Notes on Smax #3

 

Notes on Smax #3

by Foo Sek Han and various people.

Corrections, additions, and suggestions are welcome - please either leave a comment (livejournal account not required) or send me an email.

(Except when otherwise credited, all text © copyright 2003 Foo Sek Han. Please ask for permission if you want to duplicate.)

All characters and art are copyright 2001, 2002, & 2003 their respective creators.

Publications, titles of publications and characters appearing therein are ©, ® and/or ™ of their respective publishers, authors or creators.

History:
November 08 2003
November 05 2003
November 01 2003

Cover

The exterior of an inn is possibly one of the most clichéd elements of High Fantasy fiction, with its great grand predecessor set as The Prancing Pony from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. However this looks to be more like a modern rest stop rather than a typical inn, what with the "Last Garderobes for 30 Leagues" sign on the roof, and the existence of a W.C., which Smax is shown walking out from.

The large sign is "(something) O - Mead - Wyrms". Mead is considered one of the basic food groups alongside protein, carbohydrates and so on in a Dungeons and Dragons setting.

While it is not apparent at first, the little group of people eating at the table near Smax is part of his party, with Robyn in a green wizard hat (note her toybox) sitting beside Aldric and facing a couple of dwarves.

Is that supposed to be a telephone pole? The little "Missing Children" sign has Little Red Riding Hood. Ambrosia is a mixture of nectar and pollen prepared by worker bees and fed to larvae, used to be considered as a food fitting for Gods.

There's a poster behind Robyn and Alric promising "Earn Big Doubloons Working From Your Cottage". This is the medieval equivalent of the current spam mail of "Work at home and earn big bucks" which, unfortunately, is still conning a good number of people of their honest money. Doubloons are a currency in JK Rowling's Harry Potter series. Also note that the lower part seems to have tear-off phone numbers (phone numbers?) but nobody seems to have been duped. Yet.

I have no idea where "Shrieking Sea" and "Fog of Death" comes from, other than them being pretty much typical names for locations in high fantasy settings.

The sign on the road makes it apparent that this is an inn. The kobold (A kind of domestic spirit in German mythology, corresponding to the Scottish brownie and the English Robin Goodfellow) is one of the few mythical creatures bastardized by Dungeons & Dragons to become basic hack-and-slash fodder, hence the ease in obtaining a pie made of Kobold flesh.

And check out the modern tar road at the lower edge of the cover, complete with parking lot yellow paint!

KOBE 27 says: "On the Cover, you mention Doubloons are a currency in the Harry Potter books. I'm sure you already know
this, but Doubloons were also the currency in 14th Century-18th Century Spain. They're FAMOUS as pirates' treasure for that reason. On almost every pirate movie (or novel) you can mention there was a treasure chest packed full with Spanish gold Doubloons." Opps, I forgot this fact...

 

Page 1

Eroom Nala notes that the script for the first two pages can be found here: http://www.alanmooresenhordocaos.hpg.ig.com.br/script3.htm

Flying objects, from left: A dragon's tail, silhouette of an owl/bat, Hedwig (Harry Potter's owl) carrying a scroll, A stork with a baby, a crow in necktie and hat, a winged donkey, a winged monkey (from Wizard of Oz), an orange (butterfly?), two unidentified black blobs, a griffin (possibly the Gryphon, one of the gatekeepers of Dream's domain in Neil Gaiman's Sandman), and a pair of hands (the way to create a shadow of a pair of wings on the walls). There seems to be a number of bats flying in daylight.

Chris Murphy says: "The magpie with the fedora and necktie is either Heckyl or Jeckyl, the chatty, well dressed magpies of cartoon fame." Heckyl and Jecyl are from Terrytoons, the same company which produced the more famous Mighty Mouse.

Diello notes: "Next to the Griffin (the little ball with the fluttering wings) could also be from Harry Potter, the flit from the Quidditch game." That would be The Golden Snitch, which flies around in a hyperactive daze around the field during a play of Quidditch. Harry Potter is, in fact, the Seeker, who is the player in a team in charge of grabbing the Snitch.

Diello continues: "The pair of hands is similar to the "rabbit ears" from isssue 2, it was a hand holding up two fingers."

Note the cartoon sunrays coming out from the sun.

I can't place the three persons in the lower end of the page, but the leftmost is dressed up in Robin Hood gear. He doesn't look like Kevin Costner, though. The koala looks like a famous 80's cartoon character which I can't place.

There's a little house in the tree with the M of SMAX. I think it's one of the huts of LoTR's Lothlorien.

From the script, Pegasus, The Flying Nun, Faeries, and That Stupid Looking Thing From Neverending Story do not appear among the flying creatures. Since Mr. Moore noted them in the script, I think they deserve some annoatation.

The Flying Nun is a fantasy sitcom shown 1967-1970. More info here: http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainServlet/showid-1125/

Neverending Story is a 1984 children's fantasy movie, which spawned two far-from-decent sequels. The Stupid Looking Thing From Neverending Story is referring to Falkor the dragon, which looks something like a talking shaggy flying carpet.

KOBE 27 notes: "you mention The NeverEnding Story as an 1984 children's fantasy movie. I'm sure this was a simple oversight, but you failed to mention the novel by Michael Ende on which it was based on, which is actually MORE famous than the movie (a rare feat these days), save for America as usual. The other two movies also borrow from the book, but very slightly."

The title is from Syd Barrett's song "Octopus", like the previous episodes of Smax. The original part of the lyrics is "Grasshopper's Green Herbarian Band", altered to be "Grasshopper's Green Burying-Band".

 

Page 2

This might be just imaginary, but is the Lion of the wardrobe responding to Smax's dialogue through facial expressions? On Panel 3, when Smax says, "Now that's over, we can hop the first magic spell home", the lion looks slightly upset. It looks disapprovingly at Smax on Panel 7 after he says "So no quest, okay?", then almost shares Robyn's possible expression in the following panel. This might be true, since in one of the Narnia books (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader), Aslan the lion's face appears on the book Lucy is reading when Lucy seems to, metaphorically, lose faith. The fact that Smax is losing faith in adventuring and quests, shown in this page, seems to assert this assumption.

Alan Moore's script never mentions anything about the Lion. Guess I might be over-speculating.

Diello points out: "The lion on the wardrobe automatically makes me think of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I guess here, Robyn is the witch." I didn't think of including this because it was noted in the #1 annotation, hence Robyn's being the witch escaped my mind. Nice one!

Robyn is wearing a shirt with the slogan "Never Mind the Balrogs". The Balrog is a centuries-old flame demon in Lord of the Rings, featured in the first book in a battle with Gandalf the wizard. This reference is from the Sex Pistols 1977 album "Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols".

KOBE27 notes: "On Page 2, you mention the Balrogs and LotR. Despite the appearance of one in the first book of LotR,
technically, the Balrogs belong to the First Age so they should be mentioned alongside Tolkien's Sillmarillion."

I'm not sure why there is a white mouse on the wardrobe. The closest I can think of is the little white mouse (or, a bunch of pixels) in the first Prince of Persia computer game, which helps the prince (you) and princess (object of desire) to communicate.
 

Page 3

Panel 1: I don't know what the hanged stork means, unless someone decided to kidnap the baby in Page 1 and kill the messenger.

Regarding the hanging stork:

Diello: The hanged stork may be a refernce to a famous urban legend from the film version of the Wizard of Oz. Alledgedly, in one of the scenes (either when Dorothy meets the Scarecrow, or when they meet the Lion, can't remember which), you can see one of a little person hang himself from a tree, in silhoutte. The rumor was he was a depressed actor and decided to end it all on screen. Obviously this was far from the truth. The truth being that it was one of the large birds used in the film that got away from its handler and jumped down off a branch. The truth blends with fiction here.

Chris Murphy: In the film version of "The Wizard of Oz", in one of the many scenes where Dorothy and company are waltzing down the yellow brick road, there can be seen, in the far background, a shadowed stork, bending at the waist. An urban legend has it that it is not a stork at all, but rather a depressed set designer/technical staff person who is committing suicide by hanging himself. My guess is that the hanging stork is a conglomeration of the two stories.

Being that I haven't seen the movie myself (before my time... well) the most accurate reference I found referring to this urban legend is, unsurprisingly, Snopes.com. Apparently the legend is that one depressed Munchkin - those cute little folks rejoicing when the bed slams into the Wicked Witch of the East - actor commited suicide and was caught in film. This was in truth, as mentioned by both Diello and Chris Murphy, a crane which just happened to be having a nice and very undepressed stroll.

Winnie the Pooh is stuck to a rabbit hole. This is the most famous stories written by AA Milne, Pooh Goes Visiting, where Pooh decides to visit Rabbit, and ate so much honey he got stuck in the front door. However, the original story had Pooh's head stuck outside, not the other way round.

KJW says: "Since Pooh is stuck the other way round, his chance of survival will be... well, I think those insects are flies, not bees... and that Winnie has departed to the great honey pot in the sky." Ouch.

Totoro is seen on the right edge, with an umbrella. Totoro is from My Neigbour Totoro, an anime movie done by Hayao Miyazaki, which features a huge feline forest god. Its name comes from the mispronunciation of one of the movie's main characters, who was trying to call it a "troll", based on the troll under the bridge in the Three Billy Goat Gruffs. His first appearance in the movie (excluding smaller Totoros) is at a bus stand with an umbrella.

Diello notes the bottom of the tree by Pooh - it appears as if someone's been evicted.

Panel 3: Robyn's shirt "DIY" seems to be saying something about "If you can't convince him, you might as well do it yourself."

 

Page 4

Panel 1: I have seriously no idea what the lion-hawk-woman-headed being, with the eye as a stomach, with the flaming sword, with the heart in the hand, with the snake body, and with the are-those-zodiac? signs floating around her is. Unless, of course, it is a play on various elements:
 

There's a floating pyramid with an eye just below the steaming heart, which looks like an Illuminati symbol. The Illuminati is a society rumoured to be behind a number of conspiracies, and knows a good number of secrets including the fate of Atlantis.

The apparition on the left looks like the Phantom Stranger of DC comics. The Phantom Stranger is a mysterious person who appears and aids people in quests, often dressed up similarly to what is shown here.

Eroom Nala of the DC Boards says:

"The apparition on page 4 made me think of "The Lure" in "Greyshirt: Indigo Sunset", this monster has a magic tail, too. The allegorical figure (lady with sword and three heads) looks like a gnostic"

J. Kevin Carrier says: "I don't have my copy of FROM HELL handy to check, but I believe that 3-headed deity is the same one that William Gull sees during his seizure. The silhouetted figure with the top hat and butcher knife is Gull himself."

From Hell, written by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell, is one of Mr. Moore's most famous post-Watchman pieces. A story detailing on the Jack The Ripper murders during Victorian England, Mr. Moore takes a different approach on the story by focusing on Sir William Gull's - both court physician and the Ripper himself - religious fanatism and the concept of magic and beliefs. It has been adapated into a film starring Johnny Depp and Heather Graham, receiving mixed reviews.

The three-headed diety Mr. Carrier refers to is Jah-Bul-On, the Freemansory deity. It joins Jehovah (Jah) with two pagan gods, the pagan Canaanite deity Baal (Bul) and the Egyptian god Osiris (On). I'm not sure what Jah-Bul-On really looks like, but the illustration done by Eddie Campbell is quite different. However, Jah-Bul-On could have many different appearances, as do many other Gods.

If the silhouette is indeed Gull (in Ripper gear), this could be referring to the events in Chapter 14: Gull, Ascending in the From Hell graphic novel. This is quite near to the end of From Hell, so I won't reveal what happens there.

The snake at the background seems to have a wig.

Eroom Nala points out that this is Glycon, the ancient snake god Alan Moore currently worships. For those not in the know, an excerpt from the Onion AV Club interview:

With magic, I worship a second-century Roman snake god who, on the best evidence that I can dredge up from that period, was some kind of elaborate glove-puppet that was being controlled by a second-century snake-oil salesman, basically a complete fraud, huckster, and showman. I don't want anybody else to start worshipping this god. I find something a bit unnatural in the idea of being bound together in spiritual ideas with people. I'm sure that, in our natural state, we all believe something entirely different. I don't necessarily want anybody to believe the same things I believe, which is one of the reasons why I've adopted such a patently mad sort of deity. The idea of the deity is all I'm interested in, so that's fine for my purposes.

More info on Glycon, given by Eroom Nala, can be found here:
http://www.ispt.ro/mm/glycon.html
http://www.vroma.org/images/mcmanus_images/index6.html

Diello notes: "the snake with the blonde hair for some reason, vaguely reminds me of the girl Muppet (Janice?) from Dr. Teeth's band."

The little Chinese words hopping around the ground is "Chong", which means "insect" or "worm". It's obvious why there are so many of them here, of course. Trivial fact: While "Big Worm" in English sometimes is synonymous to Dragon, in Chinese "Da Chong" / Big Worm means Tiger, at least in ancient literature.

Panel 3: Rains of frogs is often used as a bad omen. This phenomenon is usually caused by a whirlwind striking a pond full of frogs, thus throwing the frogs in the air before dropping them on some unsuspecting village. Other occurrences include rains of fish and so on. Unlike the usual case, these frogs seem to be mostly alive.

Eroom Nala notes that rains of frogs appeared also in the 1999 movie Magnolia.

Diello points out what most of us would have missed! "That's Kermit falling at the bottom left (or it could be his nephew Robin), note the pattern around the neck."

 

Page 5

Panel 1: The popular legend of a male animal giving birth to a baby probably started with the legend of a cock laying an egg. While calves with two heads are normal, triple-headed calves are somewhat a different matter altogether.

I don't know what the old man with a golden ear is, but the winged serpent may be Quetzacoatl, the Aztec deity.

Finding the name of God / the image of Christ / the image of Mary in mundane places, while all too commonplace, often gets lots of spectators flocking the area. The latest I have heard is the fence broken in such a way that when a shadow is cast, it shows the image of Mary. Unsurprisingly, worshippers gather there at the designated time the shadow would appear everyday.

Panel 5-7: The perspective of these panels is gradually changing, going on a panning angled shot to the left. Hence Smax and Robyn appearing larger, and explains the mystery of the disappearing chocolate mat.

 

Page 6

Panel 1: Notice Smax's footprints (they don't sink into the ground when he's calm), the broken door and the poor tree that dared to be at its path.

Panel 4: The clouds seem to be sprouting legs. I don't know what reference this is? Eroom Nala says these are from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

There's a little "Vote" poster lying on the ground.

Diello points out: "Page 6, Panel 1-3 - Along with Smax's footprints, note the front door has been knocked off its hinges.

Panel 4 - The Clouds and Sun with legs are indeed from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, specifically from one of the many Terry Gilliam-animated segments."

 

Page 7

Panel 1: I'm not sure why there is a little starburst at the tip of the mountain in the background.

Panel 2: Now, we wouldn't want public transport to prey on each other, would we? The pumpkin carriage pulled by mice is the one directly from Cinderella, while the "No" sign is the Nekobus / "Cat Bus", which comes from Miyazaki's "My Neighbour Totoro". Instead of wheels, the Nekobus has caterpillar-like legs, with its eyes headlamps, and the interior completely flesh and fur.

J. Kevin Carrier says: "The pumpkin-carriage pulled by mice is from Cinderella (the Disney version at least, I don't recall if they're in the original story)."

In the original Grimm story (which includes the sisters chopping off their heels to fit their feet into the silk - not glass - slipper), Cinderella ran to the ball by herself. I'm not sure whether the Walt Disney Company, or the persons who made fairy tales kid-friendlier, were responsible for adding the mice and the carriage. The original translated version can be found here: http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~wbarker/fairies/grimm/021.html with more gory tales on its main page.

There's a "East Side Orcs Rules" graffiti on the bench. I think it has a better reference, but it could be related to the gangs in "West Side Story". Orcs are a race of warmongering brutish people, used as the servants of both Sauron and Saruman in the Lord of the Ring trilogy. This race is also often used in Dungeons and Dragons as the primary nasty race you can beat up without your conscience berating you.

Panel 3: A frog is working on the carriage.

Panel 4: I'm not sure what these two characters are.

According to Eroom Nala:

"the 2 characters from the recently (about 20 years or so ago now extra chapter to Alice in Wonderland called the Wasp in the Wig)" Continued: "The Wasp in the Wig was published by PanMacMillan in 1977 and is also included in the Annotated Alice (Updated Edition 1999) by Martin Gardner."

Wasp in the Wig can be found here: http://www.student.kun.nl/l.derooy/alice4.html and also some illustrations here: http://www.english-usage.com/WaspInAWig.htm

According to MacKenzie: "The mouse in the carriage is likely Vladek Spiegelman, father of Art Spiegelman in his acclaimed work Maus. The book details the artist's relationship with his father and his father's experiences during the Holocaust; Art also portrays the Jews as mice and the Nazis as cats. In the scenes where Art interviews his father to create the book, Vladek wears glasses very similar to those on the mouse in the panel."

Panel 5: Grasshopper Green is from the book Grasshopper Green and the Meadow Mice by John Rae.

"Welcome Careful Dark Riders" seems to be pointing to the Nazhgul, which are known as Dark Riders in the Lord of the Ring trilogy. I'm not sure why "careful" is needed though - unless it's pointing at Easy Rider, the Dennis Hopper-Peter Fonda movie on Harley Davidson riders.

 

Page 8

As if missing most of the references in Page 3 wasn't humbling enough, Page 8 really delivers the killing punch. ARGH!

Clockwise from top left:

The stegosaurus tail has some form of armour - I think it's from James Gurney's Dinotepia series, where humans and dinosaurs live together.

I'm not sure what the houses in the tree branch are, and what significance the golden towers have. One of the towers seemed to be pointed, while the other resembles more like a mosque. zachd from DC forums note: "Rapunzel is waiting for her love" There is a braid of hair hanging from one of the tower windows.

The Mock Turtle of Alice in Wonderland is held in stocks "For the Cryme of Mockery".

The caterpillar-like creature on the steps is based on the MC Escher lithograph Curl Up 1951.

Trogdor the Buninator is featured on the poster "And the Dragon Comes in the Night". This is a Homestar Runner reference.

The signs are pointing to "Bull Market", "Bear Market" and "Goblin Market". The Bull and Bear markets are jargon used for stock market trading, where Bull means improving economy, and Bear contrasting it. The Goblin Market is... well.

J.Kevin Carrier says that "Goblin Market is a poem by Christina Rosetti about two sisters who stumble across an enchanted marketplace."

The store is hanging signs of a steak, a loaf and a candle. I'm not sure what this means, but the steak resembles an ear, which might point to multiplayer games in Blizzard's Diablo (killing another player will earn you the medal of said player's severed ear). There are "four+20 blackbirds pie" being sold for "6p" , and Jack B.Quick's Memoriam Olympic entry forms. Jack B.Quick is a character in Alan Moore's Tomorrow Stories compilations.

J. Kevin Carrier notes: "Lots of nursery rhyme references here: The signs showing a steak, loaf, and candle are a reference to the rhyme about Three Men in a Tub: "The butcher, the baker, the candlestick-maker". Blackbird pie is from "Sing a song of sixpence, a pocket full of rye, 4 and 20 blackbirds baked in a pie". The "Jack B. Quick Memorial Olympics" probably refers not to the Tomrrow Stories character, but his nursery-rhyme namesake: "Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over the candlestick.""

KJW also says "Jack B.Quick is referring to the song by Don McLean, American Pie. A part of the song goes something like Jack be nimble, Jack be quick." According to The Annotated American Pie, this is a reference to Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, on the 1968 release "Jumpin' Jack Flash".

Basilisks, Manticores and possibly Griffins are being sold as meat, as shown on the posters of the shelf. Sickles is a currency used in the Harry Potter series.

The child being chased by the dog is Nobby from celebrated British children's book author Enid Blyton's Nobby series. Eroom Nala notes that both dog and wagon are from the old Chuckwagon commercials.

Is that a fairy prostitute receiving money from a fishy john? I'm not sure where these two characters come from. I'm not sure what "Whingding Dillymeat" of the sign above the john means either.

Diello: "The sign reading "Wing Ding Dilly Meat" is a reference to the childrens story Wind Ding Dilly by Bill Peet."

I'm not sure what the two little goblins playing dice on the street are from.

The dark cloaked figure seems to have some reference, seeing that the weapon he is holding is a bit unusual - I just can't place him from anywhere.

Diello comes into the rescue again, pointing out: "The "dark cloaked figure" isn't cloaked. It's one of the armored cockroach-type soldiers (Hunters?) the Skeksis used in the Jim Henson film "The Dark Crystal." And strangely enough, the thing he's holding is the Glaive from the film "Krull." (last seen on the cover of issue 1). Don't know what the blue thing on its head is."

Incidentally, Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean have finished production a few months earlier of Mirrormask, a movie project which also involves Jim Henson's daughter.

Note the little triangle sign on the back of the carriage!

Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater! Sherlock Holmes' silhouette is above the Pied Piper's music school sign "Hamelin Music", which is located at Knockturn Alley from Harry Potter. The chimneys probably have some significance; there is a "DNKA" sign - playing on DKNY "Donna Karen New York". I'm not sure what DNKA means.

Humpty Dumpty is prevented from falling down and breaking apart in the cruelest way possible.

 

Page 9

Panel 1: The person in orange with the double swords is Sergio Aragoné's Groo The Wanderer.

Who is that yellow giant?

Diello notes: "The "big yellow giant" looks kind of like the big brute who would always antagonize Bugs Bunny in various medeival/fantasy themed Warners shorts. Is that Robin and Friar Tuck next to Smax?"

There is also a knight in a red cape under the "Blank Signboard" beside Goblin's Deli and the grey building. (I'm sure the buildings and the signboard has some references) The "Blank Signboard" building has something looking suspiciously like a makeshift satellite dish above its roof.

Panel 2: Smax talks about the Department of Quests, Trilogies and Sagas. Trilogies are important fantasy novel-wise because of LoTR, and almost every epic high fantasy novel wants to be a trilogy after that. Sagas are novels which couldn't fit into just three books and expanded into too many, the prime culprit being Robert Jordan and the never-ending Wheel of Time series.

Not sure what the flask-like building is, and there is a Mexican hat on the ground (Speedy Gonzales?). Considering the value most RPG games and campaigns hold among amulets and gold eggs, the beggar seems to be asking for the equivalent of a thousand dollars in the real world. His sign also says "Would Marry For Food"

Panel 3: The Bean/Cow scandal points the old man as Jack of the Beanstalk fame. Jack is credited as the lazy youth who always want the easy way out, hence causing his family to have so little money as to having to sell their sole cow.

The Miller VS Cobbler event Smax is describing in Panel 3-4 is suggesting that Willy Wonka (the miller) has overtaken Santa Claus' (the toymaker) empire.

Panel 4: Smax is talking about one of Roald Dahl's most famous children stories, "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". WW, an eccentric man, created an empire of chocolate and candy factories. The description of toffee rivers and Oompa-Lumpas are accurate.

I don't know who the black-haired child is. I don't seem to find any significant reference to the Skullboy quote. The white spectral kid is Casper the Friendly Ghost, a Harvey Comics' character.

Christopher Murphy points out: "The solemn looking chap next to Casper is either an ABC version of DC-Vertigo's Death, or one of the other Endless." Death is one of the siblings of the Endless, which comprises of Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Desire, Despair, and Delirium, who was once Delight. This is from Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, and just recently featured in Endless Nights, the Vertigo ten-year anniversary graphic novel. The child looks a lot like Dream in both hairstyle and eyes, though wearing a t-shirt with an ankh, which suggests Death. This could be referring, too, to Jill Thompson's "The Little Endless Storybook", which featured the Endless family in kiddy cute form.

Panel 5: Not sure where the hanging mask is from.

There seems to be a wrapped body in the sewer drain, which I can't place.

The Harvey Comics characters are Wendy the good little witch (the little girl in red), Spooky the scoundrel ghost (the spectral child with the hat), and one of the three brothers who menace Casper (the spectral child with the twist in the head). The little skeleton does not seem to be from Harvey Comics, however, and I don't know where it is from.

The wanted poster is possibly Jhonen Vasquez's Johnny the Homicidal Maniac.

The boy on the right is pretty obvious Harry Potter, complete with lightning scar, round glasses, and the H sweater given to him by Mrs Weasley. The tombstone "The Boy Who Died" is a play on the first chapter of the first book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's / Sorceror's Stone, which is entitled "The Boy Who Lived".

 

Page 10

Panel 1: The background is based on Relativity 1953, a lithograph done by MC Escher.

Note that the cupids are used as beasts in this universe, acting as sign-holders, and also as food (in Smax #1). This is quite different compared to the Roman Empire-based Earth in Top Ten, where the cupids act as wardens complete with electrocution rods.

Of the people waiting in line:

Eroom Nala says: " there is a tall naked guy before the counter - it could be Den from Richard Corbens fantasy comic "Den" (1979), he also appeared in the animated cartoon "Heavy Metal" in 1983."

There seems to be a Yeti and a Martian in the row, standing behind, as zachd says, "Taran Wanderer (with Hen Wen)". Taran Wanderer, written by Lloyd Alexander, is an assistant pig-keeper who goes on a quest to discover his parentage. I suppose Hen Wen is the pet pig, then.

Regarding the, uhrm, "Martian" (D'oh, with Tars Tarkas in the row...):

Mike MacKenzie: "The person in front of Taran looks suspiciously like Shrek considering the ears and green skin. "

Chris Murphy: "There's a hobbit standing just in front of Luke Skywalker (note the furry feet), and a bit further up in line is Shrek."

Shrek is Dreamwork's most celebrated animated film, which features a green troll named Shrek with the same ears as the not-Martian here. He also wears clothing close to what is portrayed here.

Dirk the Daring of Dragon's Quest, an old animated game, is standing in front of an Indian brave (who?). The same knight in the red cloak with a hobbit, not hobbit/midget/child/dwarf/Mini Me standing aside, Luke Skywalker with his handmade lightsabre, and someone I completely do not recognize at all.

Panel 3-4: The green fellow is Tars Tarkas, the Green Martian hero from Edgar Rice Burroughs' books. He seems to be showing Robyn either photographs of his family back in Mars, or his credit card collection.

 

Page 11

Panel 1: This is probably some other form of Death, but he looks like Data, the android officer played by Brent Spiner in Star Trek: The Next Generation to me.

Panel 4: Under the scythe are very non-chess like board and card games, including "Go Fish", "Uno", "Mouse Trap", "Yahtzee", "Sorry", and "Scrabble". I suppose these are guide books on how to play these games, and if you need a thick book to study "Go Fish"...

Panel 5: Lionel is writing "Kasparov by Fischer". Kasparov is alluding to Garry Kasparov, the dominant chess player of our time. Fischer is Bobby Fischer, a child prodigy in chess who disappeared as an adult, attributed with myths and legends.

Panel 6: A popular folklore is the "wily peasant" tricking Death into playing "chess games", with Death losing and unable to claim the mortal's soul. These sort of stories is a tad rarer compared to the "Tricking the Devil" stories, which play at a similar theme.

J. Kevin Carrier says: "The figure of Death here is specifically taken from Ingmar Bergman's 1956 film The Seventh Seal, where a knight (played by Max Von Sydow) plays chess against the Grim Reaper (Bengt Ekerot)."

 

Page 12

Panel 1: I don't know who the guy in the orange jumpsuit at the back is, but his helicopter-like equipment looks like something coming out from Alan Moore's Tom Strong series.

I can't read the Japanese Kanji characters under the ashtray.

I suppose Dennis is referring to Dennis Wheatley, the author of a good number of horror novels regarding Satanism and Occults. Some of the descriptions in those books are quite scary (during its time, at least), as noted by Lionel here.

Panel 4: I think it's just a funny exclamation, but "Holy Eternally Laughing Cow" probably has some weird reference I won't be able to catch unless someone tells me so.

zachdms point out that this is a reference to Laughing Cow Cheese, which apparently has quite the following.

 

Page 13

The Warrior Hero-Mage-Female-Elf-Dwarves combination is one of the most typical grouping in High Fantasy novels and RPG campaigns post-LoTR. The female's role is probably quite obvious, and this is especially emphasized in Conan fiction. With hobbits being copyrighted by the Tolkien estate, D&D use "halfling" as the name of a very hobbit-like race (albeit more comfortable to fighting), though most people would prefer to cancel out the hobbit/halfling/halfwit race and just use dwarves instead.

It is also a very common argument that the plural of "dwarf" is spelled as "dwarfs", and Tolkien made the mistake of using "dwarves". Currently both spellings are considered correct.

 

Page 14

Panel 1: I don't think I know any of the characters in line at the background, other than the kid pulling out the Sword in the Stone (in vain).

Mike MacKenzie: "The man at the front of the line looks strangely like Mr. Hyde in volume 2 issue 6 of Moore's The League of Exraordinary Gentlemen."

Obelix, from the French Asterix-Obelix comics written by Goscinny and drawn by Uderzo, is carrying a menhir on his back, standing beside Tarzan. Chewbacca the Wookie from Star Wars can be seen behind Edgar Rice Burroughs' creation.

The boy and dog are respectively Jonny Quest and Bandit, from the Hanna-Barberra animated series Jonny Quest. The older, teenage version here appears to be from the 1996 Real Adventure of Jonny Quest, rather than the original 1964 preteen version.

Panel 2: I don't know who the man with the golden axe and the other in black are. Sega once produced a game series entitled Golden Axe, but it is the villain who has the axe, and he dresses up in armour.

Diello: "Couldn't the man with the axe be Conan, the more Marvel-style at least? I believe he frequently carried a large axe."

Panel 4: The child from the Family Guy is holding a discoloured Maggie from The Simpsons hostage. Pugsley Addams (from The Addams Family) is the boy in the striped shirt, and the one seen here is straightly lifted from the animated series (in that, most of the animated characters do not resemble any of the original actors). The child on the left with the black eye is Barrel, one of the three spooky children from Tim Burton's stop-motion film The Nightmare Before Christmas. I don't know who the others are.

Diello: "The baby from Family Guy is named Stewie and is hell-bent on world domination. The top of head in the middle at the bottom of the panel looks like the hover-chair bound freaky-kid from Akira." The child is Masaru, who not only has a special hoverchair (which precedes Professor Xavier's, incidentally), but is also blue-skinned and possibly 60-70 years old. Akira is a Japanese comic done by Katsuhiro Otomo, which was adapated into an anime film, which perhaps was the first ever Anime movie ever released in the West in a grand scale (The second being Princess Mononoke, and later Spirited Away). It's an apocalypse futuristic fiction where several children are trained, possibly for military purposes, to be psychics who can have world-destroying powers. The movie was re-released in selected theatres in 2001, with better quality and more accurate dubbing. (Note: The movie and the manga, apparently, are very different story-wise, but the Tetsuo-Kanaeda-Akira tangent is still present) More on the re-released movie here: http://www.akira2001.com/

The poster image is from Mike Minogla's Hellboy comics - the logo is the paranormal investigation department Hellboy is assigned to, BPRD, which stands for Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense.

Panel 5: The little devil is Harvey Comics' Hot Stuff, the mischievous little devil. I don't know who the girl he's dating is.

Eroom Nala says "Someone (I forget who) wrote that Hot Stuff is trying to date Linda Blair from the Exorcist." The Exorcist is a horror fiction written by William Peter Blatty, though it is more well known as the 1973 movie of the same name. One of its most famous scene is when the character of Linda Blair - a child star at the time - gets possessed by a demon, effectively distorting her facial features, causing her to scream obscenities and spit some liquid resembling green pea soup.

 

Page 15

Panel 1: I can't see clearly who is the person menacing Jack the beggar. It might be Vhailor from Black Isle Studio's computer RPG Planescape: Torment, a walking armour with an extremist and ultimate sense of justice, and tends to deliver it before asking questions.

Diello points out, with better speculation: "Ah, I get the gag now. The thing menacing Jack the Beggar is one of the cockroaches from Dark Crystal again. That blue thing on its head that I couldn't identify before is a police officers hat. They're working for the man here, too. Note the billy club in its hand. Cleaning up the streets from riff-raff."

The person floating in the background may be the Michelin Man, or "Airbag" from the Top Ten series, who inflates like a balloon when tense.

Panel 2: Who is that vampire with the little wings, and what is he doing in broad daylight?

Diello: "The "vampire" has an 'n' on its chest. Nosferatu?"

Also, just noticed that the little wings on the back of the vampire looks like what would appear among the demons in Mark Minogla's Hellboy comics. Is this one of them?

 

Page 16

Panel 1: Diello says: "Note the Tootsie Pop on the right, just above some McDonaldland cookies (note the trademark arches)."

Mike MacKenzie says: "The tootsie roll pop in the front yard prominently displays the native American shooting the star. Legend goes that if the entire figure appeared on your wrapper (without being cropped), then it would grant your wish."

 

Page 18

Panel 5: There's obviously some reference as to the lightning bolt scar on the horse's back. If only I know what it was?

J. Kevin Carrier points out: "The horse with the lightning-mark might be a reference to two of Supergirl's "Super-Pets" from the comics of the 1960s: Streaky the Super-Cat (who had a lightning-shaped streak on his side) and Comet the Super-Horse (who had a comet-shaped birthmark)."

 

Page 19

"These horses all have different brands." Well, I just don't know what the references are. Aldric's horse has one that looks like a Ying Yang symbol, Dwarf 1 the Bat Signal, Dwarf 2 the alphabet K in a circle, and Robyn a section sign §.

 

Page 20

Panel 4: Glinda the Good is the Good Witch from L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz. The Undine is from Teutonic folklore - they are female soulless water-spirits who like to associate with humans, who obtain their souls only when they marry a human and bear his child. I don't know what a Slyph is other than it possibly being a mythical creature.

According to J. Kevin Carrier, ""Slyph" should probably be "sylph", which is an air elemental in folklore (and Dungeons & Dragons" Opps, I did a spelling mistake there...

 

Page 23

Panel 2: Smax's facial hair is starting to grow back.

Panel 3: I'm not sure why there is a stick man in this picture. The closest reference I can think of is the "Stick Man" joke in the webcomic Sluggy Freelance, where Pete Abrams draws a stick man into an obscure area of the comic on a random date and sees how many readers would spot it.

 

Page 24

As if the setting of the page isn't already humiliating enough to attack Smax's quota of intelligence, his distinguished numbering of the senses makes it look even worse.

Anonymous points out in response to the numbering of senses: "It's not too uncommon to completely lack either a sense of smell or a sense of taste. Some languages also use the same word for smell and taste. Fifth sense may be perfectly accurate.

Also for someone who's supposed to be dumb as an ox Jeff has made a pretty good transition to a world with totally different rules, totally different culture etc..." Which, incidentally, is true.

J. Kevin Carrier says: "Smax being in the middle of a giant footprint and not realizing it may have been inspired by Harvey Kurtzman's cover to MAD #6".

Chris Murphy points out: "The questers camped out in a giant, three-toed footprint." This is significant. In Smax #2, although we know that Morningbright may have size-changing powers (probably not - Morningbright may just be able to navigate through narrow tunnels much better than Smax believes), allowing him to be large enough to create these footprints, note that Morningbright has more than three toes. His forelegs end with hands (opposable thumbs), and his hind feet have possibly four toes. This either points out that they have to face another dragon, or basically just a visual gag.

Note the similarly distinguished numbering pattern used in the "Coming Next" tagline.
 


Thanks to: "Eroom Nala" and "zachd" of the DC forums, Anonymous, KJW, J. Kevin Carrier, Diello, Chris Murphy, Mike MacKenzie, and KOBE27.
 


 

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