Page 187, Panel 1, is Mysterious Pete, from Lyonel Feininger's classic comic strip "The Kin-der-Kids"."

Panel 2. Myles Lobdell, Matt Knicl, and Jonathan Carter note the presence here of Zorro, Charlie Brown, Linus, the Lone Ranger, Captain Marvel and Shazam the Wizard. Speaking to Charlie Brown might be the Disney version of Snow White. Jason Adams notes the presence of Thunderbolt Jaxon to the right of Captain Marvel. Keith Kole notes, "Flyman, Masterman, Thunderbolt Jaxon and Captain Marvel are all boys that magically transform into men."

Panel 3. Jonathan Carter notes the presence of Robin Hood and possibly Alfred E. Neuman. Tim Chapman writes, "Possibly Babar just behind the possible AE Neuman? I dunno, one elephant looks much like another after a while." Jason Adams thinks it is Babar as well.

Philip & Emily Graves write, "The Elizabethan character looks like Edmund Blackadder from Blackadder II, and he could be talking to Quixote or maybe El Cid. The gentleman in the turban may even be Gunga Din."

Michael Norwitz writes, "standing right behind Allan is the Blonde Phantom."

Page 188. Panel 4. If the stampeding animals is a reference to something, I’m unaware of it. (Oh good grief. Chris Roberson notes that they are Kipling's "Just So Animals," and he's clearly right). Greg Strohecker writes, "I'm not sure but I think these might be from Winsor McKay's comic strip "Little Nemo in Slumberland". I read that you have them identified as coming from Just So Stories, but I recall the episode of Little Nemo where animals looking alot like these are featured. I don't have my copy of the Little Nemo collection or a copy of Just So Stories handy to check, but some of the other designs in the 3-D section are also reminiscent of McKay's artwork."

Peter Sanderson writes, "The long, narrow panels on pages 181 and 188 resemble typical McCay visual storytelling, which shows action (like the giant walking and the animals charging) taking place over a succession of panels, like a series of animation drawings.  Moore and O'Neill are likely visually linking the Blazing World to McCay's dream world of Slumberland, which are both realms of the imagination. Notice Prospero's reference to "dreams" in page 191 panel 1."

Panel 5. "Come along, Fanny, dear. I'm going to dye my hair back to its former brunette so I don't clas with Wilhelmina."
Jen K writes, "In the movie "Bram Stoker's Dracula", directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Sadie Frost, who was also brunnette, had to dye her hair red in order not to clash with Winona Ryder, who played Mina Murray. This was done so they wouldn't clash, and be easier to distinguish from one another."

Page 189. Panel 1. Nyarlathotep says, “The three-lobed burning eye cares not.” See the notes to Page 26 and 117.
    Marcus Ewert writes, "The red part of Nyarlothep's speech-text are Egyptian hieroglyphs, natch. I don't think they really say anything though: there are far too many human-figure-ideograms, I think; I don't think you'd get that many in a row in real Ancient Egyptian... wouldn't it be rad if it DID say something though? It wouldcertainly be in keeping with O'Neill & Moore's fastidiousness if it did...perhaps a curse of some sort..."

Panel 2. Nyarlathotep says, “The Lloigor are offended.” In the Cthulhu Mythos the Lloigor are a race of malign energy beings.
    Chris Cooper writes, "Nyarlathotep appears in two forms, the Egyptian avatar of the Black Man and the traditional Lovecraftian squiddly unholiness possibly the Haunter in the Dark form from that Three-lobed Eye comment."

Panel 4. "Goodnight, sweet Duke."
Gabriel Roth writes, "Finally, Mina's farewell to Prospero...refers to Horatio's famous benediction to Hamlet, "Goodnight, sweet prince," in another of Shakespeare's plays."


Panels 4-5. "Rest well, defenders of the fourfold clime.
Duty necessitates I here abide...
Attending to such stragglers that remain,
Ignore their hosts' exaggerated yawns
And, fearing party's end, scuff now their feet
Midst fallen streamers and spill'd goblet-dregs."
Jon Balcerak writes, "You'll also notice that everything Prospero says is, appropriately enough, in iambic pentameter, ending, as so many of Shakespeare's characters' speeches and scenes do, in a rhyming couplet.  ("Here are brave banners of romance unfurled / to blaze forever in a blazing world!")  This "blazing world" carries with it not only the literary references you've mentioned in your annotations, but is probably a reference to the medium of the graphic novel itself--a world that "blazes" with color and meaning."

Pages 190-192. I don’t recognize anything here.

Pages 190.  Mario di Giacomo writes, "Prospero mentions a "bead-game". This is almost certainly a reference to Hermann Hesse's "Glass Bead Game" from Magister Ludi, which was a game where the players simulate/duplicate the universe."

Panel 1. "For truly  is our cavalcade now done. . . ."
Peter Sanderson writes, "This line is comparable to "Our revels are now ended," the first line of Prospero's celebrated speech in "The Tempest" Act IV scene 1. "
    Neil Dorsett writes, "
Prospero's closing reference "our cavalcade" seems to me to refer in a slight way back to the Golden Age title "Comics Cavalcade," making this something of a meta-reference to both the end of the comic itself and to Moore's closing of his comics career."

Richard Dill writes, "At the top of this panel are three figures that could pass for the 3 protagonist of Frances Hodgson Burnett's children's classic, 'The Secret Garden'."

Panel 3. Richard Dill writes, "The round-headed fairy with fish-net torso and stick-like arms and legs at the bottom of the panel is Mighty Moth from the comic weekly, TV COMIC. Unlike most of that comics other characters that were based upon popular stars of the day on television, Mighty Moth was an original creation, brilliantly drawn by Dick Millington."

"And more, the very personality
That scrys this epilogue was once unformed
Assembled hastily from borrowed scraps
From traits admired in others, from ideals."
K.A. Laity writes, "What is this if not a clear statement of Moore's vision of himself as standing on the shoulders of giants? The Moore who scribes the epilogue has literally "assembled" the myriad texts and narratives that fuel his imagination, like a dossier of his literary influences. Fiction seems to be more robust that reality, Moore says via Prospero, for if these "shadows" here are insubstantial, how much more so those who use these fancies to subsist. Is not Holmes more lasting than the materia that was Conan Doyle? Tyrants aren't the only ones to topple."

Pages 191.  Panel 1. "Two sketching hands, each one the other draws: the fantasies thou've fashioned fashion thee."
James Morrison writes, "
Prospero's description of the two worlds (fictional and real) being like a pair of hands drawing each other is a reference to M C Escher's 'Drawing Hands' lithograph, which also fits the decidedly Escher-ish architecture of the Blazing World." Jon Balcerak also noted this: "Two sketching hands, each one the other draws" probably refers to the 1948 M.C. Escher lithograph "Drawing Hands". This could also be Alan Moore's commentary (echoing Escher's) on the dualistic, symbiotic nature of art (and of the League novels); our reality arises from our fiction, which is based on our reality, etc. Oscar Wilde put it best when he said, "Life imitates art."  This is what Prospero (who bears a striking and, I'm sure, not accidental resemblance to Mr. Moore) means when he says, in the same panel, "Whence came thy rocket ships and submarines if not from Nautilus, from Cavorite?".   So seems to be the relationship between the Blazing World and the "standard" world of the League novels."

Panel 2
.
Jaanus Kaasik writes, "Squid at the bottom is primitive cephalopod from Cambrian named Tommotia."

Tim Chapman writes, "Could the squid and lady at the bottom be a reference to Hokusai's 'Dream of the Fisherman's Wife'? Not the same posture, but it's certainly reminiscent of this classical hentai."

    Jaanus Kaasik writes, "Squid and girl are similar to scene from animated film Destino (2003). Its'production started in 1945 as collaboration between Walt Disney and Salvador Dali. Trailer for Destino can be seen here."

Panel 3. "Here champions and lovers are made safe from bowdlerizer's quill, or fad, or fact." 
Paul Rush writes, "I can't quite shake this line.  It would be interesting to count how many of the characters in the Blazing World scenes are from works that have been bowdlerized, banned or otherwise censored.  Is the Blazing World the refuge for censored tales?  Or does that line refer to the LoEG and it's world as a whole?"


Page 192. It’s fitting that Ariel breaks the frame here.

Peter Svensson writes, "Prospero's speech here harkens back to his epilogue in The Tempest, which is traditionally considered Shakespeare's final work. But rather than rejecting his magic to return to a normal life, here Prospero praises the greatest magic of all. The Imagination. Moore Scholars should note the similarities between The Blazing World, the Supremacy and the Immateria. (And whatever the name of the counterpart in Glory was)."

Jim Kinley, among others, wonders about how much of what Prospero says and how he is seen here can be taken as a commentary by Moore on himself and his position. Tristan Sargent, among many others, notes the resemblance of Caliban to Hyde and writes, "Is this Alan Moore addressing the way an archetype may persist through different incarnations?"



Thanks to: Alicia; Joe Ackerman, Jason Adams, Martin Allen, Joseph Allevato, Hussamuddin Alromayedh, Dave Amiott, John Andrews, Tim Anselm, ASDF FDSA, David Avallone, Jon Balcerak, Greg Baldino, Llowyn Ball, Lee Barnett, Neale Barnholden, DJ Bell, Jon Bergdoll, Ed Berridge, Joel Berthomier, Vandy Beth, Justin Bialek, Henry Blanco, Andrew Bonia, Mark Bourne, Jeremy Briggs, Robert Todd Bruce, Russ Bynum, Andres Caicedo, Devin Cambridge, Scott Campbell, "Captain Spaulding," Philip Carson II, Cuitlamiztli Carter, Jonathan Carter, Tim Chapman, Neil Chester, Chris, Rory Christie, George C. Clark, Mark Coale, James Coates, Loren Collins, Chris Cooper, Paul Cornell, Giles Cresswell, Adam Cummins, Charles Cunyus, Joyce Cunyus, Mike Curtis, Steve Daldry, Greg Daly, Brandon Davis-Shannon, "Joey Dedcat," Robert Déry, Zoltán Déry, Mario di Giacomo, Ben Dickson, Carla DiFonzo, Richard Dill, Marc Dolan, John Dorrian, Neil Dorsett, Drake, Ben Drexler, Rich Drees, Win Eckert, Mark Elstob, Marcus Ewert, Adam Farrar, Alex Fernie, Mark Fishpool, Jason Fliegel, Dexter Franklin, Sean Gaffney, Shawn Garrett, Peter Gilham, Cian Gill, Patrick Gillen, Anthony Girese, Damian Gordon, Ian Gould, Philip & Emily Graves, Eli Green, John M. Gregory, Janez Grm, Guest_Informant, Eduard Habsburg, John Hall, Larry Hardesty, Peter Hardy, Micah Harris, Harrison, Jason Helms, Dave Henderson, Eric Henry, herms98, Andrew Hickey, Steve Higgins, "Him Name Eddie," Eric Houston, Mark Irons, Krzysztof Janicz, Janssen, Kevin Johnson, Roy Johnson, Rich Johnston, Brian Joines, Terry Jones, Jen K., Jaanus Kaasik, Elliott Kalan, Jack Kessler, Rodger Kibble, Les Klinger, Matt Knicl, Jarett Kobek, Michael Korolenko, Timothy Kreider, Andrew Kunka, Dan Kurdilla, C. Jerry Kutner, Steve Kydd, Rick Lai, K.A. Laity, Adam J.B. Lane, Guy Lawley, Leo, Sean Levin, Michael Lloyd, Myles Lobdell, Jean-Marc Lofficier, Londonkds, James Maass, David Malet, Papa Joe Mambo, Seth Manis, Dirk Manning, Daniel Marks, Keith Martin, Robert Scott Martin, Steve Mattson, Matthew Maxwell, Robert McCord, David Alexander McDonald, Jim McGill, Pádraig Ó Méalóid, Brad Mengel, Jack Miller, Jamie Miller, Jonathan Miller, Chris Mirner, Vanja Miskovic, Nick Moon, Michael Moorcock, Alex Morgan, Huw Morgan, James Morrison, Pedro Moura, Don Murphy, Doug Nanney, Gabriel Neeb, Paul Nestadt, Joseph Nevin, Jeff Newberry, Chris Nichols, Per Nilsson, Sean Noir, Michael Norwitz, Anthony Padilla, L.D. Page, David Parr, Kevin Pasquino, Jeff Patterson, Heath Pecorino, Kevin Pezzano, Jason Powell, Richard Powell, Caleb Prewitt, Howard Price, Michael Prior, Ed Quinby, A.J. Ramirez, Patrick Reumann, Christopher Reynolds, Brad Ricca, Richardthinks, Jonathan Roberts, Josh Robbins, Chris Roberson, Robtmsnow, Edward Rogers, Kian Ross, Gabriel Roth, Pól Rua, Paul Rush, Evan Ryder, KS, Ray Sablack, Peter Sanderson, Tristan Sargent, Cliff Schexnayder, David Schwarm, Jorge Serna, John Sewell, John Sherman, Stu Shiffman, Ken Shinn, Danny Sichel, David A. Simpson, Phil Smith, John Soanes, Gabe Soria, Pete Spokes, Zoe Stevens-Wolf, Greg Strohecker, Paul Sulham, Peter Svensson, "teamy teamy," Andrew Teheran, Greg Terry, Lang Thompson, Tim Toner, Mark Turetsky, Stephen Tweedale, Chad Underkoffler, usedcarsrus, Bram van Dijk, Pete von Sholly, Dennis Walker, Samuel Walker, Julian Wan, Lee Wang, Ian Warren, Rich Weaver, Jamaal White, Matt White, Tom Whiteley, Tony Whitt, Jeff Wilson, Pete Wilson, Martin Wisse, Benjamin Wood, Jae Yu, Nevin Zehr.

 

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