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Summary  Outside the installation Austin, Emilio, Lord Fanny and Jack Frost are continuing to call up a storm while inside Robin and Boy are trying to extricate the antiviral agent. King Mob and Roger are powering through the underground city in the train - it emerges and troops come on board. King Mob and Roger dispose of them all, before proceeding to Level 6 - the Nightmare Hall. The horrors inside are so grotesque that Roger shoots them all. King Mob notices through a grill that there is a strange amorphous mirror substance being transported. Roger on the other hand bumbs into Quimper. She shoots him, but he doesn't die. While she contemplates how to kill him, Colonel Friday appears - he claims that he has won, and it looks like he has until the plastic explosive attached to the Porcelain Train goes off. In the ensuing chaos the team escapes - except there might be a bit of Quimper in Ragged Robin. Meanwhile, in San Francisco, a young scientist thinks he might have discovered time travel.... Characters o Austin o Emilio o Mason Lang o Jack Frost o Lord Fanny o Ragged Robin o Jolly Roger o King Mob o Boy o Bambi o Colonel Friday o Takashi o Quimper Analysis |
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Annotations o [page 4] Among the panels you can see: Jesus on the cross, two cyphermen and a girl (image very similar to 1.06, page 13, panel 5), a lot of bottles (image very similar to 1.01, page 32, panel 1). [PV] We can also see an old man (next to the panel w/ Roger in it) who looks like something in the Nightmare Hall, as well as a bunch of tentacles (bottom left) which could be from there as well. [CG] Something that resembles the "Ragged Quimper" eyes from 2.08 is near the upper left. [RD] o [page 7] [panel 3] The hitchhiker back from 1.14 knew what he was talking about. [CG] o [page 10] [panel 1] "If I could talk I'd tell you": The dying soldier quotes the title of a Lemmonheads song that was released round about when Grant would have been writing this issue, "If I could talk I'd tell you." (Incidentaly the next line would have been 'If I could SMILE I'd let you know" but were I to think that was more than a coincidence it would probably just mean I'd been reading this comic too long.) [RJ] [panel 2] More esoterica that may or may not be relevant: Terence McKenna (Mr.Timewave/mushroom shaman) likes to talk about how octopi communicate: they change color and shape, all the time (he further speculates that an ink cloud may be an octopus's only way to have a private thought). Beyond telepathy: you are your words, no barrier between thought and communication. He hopes that after the Big Whatever in 2012, we may all speak like that. Grant may or may not be thinking about this here. [RD] o [page 14] Quimper could be a spirit of bad dreams. See 2.03, page 15. [PV] o [page 16] [panel 3] More resonance with Dick's VALIS re: infogod. [RD] o [page 17] bottom: "4-dimensional liquid armor. I saw it before in London.": KM is referring to Miss Dwyer, clearly. [RD] o [page 21] [panel 1] "Azathoth": from Lovecraft: "a bubbling idiot mass of nuclear chaos" at the center of the galaxy. [RM] panels 2-4: From P.K. Dick's VALIS, p.70: "The universe consists of one vast irrational entity into which has broken a high-order life form which camouflages itself by a sophsiticated mimicry." [JB] panel 4: Would these be the Seals of the apocalypse? Nice imagery... [RD] panel 5: Grant used bad guys in the Pentagon in Doom Patrol, as well. [BSI] The Pentagon was also referred to as a major occult symbol/holding pen for Evil in R.A. Wilson's "Illuminatus!" books (see, when you extend a little triangle from each side of a pentagon, you get a pentagram). [RD] o [page 22] top: See 2.06, page 21 for an explanation of the Reverse Universe. Again, read P.K. Dick's "VALIS" as well. [RD] PAGE 23 panels 2-3: "Every time I say "Fanny" I crack up, man.": Another Britishism. See, in the US, a fanny is a butt, while in the UK it refers to a vagina. Fanny has one but not the other... [RD] [panel 6] "This is what you get when you gaze into the abyss." Isn't there a Nietzsche quote about "when you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also"? [RM] o [page 24] [panels 1-2] Just had to add that this is not all that far off: there is a healthy genre of "virtual dating" games in Japan, Tokimeki Memorial and Sakura Wars being the most popular. They play like computer RPGs, but with different goals. I'm not sure about "Virtua Rapist," but I must say it's not totally out of the question... [RD] [panel 5] "Grandfather, Grandfather" was something of a catchphrase for the Doctor's granddaughter Susan in early Doctor Who. [RJ] |
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