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Summary
Dane (Jack Frost) has returned to Liverpool and keeps having flashbacks
to his experiences with Tom O'Bedlam. In his flashbacks he experiences
Barbelith and visits the Invisible College. He goes to visit his friend
Billy, only to discover that he has sold me out to the enemy. As he runs,
he bumps into his old teacher. Dane then visits his mother and tries to
explain to her what has happened to him - but she doesn't understand.
Some of the enemy break in and threaten him, but he disables them through
use of a magic word - as one of them attempts to rise, Boy leaps in and
knocks him down. She reveals that Dane's school teacher is actually Mr
Six, one of the most powerful Invisibles on the planet. Boy asks him to
come with her to save King Mob and Fanny...
Characters
o Jack Frost
o Mr Six
o Tom O'Bedlam
o Boy
Analysis
o Barbelith
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Annotations
o [pages 4-5] These pages revisit 1.4 [CG] page 5, panel 4: The
red globe is addressing Dane, calling him Lost One. But ...the Lost
Ones are the enemies (???) [PV] Well, Dane does say that no one knows
what he is, and he does save Sir Miles in 1.24, so maybe... [L]
o [page 6] [panel 3] Root Doctaz is Jim Crow's band. [PV]
o [page 8] [panel 4] This is the Invisible College from 2.06
[BSI]
o [page 11] [panel 3] Oasis poster on the wall. [PV]
o [page 12-13] The phrase "Try to remember" pops up frequently
during appearances of the Barbelith sphere, apparently manifest as a
satellite on the far side of the moon. Compare this to the following
quotes from Philip K. Dick's Radio Free Albemuth pages 160-161: "You
have remembered. You know. There is now no forgetting.... the disclosure
to the ancient initiate. I had undergone the Orphic ceremonies... to
emerge suddenly into the chamber of light... [to be reminded] of my
own nature and my past: trip across space from Albemuth, the far star,
migration to this world.... The enemy had soon followed and the garden
we built had been polluted and made toxic with his presence.... We became
half blind; we forgot until reminded. Reminded by the rotating voice
in the nearby sky, placed there long ago in case a calamity occurred....
[and if the satellite was found, it would be] old and pitted. It had
been there thousands of years.... without memory we had fallen victim
to our adversary.." Try to remember, indeed! [JH]
o [page 13] [panel 4] "Doctor Who" is an English sci-fi TV serial.
[PV]
o [page 20] [panel 2] Is this a real logo for a show? King Mob
used a found Sigil in the Absolute Vertigo story. [BSI] "Top of the
Pops" is a long running chart rundown show, it's been going since the
60s and is famous for having bands come on and mime to their hits (if
anyone's seen Nirvana 'Live! Tonight! Sold Out!' their weird version
of 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' is taken from TOTP) The logo is broadly
consistent with what I can remember of the time, seeing as the events
in the comics were by that time about a year and a half before the issue
date. It's not an exact copy, probably for copyright reasons. [L] [panel
3] There's a Marylin Monroe poster on the wall. [PV]
o [page 22] [panel 3] The name "Mr. 6" may be a reference to
the Marquis de Sade. In a letter written by Sade to his wife in 1783,
while a prisoner at Vincennes, he continually refers to himself in the
third person as "Mr. 6," that is, the occupant of Cell #6 of the prison.
[RR] [panel 4] The policeman has some kind of metal thing in is head.
What could it be? [PV] In Stephen King's "The Tommyknockers," the hero
is able to resist the aliens for so long because of the metal plate
he had in his head after a skiing accident. Perhaps this policeman had
been to Argentina like the guard King Mob shot (1.01 and 1.12).
o [page 23] Barbelith, as a satellite on the dark side of the
moon, seems very similar to VALIS from Philip K. Dick's novels, at least
to me. [BSI] In The Secret Gospel of John, "Barbelo" is the first thought
of the Unknowable All. The name sounds awfully similar to Barbelith,
and I thought it an interesting coincidence that the satellite which
is talking to humanity in its thoughts has a name similar to the first
thought. Barbelo comes into existence when the logos sees its reflection
in the stream of light surrounding it, hence she is called "the image
of the spirit." I believe someone says elsewhere in the Annotations
that the red dot (Barbelith's symbol) is the image of the perfect soul.
Maybe I'm reaching here, but I want to point out the similarity between
"the image of the spirit(logos)" and "the image of the perfect soul."
[TL] [panel 5] "As above, so below.": Barbelith's transmission echoes
Elfayed quote in 1.17, page 9, panel 4. [JB]
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